Some Thoughts on Faith

May, 2004

by: Jeff Jones

Faith, as you know, is the defining characteristic of God's people; no person has been saved, or ever will be saved without it. Hebrews 11, sometimes called “the Hall of Faith,” lists many men and women who had faith and the activities they did as a result. The opening verses give a succinct definition of faith: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And so, all the great men and women of faith had such a confident trust in the promises of God that they were willing to risk their lives and even die, despite the fact some of God's promises weren't received in their lifetimes (cf. Heb 11:13); that is, “they were assured of things hoped for and convicted of things not seen.””

One prime example of all this is Abraham, the father of faith. To save space I won't recount his whole story (cf. Gen 12-25); however, I will point out that Abraham was promised a future “seed” who would bring blessing to the whole world (Gen 12:1-3), and that “seed” would come through his son Isaac (Gen 17:19). Abraham, we are told, believed that promise (cf. Gen 15:6, through which God also counted him righteous) and he believed the promise so strongly that he we was willing to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice (Gen 22:2) even though God had previously said: “In Isaac your descendents will be called.” The author of Hebrews, commenting on this, adds that Abraham considered God to be able to bring Isaac back from the dead (Heb 11:19). The point is this: Abraham trusted God's promise so strongly he was willing to obey God at any cost, even though it may have seemed impossible to fulfill from a human standpoint, even though it seemed to fly in the face of that very promise which was given, and even though he did not see it fulfilled in his lifetime. This is genuine faith exemplified!

We Christians have a faith like that of Abraham. We believe that the one true God, sent His Son, Jesus to die on the cross for our sins; and this same Jesus also conquered death when He rose from the tomb on the third day; now, He is seated at the right hand of the Father, exalted as the true King of the universe, who will come again bringing justice to the world when He sets up his kingdom; and, of course, all who repent and believe/trust in this Jesus receive the forgiveness of sins and entrance into the kingdom. But who of us has seen any of these things with our eyes? Thus, like Abraham, we trust God's Word, even though we do not see Him (1 Pet 1:8). And if our faith is genuine, also like Abraham, we will obey God at any cost.