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Faith, Part I

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“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen"—Heb 11:1

Friend of mine recently asked me what I knew about faith.  Right away I made an attempt explaining him faith since I’ve been a Christian for few years now.  After a long discussion, we both decided to study faith and get back to this topic.  Faith is a word often heard in churches; when reading the Bible, just in New Testament we find 243 verses that mention the word faith.  When I began reading all these verses and thinking about them, I understood that I had little knowledge of faith.  Faith is a general and practical topic in Christianity, but I knew little about it.  So the question I want to ask is this: what is faith?

Studying the scripture, the best description we find is in Hebrews chapter eleven verse one: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  That is to say, faith involves assurance that gives hope.  Assurance can be described as certainty or confidence.  Being certain in the mind that what is said is true.  Imagine a prisoner getting a letter from the judge stating that in few months, he will be free.  The prisoner from now one, will look forward towards his freedom.  Now this is a person who illustrates hope that comes from his confidence because of what he read in the letter, until this prisoner is in jail, he is exercising faith.

The second part of the verse focuses in towards the description of faith.  It states, “conviction of things not seen.”  Now people can have faith in the president or in themselves.  Often we hear, "have faith in yourself."  Hebrew chapter eleven is talking about a different faith.  Faith in God.  God is someone who people cannot see.  He is not made out of matter, He is a spirit (John 4:24).  A matter we can see and touch, but a spirit we can only experience and feel.  For instance, when a baby is born, we see that this is his eyes, ears, fingers, but who is this person, will only be revealed in years.  Each person is different because of who he is in the inside.  In contrast, we cannot see God, everything around tells us that He exist.  He is behind what our eyes can see and fingers can touch.  That is why the author of Hebrews says, “And without faith is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (11:5).  Faith makes it possible to accept what is not seen in material world—to draw near to God who we can't see.

Now Thomas (one of the Jesus’ disciples) ceased to exercise faith when other disciples told him about how they saw the Lord (Jesus).  Thomas said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe” (John 20:25).  This is a normal respond of a person, who does not believe in God, but faced with an idea that God exist.  First response would be, prove it.  Why was it hard for Thomas to believe in Christ? Well it’s simple, Christ died on the cross, he was dead.  Those who die and are buried, never seen again walking and talking.  What disciples were telling him was way off human logic.  When Jesus appeared again to the disciples, Thomas was there.  Jesus says, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe...Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (20:27-29).  Faith has this principle, not seen but have assurance that it is true.  

Therefore Hebrews chapter eleven speaks of people who exercised faith in their life.  Naming Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc...  These were people who have not seen God but responded to God's message.  It speaks of Abraham, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (11:8).  In the final analysis, we can say faith is the response towards things that we can't see, but we put our trust because we believe it exist.


Questions to think about: 
  • Do you have faith? 
  • Do you think faith is important for your life?  
  • How is your faith connects to your everyday life?
(Part II and III is to follow shortly)
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