Faith

“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

Faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see. The word for assurance is hypostasis. According to F.F. Bruce:

“This word is used elsewhere in Hebrews in 1:3 and 3:14. In 1:3 the Son was stated to be the very image of God’s hypostasis; in 3:14 believers are said to be Christ’s associates if they hold fast the beginning of their hypostasis firm to the end. In the former place it has the objective sense of ‘substance’ or ‘real essence’ (as opposed to what merely seems to be so. In the latter place it has the subjective sense of ‘Confidence’ or ‘assurance.’ Here it is natural to take it in the same subjective sense as it bears in 3:14, and so the ERV/ARV and the RSV render it ‘assurance.’ There is, however, something to be said for the objective meaning, represented by the AV/KJV (‘faith is the substance of things hoped for’). That is to say, things which in themselves have no existence as yet become real and substantial by the exercise of faith.”

The Epistle to the Hebrews F.F. Bruce

So, faith is the substance of things hoped for. The word confidence or elenchos has the same meaning as the English word—confidence or conviction. So, faith is the substance of what we do not see and the confidence of what we hope for. We can have confidence in God. Faith is the “organ,” like the heart, that enables people to see the invisible order. Philo in “On Dreams” linked “faith towards God” with “apprehension of the unseen.”

So, it was for faith of this kind that men and women of old—or the ancients—were commended for. We have a catalog of spiritual heroes that follow. In addition to this even the visible universe was not made out of equally visible raw material; it was called by divine power! By faith we understand that the worlds were brought into existence and framed by the word of God or by His command. The word in the Greek used for universe or “worlds” is aiones or ages. In this they mean the universe of both time and space. It says that the universe was made by the agency of His Son. In John 1:1-3 it says:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

The command or word that created the visible universe--here in Hebrews--is not the word logos as is used in John 1:1-3 but rhema which refers to the utterance by which God summoned into existence what had no existence before! He is talking about when God said, “Let there be light” in Genesis 1:3. Like it says in Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” So it is that what is seen was not made out of something that was visible. It was the divine power of God that created the universe, by His breath of life. What a wonderful creation that we are a part of. The creation is amazing, but this is just a reflection of how amazing the creator God is. Praise the Lord that He brought all these things into being and it was for His good pleasure that they were created. We are His workmanship created for good works in Christ. Beloved, let us enter into His presence and take in the wonder of it all! God bless you.