What is Faith?
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
So starts the author’s definition of faith. But why is this discussion ensuing? The author has labored long in demonstrating the perfection of the covenantal arrangement, and now we find him here. Why?
Could it be that the comfort of the perfections of the sacrifice of Christ find their expression in faith? Could it be that the substance that the author speaks of is that substance of which he spoke before:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world
It would appear so since he now says:
For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
The reality we are being exposed to is this:
By faith we understand
and perhaps the reader might recall words of Jesus:
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God
where the word see is iedo and connotes the sense of understanding. Or as Paul said elsewhere, we by the Spirit are given the mind of Christ so that we might understand.
It is not a matter of fiction that:
we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
But let us not forget the subject here is faith. And faith has substance, it is sure and not a thing which is not. Faith is considered a material witness to the facts. However, most were not eye witnesses to the happenings in Jerusalem, AD 33. So what is the import here? Faith is spoken of as that which attains to understanding but is the very substance of the facts of which it is the evidence. So faith must be far greater than just what is intellectual assent. Indeed, thus far we have had one subject, Christ. And at this point we are being told that this is the substance of all that the author has said previously.
And Abel’s faith that:
offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous,
was not devoid of true knowledge or it would not have been:
God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.
That faith, this Scripture says, speaks. Not Abel, but his faith. So we reflect, who is it that in this last day speaks?
Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”
The faith he had, it said, took him. John tells us that anyone who does not have the Spirit is none of Christ’s. And here we are told that the thing which Enoch possessed before he was taken away was this testimony. One which the author of Hebrews is informing us is the testimony of the Son. And so the author tells the same as John, that
without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
What we find in Genesis, though, is that even those who knew God such as Cain, or as Romans 1 exposes, supress what can be known through a general revelation. Indeed with Cain it is clear that a special revelation to some only provokes jealousy in others.
The same things can be said of Noah. And again we have the testimony of Scripture that the revelation is of a sovereign God who brings to being those things that are so ex nihilo, (out of nothing). It is said he was:
moved with godly fear
and that his testimony was to prepare
an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
An interesting saying since that is exactly the context of Hebrews. Namely, that sacrifices and offerings God did not desire, but a body. And so God prepared an Ark, his Son, into which the household of faith goes into boldly. In doing so God condemned the world as those who do not believe on his Son.
So our story unfolds. As the presence of the Lord diminishes in the preincarnate appearances of the Lord, his testimony as history, increases, yet all along it teaches one revelation which never changes from the first promise made in Eden.
Abraham was called to go out and was told of the trials that he and his children would face though he did not know all that would come to be. And although he was not familiar with the land, he did know his destination as surely as he had been there. And it is written that
By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country
a reference back to the beginning of our chapter where the possession of the knowledge of the faith is the substance of it. It is already, but not yet. That is why it is called faith. Not because it is not a current reality, but because it is, even though the final perfection is not yet manifest. Abraham knew, as if being there:
for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
This was the faith that stengthened Sarah. A faith which in and of herself would have been incapable to conceive seed let alone to bear a child for she was past her age. A way of saying that she was dead while she was alive. The same is said of her husband. Even though she laughed at God the text says
she judged Him faithful who had promised
Isaac was born a child of promise according to God’s faithfulness not hers. It was not by natural descent, or assent, really, for there was no means, humanly speaking, to conceive him, nor to give birth to him.
As Sarah embraced the child of promise, so also the Scripture says of that promise that
all who died in faith saw them afar off and were assured of them.
They embraced them as much as Sarah embraced Isaac, for they had substance. The substance of faith is so not because we conceive of it in ourselves but because it is conceived in us by the power of the Spirit much in the way the Spirit overshadowed Mary and the Son was formed in her inward being.
Unlike the rebellious who came out of Egypt, these faithful spoken of in Hebrews did not desire the things they left behind, rather they desired:
now a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
It is interesting that it is now, not then in the past or the future. The author by using now indicates that they presently live in a city with sure foundation even while strangers in a foreign land.
It was a city which Abraham had knowledge of such that he knew that his son Isaac would enter there. He knew it with the same knowledge that he knew his inheritance was secured as the sands of the sea; as sure as the terror of God’s judgement had disturbed his sleep. And by this faith he gives testimony as James said to its substance by doing the works God gave him to do, that is, to offer his only son.
All those listed in this hall of fame demonstrate one thing in common and that is the testimony that to suffer for Christ
as the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin
looks to something which has substance and so they esteem
the reproach of Christ as greater riches
because the reality of faith that
endures as seeing Him who is invisible
The reason for endurance, or we might say perseverance in the face of lfe’s difficulties, is because the substance of the heir’s kingdom is ours, now, as one seeing it.
By faith, Scripture tells us, that we all passed through the Red Sea and that by faith we overcome even while others who share some of the benefits of freedom fall in the wilderness. Jesus has told us that it is he who has overcome for us as our Passover Lamb. And that it is he who has prepared a place for us so that he might receive us to himself. That it is he who tears down the old and builds up the new for our comfort. That we are not of those who do not hear his voice is the assurance; for his sheep hear his voice and know it because it is their testimony as those who have seen him who says come.
And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise
and yet we have the introduction to this portion of Hebrews telling us that they have faith which is greater than riches, which is the substance of the thing hoped for, and the evidence of it. And we have other Scripture telling us that we carry this treasure, far greater than this life, in vessels of clay.
The final statement, then, should come as no suprise.
God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
As the next chapter will tell us, we fix our eyes on that blessed appearing of Christ, our Hope, who will bring all things to a perfected present. And so he perfects all things, as Hebrews tells us, for he is the author and perfecter of our faith in that Day when he comes to dwell among his people in whom he now lives.
There it is. The Faith is a person and that Person is Christ, and all that he has said that he will do in accomplishing his purposed promise. The One that is sure and certain, the hupostasis, the very essence of the thing hoped for. The Promise is our Faith, by which we have been made partakers in the heavenly substance. That is why we take the Supper. Our Faith we know as sure as we are known. As sure as we have eaten and are satisfied. Our faith is Jesus Christ for in this last day God has spoken to us in his Son, our exceedingly great reward.
