By Faith

(Oswestry, Shropshire, England)

Focused on Hebrews 11:1-16, 37-40

We hear that word a lot – faith. Walk by faith. Faith alone. Have faith. Keep the faith. If there’s any chapter in the Bible that makes it exceedingly clear what faith looks like in practice, it has to be Hebrews 11. I won’t be going through each Bible figure mentioned in this chapter, but will just share a few thoughts on what the passage says about faith. 

What is faith?

v.1 ‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’ 

This sounds pretty mysterious… what is it we hope for? And what is it we do not see?

v.6 ‘And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must know that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.’ 

It’s starting to sound a bit clearer: Faith has something to do with believing God exists and that He will reward those who seek Him earnestly.

v.10 (on Abraham) ‘For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.’ 

This sounds, again, rather mysterious. What city is this? Is it even on earth? It sounds majestic, and definitely beautiful, having been designed & built by God.

With these 3 verses in mind we can pull the threads together, along with other verses in this chapter. The hope we must be sure of, and the invisible that we must be certain of (v.1) are basically this: that God exists, and He has goodwill for man, His creation. He does not despise those who seek Him with all their hearts. He rewards them with what He knows are good for them. While mankind has a default warped mode of viewing God as a formidable dictator waiting to punish us at every turn, faith means disposing of that fallen view and seeing the truth – that God will lovingly reward those who seek Him. 

And a further dimension of faith (v.10, 16) is looking forward to the city (or ‘better country’) that God has prepared for us. Where is this city? It is beyond this life, beyond this earth. Faith is not just hoping in material results against the odds during our life. Faith is holding on to the certainty that even though we cannot see that city, God has prepared it for us as our inheritance. This city was bought by the blood of Jesus, for on our own we cannot have justly deserved it. But because Jesus has paid the price, we have this beautiful access to an unspeakably glorious inheritance beyond this life. So faith is that: walking in the hope of receiving that wonderful inheritance beyond. 

That seems like an extremely grand context. And if you are anything like me, or anything like a normal human being, you tend to be short-sighted, afflicted by a worldly myopia. Death is the end: you can talk about a life beyond – even a beautiful city beyond that – but whatever little daily task I do, I can’t very easily see that in the huge context of a beautiful city waiting for us. That is a separate strand of truth from the truth that affects me in my daily life. That shouldn’t be the way. Rahab welcomed the spies (Joshua 2), and v.31 says that she did this ‘by faith’. Noah built the ark, and v.7 says that he did this ‘by faith’. Every nail he hammered, every plank of wood he aligned, every animal he welcomed and put in its place… this was a magnificent project, but even day by day, he could still see each mundane singular task in the huge context of faith in the hope that God gives us. It’s a huge and mind-blowing context – often more than we can wrap our minds around – but each daily task we do to the glory of God, can be done by faith, meaning, with the focus: ‘This is done because I am looking forward to my inheritance beyond this life.’

Of what significance is faith? Why is it so important?

Alright, we know what faith is – but often people use the word flippantly, not really giving much thought to it. In reality, faith is decisively important. v.6 says that without it, it is ‘impossible to please God’. An absolute impossibility! v.7 (of Noah) says that Noah became ‘heir of the righteousness that comes by faith’. Faith actually gives us access to something – and not just anything – but righteousness, an acceptable standing before God despite our sin. Elsewhere in the Bible it says of Abraham: he ‘believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.’ (Genesis 15:6). The same idea there – Abraham had faith, and it gave him access to a righteousness that really doesn’t seem to have anything to do with righteous deeds. 

Putting the puzzle pieces together, it is clear that we have nothing of righteousness to offer to God. We are so dirtied and dead in our sin, that we can’t muster up anything remotely looking like righteousness to our holy God. But there’s another way – the only way – to balance the scales of justice before our just God. That is walking by faith. Faith in the hope that God has prepared a city for us sinful people, if we only have faith in His goodwill in sending His Son to die for us. Receiving Jesus’ sacrifice by faith, we become heirs of righteousness, pleasing God, gaining access to a city we can never on our own deserve.

