THE STRENGTH OF FAITH

Part I

Hebrews 11 is well-known and beloved by the congregations. This is understandable, because it speaks of the many miracles which the Lord performed in the days of old. Often this chapter is called the gallery of the heroes of faith. This saying is derived from the old castles, in which there always was a special room with the pictures of the ancestors, who had also lived in this same castle. When you came in such a room or gallery, it was very important that those portraits received good light; then they were much nicer. So we go in this chapter from verse to verse and every time we see another ancestor in his life, struggle and vitory. We may see them in their faith, these heroes of faith. In our days there are also many heroes; we think of the sport heroes, who are worshipped by their fans and who earn lots of money. They are often used by satan to fill the emptiness of our lives and to make us forget the Lord. Especially young people have their heroes and hope to become heroes themselves, in this or in that. Even if this dream was fulfilled, we would experience that it would never fill our heart. The round world can never fill our triangular heart. Don’t be so foolish to try it, because our life is very short and soon the dream will be over, when it becomes eternity. We need another hero, whereof David said: “I have laid help upon one that is mighty.”

This chapter does not speak about heroes of this world but of the heroes of faith; our attention is not drawn in the first place for these heroes of faith themselves, but to the power of their faith, wherewith they could overcome all things in this world. This is true saving faith, which is a gift of God, whereby all reasons of men are excluded.

Hebr. 11:1–3 speaks of: THE STRENGTH OF FAITH.

We will divide this in:

1) faith gives certainty, and

2) faith gives understanding.

This portion of God’s Word is written to impress the Hebrews of the value and power of faith. This admonition is necessary, as we will see later on. The readers must have much knowledge of the Old Testament and an enlightened mind to understand the writer, who probably is the apostle Paul. He speaks often of the laws and the priesthood of Aaron, which he compares with the priesthood of Christ. He is the head of the Covenant of Grace and has represented His people in His passive and active obedience. He merited salvation for His church. The Hebrews miss this certainty of faith and therefore they are in danger of being allured by the false teachers of the Jews and of returning to the ceremonial laws and to their works to merit salvation.

The heavy persecution against the Christians is the main reason why they became so doubtful; was it not better in former days, when they could go to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, which is the city chosen by the Lord? So the questions multiplied and satan used them to deceive the Christians. In those days it cost much blood and tears to be a follower of Christ. I am afraid that many people would not attend the services anymore if there was the danger of losing our lives for the name and sake of the Lord. Therefore, let us not look upon the Jews in the dispersion disdainfully.

What was going on in those days was still no excuse to forget the warning of the Lord: “He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.” Now Paul tried to stimulate the Hebrews, with the help of the Lord, to perseverance and faithfulness by showing that these men and women out of God’s Word, also had great problems, but by faith overcame them all. Is the Lord not the same for you, Hebrews? Can He not make it well with you? The persecution can be terrible, but when the Lord is with us, then we can stand even the fire, as it is written of the three young men. Faith and the exercise of faith we need!

First, here is spoken of the essence of faith itself: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This faith is the theme of the whole chapter. How does the apostle speak of this faith? Because when I read the catechism it is so different; there it seems to be much richer. In this chapter we don’t hear of that certain knowledge, that assured confidence, the remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation, for the sake of Christ’s merits. The catechism has much more in it, as it seems, than Hebrews 11. We cannot deny that the catechism seems to be richer, but is this true? Some even asked: Is true saving faith here spoken of? It is without doubt, that all persons spoken of in this chapter possessed true saving faith. But we must not forget that faith has more than one side. We sometimes see it from another angle. By faith we receive redemption, righteousness and eternal life, according to the catechism, which is according to God’s Word. This is not the side of which our text speaks, but here it mentions what we can perform by faith, the strength of faith. In the catechism we find the believer with empty hands before the Lord. It is a poor sinner who receives these benefits out of free grace. The instrument whereby we receive these benefits is faith, given in the moment of regeneration. This planting of faith will never come to an end, but it increases and decreases in the believer. There are times when faith is strong, and there are moments when it is weak. Peter walking on the waves and sinking into the water is an example of this.

