Faith is a Supernatural Substance
By Jeannie Pace
The word “faith” is used in so many ways in our modern vernacular that it has become an umbrella term for any optimistic confidence.
The topic of Hebrews 11 is the issue of faith. This chapter highlights key characters who had moments of bold and courageous faith: faith that has substance. In the first ten chapters of Hebrews the author of this sermon explores every angle of the character and purpose of Christ and His conquered death. If faith is the substance that pleases God (11:6) what does it mean to have faith in Jesus Christ, the Messiah?
Beginning with a few verses preceding the eleventh chapter the text reads: (Hebrews 10:32-39)
32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. 33 Sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need for endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
37 For, (quotes Isaiah and Habakkuk)
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
What marks the lives of believers in this in-between time before Jesus’s return? They endure with confidence and the “righteous one will live by faith.” This repeats what the author said in chapter 3 verse 14, “For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first
believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.” (3:14)
Whatever Christian faith is, it has substance first in eternity and is about life after the cross and before Jesus’s return. Faith spills into my life by the power of God to accomplish His purposes.
Hebrews 11 describes how God’s people lived and made difficult choices. Faith is linked to endurance and faith is linked to hope.
Faith is experiencing the reality of the thing we hope for. Contrary to popular notions, faith is not the rejection of thinking and reasoning. As Hebrews demonstrates, Biblical faith begins with engaging our minds, and ends with radical actions and commitment.
Chapter 11 begins with, “1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things
that are visible.” (ESV)
Often we read this and come away with the idea that faith is about an inner disposition, about a feeling, about a mindset to muster up confidence and conviction. An inner response to believe God will do what He promises.
KJV translates verse one as, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Here faith is viewed as an experience – not a mindset. When you have this faith experience, you get a taste of what it is you are hoping.
Do these two translations agree? Yes. Faith is a mindset – something in your mind that considers God faithful but the author says faith is more than this. Faith opens up an experience to participate in the thing you hope for.
Consider a daffodil – my favorite flower because of its bright, perky color while temperatures are unfriendly, the ground is hard and hungry critters want a delicate bite. It is late winter but the bloom announces spring is arriving soon. The flower reminds me that a new season will soon be
resurrected out of winter.
We experience by faith now, what we will fully experience when summer arrives. Faith is a mindset, but it’s also an experience you have when you obey and follow Jesus in a way that makes no sense in light of your current surroundings. It only makes sense in light of the future.
The behavior and actions of our mentors in Hebrews 11 makes no sense in light of their circumstances. Many are killed and tortured. Their faith-eye was on summer coming and they could point to the evidence – the daffodil – a metaphor for Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection.
Those are signs that God conquered death and is bringing us new life.
Faith is a mindset and faith is acting in a way that we participate in the substance, the reality, of what will come about in the future. The inspired Hebrews author gives us examples of both.
Theme One: Active Reasoning
Hebrews 11:11 “Sarah herself received the power to conceive even when she was past the age of childbearing since she considered Him faithful who had promised.” (ESV) Sarah’s act of faith was not an action. Something happened in her heart and in her mind to conclude God is faithful.
Other examples of faith in this chapter are active: winning battles, facing lions, building arks; but Sarah exercised faith by thinking.
Common in our culture today is the notion that religious faith is believing something when there is no evidence. There is spiritual apprehension rather than proof, so faith is needed. This is opposite from what the Hebrews author is saying. Sarah’s act of faith was exercising her mind by
looking into the past when God called her and Abraham to leave family behind for a nomadic lifestyle in a land they did not own and remembering how God had been faithful. She can look to these experiences as evidence. She calculates and concludes God has proven Himself faithful then so He will be faithful now. This is Sarah’s act of faith: looking to the past and putting the pieces together where God fulfilled His promises and projecting that into the future.
In I Samuel 17 David reasons he will be victorious over Goliath by recalling God’s history of faithfulness.
32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when
there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this
uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
Another faithful thinker was Abraham. He was in the act of offering his only son as a sacrifice. This is the son who would give Abraham many descendants and bless all the nations of the earth.
Such conflicting conditions are called contradictions in the life of someone following God. The promises are in one hand and reality in my circumstances is in the other hand.
11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said,“Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”
What does Abraham do? He reasoned. He engaged his mind. He reasoned God must be able to raise Isaac from the dead. Somehow God would resolve this contradiction and work out His promises.
Reasoning based on God’s promises is a significant definition of faith. Faith is not the absence of thinking things through. This seems counterintuitive because common in our culture is the idea that faith is what you need when there is spiritual apprehension and no solid evidence for belief.
To believe in something when there is not a shred of reason or evidence is irresponsible and foolish, some say. Why would you believe when there’s no good reason? The preacher of Hebrews says faith is what you have when you know there is good reason to believe that God is going to do what He promised. This is where faith begins.
Recalling the daffodil: While snow is still on the ground and average temperatures are still cold, the flower pushes out of the hard ground and blooms. Based on that evidence I rethink the winter circumstances.
There are many who do not have a lot of questions about faith. They are not skeptical by nature. They do not probe or find it necessary to examine.
