By Faith

A series on the book of Hebrews:
Heroes of faith
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Hebrews 11:1-12:3 

[When you first start to follow Christ, often it’s done with great excitement. It’s like falling in love when all you can think about is the other person, and you want to tell everyone you know. But then the day-to-day pressures of living can push out those feelings and dull your enthusiasm. In this series, we will look at how the author of Hebrews tried to counteract falling out of love with Jesus.]

  

In 2010, Michigan State had a really good football team. Their regular season record was 11-1, and they were the Big Ten Champions. As a result, the Spartans were invited to the Capital One Bowl game in Orlando on New Years Day.

 

My wife and I decided to go to the bowl game, along with my brother, his wife, their son (all big Spartan fans) and one of my sisters. 

By faith, we bought tickets for the game, tickets for our flight and reserved a hotel room. We hoped and believed that the Spartans would be victorious.

 

Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were struggling. They had been severely persecuted. As a result, they were beginning to lose hope that Jesus would return. It was so bad that they were losing their faith. 

They needed encouragement. They needed to see the big picture. They needed to see God’s faithfulness at work.

 

The author of Hebrews begins chapter 11 by defining faith in terms of hope for an unseen reward.

 

¹ To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. ² It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God's approval.            GNT

 

In this chapter, the writer mentions a number of Old Testament people who had acted “by faith” under difficult circumstances and gained God’s approval. Noah had built a boat in the middle of dry land. Abraham had left his home for a land unseen. Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

 

And yet, we read that they never saw what they had hoped for. They never received God’s promise. They were living with delayed gratification… by faith.

 

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.  NIV

 

With the bowl game, like these Old Testament Jews, even though we had acted by faith, we didn’t receive what we had hoped for – a Spartan victory. But we still had hope because there was always next season. The Israelites had an even better hope!

 

¹⁶ But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.                   NLT

 

Following chapter 11, the writer begins his conclusion using the word “therefore”. This means that what was to follow was the whole reason why he had written about all those Old Testament people. Here’s what he wrote.

 

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ^2a fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.    NIV

 

Like the writer did in chapter 10, he gave them a “to do” list beginning with the two-letter phrase “let us”. He encouraged them to “throw off everything that hinders”; to “run with perseverance”; and to “fix your eyes on Jesus”.

 

This was good advice for Christians struggling in the first century. It’s also good advice for Christians struggling in the twenty-first century! 

We don’t always get what we hope for. But if we live by faith, God will be pleased with us and one day say, “Well done my good and faithful servant”.

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

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