Today we started a two-part lesson on Chapter 11, titled: FAITH.
Part 1 - What FAITH is...
Part 2 - What FAITH does...
Chapter 11 was motivated from the author's quote that we find in chapter 10:38 which says: "Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."
This verse was a quote taken from Habakkuk 2:4. The same verse was quoted by Paul in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11. The author was showing the Jews that "faith" has been the determining factor for justification long before Christ and the New Covenant. We will see next week how the author goes back to the time of Adam to show that God's plan for redemption has always been by faith, not by works.
HISTORY
In the Hebrew culture and in the Hebrew society, first century Judaism, the dominating religious thought was that of the Pharisees since they subscribed to the highest level of devotion to the Mosaic law and took the law to its very nth degree most seriously.
They were sort of the reigning religious authorities. According to the Pharisees, righteousness (being right with God) forgiveness from sin, and ultimate salvation could only be achieved through a rigorous system of meritorious works. In other words, you sort of saved yourself by your religious activities and by your moral duties.
The Pharisees believed that if you just kept God's law, and the 600+ additional traditional laws that had been added to the law of God, and you accomplished some level of confidence in keeping those laws, you gained enough meritorious works to have purchased your righteousness, your forgiveness, and your ultimate place in the eternal kingdom.
SPECULATIVE FAITH vs. SAVING FAITH
It is possible to have faith that is not saving faith. This is best illustrated by events in our everyday life. Here are a few examples:
1. You exercise faith every time you drink the water from the facet in your home or water fountains at work and school, although you have no idea what creatures might be "playing in the pipes." The water might look clear but who knows what lives in the water that you can't see.
2. You drive around town, up and down hills, speeding to and fro, always having faith that, when needed, your brakes will work.
3. You go to the drug store and get the medicine your doctor prescribed and do as instructed: Take 1 tablet, 3 times each day. You have faith that the chemical you drop into your body will make you feel better instead of making you sick, or even worse.
4. You have faith that the surgeon who tells you that you "must have surgery" knows what he is talking about and that he is competent to cut you open and play around inside your body--possibly removing valuable pieces. Oh you say, "the government has certified my doctor." Okay, then you have faith that "the government" has a certification process that you can trust.
5. You board a jet airplane, get comfortably seated and strapped in, and have faith that the pilots (who you can't see and have probably never met) are competent and physically able to takeoff, cruise, and land the jet. You say again, "the government has certified the pilots."
The kind of "faith" required to drink tap water, drive your car around town, take a pill, have surgery, or fly on a jet airplane is natural faith based on experience that tells us that generally we can trust these things to work as they should without causing us harm.
The kind of faith that is classed as saving faith is a faith in the supernatural--a supernatural conviction based on no experience. We have never seen Heaven and never received a postcard from someone we know who has gone there. Saving faith implicitly takes God at His word about the future. Saving faith translates the promises of God for the future into the present tense.
In John 2:23-24 and 66-71 we see that Jesus differentiated between someone who had saving faith and someone who had speculative faith.
23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. 24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” 68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” 71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.
SAVING FAITH is...
- a belief and a conviction that changes your life; changes the way you are; it affects your character, convictions, and your will... and ultimately your behavior.
- believing in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to the degree that you are completely satisfied with Him so as to commit your life to Him in loyalty, faithfulness, allegiance, submission, duty, fidelity, obligation.
- a conviction practically operative on the character and will, and thus opposed to the mere intellectual ascent to religious truth.
BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF FAITH
Our text today gives us a Biblical definition of faith:
(11:1-3): "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible."
THREE ELEMENTS OF FAITH (reference verses above)
1. KNOWLEDGE (v. 3): "By faith we understand..."
The mind understands the truth; the Gospel.
2. ASCENT (v. 1): "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for..."
The emotional element where your heart is drawn to what your head has learned.
3. TRUST (v. 1): "Faith is the conviction of things not seen."
The voluntary element where you make a commitment. I pledge to Him my commitment, my life, my loyalty, my trust. Without commitment there is no real faith.
"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)
Saving faith has all three elements: knowledge, ascent and trust. As a result there will always be a change in character, behavior, and attitude toward sin for anyone who has a saving faith in the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Hebrew author is pulling out all the stops to show the Jews who have not yet turned fully to Christ and are wanting to return to Judaism that they must trust in the things that are not seen. That is the condition that will reserve them a place in God's eternal kingdom.
Next week, we will look at the 19+ people who the author uses to show the Jews WHAT FAITH DOES.
No comments:
Post a Comment