24 Jan 2012

Hebrews 11:1

Posted by joncooper

Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Faith is absolutely central to the Christian life. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Our relationship with God is dependent upon faith. So what is faith? Well, to a large extent, faith is whether or not we actually trust God to keep His promises.

You see, God has given us His Word, the Bible. This holy book contains a great many promises. For example, we have been promised that if we believe in Jesus we will have everlasting life. We have been promised that the Lord is coming again. We have also been promised that the Bible is infallible, that God has preserved it from corruption, that there is a Heaven and a Hell, and a great many other things.

We are therefore faced with a choice: are we going to believe that God will keep the promises He has made? Are we going to accept His Word as being wholly true and act on it, or are we going to reject it and do something else? Many people choose to reject God’s Word – either by dismissing it or by editing it, which amounts to the same thing. Few people choose to believe Him – but it is so important that we do.

This chapter of Hebrews lists people who believed God and then acted on that belief. They trusted Him, even to the point of losing their own lives – and yet they did not get to see the promises that God made come true in their lifetime. As verse 13 says:

Hebrews 11:13: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

These people trusted God and followed Him. They weren’t concerned about the fact that this faith led to their deaths. They had their sights set on something much more important:

Hebrews 11:15: “And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

They considered themselves to be mere strangers and pilgrims in this world. They were not “mindful” of what their faith cost them because their minds were fixed on Heaven. They were seeking a better country, and this honored God greatly. They trusted Him, they acted on that trust, and they gave their lives – and so God has prepared for them a city. As it says about Moses:

Hebrews 11:25: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”

Moses had no love for the pleasures of sin; he chose to suffer with the people of God rather than continue to enjoy sin. He chose affliction over ease. He trusted God and believed that the “reproach of Christ” was far better than “the treasures in Egypt”.

That is what we must hang on to. It may be that we are surrounded by unbelief; these days many who call themselves Christians have rejected the Bible’s truth for their own fantasies. Because sin abounds the love of many has grown cold – but we dare not allow our own love to grow cold, or allow disbelief and doubt to take root in our hearts. We must fight it – and the way to fight it is to stay in the Word.

What we must do is have faith, and simply trust God. We must believe in His promises even if others do not. We must make a choice not to doubt Him, even when the cost is high and the promises can only be seen afar off.

As Hudson Taylor found, the secret is simple: all you have to do is rest in God’s faithfulness, for He will be ever faithful. It is not hard. In fact, it is simple: just trust and obey.

Tags:

Comments are closed.