Monday 5th
Hebrews 11:1-12
NIV (v1) – ‘Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.’
ESV (v1) – ‘Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’
KJV (v1) – ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’
We return to the book of Hebrews today and will highlight some of the key verses in chapter 11, I covered so much of this chapter in previous devotions June 3rd – 13th.
I have quoted verse 1 of this chapter from three versions, from them we have the following combination of words, ‘confidence, assurance, conviction, substance, and evidence’. Five words that are intended to help us understand something of what this faith is that the Hebrew writer is writing about.
Faith is essential to Christianity, for it requires us to believe in that which is unseen, but also to believe in that which has taken place to enable us to be Christians. It was after the resurrection of Jesus that he appeared to the disciples when they were assembled in a locked room for fear of the Jews, but one of them called Thomas was missing, he missed out! And he made this declaration, ‘“Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”’ And he had to eat his words a few days later for Jesus came and appeared amongst them again, this time Thomas was there and Jesus said to him, ‘”Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”’ And after Thomas declares, the words, ‘”My Lord and my God!”’ Jesus says ‘“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”’
Thomas saw and believed, we do not have that same privilege of literally seeing Jesus with our physical eyes but on seeing the Biblical evidence we see through the eye of faith and believe. There is a spiritual principal at work in our lives that moves us from unbelief to believing faith, we have a confident assurance that what we read (or hear when preached) is believable, and even though we may not fully understand all the finer details (I certainly didn’t as a nine year old coming to faith after hearing the gospel one Sunday evening) we see it or hear it and we are moved to believe it and to accept it by faith, and that faith is based upon a confident belief that what the Bible tells me that Jesus has done is real, it is sure and is essential to my spiritual well-being.
There are some other important verses in Ephesians 2 that reminds us that this faith that we have exercised to believe is not something that we can manufacture up but it is something that is given to us as a gift from God, that is as we are presented with the truths concerning the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, God is at work through the ministry of the Holy Spirit imparting the gift of faith that causes us to believe and to accept this wonderful message of grace and hope. The verses are ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.’ Ephesians 2:8–9. In the book of Acts we see how this was outworked when Peter is preaching after the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and it says that as he is preaching the hearers were cut to the heart and they needed to know what they should do, what has happened is that as Peter preached the Holy Spirit was at work, bringing conviction, and the gift of faith from God himself was imparted and they responded with belief, and one thing is sure they didn’t understand all the finer details, but they responded by faith and the pattern then as it still needs to be today is that they grew in their faith and in their knowledge of Jesus as Saviour and Lord. The faith that moved them to believe grew stronger each day as they walked the walk of faith.
I wonder if as you are reading this today you are a Thomas, ‘Unless I can see, I will not believe.’ Well, in the words of Jesus himself the blessed one is the one who does not see and yet believes. In the book of Psalms there is a verse that reads ‘Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!’ (Psalm 34:8) I invite you today to take a step of faith, come and partake of all that God has made available to you through the Lord Jesus Christ, come and know true and lasting satisfaction, come to enjoy all that God has prepared for those who put their trust in him.