Hebrews 11 "By Faith"

"but my righteous one shall live by faith" — Heb 10:38 quoting from Hab 2:4

 

After two weeks off from blogging, I am beginning a series on Hebrews 11, the famous faith chapter in the Bible. I have been meditating in that chapter recently with the question, "What does it look like to live by faith?"

I will begin by looking at the context, particularly the context of this being a letter to a group of people facing a particular set of life circumstances. With Hebrews, a fair amount of material in the letter provides us with a sense of this context. We know from chapter 10 that these people have faced hardship and struggle since they became believers in Jesus Christ. It is not clear what level of hardship and struggle they are still facing, but it is clear that the writer of this letter is concerned that these people are in danger of straying off the path of faithful discipleship. "do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance." (10:35-6)

Many commentators have concluded that the original readers of Hebrews were Jews who became believers in Christ but were now thinking about going back to Judaism. I can imagine that their hearts were captured by the gospel and its good news of how Jesus was the ultimate priest and sacrifice for sin that provided for a whole new level of acceptance and intimacy with God. For awhile, they were focused on this new reality in their relationship with God, so that the hardships of life did not really phase them. But the day to day reality of being ostracized from their Jewish community (likely including their families) and the struggle of being persecuted for their faith in Christ was wearing them down. Their faith in Christ promised a bright future, but also brought a diminished present life in terms of being accepted in their communities. A return to their Jewish spiritual roots would give them easier and more fulfilling lives.

They were struggling to have the perspective of Paul on the hardships of their lives. "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." (Rom 8:18). This scale of present suffering on one side and future glory on the other was beginning to tip toward a path of alleviating present suffering for them. This is what a return to Jewish roots would provide.

The antidote for the temptation to return to the easier path of Judaism is to live by faith. This will not necessarily change the difficult circumstances of their present lives. Living by faith will help them to have the endurance to maintain their commitment to Christ.

Chapter 11 is about what it means to live by faith, and what it looks like. We need this message for when our own lives are lacking in the present experience of the goodness and provision of God, for when our commitment to following Jesus appears to make our lives harder or less fulfilling and we are tempted to pull back on that commitment. I believe this will be a part of our experience in wanting to follow Jesus in our work lives. So let's see what we can learn from this message to the Hebrews.