ANOTHER LOOK AT HEBREWS 11

I read this wonderful chapter which some call the “Hall of Faith” today. It’s 40 action-packed, encouraging & challenging verses.

Early in my Christian walk I was introduced to the idea that faith is “now,” meaning that if we have faith we should expect to see the results of our faith right away.

The unfortunate thing with this view here is that such an idea is not really in the text. The word “now” in verse 1 is probably best understood as a transition into a different aspect of what chapter 10 was talking about. Also, this view of the text can lead us to understand that “now” is defined by the believer, not by the Lord.

When understanding Hebrews 11 that way, I didn’t see beyond the idea that all these incredible heroes of the faith saw extraordinary answers to prayer & the powerful working of God’s power.

Then I began to see that they were not all delivered (verse35b “And others…”). So the next view I had of Hebrews 11 was that it really calls us to be faithful to the Lord regardless of what does or doesn’t happen.

However, there is another important, big-picture view that I have been seeing over the last few years. That is God’s overall redemptive purpose in Christ. The theme of Hebrews includes the idea that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system. The experience of those saints in the Old Testament who are mentioned in Hebrews 11 is only made complete with the coming of Christ & with what the original readers of the book had experienced in Christ.

Each Old Testament saint was part of the bigger picture. Their lives were somehow leading toward the fulfillment of God’s ultimate plan.

It’s the same with us today. There is no “improvement” on Christ or additional fulfillment of God’s plan apart from Christ. But God is still guiding human history toward the fulfillment that He has planned from eternity past. He has a redemptive plan. Every disciple of Christ is part of that plan.

Faith means that we are growing in our relationship with God to the extent that we are committed to Him & it no matter what it may imply for us personally. It also means that we do this because it has eternal, redemptive implications for others. We won’t know those implications in their entirety until we see them in the Lord’s presence in eternity.

That’s faith!