“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it men of old gained approval,” (Heb. 11:1&2).
The word “faith” has very little meaning. It has been abused. It has been used so often that we forget that real faith is a living and breathing thing. We sing about faith. We talk about faith. We even tell others that they must have faith. However, we don’t experience faith, at least on a long-term basis.
Faith to the average church attendee is a door through which we enter into the grace of God. It is the portal through which someone gets the good stuff from God. It usually ends there for most church people. A life of faith is unheard of in the majority of people who call themselves Christians. So what is faith? Even George Michaels wrote a song that says, “I gotta have faith, faith, faith; I gotta have faith.” It is one of the best songs he ever did.
If we gotta have it, then what is it? First, what is salvation? Salvation is when God calls your name. He brings you to life through Christ. He gives you the ability and the faith to follow Him. It is not something you do or elicit. It is what God does. You wouldn’t respond if He didn’t call and give you a responsive heart. Your only part is enacting the faith that He gave to you. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast,” (Eph. 2:8&9). “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy,” (Rom. 9:16).
Faith comes from the life exchange that comes from God. Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is hope backed up with assurance that comes from God. Let me ask a question. Is faith without the backing of God’s power real? In other words, can you just believe something strongly enough that even when contradictory evidence appears you still believe it? Take for instance, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. You weren’t there. I wasn’t there either. Why do you believe it? Please don’t say, “Because its in the Bible.” If that is your answer then, who said the Bible was real? You weren’t there when it was put together. I wasn’t there either. So, we are back to the faith question. Is faith without the backing of God’s power real?
Let’s digress about the “Its in the Bible statement.” John says, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. HE was in the beginning with God…..and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, (John 1:1-2 & 14). How is the Bible truth? The Bible is not truth because some group says it is all the time. The Bible isn’t truth because people voted on it to put it together from a bunch of ancient manuscripts. The real truth is Jesus. He is the Word of God. What we hold in our hands in only without fault and without blemish because Jesus is without fault blemish. There are some dating conflicts that are in the historical recollection of Scripture. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t truth. Jesus is the backing for the truth of Scripture. What we hold in our hands, that we call the Bible, is a put together recollection of God’s Word as people experienced Him. The reason that I can say that the Bible I hold in my hand is God’s Truth is because Jesus backs it up. He is the Word. He has given us a written copy of how the Word has entered into the lives of people. When you take your written copy of the Word’s life in the lives of humanity, it is without fault and error. It is so because Jesus is actively using those words by the power of His Spirit to work in you. He has given believers faith to hear and to believe the Word, by His Spirit, through the text that He has reserved and kept for us. Your Bible is God’s Word as He intended it. Without the power of the Word, the Bible is a great book for daily living.
Knowing Jesus, the Word and the Truth, is knowing faith. So, we are back to the question, “Is faith without the backing of God’s power real?” I have faith that my car will start. The other day, it didn’t. I have faith that I will be secure in my home tonight; I will be able to eat here and watch television. But, my house could burn to the ground. What about having faith in things in which you cannot see immediate results? Will you have enough money to retire one day? Now we are getting into real faith areas.
Ultimately there is no faith without God standing behind it. Your faith in you future is not secure unless Jesus is backing it. You and I don’t know what to expect. You may save money all your life and the day you turn seventy the economy may tank. Everything you have saved for could disappear. What would you do? Without Jesus you would probably despair. With Jesus you could default to knowing that “God will never leave you or forsake you,” (Heb. 13:5). There is not real faith that God doesn’t provide and back. He stands by His Word, Jesus.
Hebrews 11:1 says that, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It is the assurance that what you cannot see will come to pass. That almost doesn’t make sense when you think about it. It is a deep sense of knowing that what God says through His Word will come to pass. He backs up what He says. So, I can be assured that if He said it through His Word, then it will come to pass. No matter what my circumstances become, no matter who is with me or against me, no matter what Satan does, I have the assurance that God will faithfully complete the work of salvation that He started in me, (Phil. 1:6).
I said earlier that we only experience faith on a short-term basis. We basically experience faith to get in the boat of salvation. Walking in the Spirit is walking by faith. It is becoming assured that what the Word said will happen. It is living on the edge. It is not getting comfortable with what we have. It is looking each day for how God will reveal Himself as our Provider and Protector. Real Faith is a long-term relationship of trusting that God will pick up the tab when we can’t, that God will defend us when we have no defense, that God will provide a way when it seems like no way exists. Verse two of this chapter says, “For by it (Faith) the men of old gained approval.” The thing I would like for you to ponder as I blog us through chapter 11 is, “What did real faith look like to real people of Scripture?”
If you are interested, I’ll be walking through this chapter in the coming days. I’ll post my studies on my blogs much like this one. I’ll try to throw in a couple of good and maybe funny stories to break up the monotony.
