Hebrews, Romans, and Revelation are the three best composed books in the New Testament. Of these three, Hebrews is the best as far as composition is concerned. In the first ten chapters of Hebrews we have a clear, thorough, and complete comparison between God’s economy and man’s religion. This man-made religion frustrates God’s people from going on according to His economy. Due to this frustration, the book of Hebrews was written. After presenting a thorough comparison of Judaism with God’s economy, this book charges the Hebrew believers, who were in danger of shrinking back, to live, walk, and go on “by faith” (10:38-39), that is, “not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). Then in chapter eleven it continues to define what faith is in a historical way.
Suppose you are driving an automobile and come to an intersection where there are two signs, one indicating that a road is closed and the other indicating that a road is open. Would you drive on the road that has been closed? If you did, you would run the risk of losing your life. It would be much better to drive on the open way. The clear comparison given in the first ten chapters of Hebrews is a sign for our driving, showing which way has been closed and which way is open. Over the old way is a sign — Closed, Terminated. Over the new way is also a sign — Open, Freshly Slain. This contrast is the consummation of these ten chapters. After presenting such a contrast, the writer tells us how to take this open, freshly slain way — it is by the unique way of faith.
Before considering this matter of faith, I would like to say a further word about the gaining of the soul. Hebrews 10:39 says, “But we are not of them who shrink back to ruin, but of them who have faith to the gaining of the soul.” The Bible is the most consistent book. Although it has many aspects and uses different terms, its main point is always consistent. The terms glorification, perfection, and the gaining of the soul all point to one thing. As we have seen, glorification is perfection and perfection is the gaining of the soul. We are Christ’s followers today. If we would follow Him according to God’s economy, we must pay the price. Humanly speaking, in order to follow the Lord we must lose the soulish enjoyments and worldly entertainments. To lose such things is what it means to lose our soul. If we are unwilling to pay the price to lose our soul today, meaning that we do not like to lose any soulish enjoyments or worldly entertainments in this age, we shall not give any opportunity to the law of life to work Christ into us. To lose our soul today means that we give the law of life the opportunity to work Christ into our being. It means that we do not care for shopping, housing, eating, clothing, or any type of entertainment, and that we only care for the working of the law of life within us. We all must say, “I am willing to pay any price that the law of life might have the opportunity to work Christ into every part of my being.” This is what it means to be perfected. This is also for our glorification. Our glorification in the future will be the gaining of our soul. Hence, perfection, glorification, and the gaining of the soul all refer to the same thing.
In 10:39 the writer says that “we are not of them who shrink back to ruin.” Because we have been cleansed with the Lord’s precious blood, regenerated, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we are good material for God’s economy, and the law of life is able to work Christ into us. If we are unwilling to pay the price for this and shrink back, we shall be ruined as the good material for God’s economy, as the material in which the law of life can work. If we come forward, we shall remain good material for the law of life to work Christ into our being. Shrinking back ruins the good material by soulish enjoyments, worldly entertainments, and religious activities. The Greek word translated “ruined” is the same word as for destruction. This means that if, as good material for the working of the law of life, you shrink back from God’s economy, you will be completely destroyed as far as being material is concerned. In the past years, I have seen much good material that has been destroyed by shrinking back from God’s up-to-date economy. Although they saw God’s present economy, they were unwilling to pay the price for it. They shrank back and were ruined. We must be careful about this.
To be ruined means that we save our soul today and lose it in the future. It also means that we sell our birthright of glorification, giving up our right to full perfection. Those who lose their soul in the future are those who do not care for their future perfection, glorification, and gaining of their soul. They only care for their soulish enjoyments today. If we are willing to pay the price to lose our soul today, in the future we shall gain our soul and be perfected and glorified. As an encouragement to the Hebrew believers to go on in this matter, at the end of chapter ten the writer said that we are of them “who have faith to the gaining of the soul.” After presenting a thorough comparison of Judaism with God’s economy, the writer charges the Hebrew believers to go on by faith. Immediately after this follows chapter eleven, which covers the unique way of faith.
In this book faith is first mentioned in chapters three and four. In 4:2 we see that faith is the unique way to receive the word of the gospel. The proper gospel is the gospel of bequests. If anyone would receive the gospel of bequests, he must have faith. Suppose someone would offer you a document which said that a large amount of money had been deposited in your bank account. In order to receive this document, you must have faith. If you do not have faith, you will say, “This is just a piece of paper. It doesn’t mean anything to me.” When we preach the gospel, we must infuse people with faith. The power of the proper gospel preaching is that people are infused with faith to such an extent that they believe whatever we tell them. People must have faith if they are to receive the word of the gospel.
