Enduring By Faith

Enduring By Faith

Hebrews 10:32-11:3, 6, 12:1-3

“In modern Western speech ‘faith’ has become a vague term, a warm fuzzy slipping and sliding from one area of meaning to another all the time.” ~ J.I. Packer

Main Idea: Faith is trusting God & his promises so that we might endure with Jesus. 

I. The Nature of Faith (11:1-3, 6)

The character and nature of ‘faith’ involves a few components:

  • Knowing God (11:3a, 6b): Intellectual Component

Christianity is not a ‘blind faith;’ you cannot place your faith in something that you do not truly know.

“The heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” ~ Jen Wilkin

We are able to know God in two primary ways:

  1. Creation (cf. Rom. 1:19-20; Ps. 19:1; Lk. 19:40)

  2. The Word of God

  • Trusting God (11:1): Volitional/Relational Component

Christianity is not a “wishful thinking, hope for the best” kind of faith; it is worked out in a relationship of trust. Biblical faith is not merely believing in God, it is believing God; faith is not just knowing about God, it is knowing God. 

We have “assurance of things hoped for” because of the one who has made promises about our future. We can have “the conviction of things unseen” because we know there is more to life than what we might see. 

  • Living For God (11:2. 6a): Moral Component. 

Christianity is not a passive “let go and let God” kind of faith; it is an active pursuit of the Lord, realizing that trusting the Lord in faith is what brings him pleasure.

“God is not tapping his foot judgmentally inside the door as you sneak in, crawling over the threshold in shame. He’s the father running toward you, losing his sandals on the way, his robes spilling off his shoulders with a laughing smile whose joy says, “I can’t believe you came home!” This is what grace looks like.” ~ James K.A. Smith

II. The Necessity of Faith (10:32-39)

Hebrews is written to struggling Jewish Christians who are facing difficult hardships in two ways:

  • Suffering (10:32)

  • Persecution (10:33-34)

While being tempted to “throw away their confidence” (faith), the author exhorts them to ‘endure’ (lit. ‘to stay under & remain), rather than “shrink back.” Faith is a fight to remember that God is greater than our circumstances & our feelings at any given moment. 

“Faith is the art of holding on to things in spite of your changing moods and circumstances.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Faith reminds us that we are living toward hope, until the ‘coming one’ (10:37) returns. Until that day comes, God’s will for us is to endure by faith, not to shrink back.

III. The Source of Faith (12:1-3)

The life of faith is presented as a marathon “race” that requires endurance. We are not alone in this race, however: we are surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses” who have gone before us & we must look to Jesus, who is the “founder” and “perfecter” of our faith who has completed his journey. 

It is the object of our faith that saves, not the strength of our faith. But the more we look to the object (Jesus), the stronger our faith will become. 

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