I love you, your servant, your friend,
Tim
The word “faith” has very little meaning. It has been abused. It has been used so often that we forget that real faith is a living and breathing thing. We sing about faith. We talk about faith. We even tell others that they must have faith. However, we don’t experience faith, at least on a long-term basis.
Faith to the average church attendee is a door through which we enter into the grace of God. It is the portal through which someone gets the good stuff from God. It usually ends there for most church people. A life of faith is unheard of in the majority of people who call themselves Christians. So what is faith? Even George Michaels wrote a song that says, “I gotta have faith, faith, faith; I gotta have faith.” It is one of the best songs he ever did.
If we gotta have it, then what is it? First, what is salvation? Salvation is when God calls your name. He brings you to life through Christ. He gives you the ability and the faith to follow Him. It is not something you do or elicit. It is what God does. You wouldn’t respond if He didn’t call and give you a responsive heart. Your only part is enacting the faith that He gave to you. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast,” (Eph. 2:8&9). “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy,” (Rom. 9:16).
Faith comes from the life exchange that comes from God. Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is hope backed up with assurance that comes from God. Let me ask a question. Is faith without the backing of God’s power real? In other words, can you just believe something strongly enough that even when contradictory evidence appears you still believe it? Take for instance, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. You weren’t there. I wasn’t there either. Why do you believe it? Please don’t say, “Because its in the Bible.” If that is your answer then, who said the Bible was real? You weren’t there when it was put together. I wasn’t there either. So, we are back to the faith question. Is faith without the backing of God’s power real?
Let’s digress about the “Its in the Bible statement.” John says, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. HE was in the beginning with God…..and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, (John 1:1-2 & 14). How is the Bible truth? The Bible is not truth because some group says it is all the time. The Bible isn’t truth because people voted on it to put it together from a bunch of ancient manuscripts. The real truth is Jesus. He is the Word of God. What we hold in our hands in only without fault and without blemish because Jesus is without fault blemish. There are some dating conflicts that are in the historical recollection of Scripture. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t truth. Jesus is the backing for the truth of Scripture. What we hold in our hands, that we call the Bible, is a put together recollection of God’s Word as people experienced Him. The reason that I can say that the Bible I hold in my hand is God’s Truth is because Jesus backs it up. He is the Word. He has given us a written copy of how the Word has entered into the lives of people. When you take your written copy of the Word’s life in the lives of humanity, it is without fault and error. It is so because Jesus is actively using those words by the power of His Spirit to work in you. He has given believers faith to hear and to believe the Word, by His Spirit, through the text that He has reserved and kept for us. Your Bible is God’s Word as He intended it. Without the power of the Word, the Bible is a great book for daily living.
Knowing Jesus, the Word and the Truth, is knowing faith. So, we are back to the question, “Is faith without the backing of God’s power real?” I have faith that my car will start. The other day, it didn’t. I have faith that I will be secure in my home tonight; I will be able to eat here and watch television. But, my house could burn to the ground. What about having faith in things in which you cannot see immediate results? Will you have enough money to retire one day? Now we are getting into real faith areas.
Ultimately there is no faith without God standing behind it. Your faith in you future is not secure unless Jesus is backing it. You and I don’t know what to expect. You may save money all your life and the day you turn seventy the economy may tank. Everything you have saved for could disappear. What would you do? Without Jesus you would probably despair. With Jesus you could default to knowing that “God will never leave you or forsake you,” (Heb. 13:5). There is not real faith that God doesn’t provide and back. He stands by His Word, Jesus.
Hebrews 11:1 says that, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It is the assurance that what you cannot see will come to pass. That almost doesn’t make sense when you think about it. It is a deep sense of knowing that what God says through His Word will come to pass. He backs up what He says. So, I can be assured that if He said it through His Word, then it will come to pass. No matter what my circumstances become, no matter who is with me or against me, no matter what Satan does, I have the assurance that God will faithfully complete the work of salvation that He started in me, (Phil. 1:6).
I said earlier that we only experience faith on a short-term basis. We basically experience faith to get in the boat of salvation. Walking in the Spirit is walking by faith. It is becoming assured that what the Word said will happen. It is living on the edge. It is not getting comfortable with what we have. It is looking each day for how God will reveal Himself as our Provider and Protector. Real Faith is a long-term relationship of trusting that God will pick up the tab when we can’t, that God will defend us when we have no defense, that God will provide a way when it seems like no way exists. Verse two of this chapter says, “For by it (Faith) the men of old gained approval.” The thing I would like for you to ponder as I blog us through chapter 11 is, “What did real faith look like to real people of Scripture?”
If you are interested, I’ll be walking through this chapter in the coming days. I’ll post my studies on my blogs much like this one. I’ll try to throw in a couple of good and maybe funny stories to break up the monotony.
I love you, your servant, your friend,
Tim
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