Faith is something that I think about a lot these days. It could be that God is slowly curing me of self effort, and weaning me onto what can be done in his strength. [Without my help, thank you very much!] The world is a very different place when viewed through the eyes of faith. As I rest in God’s strength I become different, too.
Hebrews 11 refers to faith as the substance of things hoped for. I’m going to guess that the things we’re asking for in faith have more substance in our minds, but that’s not what God’s word says. The greek word is hypostasis, and refers to the essence of things: that which underlies the apparent reality. We know that polymer is the essence that holds plastic together. So also, faith: so much more real [real-er?!] and enduring than the material things we hope for. The reason behind this is our faith object. Our faith is placed in Jesus, the one in whom all things hold together, and the author, perfector and finisher of our faith. In the biblical literature faith is most often referred to as something we receive. The passive voice describes us as being acted upon by the Holy Spirit, and faith placed in us. The perfect tense speaks of faith as the result of a past action taken by God. Yet, somehow, we find ways to make it about us.
Going on in Hebrews 11, the patriarchs moved ahead in faith without seeing fulfillment in their lifetimes. Clearly the faith object wasn’t what they could get from God. None of them received any physical reward. Their reward was in relating to the Lord by trusting his promises, and the “yes” to all the promises is Jesus Christ. And so, Hebrews 12 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…”
The substance of faith is not checking off our list of things we want-as if God’s faithfulness is only measured by whether he gives us what we ask for. The substance of our faith, our confidence and hope, is Jesus himself. God gave us something we never dreamed to ask for: his only son. If this ever ceases to be enough, then I’d better stop, drop, and pray. It’s more than enough. It’s everything.
