About Faith According to Hebrews
Hebrews 11:1-3
This passage is difficult to understand because it is explaining the meaning of faith from a philosophical viewpoint, not a theological viewpoint.
In terms of faith, there are three groups of people:
Those that don’t have faith yet
Those that have faith, but it is weak and unstable
Those that have strong faith and can explain to others what it means to have faith
The bible has many different explanations on faith, and this message is just one particular way to do so. PD gave us three points about faith that we can learn from this passage.
1. Faith is the evidence of things not seen.
In other words, faith is the proof for things that are not visible. Some people believe that they need to have knowledge about the bible before they become a Christian. And there are also those that think miraculous events need to occur in their lives in order to have faith.
However, knowledge and experience do not directly lead to believing in Jesus. This can be seen by brilliant scholars that know a lot about theology and philosophy, but don’t believe in Jesus as their savior. There are also many cases of people having spiritual experiences (like hearing God’s voice or experiencing healing), without having faith in God. In short, knowledge and experience do not directly lead to faith in God.
Then what does it mean to have faith? Faith is the evidence of things unseen – which means you can believe in it even though you can’t see it.
There are many things that we cannot see but we do believe in their existence. Air and gravity are examples. If you believe in these things, then you can understand that it is possible to have faith in objects that aren’t visible.
Having faith is simply admitting that there is a possibility that it can exist even though it cannot be seen. It is narrow minded to believe that something cannot be real just by the fact that you can’t see it.
Faith starts with understanding that something can exist without having to see it.
2. Faith is the substance of things hoped for.
In the ESV, Hebrews 11:1 says “faith is the assurance of things hoped for.” However, the NKJV has a more accurate translation: “faith is the substance of things hoped for”
What does this mean?
Although faith is believing in something you haven’t seen, faith itself can be seen as the object that leads to hope.
Hope exists in the future. It is something that has not occurred yet, but it is what you want to experience later on – it is a possible reality of the future.
And faith is a substance of this hope… but what does that mean?
To understand this better, let’s think of an egg. A substance is something that exists independently. An egg has shape, color, scent, and taste, but these are merely expressions of the egg’s substance.
You don’t see the substance itself, but you can experience the expression of it. The substance is the reality, and everything you see is an expression of the reality.
In our case about faith and hope, faith is the substance (egg itself) and hope is its expression (egg’s color, shape, and taste). If there was no faith, then hope would not exist because faith is the substance of hope. Hope would disappear because the connection with faith would no longer exist.
If you are experiencing hopelessness, and want to experience more hope, then you should focus more on having faith because having faith leads to having hope. Hope is an experience of the future reality, this is why it is essential to have faith which is present reality.
3. Through faith, I know that I was created by God.
For those that believe God created the world, it would not be accurate to say we understand that God made it. This is simply because we weren’t there when it happened.
We can acknowledge that God made it, but we technically can’t understand it because we’ve never seen it happen. But this is not an issue. In fact, every religion can admit that invisible things exist – they all have faith in something unseen.
Then what’s the difference between Christianity and other religions? To find the answer requires you to search for it.
All religions believe we were created, one way or another. If you believe a God exists, and you question why he made you and what kind of a relationship this Creator would want with you, you will eventually find the answer.
It is enough to start with wanting to know more about who God is. You can start thinking this way if you are not Christian yet.
The writer of Hebrews didn’t ask the reader to become a Christian right away. They understood that it would not be possible unless you can believe in something that you can’t see.
In summary,
Faith is the evidence of things not seen
Faith is the substance of hope
Through faith, we know that we are created by God
Reflection Questions:
What did you get from this message?
What does it mean to you to have faith and hope?
