These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Hebrews 11:13

I am struck by how “living by faith” has a future element. We are most excited about making things happen “by faith”. We want to tap into the power of faith to change our circumstances. When Jesus tells people He has healed, “your faith has made you well”, that is what we want faith to do in our lives. For the health and wealth, or prosperity, gospel this type of faith is foundational. We might disavow this as heresy, but we are drawn to stories where people are able to experience a profound change in the present circumstances in their lives by having faith that God would make those changes. We want to experience God in our present lives, not just have a hope for heaven where we will then know and experience His goodness. That is natural, and there is something spiritually good about that.

But I detect more of a future orientation of faith here in Hebrews. In 10:37, the author quotes OT passages about a future event, “yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay” The context of “live by faith” in Habakkuk is 2:3, “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” Those who live by faith in Habakkuk are keeping their focus on that future event.

And those who have died in faith in Hebrews 11:13 had faith for a future that they never experienced in their lives. In a similar vein, the faith heroes of 11:35-38, those who suffered all manner of mistreatment and hardships in their lives, “though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised“. (11:39)

This is the Old Testament. Don’t we now live in a time when the event has happened?… When we can expect to experience God impacting our present lives, no longer needing to wait for a future to experience that? Hebrews 11:30 goes on to say about those suffering faith heroes, “since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” We would like to believe that we now live in an era when we do not need to endure what they endured because Jesus has come and we belong to His kingdom.

But that is not how the author of Hebrews sees it. Hebrews 12 continues “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us….” The readers of Hebrews also need endurance. They are in a race and have not come to the finish line yet.

As we engage with what is labeled a here/not yet kingdom of God, we struggle to relate to a reality where we might experience God’s in-breaking power or we might still have to wait with endurance for that experience. I have been in church services where a leader is exhorting the congregation to have faith for experiences of healing and deliverance, including a story of miraculous healing that occurred after years of suffering. This leads to an altar call for people to exercise expectant faith and come forward so that they too can be healed. The leader is telling the story of the healing after years of suffering to increase expectant faith that healing is still possible and what God wants to do. But I am bothered when that is connected to a call to come forward and be healed. What I want to say to that leader is, “You do not know where they are in their journey, or to use Hebrews 12 language, their race. You have called them forward to a finish line, but what if today is not the finish line of their race?”

To give a runner the wrong expectation of where the finish line is in an endurance race is to set them up for failure. They are not able to continue the race if the expected finish line is extended beyond what they were aiming for. It appears that in Hebrews, this is what was happening. These Jewish believers were getting worn down because a life of hardship was lasting longer than they anticipated. And this teaching on living by faith is in the context of them being in need of endurance (10:36). (to be continued…)

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.