Commentary - Hebrews 11:1-2

Bird's-eye view

Hebrews 11 is the great Hall of Faith, the inspired record of God's faithful saints. But before the author begins his tour of this gallery, he first provides a foundational definition of the very faith that animated these men and women. This is not faith in the modern, sentimental sense of a leap in the dark or a vague spiritual optimism. Rather, the author defines faith in startlingly concrete and objective terms. It is the solid reality of our future hope and the irrefutable evidence of the unseen world. This chapter is designed to be a massive encouragement to the beleaguered saints to whom the letter was written. Having just been told that the just shall live by faith (Heb 10:38), they are now shown what that faith looks like in shoe leather, lived out across generations of redemptive history. It is the instrument by which the ancients were vindicated by God, and it is the only instrument by which we can be also.

The central argument is that true biblical faith is not a subjective feeling we muster up, but rather a God-given faculty for grasping objective realities. It is a form of spiritual perception. It sees the promises of God as more substantial than the chair you are sitting on, and it recognizes the unseen spiritual realm as the true backstage of history. The rest of the chapter is simply an exhibition of this principle, showing how this robust faith enabled ordinary men and women to endure the unendurable and to obtain the promise.

Outline

Context In Hebrews

This chapter does not appear in a vacuum. The author of Hebrews has been building a sustained argument, urging his readers not to fall away from Christ and return to the shadows of the old covenant. The end of chapter 10 is a stern warning mixed with tender encouragement. He has just quoted Habakkuk 2:4, "But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him" (Heb 10:38). This immediately raises the crucial question: what is this "faith" by which we are to live? What is this faith that keeps us from shrinking back? Chapter 11 is the answer to that question. It is a masterful, pastoral, and theological exposition of the nature of true, persevering faith. It provides the definition and then illustrates that definition with a long list of Old Testament saints, demonstrating that the Christian life has always been the life of faith, from Abel onward.

Key Issues

The Title Deed to the Unseen

We live in an age that has defined faith as the opposite of knowledge. For the modern man, faith begins where the facts leave off. It is a subjective feeling, a personal preference, an irrational leap across a chasm of uncertainty. The Bible knows nothing of such a flimsy notion. The writer of Hebrews defines faith not as the absence of evidence, but as a particular kind of evidence. It is not a leap into the dark, but a step into the light of God's revealed reality. It is the divinely enabled capacity to see what is really there. The world operates by sight, trusting only what it can measure, weigh, and empirically verify. But the Christian is one who has been given new eyes to see the foundational reality that undergirds everything we see. This chapter is a call to trust those eyes.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

The author begins with a dense, two-part definition. First, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The Greek word for assurance is hupostasis. This is not a word for a subjective feeling of confidence. It is a robust, objective term meaning the actual substance, the underlying reality, or the foundational essence of a thing. In legal documents of the time, it was used for a title deed. So faith is the title deed to our inheritance. It is the present ownership of our future hope. The things "hoped for" are not wishful thinking, like hoping it will not rain on the church picnic. This is hope in the biblical sense, which is the absolute certainty of a future good based on the unbreakable promise of God. Faith, therefore, is the present possession of that future reality. It brings the future into the present.

The second half of the definition is that faith is the conviction of things not seen. The word for conviction is elenchos, a legal term for a proof or evidence that demonstrates a case. Faith is the proof of the unseen world. It is the faculty that apprehends the reality of God, His throne, His angels, His decrees, His coming judgment, and His promised glory. The materialist sees only atoms and molecules. The man of faith sees the hand of the Creator who holds those atoms together. Faith is not believing without evidence; faith is the evidence. It is the Spirit-given organ of perception for the spiritual realm. It does not create reality; it perceives the reality that is already there, solid and unshakeable, behind the veil of our senses.

2 For by it the men of old gained approval.

This verse provides the historical verification for the definition in verse 1. The word "For" connects the two. How do we know this definition of faith is correct? Because this is precisely the kind of faith that has always been the operating principle for God's people. "By it" means by this very instrument of faith, this substantial hope and evidential conviction. The "men of old" are literally the elders, the presbuteroi, the venerable saints of the Old Testament whom the author is about to list. They "gained approval." This is a crucial phrase. The Greek means they "were testified of" or "were borne witness to." It was by their faith that God Himself bore witness to them, declaring them to be righteous in His sight. Abel's sacrifice was accepted. Enoch was taken. Noah was saved. Abraham was counted righteous. Their faith was not the meritorious cause of their salvation, but it was the instrument through which they received God's gracious approval. This is not a new principle for the Christian era; it is the way God has always dealt with His people. This robust, world-defying faith is what pleases God (Heb 11:6), and it is the only thing that ever has.

Application

The immediate application for us is that we must utterly repudiate the world's definition of faith. To treat faith as a subjective feeling is to build your house on the sand of your own emotional state. Some days you will "feel" faithful, and other days you will not. But the reality of God's promises does not fluctuate with your feelings. The throne of God is no less real when you are discouraged. The blood of Christ is no less powerful when you are wrestling with doubt. Our faith must be anchored outside of ourselves, in the objective reality of God's character and His Word.

This means we must treat the promises of God as the title deed to our future. We own our salvation. We own our resurrection. We own our glorification. The transaction has been completed in Christ, and faith is simply living in the reality of that completed transaction. It also means we must learn to see the world as it truly is. The political turmoil, the cultural decay, the personal struggles, all of it is downstream from the unseen reality of God's sovereign decree. Faith is the conviction that what God is doing in the heavenly places is more real and more important than what CNN is reporting. This is the faith that enabled the men of old to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and it is the only faith that will enable us to do the same.