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by Katie Erickson

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” -Hebrews 11:1-3

These verses begin what’s often known as the “Hall of Faith” chapter of the Bible – it’s like a Hall of Fame but for heroes of the faith. But before digging into those stories, the author needs to first establish what faith is.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we often talk about faith, but do we really know what faith is? Even those who claim no religious beliefs have faith. We have faith that the chair we sit on will hold us. We have faith that the brake pedal in our car will work when we need it to. These examples of faith are based on reason and experience; based on the countless times the chair hasn’t broken and the brake pedal safely stops the car, we believe that will remain true. But if you have an experience where a chair breaks when you sit on it and you fall to the floor or the brake line goes out in your car, your faith will be shaken.

But what about faith in God? Should our faith in God be different than our faith in material things? If so, how?

Let’s start with the definition that the author of Hebrews gives for faith: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (verse 1). It’s interesting that in Greek, this verse actually starts with the verb – “is.” That’s unusual, so it places emphasis on that word. It’s a present indicative verb, which means it’s stating a fact in our present reality. Faith simply is; it’s not something only in the past or the future, but it is a present reality of today.

What is faith? It is confidence in what we hope for. That word confidence can also be translated as substance. Something is made more “real” to us when it has substance to it – things we can feel and see. Having faith gives substance to things that appear to have no substance, and in that we can be confident. Faith is the basis of all that we hope for. We can’t see everything that we have faith in, but we have confident hope in those things.

He also says that faith is assurance in what we do not see. The word for assurance often means a proof or a test of something, many times used in a legal context. Faith is how we can test and provide proof for the things that we don’t see with our eyes. It’s not a physical test but a spiritual one; do we really believe by faith what we have been told, even though we can’t see it?

The author further describes faith as “what the ancients were commended for” (verse 2). The “ancients” often means “elders,” which could be people who are elders either due to age or dignity. It can also refer to forefathers – those who have gone before us. Here, it is an introduction to what is to come. Starting in verse 4, the author begins to list many forefathers of the faith who were commended for how they lived out their faith. They weren’t perfect, but they did their best to live by their faith in God and the confidence and assurance that gave them.

At the beginning of verse 3, we see the first occurrence of a recurring theme in this chapter: “By faith.” For most of the chapter, “by faith” introduces some person’s actions from the past. Here, however, WE are included in it in the present. This is what we need to do with our faith: “we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

Creation is the first thing that happened in our world that we must believe on faith. No one was around to personally witness the act of creation, but we see evidence of it everywhere. Any theory of the origin of our world (even non-Biblical ones such as the theory of evolution) require faith to believe it; no one was there to see and experience it.

Based on this understanding of creation, that God formed it all at His command, creating what we see out of what we don’t see, everything else is possible! If we believe that God spoke everything into existence, God must be able to do whatever it is we need Him to do in our lives. We did not create everything around us, therefore we are not in control. God did create everything out of nothing, therefore He is in control.

This understanding of God is how we can live our lives by faith in Him. We do not need to be secure in our own abilities, just in the ability of God to do whatever He needs to. Our faith does not need to be blind faith, but it can look at what God has done. God created everything out of nothing, including creating us, so we know that God loves us and cares for us. This is just the first example of many we’ll see in this chapter about how we can have faith in God because of what He has done.

What or who do you have faith in? Do you have confidence and assurance in God, the creator of the universe? What has God done in your life to prove Himself faithful? God has shown to be faithful to so many people since the beginning of time, so He will surely continue to be faithful to us as well. Of that we can be completely confident!

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