Hebrews 11: Faith

Consider: Hebrews 11

What a chapter to blog about! Obviously there is no way I could adequately communicate the fullness of what this chapter means. The stories of these men and women who have lived their abundant life of faith before us is amazing. Simply amazing.

One thing I do want to point out though is hidden in verse 2, which reads:

“God gave His approval to people in days of old because of their faith.”

The Gospel is simple, right? Yes, absolutely. We are saved by Grace through faith. It’s simple.

It is SIMPLE, but it is not without action.

Let me explain what I mean.

It seems as though we live in a day and age where a large portion of the human race “believes” in a deity of some sort. For many, Jesus is that deity… for many others it is Allah, Buddha, etc. There are many options out there when it comes to belief, and what some would consider faith.

So belief, in and of itself, is not enough. Dare I say faith in this regard, in a deity is not enough?

What God considers as faith is completely different than how we see it.

It is faith in God and Jesus, His Son that is the requirement (see John 17:3).

But it shouldn’t stop there…

Some say they have faith in God and in Jesus. But that’s where it stops, thus making their faith quite inactive and really ineffective. I’m not talking about works in order to be saved… but what I am saying is that those who say they are saved should take their faith beyond simply SAYING they believe.

Hebrews 11 is full of men and women of faith. They had faith. But if you’ll notice their faith is nothing like many people’s faith today. They did something WITH their faith. They didn’t just SAY they had faith, they LIVED their faith. They did things that forever changed the Kingdom of God. And without many of them, we wouldn’t have the lineage that brought us Jesus.

The faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6) is faith that is active and alive, not just a moment in our lives or a statement we like to throw around.

As James says, faith without works is dead (see James 2:17).

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