Others have brains that do not rest and have a personality that questions. These believers see what the scripture claims about God but struggle when what happens in our world and life’s experiences seem to contradict His promises. They are sometimes told to tone down the questions and just believe.
Early Christians did not compel others by saying, “Just believe.” For the early Christians, faith was built on a series of facts as recorded in I Corinthians 15. Christ died, was buried and was raised from the dead on the third day. Jesus was then seen by Peter, by the twelve apostles and
then by more than 500 of His followers at one time! Then He was seen by James and all the apostles again. Last of all Paul sees Him. These events are rooted in historical facts and reliable testimonies.
Is the foundation of your faith trustworthy? Yes, if Christ is the object of your faith because –
“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Hebrews 1:3
The reality of faith is built on the truthfulness of what your faith is in. Jesus is the basis of faith and object of faith. It’s all about Jesus and has nothing to do with my performance, what I do or think I can do.
Faith in Jesus Christ is not an inner disposition that is mustered up to make yourself believe. We believe because something real happened 2,000 years ago. Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead. This is the foundation of Christian faith – the winter flower. Since this is true, I have a right to be assured of what He determines and promises.
Biblical faith begins by engaging our minds by thinking and reasoning, but faith ends with radical commitment and action that believes God is going to do what He said He is going to do.
Theme 2: Radical actions and allegiance
Although reasoning is a form of faith, the primary examples of faith in Hebrews 11 are people who are living radical obedience to the God of the covenant. Faith is linked to obedient action that does not make a lot of sense in the circumstances. One or more of these attributes apply to each character: Suffering, moral failure and doubt. An exception may be Enoch because he was taken up to heaven without dying. But before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. This is also a distinguishing quality of each person mentioned. They never gave up
a believing loyalty in the object of their faith! They died still believing what God had promised them. (11:13) They refused to turn from God. (11:35)
Our spiritual mentors earned a mention in scripture by acting in a way that did not make sense in light of their culture and circumstances alone. They received God’s promises and put them in action without deliberating because they could see their history and the faithful love of the Lord.
(Psalms 107:43) Obedience in the present is possible when I trust the future God has planned for me has already arrived. This is the substance of faith – the winter flower.
So what does it mean to be faithful people of God today in the light of illegal immigration, terrorism, war, immoral public policy, poverty, career stressors and lies? These are events that are unique to God’s people now, but God’s people have survived similar times. Throughout history, God’s people have found ways to be faithful as they lived in a way that announced Jesus is risen and Lord of all things. Knowing this keeps us from falling into denial and despair.
God knows the future so He provides a strategy to help us elevate His promises over contradictions in our lives. This is faith. Faith is a strategy that centers my experiences on the confidence of God’s Word and power. Faith allows us to deal first with God’s promises and helps us resist the contradicting mechanics of our reality.
The Bible makes claims about the world we are living in and about events that took place that have cosmic significance. Everything changes when we acknowledge the claims are truthful. It changes how you think about relationships, finances, sex, generosity, forgiveness, our vocations
and much more.
For example, why would I refuse to forgive? Why would I pray for someone who injured me? Because of the resurrection of Jesus. I know that one day all wrongs will be made right. If I know this is where the future is going, it makes sense to forgive. In a land of winter and a “Don’t Tread on Me” world, forgiveness doesn’t make sense, but not forgiving makes no sense when summer comes. There are ways to live by faith in today’s world that allow us to be distinct in the world and a blessing to all people.
Rick McKinley in his book Faith For This Moment writes that we are participants in God’s story.
“When all is said and done, we organize our lives around a particular story.” (p.110) What story does our time management, our generosity, our hospitality, our vocation and Sabbath practices tell about us? Obedience in these area can only be explained because your faith is based on the
fact that God is taking this world toward restoration. (The 2nd half of his book provides useful ideas for practicing faith.)
McKinley also points out, “For the people of God, the story of Scripture is the anchoring story of our lives and our understanding of the world around us. Scripture defines who we are and shapes our understanding of life. Most importantly, it reveals to us the God who has come to us in Christ.” (p.111)
Sometimes counter-examples are helpful. When is “faith” not faith?
- When all the reasons are apparent
- When all the resources are available
- When there are no risks
- When all the results are assured
Does my life show the marks of radical commitment? Can I find an area in my life that exemplifies the radical, risky kind of faith of Abraham taking Isaac to the altar? Am I considering God faithful by acting abnormal except for the fact God is fulfilling His promises to me. How we handle faith creates a personal profile.
Engage your mind, look at what happened in the gospel and obey in faith as if the future has arrived. This is what the Hebrew’s author means by writing ‘faith is the substance of what you hope for.”
This article has been written by standing on the shoulders of many notable mentors, exceptional teachers, scholarly authors and generations of faithful Christian ancestors. Nothing I have written is new or original. Perhaps the way the ideas have been assembled is unique. It is my hope that the article will breathe fresh encouragement and meaning into your practice of faithful living.
Notes:
In the Greek language faith is the hupostasis of what is hoped for the elenchos of things not seen.
This site provides a detailed word study:
https://www.hopefaithprayer.com/faith/faith-hebrews-hupostasis/
About The Author
