Hebrews 11:1 is a powerful verse that sheds light on one of the Bible’s most important words; faith. Faith is often thrown around Christian circles, which is a good thing, but it isn’t always fully explained. Is it belief? Is it an action? What is faith? The author of Hebrews tells us directly.
The context of the verse, unsurprisingly, is as vital to our takeaway as the verse is itself.
Chapter 10 is all about Christian Jews doing away with the animal sacrifices. Jesus is the final sacrifice, and now we no longer need to slay animals on the altar. Now that we are saved by the blood of Jesus and no animals, we can walk in an extraordinary amount of confidence. Look at Hebrews 10:39, which is the verse directly before Hebrews 11:1:
“But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
Christian people don’t shrink back and become destroyed because we have faith. What is faith, then? Now we understand the purpose of Hebrews 11:1, to explain the nature of our faith’s confidence due to our salvation in Christ.
Faith is the assurance or conviction of things hoped for and conviction in things we haven’t yet seen. A more straightforward way of saying this is that faith is our firm belief in things that have happened yet.
We can be confident that we’ve been given eternal life with the Father. We can be sure that God fights for us. We are optimistic and unwavering in God’s goodness and desire to bless us. How? Through the promises of Scripture.
John 3:16 – “… whoever believes in him will have eternal life.”
Exodus 14:14 – “The LORD will fight for you…”
James 1:17 – “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above…”
The above scriptures are a small fraction of God’s promises to His people in the Bible.
One of the main reasons why God gave humanity the Bible in the first place is to have a written account of both His desires for us and our expectations of Him.
It would absolutely be wrong for us to make expectations of God that He hasn’t told us we can make. Still, it is not faulty or presumptuous of us to expect things from God that He has told us we are allowed to expect. That’s why He told us what He would do in the first place!
As you fight your battles of faith, build an arsenal of Scripture. Know the promises that the Lord has said He will keep. Stand firm in the unwavering truths of the word of God.
If God has said He will do something, He will do it. Our job is to have FAITH in the things that haven’t happened YET.
