The Hall of Faith | Faith and Trusting God – Hebrews 11:1-2
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.”
Faith is a word thrown around very commonly in christian circles, and justifiably so. Faith is a major component of christianity and it is through faith that God grants us salvation. However, the term is often brought up with an assumption of knowledge of its meaning, and how it is to be carried out. I personally grew up with a misunderstanding of what faith actually was, and this led to complacency of my faith and false notions about salvation theology. Luckily, scripture provides us with a definition of faith. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV). Hebrews gives us two components of faith: the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen.
The Meaning of Faith
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The first component of faith involves trusting God for things He promises, the most significant of these being our salvation. When we have faith, we trust that Jesus did what He said He did on the cross, and that his death is a sufficient sacrifice for our sins. We trust that Jesus told the truth when He said that He is the only way to the Father. Part of faith is understanding the character of God, that he is faithful and will not forsake us.
Faith is also the conviction of things not seen. While we cannot see God, His hand is evident in our own lives and in the world. “For what can be known about god is plain to them, because god has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse,” (Romans 1:19-20 ESV). Both God’s hand in the world since creation and creation itself testify to the presence of God, so man has no excuse to deny this. Having faith means that we acknowledge that he created the world and submit to his will.
Therefore, faith is not only a belief that God is, but also an understanding of who God is. Once we understand God’s character, we can submit to him and trust him with our lives and our salvation. If we truly have faith, it will be expressed by our submission to God and our trust in who He is.
The Importance of Faith
After giving this explanation of faith, the author of Hebrews lists numerous people of old and the actions they took by faith. These actions were the expression of their faith. To show what it means to have faith, the author did not simply state that these people believed, but he recounted the actions that they took as a result of their faith. Therefore, faith is not just marked by a statement of belief, but also the actions which confirm this belief. For instance, Abraham made the decision to sacrifice his son after God told him to do so. “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back,” (Hebrews 11:19). Abraham’s action to sacrifice Isaac came from his faith that God could bring him back. If Abraham decided to not sacrifice Isaac, we would come to the conclusion that he had no faith to begin with because the action demonstrates his belief in God to bring Isaac back. If he were to refuse, it would show that Abraham did not actually trust God. For instance, if I claim that a chair has the ability to support my weight, yet I refuse to sit in it, my faith in the chair’s ability to support me would be called into question. It is the same with us and our faith. If I claim to trust in God, yet refuse to obey him and submit to him, my faith would be counterfeit because truly knowing God would result in the actions of someone who trusts God. This is why James brings up this event when making the claim, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead,” (James 2:26 ESV).
It is by faith that the people of old received their commendation. Referring to Abraham, the book of Genesis states, “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6 ESV). It was not Abraham’s works that were credited as righteousness, but his faith. Our faith is the only hope we have for salvation, because our works are not only unworthy of righteousness, but they warrant our own destruction. Faith is our only hope of finding favor from God, as faith relies not on our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. For it is through faith that we reject the notion of our own righteousness, and instead accept it from Jesus. We are all sinners and deserve nothing better than death. Yet, sought a way in which we could be saved. He sent his own son to die on the cross as a payment for our sins. Jesus received the death that we all deserved so that we could have salvation, a salvation that comes by grace through faith.
