Sunday, August 3 – Hebrews 11, 12

1. What is faith? Hebrews 11:1.

2. What was the result of Abraham’s faith? Hebrews 11:8

3. Who is responsible for making our faith complete? Hebrews 12:2

Reading Hebrews has strengthened our faith. Chapter one made us confident that Jesus is God. Chapter 2 assured us that God the Son became a human. In chapter 3 and onward, our faith has increased as we have confidence that Jesus is our Messiah and our High Priest.

These vital facts also increased the faith of the early Christians in Paul’s day. Many were expecting Christ to come in their day, so Paul shared the book of Hebrews to assure them that Jesus is the Messiah and explain what He is accomplishing in the heavenly sanctuary before His return.

As we arrive at chapter 11, Paul shares that God’s people have always had to exercise faith, and he shows us how practical faith can be. I once heard faith described as the radar that can see through clouds and storms.

What a radar sees is real. It is not just sensing dreams, or things that are pretend or imaginary. Likewise, Paul does not tell us that we imagine or pretend that faith brings us things. In Hebrews 11:1, Paul tells us that faith is a substance, not just some pie-in-the-sky dream.

For example, in Hebrews 11:8, we are told that Abraham obeyed by faith, and left his own country, not even sure where God would lead him. Abraham did not pretend to leave his own country. He literally left home. This is important because when we discuss righteousness by faith in the Bible, I often hear some people talk about it as if our righteousness is a pretend righteousness that is not real or literal. However, in Hebrews 11, we see examples of how faith made things real in the lives of those who came before us.

Faith did not make Abraham pretend to obey. By faith, Abraham literally obeyed. Yes, his failures were real, but thank God that by faith his victories were just as real. Likewise, the victories we achieve through faith are real victories as well. Righteousness by faith is not righteousness by pretending, as some have described. Faith gives our righteousness substance.

In Hebrews 11:11, Sarah gives birth. She did not pretend to give birth. She literally had a child. To me, the fact that Sarah had already gone through menopause makes this birth almost as miraculous as the virgin birth. This is important because this birth was not by the works of the flesh, but by faith alone, and was just as real as a birth caused by the works of the flesh. Again, faith is not pretend. Faith produces substance. Faith makes things real. In this case, it made a real child.

In Hebrews, Paul did not want anyone to be discouraged. He tells us in Hebrews 4:14-16 to find grace to overcome our temptations and mercy when we fall. If we fall, forgiveness by faith is real forgiveness. But victories by faith are also real.

In Hebrews 12, Paul describes a process through discipline that perfects our faith and gives it its substance. Faith is not magic that comes automatically by some hocus pocus.

Hebrews 5:8 tells us that Jesus learned to obey by discipline and the things that He suffered. It wasn’t magic for Him either. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had to discipline Himself to the point of shedding blood. Paul encourages us to follow the example of Jesus and perfect our faith through discipline. In Hebrews 12:4, Paul tells us we have not resisted yet to the point of shedding blood as Jesus did. He goes on to encourage us that God disciplines us because we are His precious children.

This discipline is not salvation by works. In the words of John Mark Comer, “You will never work harder for anything in your life than a Christlike character, and nothing else will ever feel like such an unearned gift. This is a paradox you simply have to experience for yourself.”

Let’s all let Hebrews encourage us to experience this gift.