Faith in Hebrews 11

Faith is belief, conviction or confidence in a person or idea. It is a conclusion one holds without physical proof or personal experience. Therefore faith is an intellectual condition of decision or conclusion one holds.

Hebrews 11 is commonly called “The Faith Chapter” because of its extensive description, illustration, application and reward of faith. One can get a broad understanding of Bible faith from Hebrews chapter 11. Consider the following list of things faith does.

Faith makes better sacrifices — Heb. 11:4
Faith gives eternal life with God — Heb. 11:5
Faith is the basis for a relationship with God — Heb. 11:6
Faith is the result of and it guided by revelation from God — Heb. 11:7-8.
Faith takes us to and through lonely places and times — Heb. 11:7-9
Faith enables us to anything (unreasonable, impossible, courageous, etc — Heb. 11:12.
Faith trusts God when it does not make sense — Heb. 11:17-19.
Faith looks beyond this life — Heb. 11:20-22.
Faith chooses spiritual over material — Heb. 11:24-26.
Faith is content to wait and endure patiently — Heb. 11:9-11, 13-16.

The rest of the chapter shows us that the faithful are never alone. There have been others and there will be more men and women of faith (Heb. 11:32-37. The faithful do not belong here and this world is not worthy of them (Heb. 11:38). God’s faithful live, die and live in eternity with God’s stamp of approval and acceptance.

The receive this testimony of God our faith must be doing the things these faithful ones did. Did you notice all the verbs used in God’s description of faith?