Sermon 9 -- Hebrews 11
Hebrews 11:1:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Confession time: the preceding verse is one of my top five favorite Bible verses. I confess I did not know exactly where it came from; I suppose I had heard it out of context, in some random order, so I always thought it was by Paul and was taken from one of his letters. Little did I know, until now, that it was from Hebrews! I blush for shame, but I am so glad I finally got that straightened out. Now, there are plenty of Paul quotes about faith, but the phrase "evidence of things not seen”, so expressed, seems to appear only in Hebrews: this idea is very meaningful to me, and I'm glad I finally got the source of the quote right.
I have recommended many times, from this pulpit, that we enter the Cloud of Unknowing with the confidence that: what we cannot know, through faith, we can understand. There are hints of this idea several times in Hebrews, but to my mind the image of Faith in things unseen first appears with the prophetic scripture from 1 Corinthians 13:12:
“12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
The idea of something only known in part is the essence of Faith, because Faith always includes a shadow of doubt which must be overcome by some faculty of intellect higher than rationality. The glass darkly is illumined by the light of Faith, and that illumination is made possible only by the realization that our lust for absolute proof will be forever denied to our puny rational minds, on this plane of existence.
Other sections of Hebrews we have touched on already, dealing with the unseen reality, or reality seen through a glass darkly, include the following quotes:
Remember that Jesus is the centerpiece of Hebrews, so, in this first quote, the “unseen” is Jesus Himself as He rules and ministers to the people from behind a curtain (a glass darkly) drawn between Man and God.
Hebrews 6:18-20
“God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,
20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.”
In the next two quotes from Hebrews 8, we are referred to the TRUE sanctuary, the sanctuary whose substance is spirit not matter:
Hebrews 8:2:
“in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.”
Hebrews 8:5:
“They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.”
The next quote from Hebrews 9 reviews the idea that salvation was won through the shedding of blood. Jesus the King-Priest made His sacrifice “once for all” and transposed the human consciousness from the mortal to the immortal realm. Of particular interest is the phrase, “the good things that are already here”; this emphasizes the idea that Jesus’ ministry is all about bringing Heaven down to Earth.
Hebrews 9:11-12
“11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.
12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”
Hebrews 10:1 exhorts us to observe that mundane reality is a mere shadow of the true reality.
Hebrews 10:1:
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves.”
Seen as a whole, Hebrews 11 may be characterized as a rhapsodic litany in praise of FAITH. Indeed, it is one of the most eloquent and beautifully expressed chapters in the entire letter. The rhetorical device, anaphora, is used, a rhetorical device where the same introductory phrase, “by faith”, is repeated over and over again —“by faith" we do this and "by faith" we do that. Halfway down, the author goes into a Jewish history review, as all the great accomplishments of the past are attributed to faith. Historical precedent always plays a part in the author’s argument in favor of the superiority of the new Era of Grace over the old Era of Law; familiar historical events are often compared and contrasted with events and realities of the present. As we read in:
Hebrews 4:2:
“For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”
We must ask ourselves, “Why were the ancient Israelites so lacking in faith? The answer is clearly: it was not possible, before Jesus, to believe in anything from the higher reality—without Jesus’ mediation, the divine realities were not accessible to the multitudes. Jesus was the key to opening the eyes of a congregation to see the heaven it is possible to experience right here on Earth.
I emphasize the word “congregation” here; I cannot believe that, BEFORE Jesus, all men were denied a vision of higher realities, but I expect those so gifted were a very select few, the prophets, the saints, etc.. Jesus, the ultimate democrat, brought Heaven down to where large numbers of men could see Heaven at their elbows. This not to say that all Christians share equally, (democrats despair, there is no such thing as equality, only anomaly), I say, this is not to say that all Christians perceive, with equal clarity, the Divine Vision—certainly they do not; however, the general principles of Christianity, such as putting others above self, and loving your enemies, have transformed the general population of the world for these two thousand years and counting. When I admire Jesus, one of His features always stands out: He was so original! We have to put ourselves in the mind set of, say, an Isis terrorist, or some ego-centric monster, to appreciate how different Jesus’ knowledge was from the status quo of His own time. Jesus’ originality was undoubtedly one of the His most off-putting features; this is why we had to have all these books written—to sell the new ideas!
I will now read the entire text of Hebrews 11 with few interruptions:
Hebrews 11:1-3
“1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.
3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
Note the distinction that is always being made between appearance and reality; this is the language of Western Philosophy from Plato to Bergson and beyond.
Also note the reference to the “Word of God”. As we have learned recently, in the Genesis lectures, the difference between the Jewish religion and the religions of neighboring countries was the element of HISTORY.
From The Book of Genesis, by Gary Rendsburg, we read:
“The gods in the polytheistc world were, by and large, seen as nature deities. They were associated with the elements of nature. Yahweh, by contrast, was perceived by the Israelites as a god of history. That is the crucial distinction between the two groups.”
