If you are like me, you have heard Hebrews 11:1 quoted, preached on and you probably have it memorized. You have thought, “This is the only place in the Bible I know of where faith is defined.” You have tried to understand it, but alas, you still feel like you don’t really understand what it is to “have faith.” You have marveled at Jesus’ statement with the faith of a mustard seed you can command a mountain to be moved into the sea(Matt 17:20). So what is faith? We know faith is essential to the Christian walk. In fact, you cannot, by definition, be a Christian without it (Romans 10:9). We know also the Christian’s walk is referred to as “the faith” in many passages of Scripture as well. So again, just what is faith? Let’s find out.
Heb 11:1
(ALT) Now faith is [the] assurance [or, substance] of [things] being hoped for [or, being confidently expected], [the] confident assurance [or, proof] of things not seen.
(ASV) Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.
(CEV) Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see.
(KJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is the assurance and substance which makes us sure of things we hope for, the conviction of evidence that gives us proof of things not seen.
Heb 11:6
(KJV) But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Romans 10:17 (KJV) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The word assurance is defined by Strong's as “persuasion, that is, credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly constancy in such profession; by extension the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself.”
Thayer's Definition is:
1) conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it
1a) relating to God
1a1) the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ
1b) relating to Christ
1b1) a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God
1c) the religious beliefs of Christians
1d) belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same
2) fidelity, faithfulness
2a) the character of one who can be relied on
Webster's Dictionary defines faith as “to trust; Gr. to persuade, to draw towards any thing, to conciliate; to believe, to obey. In the Greek Lexicon of Hederic it is said, the primitive signification of the verb is to bind and draw or lead, as signifies a rope or cable. But this remark is a little incorrect. The sense of the verb, from which that of rope and binding is derived, is to strain, to draw, and thus to bind or make fast. A rope or cable is that which makes fast. “
Fausset comments on Hebrews 11:1, "the substance of things hoped for (i.e., it substantiates God's promises, the fulfillment of which we hope, it makes them present realities), the evidence (elengchos, the 'convincing proof' or 'demonstration') of things not seen." Faith accepts the truths revealed on the testimony of God (not merely on their intrinsic reasonableness), that testimony being to us given in Holy Scripture.” He goes on to comment, “But faith, apart from the spirit of faith, which is LOVE (whose evidence is works), is dead.” as evidenced in I Cor 13:1-3
Vincent's Word Studies gives us the following comments: “Faith apprehends as a real fact what is not revealed to the senses. It rests on that fact, acts upon it, and is upheld by it in the face of all that seems to contradict it. Faith is a real seeing.”
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown comment that faith “... substantiates promises of God which we hope for, as future in fulfilment, making them present realities to us.”
So faith chooses to see and believe in what is not seen. It chooses to possess a moral conviction that its subject is true. Faith chooses to believe in, to substantiate, to have confident assurance in, to count as the evidence, demonstration, and convincing proof of what God has promised. This takes a renewing of the mind. It means we count things as true because He who said them is true. In fact, He is the truth. We must choose to see His Kingdom and its promises as real fact even though they are not revealed to our senses. We must act upon these truths and count them as absolute fact though they remain unproved to our physical senses. We must, as I Cor 2:9-16 points out, choose to understand these promises with our spirit and the mind of Christ, which has been given to us. We cannot and should not expect to fully understand them in our natural mind. Who can comprehend God? However this should not lead us to toss all reason aside. Our faith is logical and it makes considerable sense once one looks at the body of evidence that suggests the existence of God and counts this fact as true. When one looks at the order of creation, the different species of plants and animals and their complexity, the exact distance we are from the sun, the moon which orbits the earth and controls the tides and reflects the light of the sun at night, the vastness of space and all the stars, the moral absolutes all successful civilizations live by, the source for truth, the source of original origins etc one makes a small logical leap of faith that God does indeed exist. Given this proposition, our faith is in His Faithfulness. He is the Truth so His Word is truth. It cannot be other than the truth. He is the source of life, creation, truth, absolute principles. He does not change so we can count all He says as absolute truth! His character (omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence) should lead us to count as truth and fact all He has promised.
References
All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.
ALT, KJV, ASV, CEV Scriptures; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown commentary; Fausset's Word Studies, Easton's Bible Dictionary, Vincent's Word Studies, Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries and Thayer’s Greek Definitions from Meyers, Rick. E-Sword. Computer software. E-SWORD the Sword of the LORD with an Electronic Edge. Vers. 9.0.3. Web. http://www.e-sword.net/.