Hebrews 6:1 speaks of “faith toward God.” Since we cannot see God, we must take Him by faith. Although God is great and wonderful, some people say, “As far as I am concerned, God is nothing.” If we have faith, God is everything; if we do not have faith, He is nothing to us. Whenever we minister God to people, we must be able to infuse them with faith; otherwise, whatever we minister to them will be in vain. If people are to grasp God, they must have faith.
Hebrews 4:3, speaking of the Sabbath rest, says, “We who have believed enter into the rest.” The only way to enter into the Sabbath rest is by faith. Anyone who does not believe will be unable to enter into it. For this matter we must exercise our faith.
Faith is the unique way for us to inherit God’s promises (6:12). In the Scriptures God has given us many promises. To inherit these promises we need to be infused by God with faith. Since most of the things promised by God are unseen or hoped for, we need faith to substantiate them.
In order to hold fast the beginning of the assurance (confidence) firm to the end, we must have faith (3:14). The word “assurance” in 3:14 means the practical and actual faith, which we have had from the beginning. We must hold fast this practical and actual faith firm to the end, as we did at the beginning.
We must come forward to the Holy of Holies and to God’s new covenant dispensation in the full assurance of faith (10:22). In these messages we have said a great deal about God’s economy. If we shut our eyes of faith, there will be nothing, and everything we have said will be in vain. But if we exercise our faith, we shall see how much there is in God’s economy. If we have no faith, everything is gone. But if we have faith, there is great wealth before us. In these messages we have seen the vision of the law of life. We must go on with this vision, not with the knowledge of religion.
Our hope is Christ. His indestructible life, which has been imparted into us with its functioning law of life, and His kingly and divine priesthood, in which He ministers all the riches of God into us, are also our hope. This must be our confession. We need to exercise our faith to hold fast this confession of our hope without wavering. Only by faith can we realize the confession of our hope in Christ.
To take God’s new covenant way and to follow the Lord in this way causes us a lot of suffering in material things. For this, God has promised us a great reward (v. 35) that on earth today we may live by faith and not by sight. The life that follows the Lord in God’s economy is a life of faith.
To gain our soul in the coming age of the kingdom requires that we have faith (10:39; 1 Pet. 1:9). If we would not care for today’s enjoyments but for the coming day, we must have faith. Furthermore, if we would be sure that we shall have something better in the future and that it is worthwhile to sacrifice the enjoyments and entertainments of today in order to have it, we must have faith. As we shall see, faith is the conviction of things not seen. Since we cannot see into the future, how do we know that a glorious tomorrow is ahead of us? We know it by faith. Deep within me, I am fully convinced that a glorious tomorrow is awaiting me. This conviction comes by faith.
In 3:12 and 19 we are warned about having an evil heart of unbelief. In the eyes of God, no one is as evil as the one who will not believe in Him. The unbelieving heart is the most evil heart. Nothing insults God more than our unbelief, and nothing honors Him more than our believing in Him. We must believe whatever God says in His word. If our heart does not believe God’s word, it is in His eyes an evil, unbelieving heart.
Now we come to the matter of faith’s definition. Although faith is realized within our being, it is difficult to define. Faith is just faith. But the writer of Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, “Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). Since faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, it is the assurance, confidence, confirmation, reality, essence, supporting ground of things hoped for, the foundation that supports the things hoped for. The Greek word translated “substantiating” here is the same word rendered “substance” in 1:3, “assurance” in 3:14, and “confidence” (which knows it rests on a sure foundation) in 2 Corinthians 11:17 (KJV). It may also be translated confirmation, reality, essence (which means the real nature of things as opposed to appearance), foundation, or supporting ground. The King James Version uses “substance” instead of “substantiating” in this verse. But the meaning here is not of solid matter. The Greek word denotes an action and should be rendered as a gerund, a verbal noun. The paper on which this message is printed is a substance. But by touching it with your hand you substantiate it. You sense, realize, and have a full consciousness of it. This is an act of substantiating. Faith is not a substance; it is a substantiating action. To have faith is not to have a substantial element; it is to have a substantiating ability. Although certain things cannot be seen, heard, or touched, we nevertheless have within us the ability to substantiate them. This is faith. The Bible says that whoever believes shall have eternal life (John 3:15). When we hear this word, we sense that it conveys something real, although no one can see or touch it. Nevertheless, the faith within us substantiates what is conveyed in this word.