A God of history is a God of the WORD, a transportable God, a God unattached to any specific temporal or geographical jurisdiction. The polytheists accepted the material world as REAL, where as, going to the source, the Jews believed in a world that originates from the power of the WORD. And we all know the opening of the Gospel of John, to whit:
John 1:1-4
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”
The miracle of Jesus, indeed the very POSSIBILITY of Jesus, is in the WORD made incarnate.
Going on with the “by faiths” in Hebrews 11:4-7:
“4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
6 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.
7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
Notice that the jurisdiction of “things not seen” has moved from the arena of daily consciousness to the arena of prophecy. Clearly, things not seen reside in a vast compendium of categories. Faith in prophecy is one of the hardest items to believe in, and yet it is one of the easiest to prove (if we don’t have to wait too long). My meditations are decorated by a plethora of minor prophecies, which always seem doubtful on first hearing, but which always come true.
Going on with the historical review of old testament faith:
“8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
“16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
This passage touches on an issue I have questioned many times: what about the people who lived BEFORE Jesus? Are they condemned to Hell? Who gets to live in this city and country prepared for them by God? The passage says:
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,”
What means the expression concerning the promises of God, “having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them”? And why, dying in faith, were the promises denied them? Perhaps, like so many spiritual realities, the sacrifice of Jesus works backwards, as we read in The Great Divorce:
“Son,' he said,' ye cannot in your present state understand eternity...That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say "Let me have but this and I'll take the consequences": little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why...the Blessed will say "We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, : and the Lost, "We were always in Hell." And both will speak truly.”
Back to Hebrews and its recounting of Old Testament acts of faith:
“17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:
19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
29 By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.
31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.”
Finally, as if to say, the ancient acts of faith are too numerous to count, the author abbreviates in generalities:
“32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.
34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
This last verse returns us to the idea that the new Age of Grace is exclusive—that the higher reality is available only to those who believe on Jesus, to whit:
“they without us should not be made perfect.”
Perhaps we will understand by and by.
What follows is an excerpt from a sermon by John Piper. Of particular interest is its reference to the linguistic nuances of translation which he considers to be significant:
What Faith Knows and Hopes For : Assurance and Conviction
“So the first task we have in this new chapter is to understand more exactly what faith is. That's what verse 1 gives us - a twofold definition of faith. Let's look at both parts, one at a time: "Now faith is
(1) the assurance of things hoped for,
(2) the conviction of things not seen."
There is more here than meets the eye at first. The word for "assurance" in the first definition ("the assurance of things hoped for") and the word for "conviction" in the second definition ("the conviction of things not seen"), are unusual words and very difficult to translate into English. You may remember the old King James Version: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." These words "substance" and "evidence" are, in fact, very serious and important translations. What is the reality behind these two words and these two definitions of faith?
This is not merely academic. Just ask yourself this question: do you have faith? How do you know you have faith? What is faith, so that you can know you have it? What hangs on whether you have faith or not? You can see that this question is immensely practical and relevant to your life. "Conviction" or "Evidence"?
Let's start with the second definition first: "Faith is the conviction or (the evidence) of things not seen." The word for "conviction" or "evidence" is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. Outside the New Testament, its normal use is "proof" or "argument" or "evidence" - something objective - about the world rather than subjective about how we feel about the world.
But what about the meaning here in verse 1? Most translators don't use the old word, "proof" or "evidence," because it doesn't seem to make sense. How can faith be evidence or proof? Faith needs evidence, doesn't it? But let's look at the illustration of this definition of faith in verse 3. Verse 3 is directly related to this definition of faith as "the evidence of things not seen." It says, "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible."
Do you see the connection? Verse 1 says "faith is the evidence of things not seen," and verse 3 says that faith understands that the world - what is seen - was made out of what is not seen - the word of God. So verse 3 is a specific illustration of the definition of faith in verse 1b.
Here's the question: How do we know that God made the world out of nothing that is seen? Not only were we not there when it happened, but, even if we had been there, we would not have been able to see the act of creation, because you can't see the word of God. So how can we know or "understand" that the worlds were made by the word of God? How can we know that "what is seen was made out of things invisible" - namely the word of God?
Verse 3 answers, "by faith." "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God." Now this starts to sound a little more like the old King James translation of verse 1 might make sense after all. If "faith is the evidence of things not seen," then it might make sense to say, "By faith (by evidence) we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God." But if we take the newer translation ("faith is the conviction of things unseen") and say, "By conviction we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God," then it just sounds like we are reasoning in a circle: I have the conviction that God created the world, therefore I understand that he did create the world. And I understand that he created the world, therefore I have the conviction that he created the world.
How is Faith "Evidence"?
So the crucial question is: How is faith "evidence" of things unseen, namely, that God created the world by his word? I take my clue from the one other place in the New Testament where God's invisible attributes are said to be "clearly seen" by man, namely, Romans 1:20:
"Since the creation of the world [God's] invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made."
The word "understood" here in Romans 1:20 is the same word as in Hebrews 11:3:
"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God."