At this point it would be helpful to look at Abel, who is given a cameo appearance in v. 4: ‘By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.’ If you flip back to Genesis 3, you’ll see that while Cain offered some fruits of the soil, Abel offered the fat portions of the firstborn of his flock. It is so tempting to think, and in fact I have heard it said, that Abel’s offering was materially better and therefore more acceptable. It was the fat portions (+1 point), of the firstborn (+1 point) of his flock (+1 point, because it seems more ‘canggih’ than fruits). 3 points for Abel! A better sacrifice, more pleasing to God! And that’s exactly the kind of fatal mindset that makes us think ‘I’m going to offer 3 hours of my time today to a church meeting. That is 1/8 of my day, and God will surely be pleased by that. When I can, I will offer 4 hours, because that’s 1/6 of my day, and God will surely be more pleased.’ That is a fatal understanding of the Gospel. v.4 makes it very clear to us, that it was ‘by faith’ that Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain did. That was the decisive factor: offering it not because he was self-righteous, and not because it was mere ritualistic routine, nor because mum & dad told him to give the fat of his firstborn, but because he believed God, believed He is good, and believed He grants righteousness to those who walk by faith in Him, knowing faith is all we can offer, and nothing of our own righteousness. There are no self-salvation mechanisms. No DIY please-the-LORD techniques. It is by faith. We daily walk, pray, do good works, all with the mindset that we do this only by faith in the better country we are looking forward to, which Jesus bought for us, and not ourselves.

What is the result of faith?

We are often results-oriented people. Perhaps especially millennials, who are so productivity-focused, measuring our endeavours by the material results that we see. We want the product, and we want it quickly. I wish I didn’t have to burst this results-oriented bubble, which I myself find hard to part with, but faith doesn’t work like that. v.13 says that these great Bible figures ‘did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance’. v.39 says they ‘were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.’ So much for material results. We look for results to come at the most weeks after our faith-driven endeavour. Abraham lived 175 years and did not see the material results of the promise that motivated him (‘all nations will be blessed through you’). They were all ‘still living by faith when they died’ (v.13). They persevered to the grave and yet often saw nothing. A millennial’s nightmare. 

But is faith entirely void of results though? Nope, far from it. We have the ‘city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God’, the ‘better country – a heavenly one’, and in v.40, the marvellous result that ‘God had planned … for us’, made ‘perfect’ at the end of time. It is inexpressibly glorious, the culmination of the Universe God created. This is the hope that drove the great Hebrews 11 figures to do all the things they did, whether it was leaving their home country, their family, their livelihood and security… They looked forward to this. In v.9, Abraham was said to be a ‘stranger in a foreign land’, in v.13 they were all said to be self-admitted ‘aliens and strangers on earth’, and probably most dramatically, in vv.37-38 ‘They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.’ They were so disconnected with the world, so cut off from the fixation on earthly material results. They didn’t care what they got from the world. They loved the people in it - deeply and richly, and loved accomplishing the mission God had given them. But they didn’t want anything for themselves from it. They were captivated by the hope of what lies beyond, and it was no matter to them the absence or abundance of results they could see with their earthly eyes. That’s the result of faith. On earth, the product of faith is a mindset that simply doesn’t bother what suffering or prosperity the world brings and instead gazes at the glorious future; at the end of time, the product of faith is seeing and savouring with our own new senses the glorious presence of God in His city, and enjoying the culmination of God’s glorious, timeless narrative.

A last note

v.16 says, ‘Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.’ God cannot be shamed, for He is great in His own absolute right. But what this means is that, God would gladly call the faithful ones His possession, purified for Himself, for they are not easily deflected or distracted from their focus on Him. The mirages of the world (money, fame, empty security, gluttony…) will not break that focus, because they are captivated by God - by the hope of a city He has has prepared for us in His presence. Indeed - let us desire nothing else but Him. For any worldly desire that would compete with our faith in God would be a deep disservice and dishonour to Him. Instead, shall we seek to be a people that God would not be ashamed to call His people? Let us forget not His benefits (Psalm 103:2). Let's live out the unexchangeable, irreplaceable hope that we have, that God has given to us in grace.