The Title Deed to Reality
Introduction: A Crisis of Substance
We live in an age that has mistaken fog for atmosphere. Our entire culture is adrift on a sea of subjectivity, where the highest authority is the tremor of a feeling, the sincerity of an opinion, or the authenticity of a personal narrative. Truth, for modern man, is not something to be discovered, but something to be created. It is a wax nose to be shaped by the passions of the moment. Consequently, the modern church, always eager to be relevant and seldom concerned with being biblical, has followed suit. For many evangelicals, faith is no longer a rugged, objective confidence in the external promises of a covenant-keeping God. It has been reduced to a warm feeling in the tummy, a vague spiritual optimism, a leap in the dark. It is, in short, wishful thinking with a pious gloss.
Into this sentimental mush, the eleventh chapter of Hebrews crashes like a granite boulder. This chapter is the great Hall of Faith, and the definition that opens it is not soft, not squishy, and not subjective. It is objective, robust, and substantive. It is a definition that has bone and sinew. The writer of Hebrews is addressing a congregation that was tempted to drift, to fall away, to trade the substance of Christ for the shadows of the old covenant. They were being pressured, persecuted, and worn down. They needed an anchor, not a sentiment. They needed a foundation, not a feeling. And so the Holy Spirit gives them one.
What we are about to study is not a polite suggestion for a more positive outlook. It is the very definition of the Christian's grip on reality. It is the faculty by which we apprehend the unseen world, which is the more real world. Without this faith, it is impossible to please God. Without this faith, it is impossible to stand in the day of trial. Without this faith, it is impossible to understand the world as it actually is. This is not a chapter about what the ancients felt. It is a chapter about what they did, based on what they knew to be true because of who had spoken to them. And if we are to stand in our day, we must recover this muscular, world-conquering faith.
The Text
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.
(Hebrews 11:1-2 LSB)
The Objective Grip (v. 1)
The first verse provides the classic, apostolic definition of faith.
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
Let us dissect this with care, because our spiritual lives depend on it. First, the word for "assurance" here is the Greek word hypostasis. This is a strong, solid, architectural word. It means substance, reality, or the underlying foundation. In Hebrews 1:3, it is used to describe the Son as the very "image of His person," or His essential nature. Some translations render it "title deed." Faith is the title deed to the things we hope for. It is not the wishing for the property; it is the legal ownership of it before we have moved in. Faith is what gives substance, right now, to the things that God has promised for the future.
And what are these "things hoped for?" This is not a blank check for our carnal imaginations. This is not the power of positive thinking. The things hoped for are the things promised. Faith is not a creative power that generates its own reality; it is a receptive faculty that lays hold of God's revealed reality. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). God speaks a promise, and faith apprehends it. God promised Abraham a son, a land, and that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Abraham's faith was not a vague hope for "something good;" it was a rugged confidence in those specific, concrete, verbalized promises. Faith, therefore, is the inevitable response to the perceived faithfulness of God. It looks outside of itself to the character and the Word of the one who promised.
The second half of the verse reinforces this. Faith is "the conviction of things not seen." The word for conviction here means proof or evidence. Faith is the evidence of the unseen. This is a direct assault on the modern prejudice that faith and evidence are opposites. The world says, "Seeing is believing." God says, "Believing is seeing." Faith is a way of knowing. It is the sense that perceives the spiritual realm, the unseen realities that undergird and govern this visible world. By faith, we know that this material world is not all there is. We know there is a God on His throne, a Christ at His right hand, a heavenly city, a coming judgment, and an eternal kingdom. These things are not visible to the naked eye, but faith holds the conclusive evidence of their existence because the ultimate reality, God Himself, has testified to them.
So faith is not a leap in the dark. It is a step into the light, based on the authoritative Word of the God who cannot lie. It is not subjective; it is grounded in the objective reality of God's promises. It is not a feeling; it is a conviction based on divine testimony. It is the firmest thing in the universe, because it is latched onto the firmest being in the universe.
The Divine Commendation (v. 2)
Verse 2 tells us the result and the importance of this kind of faith, setting the stage for the rest of the chapter.
"For by it the men of old gained approval." (Hebrews 11:2 LSB)
The phrase "gained approval" can also be translated as "obtained a good testimony" or "were commended." By this objective, promise-gripping faith, the patriarchs and prophets received God's commendation. This is the central issue. It is not whether our faith makes us feel good, but whether it makes us pleasing to God. And the uniform testimony of Scripture is that without this kind of faith, it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6).
This approval was not because their faith was a meritorious work. Their faith was not the ground of their right standing with God; the ground was, is, and always will be the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. But their faith was the instrument by which they laid hold of that promise. Abel's sacrifice, Enoch's walk, Noah's ark, Abraham's journey, all these were the "fingerprints of God" on their lives, the evidence of a genuine, living faith. We are justified by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone (James 2:17). It is a living, working, obeying faith.
The men of old looked forward to the Christ who was to come. They did not have the clarity we have, living on this side of the cross and resurrection. They saw the promises from afar, as it were, like men straining to see a distant shoreline. But they greeted them, they embraced them, and they ordered their entire lives as if those promises were more real than the dirt under their feet. They lived as sojourners and exiles in this world because faith gave them the title deed to a better one, a heavenly country, a city whose builder and maker is God. And because they believed God's Word over their own experience, God was not ashamed to be called their God (Heb. 11:16).
This is the testimony they obtained. Their lives bore witness to the reality of the God they trusted. Their faith was not a private, internal sentiment. It was a public, world-altering force. It built arks, left homelands, conquered kingdoms, shut the mouths of lions, and chose ill-treatment with the people of God over the fleeting pleasures of sin. This is the kind of faith that gains God's approval. It is a faith that acts.
Our Title Deed
So what does this mean for us? It means everything. We are called to live by the very same faith. The object of our faith is the same: the promise of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But our position is even better. The men of old hoped for what was promised; we look back on the historical fact of its accomplishment. They saw the cross in shadows and types; we see it in the blazing light of the gospel accounts.
Therefore, our faith ought to be even more robust. But is it? Or have we traded this substantive, world-shaping faith for a therapeutic, self-focused sentiment? Do we treat faith as the title deed to reality, or as a lottery ticket for our personal happiness? When God's Word says one thing and our circumstances, our feelings, or our culture scream another, which one do we believe? Faith is the conviction of things not seen. It is believing God's report over your own.
This is intensely practical. When you are faced with a rebellious child, do you believe the promises of God for covenant children, or do you believe the discouraging report of your eyes? When you are faced with a hostile culture, do you believe that the nations are Christ's inheritance, or do you believe the headlines? When you are faced with your own sin and failure, do you believe God's promise of forgiveness in Christ, or do you believe the accusations of the devil and your own conscience?
To live by faith is to order your life, your family, your work, and your worship around the unseen realities revealed in Scripture. It is to bank everything on the faithfulness of God. The men of old were commended for this. They received their commendation because their lives testified that they truly believed God. May the same be said of us. May our lives be a good report, a strong testimony to the fact that we have handled the title deed to the new creation, and have found it to be very solid indeed.