So there in Romans 1:20 it says, "we understand the invisible attributes of God by what has been made." And here in Hebrews 11:3 it says, we understand the invisible word of God behind creation by faith. Romans 1:20 seems to say that the evidence that God made the world is the things made - they clearly point to a Maker. Hebrews 11:3 seems to say that the evidence that God made the world is faith.
Now think about this for a moment. What shall we make of it? Here's what I make of it. Faith - at least in part - is the spiritual seeing or perceiving of the fingerprints of God on the things he has made. Now the fingerprints of God on the things he has made - the order, the beauty, the greatness, the "irreducible complexity" (as Michael Behe says, in Darwin's Black Box) - are the evidence that God made the world. But so is the seeing of these fingerprints a kind of evidence. It's just the other side of the coin. If you ask me, "How do you know Focus on the Family has a headquarters in Colorado Springs," I will say, "I saw it on Tuesday." My seeing is evidence that it is there.”
[Sidebar: The expression “fingerprints of God” is vaguely nonspecific, but it is also powerfully evocative of the kind of perception available to the devotee through faith. Who can see the fingerprints of God but he who is LOOKING for the fingerprints of God? Piper’s last sentence, below, points to the evidence of things unseen as a subjective reality, which easily translates to “spiritual reality”.
Back to Piper:]
“I think that is the way faith is the evidence of things unseen. We all look at the same fingerprints, but some see and some don't. Those who see have the evidence - the testimony - in themselves.”
Next I will read an excerpt from a sermon by George MacDonald, who, we will remember, was a major influence on C.S. Lewis:
Faith, the Proof of the Unseen
Preached in Brixton Congregational Church, Last Sunday Morning, June 1882.
“I am going to talk to you this morning about the faith that is here spoken of. We have been talking about faith ever since the Lord came. It is not exhausted yet; and God forbid that I should know yet what faith is; although I know a little what it is. I think the meaning of the phrase is this: Faith is the foundation, the root, the underlying substance of hope. If you have any hope, it comes from some faith in you. Hope, you may say, is a bud upon the plant of faith, a bud from the root of faith; the flower is joy and peace.”
[Sidebar: The word “hope” has appeared six passages in Hebrews so far:
Hebrews 3:5:
“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”
Hebrews 6:10-11
“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.”
Hebrews 6:18-20
“God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,
20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.”
Hebrews 7:19:
“(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”
Hebrews 10:23
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
And finally, the opening of today’s chapter:
Hebrews 11:1:
“1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Remember, we have previously made a case for hope being faith projected into the future; also as a way of bringing future blessings into the present. In this world of unseen things the future is just as “visible” as the present. Think about that the next time you get the feeling you ought to do something and can’t figure out why.
Back to MacDonald:
“Now the evidence of things not seen--I cannot, as I say, find any meaning in that at all; but the true meaning is the most profound fact in human history; it is the trial or the proving of things not seen.
Now upon that turns the life of every man, especially, perhaps, in the present day. This thing of faith means the whole recognized fellowship of man to God and His fellows; it is the right position of the human soul which is made to understand the truth-- the right position of that soul towards the truth; that is faith, partly. But you must remember that whenever you begin to speak of anything true, divine, heavenly, beyond the human, you cannot speak of it at all without speaking in some measure wrongly about it. We have no words, we have no phrases, we have no possible combination of sentences--nay, we have no forms of intellect that do more than represent fragmentarily the greatness of the things that belongs to the very vital being of our nature.
Much, much foolish talk has been uttered about faith. Oh, this talking, friends. I would not trouble myself to set your opinions all right from this moment, henceforth, and for ever. I would not get up into the pulpit and do so. I do not think it is worth any man's labour; but if I could stir up a single soul, instead of talking about the meaning even of the greatest things, to go and do the smallest duty, I should say that is the kind of duty for which Christ spent Himself.
If you read His life wisely you will see that His constant effort is to turn a man's thought back to himself, and make him do a thing, and not talk about it.
About faith they often used to say that it was antithetically opposed to works. There never was greater nonsense. They would say that Paul taught faith and St. James taught works--and indeed one would feel something like this sometimes--that St. Paul had gone too far and that St. James had to write that epistle to set him right. It is not any of us, friends, that will find St. Paul or St. James wrong, nor was there the smallest difference between them.
On the contrary, I assert that faith is simply the greatest work that man can do. Taking it in its simplest, original development, it is the highest effort of the whole human intellect, imagination, will, in the highest direction. Never does the human nature put forth itself in such power, with such effort, with such energy as to have faith in God. I say it is the highest, and sometimes the most difficult, work that a man can do.”
The battle between Grace and Good Works rages on in the minds of those determined to find the ABSOLUTE TRUTH. To my mind, MacDonald has hit the nail on the head when he points out that the ATTITUDE of Faith results in ACTS of Faith. Clearly, the author of Hebrews had an understanding of the wide-reaching ramifications of Faith, and was determined to get the Jews of Jerusalem to see that their BELIEF was “evidence of things not seen.”
Let us pray: Jesus, always near, Jesus all-knowing, Jesus all-loving, possess our hearts and radiate your heavenly light outward from there. Illuminate our dark glass with the clarity of the Truth. Amen.
