What is Faith || Hebrews 11:1 || Manna for the Mind #87

Welcome to Day 87 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional! This series is about taking scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses) and building our understanding of their teachings through their context and connecting scripture. I believe that doing this helps us understand how to be the type of human that God created us to be.

Today’s verse is Hebrews 11:1. A classic bumper sticker verse that shows us what faith truly is.

Hebrews 11:1

1            Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

Let’s also look at what other translations say about this verse. It’ll be good to increase our comprehension by getting both a more literal and a middle-of-the-road translation. The NLT, which I use, is the more story-based translation.

From the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition:

1            Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

From the New American Standard Bible:

1            Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.

From the Amplified Bible:

1            Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of the things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality – faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].

Let’s combine everything we’ve learned here:

Faith is the assurance/certainty/reality of what we hope for; it’s the evidence/conviction/proof of things we cannot see. I provided the Amplified version because they break down the term into proper definitions and conceptual understandings:

• Assurance/certainty/reality = confirmation
• Hope = divine guarantee

Faith confirms a divine guarantee from God. Faith shows us what we cannot experience physically. Faith is the confidence based on past experiences that God’s new and fresh surprises will surely be ours. It starts with believing in God’s goodness and truth – that he is who he says he is. It culminates with knowing that God will do what he promises even when we don’t see them materializing. The promises of God last forever, as do promises of eternal life, mercy, grace, the residence of the Holy Spirit, and more.

The hope that comes from this is something Paul talks about in Romans 8:24. I will also provide verse 25 for context.

Romans 8:24-25

24          We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it.

25          But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.

Paul shares that salvation is past, present, and future throughout Romans. In the past, we were saved when we believed Jesus was our Savior. Our new life – eternal life – starts at this moment. In the present, we are being saved through the process of sanctification. What is sanctification? According to the Oxford Dictionary, sanctification is the action of:

• Making or declaring something holy.
• Being freed from sin or purified
• Causing something to be or seem morally right or acceptable.

Our process of sanctification involves God setting us apart from the world, freeing us from the bondage of sin, and creating us to be morally right in his eyes. At the same time, we haven’t fully received all the benefits and blessings of salvation when Christ’s new Kingdom is completed – this is our eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. This is our future salvation. While we can have confidence in our salvation, we can still look ahead with hope and trust toward the complete transformation beyond this. It’s having faith that this will happen and the hope that we will have this reality after we move on from our earthly life.

This new Kingdom is talked about in Hebrews 3:6.

Hebrews 3:6

6            But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.

Because Jesus lives inside us, we can remain courageous, confident, and hopeful. We are not saved by being committed to our faith, but our courage consistently shows the genuineness of our faith. Without enduring faithfulness, we could easily be blown away by the winds of temptation, false teaching, or persecution. Our salvation comes from our belief and commitment to Jesus as our Lord and Savior and turning away from our sinful nature. The courage and consistency we show in living this kind of life will show others how genuine our faith is, which could be the seed planting to others that we genuinely need. Without our faithfulness to God, we can easily follow the paths of temptation and false teaching. Becoming a Christian doesn’t remove temptations, but it removes the bondage we have to it. Because we’re Christians, God will gift us the power of discernment to help us ignore the false teachers and stay true and committed to the teachings of God.

Father God, thank you for the faith you have in us. Thank you for your son’s faith, shown in his sacrifice on the cross. Please help us strengthen our faith and keep it strong in the face of all our temptations and trials. It’s in your name, we pray. Amen.