Day 3

substance & evidence

To Start

Quiet your mind and sit silently for a minute or so. Put down what you need to put down so that you can enter God’s presence with empty hands.

Pray

Yahweh, today we ask you to unzip the mystery of faith. Show us what it is. Show us how to get it. Show us how to hold onto it.

And as we read, show us any other thing you want us to see. Don’t let our agenda get in the way of your agenda. We submit to You.

Write

We’ll be in Hebrews 11:1-7 this week. One good way to dwell on the passage is to write it on an index card and carry the card around in your pocket. If seven verses is too much for one card, consider just writing verses 1&2.

If you’re interested in memorizing Hebrews 11 over the next few weeks, the index card is essential.

Read

Read Hebrews 11:1-2

Ask yourself:

• What do I think verse 1 means?

• What have I heard other people say it means?

• Ask Yahweh, “What else might it mean?”

And then…

• What do I think verse 2 means?

• What have I heard other people say it means?

• Ask Yahweh, “What else might it mean?

Write down your answers. Writing your thoughts will force you into precision and clarity.

Hebrews 11:1-2

CSB: “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by this our ancestors were approved.”

ESV: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.”

NIV: “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.”

RSV: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old received divine approval.”

KJV: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.”

From JL

I was ten when I first memorized Hebrews 11:1. It was a line in a VBS skit. Dressed up like Joey McIntyre from the boy band, New Kids on the Block, I looked out at the audience and said with gusto, “We’re the New Kids on the Block and boy do we have something to tell you!” I then proceeded to lead my friends in a musical rendition of Hebrews 11:1. Somehow it felt really cool.

Anyway, back then I thought Hebrews 11:1 was a straightforward definition of faith. Faith is ______. I memorized the New International Version: Faith is confidence in what we hope for. That’s clear enough. J.B. Phillips paraphrased it this way: “Now faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for, it means being certain of things we cannot see.”

It’s a good definition (and I don’t think it’s wrong).

But then I read other more literal translations and they muddied my understanding. Why do the ESV and RSV say “the assurance” instead of just “assurance”? As in, faith isn’t “being assured”; faith itself assures. The KJV says faith is the “substance” and “evidence.” And then there’s the CSB: Faith is reality? That doesn’t make any sense at all.

What do we make of this?

How about a story?

My family loves to hike. Every once in a while we’ll be hiking somewhere remote and come across a rickety-looking bridge. All four of us now have a decision to make. Will we cross the bridge?

How do we decide? First we’ll take a good look. Is everything attached properly? Are there any gaps that might make crossing impossible? How is it supported? If we’re truly concerned (and we have a cell signal), we might check our hiking app and see what other people say. Finally, if we feel good, we’ll cross.

But we don’t all cross at once. One person (usually Justin) goes first. If Justin crosses with no problems, the girls and I cross, too.

Why do we cross with confidence?

Because Justin crossed in faith.

Justin’s faith in the bridge played out in Justin’s willingness to cross it. When He crossed (by faith), he proved to us that the bridge was safe.

In other words, his lived faith gave substance to my hope that the bridge would hold. His lived faith was evidence that even though I couldn’t discern the bridge’s sturdiness with my eyes, the bridge was in fact sturdy.

I hoped the bridge was strong. Justin walked across it and proved to me that my hopes were reality. His lived faith was proof that should I choose to follow his example, I’d be supported.

Do you see where I’m going?

The most literal translations of the Greek text suggest that Hebrews 11:1 isn’t a definition of faith but rather an explanation of the way another person’s lived out faith impacts our own ability to trust in the unseen.

It’s Harry Potter following Ron through the brick wall at Platform 9 and 3/4.

Perhaps Hebrews 11:1 isn’t trying to tell us, Here’s what faith is. It’s trying to tell us, Other people’s faith can fuel our own. We’re not walking a new path. Others have done this, and they’ve shown us, it can be done.

Hebrews 11 doesn’t try to argue that the unseen isn’t unseen (you don’t need “proof” of something obvious). But it also doesn’t argue for a kind of blind confidence or “leap” of faith. Faith is built through experience—our own, yes, but also other people’s.

If my daughter was interested in dating a boy, but she didn’t have a lot of first hand experience with him, what should she do? She should talk to people who know him. Her faith in this potential date grows when the people around her say, I volunteer at the food bank with him. Or, I went to school with him and he was always really nice. Or, he’s in my small group at church and I love it when he leads the prayer.

Other people’s experience isn’t enough (we need first hand experience for faith to flourish), but it’s a lot.

We said yesterday, faith is fuel. How do you get that fuel? One way is to pay attention to the people who’ve lived by it. Watch them walk by faith, and you’ll be reminded of what possible—what’s actual.

Hebrews 11 says, Other people have believed in a world that can’t be seen with our physical eyes or touched with our physical hands, and when they lived on earth, that belief compelled them to act. When they acted out of faith in the invisible, they were held, rewarded, protected, and commended. Their actions proved that the invisible world was real.

Hebrews 11 ends and Hebrews 12 begins: “Therefore, since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us… let us run with endurance.” These witnesses aren’t witnessing our run (possibly but not primarily). They’re testifying to the reality of the unseen world. They stood up in court and provided evidence: I trusted in what I couldn’t see, and (Look!) it worked.

Process

Have you ever noticed the impact of someone else’s acted-out faith on your own faith? Try to think of someone whose faith made you more confident in the reality of God’s presence and the reliability of God’s promises.

Pray

Take a moment with God to assess the mass/shape/depth of your faith. Ask Him where you are, where you could be, and what it might look like to take a forward step.

In the comments

Perhaps we can process verse 2 together in the comments.

What do you think it means for “the people of old” or “the ancients” to have been “commended” or “approved” or given “a good report”?

Godspeed

-JL

P.S. I loved your definitions of faith yesterday—that long list of people trying to get their heads and hearts around it, all those words and ways of seeing. We know things best when we know them together.

Here’s an attempt to clarify it all into the simplest definition that works:

First, I really like the definition drawn from Hebrews 11. It might not be exactly what the author originally meant, but it’s true that faith is confidence in what we hope for and being assured of what’s unseen.

Faith can only exist amidst mystery.

Preacher Andy Stanley says faith is “believing God is who He says He is and that He’ll do what He’s said He’ll do.” I like that, too.

The Greek word for “faith” in Hebrews 11 is “pistis” meaning, “faith, belief, trust, confidence, or fidelity.”

It’s worth noting that faith isn’t a one-to-one synonym for belief. If you consider the other words in that list, you’ll see that they all have a more relational or active connotation. Faith is belief, but it’s not only belief.