By Faith, and Faith, and Faith...
- Edwin O'Hanlon
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
‘And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, as well as David and Samuel and the prophets.’
- Hebrews 11:32 -
Hebrews 11 teaches all God’s children what it means to live by faith. The first verse tells us what faith is. It’s ‘the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things that are not seen.’ Faith is assurance in what we hope for because such has been promised by God. In simple terms, faith believes what God has revealed and trusts what God has promised. Hebrews 11 teaches faith with many wonderful examples. Each highlights a distinct aspect of faith; how faith listens to God, walks with God, fears God, obeys God, and receives from God. But that’s not all. Hebrews 11 also teaches how faith submits to God, worships God, hopes in God, depends on God, and commits to God. Faith is like a living tree bursting with fruit. And when you have faith, much good grows in your life.
In the Bible, illustrations of faith are not few, but many. So Hebrews asks: ‘What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets’ (11:32). It describes highs and lows of these faith warriors, saying ‘by faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and because they did right, God made promises to them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword’ (11:33-34). Their agonies (and praises) are also recounted: ‘But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground’ (35-38).
And so, we come to the end of this marvellous chapter that tells of the triumphs and sufferings of great faith warriors. But all of them received the eternal reward that God had promised, right? Well, this isn’t how Hebrews 11 ends. Instead it says ‘all these, though commended through this faith, did not receive what was promised’ (11:39). Really? How could those held up to us as models of faith not receive what was promised. It makes no sense, does it? Well, Abraham didn’t receive what was promised. Neither did Moses and other faith heroes. They gained wonderful gifts from God. They knew what it was to be forgiven in the same way we are forgiven today. We look back to Jesus and His work on the cross, while saints of old looked ahead to Jesus and what He would accomplish. But something was still missing...
Old Testament saints received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit came rushing upon some of them, while God answered David’s prayer when he asked: ‘Do not take your Holy Spirit from me’ (Ps. 51:11). Then, after Jesus paid the price for sin, all these saints of old joined God in heaven. Asaph said in Psalm 73:24: ‘You will guide me with Your counsel and afterward receive me to glory.’ Yet the writer of Hebrews says they did not receive the promise. So what part of the promise did they not receive? Hebrews 11:40 tells us. ‘For God had something better in mind for us, that they would not be made perfect apart from us.’ God had a better plan for us. That their faith and our faith would come together to make one whole: their lives of faith being incomplete apart from ours. For some, this verse is hard to grasp, but the key is to focus on two words: ‘something better.’
What is this ‘something better’ that Hebrews uses to describe God’s plan? This isn’t a contrast between blessings of Old and New Testament saints. No. The writer talks of being ‘made perfect,’ and this doesn’t happen in this lifetime. So, the contrast is about what we experience in this imperfect world versus what we will enjoy when we are made perfect in the future. God promised something better for all His people than what we can know in this world. That same promise was made to Old and New Testament believers alike. Old faith warriors lived and died looking forward to being made perfect. New saints live and die looking for the same hope. They didn’t receive perfection in this life and neither will we. God planned something better for Jesus than the cross and the grave. Likewise, He planned something better for all believers of all time: heavenly perfection attained via earthbound faith.
Old Testament believers have gone ahead of us. They now wait for us to finish our race. They are anxious because apart from us they will not be made perfect. Because of the cross and the empty tomb, all deceased believers are with Christ. As Paul taught: ‘To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord’ (2 Cor. 5:8). For sure, the conscious enjoyment of the presence of the Lord is by far better than anything we can know in this life. These saints are with Christ, yet they’re still waiting for the glorious return of Christ to the earth to take His people home. Why? Because only then will the entire redeemed family of God be wonderfully gathered into one. Only then will they and us gain resurrection bodies. Only then will we enter the fullness of all that God has promised. Something glorious lies ahead that even those in heaven have not yet seen.
What does all this have to do with us today? These heroes of faith ran their race, and we must now run ours. ‘Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us’ (Heb. 12:1). How do we run with endurance? How do we withstand the world’s relentless pressures? The answer is found in Hebrews 12:2: ‘Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.’ Faith looks to Jesus. Christian faith is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith isn’t looking to Noah, Abraham, or Joseph. Faith is looking to Jesus. This is what Old Testament saints did. Jesus said: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Abraham was looking to Jesus! Hebrews 11:26 says Moses esteemed ‘the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.’ Moses looked to Jesus too!
The whole point of Hebrews 11 is that believers today are in the same position as Old Testament saints. We believe as they believed, and we must endure as they endured. We must look to Christ as they did. It is in Jesus that God reveals Himself to us and it is in Jesus that God delivers all His promises. The same faith that was formed in saints of old has been formed in us, and it is Jesus who forms that faith. Jesus is more than our example. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. This means it is Jesus who brings our faith to life. He formed faith in you. He is the founder of your faith. He laid hold of you. He put His Holy Spirit in you. He opened your eyes to the truth. He brought your faith into being and He will bring your faith to completion.
We have need of endurance (Heb. 10:36), and it is Jesus who enables us to endure. How do we get this endurance? The answer of Hebrews 11 is by faith! The just shall live (and endure) by faith. We look to Jesus ‘who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross’ (12:2). Faith unites us to Christ in a spiritual union, meaning what is His becomes ours. He is the vine. We are the branches. What is in Jesus is in us too. Because Jesus lives, we live also. He endured the cross, and that endurance is now ours. Because we live by faith and endure, we look ahead to Jesus bringing us into His glorious presence. He ‘has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (12:2) and, one day soon, we will join Him. As Christ Himself said: “They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29). Hallelujah! Come Lord Jesus!