Here the apostle tries to encourage the Hebrews to fight the good fight of faith; it is drawn here in its persevering power, and the apostle takes the examples of the forefathers, who overcame mighty enemies and great persecutions. Nothing was impossible for those men and women by faith! What those Hebrews needed, we cannot do without either. The apostle tried to convince them that the law cannot save them anymore. By nature the same lives in our heart, so that we deny Christ and seek salvation in our own works. This is a sin of our spiritual darkness, that we try to live out of the broken Covenant of works. How necessary the discovering work of the Holy Spirit is in us, that we may learn to know the Lord and ourselves. The Spirit reproves of sin, righteousness and judgment. He teaches us also that all our works are unclean before the Lord, so that they cannot please Him. That will bring us more and more to an end with our works, so that we may begin to seek life outside of ourselves. This can only be found in Him, who called Himself the resurrection and the life, that is Christ Jesus. Our text says: “Now faith is the substance (or the ground, or the confidence) of the things hoped for.” It speaks of hope, a living hope. There is also a dead hope, without foundation. So there are many incurable patients who deceive themselves with a vain hope that they will recover from their illness, what never will be fulfilled. Many doctors and relatives encourage this, although they know it is not true. This is wrong, as all people have the right to know when the end is coming near.

Others have hope on God’s love, even before the gate of death, but they forget that God is also holy and righteous, and will not forget our sins, when they are not blotted out by the blood of Christ. Christ is the only foundation whereupon we can rest. So our hope must have this firm foundation; it must rest on Christ. True hope springs forth out of the root of faith. So hope and faith are related - they have the same object: the promises of the Lord for time and eternity. The things we hope for lay in the future. But with a living hope, there is the certainty that God will fulfill His promises also in our life. We don’thave the fulfillment now, right away, but by faith we may taste that the Lord is faithful: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” By faith we are sure that the invisible things exist as they are revealed in God’s Word, because the Lord is faithful also in His Word.

The Word is eschatological, which means: it has religious expectations for the future. This is unknown to the world and has no value for them at all. They have more hope for the temporal things, which are visible, which they can feel. Those religious expectations are not real for them. God’s Word is actual for all times. When the cares of daily life have the greatest place in our heart, then there is nothing left for the Lord and His service. When there is no place for His Word, then there is no place for Christ, as it was in Bethlehem. But without the Word and without Christ there is no salvation possible, because Christ merited salvation and this knowledge we receive out of the Word by the administration of the Holy Spirit. So the church may receive certainty in Christ, in God’s promises, in His Word, when this is applied to our heart: “Now faith is the evidence of things not seen.” Is this not impossible? We cannot prove thing which we don’t see. Here is spoken of evidence, but it is even stronger, it convinces, it is certain. When we, by faith, may see God’s revelations and promises, it convinces and gives assurance in the heart of God’s child, which is stronger than any other evidence which the human mind or science can give. For the unbelieving people there is no God, no Christ, no heaven and no hell, no angel and no devil. They don’t see it, they cannot measure it and they cannot weigh it. We want to understand it and will not believe what we cannot see. But there are two kinds of people on this earth: wise and foolish. The wise live with God, and the foolish who do not believe in the things not seen, without God. Nobody is wise of himself; as a child receives instruction in school, so we must be instructed by the Lord; our foolishness is a consequence of the fall and sin against God. We don’t want to believe that there is a God Who will judge us at the end of our life.

Is it not foolish, when a thief thinks there is no judge to condemn him? More foolish is the man who imagines that there is no God. Even when it does not come over our lips, it can live in our heart. Is your heart satisfied without God and can you live as if there is no God? Then we deceive ourselves. Once we will realize that there is a God to Whom we must give account of all our deeds. He is our Creator and is worthy that we should serve Him. Of Manasse we read, that he learned this in prison. We must learn this too, that the Lord has a right to demand that we should serve Him. If this does not happen, then He will be our Judge, Who will send us to the place of eternal damnation. Blessed is the man or woman or child, who learns that there is a God! First we learn to know a holy God Who requires that we live to His honor. By discovering grace we become a fool in our own eyes; but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is the true wisdom, which will become deeper by the administration of the Holy Spirit. Now we can understand what is written in our text: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (to be continued) Norwich

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