The Bible is a will filled with bequests. An unbeliever, however, would say that this is nonsense. To him, the Bible is simply a book which is difficult to understand. But for us, God’s called ones, the Bible is a book of bequests. When we hear this, something within us responds to substantiate it. This substantiating is what we call faith. How do you know that you have eternal life? How do you know that the Lord Jesus is in your spirit? We know these things by faith. We can neither explain nor show people that Christ dwells in our spirit. Although we cannot present this to others, we can substantiate it for ourselves.
This substantiating is not a small thing; it is like a sixth sense. Each of our five senses has a substantiating ability. For instance, our nose substantiates fragrances and our eyes substantiate colors. Faith is a specific and particular sense in addition to our five senses. It is the sense by which we substantiate the things unseen or hoped for.
The believer’s life is a life of things hoped for, a life of hope which goes together and abides with faith (1 Pet. 1:21; 1 Cor. 13:13; Rom. 4:18). The unbelievers, being without Christ, have no hope (Eph. 2:12; 1 Thes. 4:13). But we, the believers in Christ, are a people of hope. The calling which we received from God brings us hope (Eph. 1:18; 4:4). We are regenerated to “a living hope” (1 Pet. 1:3, Gk.). Our Christ, who is in us, is “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27; 1 Tim. 1:1), which will issue in the redemption, the transfiguration of our body in glory (Rom. 8:23-25). This is “the hope of salvation” (1 Thes. 5:8), a “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), a “good hope” (2 Thes. 2:16), “the hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2; 3:7), which is the “hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2), “the hope of the gospel” (Col. 1:23), “the hope which is laid up for us in heaven” (Col. 1:5). We should always keep “this hope” (1 John 3:3), and “boast in it” (Rom. 5:2). Our God is “the God of hope” (Rom. 15:13), and “through the encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope” (Rom. 15:4) all the time “in God” (1 Pet. 1:21) and “rejoice in it” (Rom. 12:12). This book of Hebrews charges us to “hold fast the boast of hope firm to the end” (3:6), “show diligence unto the full assurance of hope to the end” (6:11), and “lay hold of the hope set before us” (6:18). It also tells us that the new covenant brings in “a better hope, through which we draw near to God” (7:19). Our life should be a life of hope, which goes together and abides with faith (1 Pet. 1:21; 1 Cor. 13:13). We should follow Abraham “who beyond hope believed in hope” (Rom. 4:18, Recovery Version).
All the things which we are hoping for are substantiated by our faith. With faith, they all are real; without faith, they seem vain. We need to contact God for His infusion of faith that we may substantiate all the things which He has promised as our hope.
Verse 1 also says that faith is the “conviction of things not seen.” The Greek word rendered “conviction” may also be translated “evidence” or “proof.” The word conviction implies action. Thus, faith is not the substance, but the conviction, action, evidence, and proof of things not seen. All things hoped for are things not seen (Rom. 8:24-25). If anything is seen, we do not need to hope for it. As people of hope, we should not aim our life at “the things which are seen,” but at “the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Hence, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). We are aiming at the Holy of Holies and the New Jerusalem, neither of which can be seen by us. Nevertheless, we have the full conviction of these unseen things. Faith assures us of the things not seen, convincing us of what we do not see. Therefore, it is the evidence, the proof, of things unseen.
Faith, which is the way to realize and enjoy the things of God, is not a part of our natural being. It is a divine ability which has been infused into us. The proper faith is the divine element, even God Himself, infused into our being as the ability to substantiate the things which we do not see. This infused element is our substantiating ability. Whenever we contact God or listen to His word, the substantiating ability which has been infused into our being by God Himself spontaneously begins to realize the things of God, the things hoped for, and the things not seen, and we simply believe. As we have seen, faith is a special sense in addition to the five senses derived from our natural birth. This sense substantiates the things of God, things which we do not see. Since the Christian life is a life of hope and in this life we aim at things unseen, we need more of the transfusion and infusion of God that we may have the ability, the faith, to substantiate the things hoped for and to have the conviction of things unseen.
