Hey everyone,

Had someone ask me a really good question that I thought would benefit more than just the person who asked. The question was: “I’ve heard you teach that faith is believing that what God has already said will come to pass. Hebrews 11:2 says ‘faith is the substance of things hoped for’. To me this sounds like faith is not only believing that the things God says will come to pass but also the things we hope for. Can you please clarify?”

Yes, I believe that the most biblical definition of faith I can see is that faith is man’s response to God’s command, revelation, or promise. I reference Hebrews 11 often in a support of that premise. We have seen, in this generation, the danger of defining faith as believing for what we want to happen, instead of as a response to God. People say they are “believing” for this, that or the other, and it never comes to pass. But never once in the Bible is there an example of someone believing God and it not occurring. Why? Because in every instance in scripture, where faith is activated, it comes in reponse to God’s direction. God says “I will heal”, and He does. The example I use is that if you were to say “I’m believing for Pastor Dave to come over and cut my grass”, it would get pretty long my friend. But if I told you I would be there to cut it, and you waited for me and did not cut it yourself, it would be an expression of your faith in me to do what I had promised to do.

We have to be careful not to divorce that one verse from its greater context, or to use a common, rather than a biblical, definition of the word hope. Heb. 11 is known as the “Heroes Hall of Fame”, and the context of that entire chapter is man’s response to God’s leading and promise. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, David, etc. – each are great examples of how God spoke either promise, revelation, or command to them, and how faith was then proven (substantiated) by the subsequent actions of the individuals. In every instance mentioned in Heb. 11, there was some type of revelation from God, and faith was afterwards reckoned by man’s proper response to that revelation. There is not a single example there of someone simply hoping for something, apart from what God had revealed. Also, look at how the author is using the word “hope” throughout the book (Hebrews 3:6; 6:11; 6:18,19; 7:18,19; 10:23. The author establishes, before chapter 11, that he is speaking of God imparted hope, not simply our desires for what we want to see. He then “fleshes out” that hope, much the same way Paul, in 1Cor. 13, demonstrates that love must be added to faith and hope to establish their efficacy.

In 1Cor. 13 the Bible tells us that hope is not an ingredient of faith, but a separate entity. For instance, I would not have the hope of Heaven without God revealing and promising it to me, so I rightly hope for Heaven. I hope for reunion with those who have gone before, I hope for a eternity with no sickness, no separation, and so on. But hope alone would be insufficient (and is often carnal), so Heb. 11 is telling us we need the next quality – faith. Hope is an internal quality – faith is the external demonstration (by faith Noah built... by faith Abraham offered, by faith Isaac blessed... Moses’ parents hid, etc.), that’s why it is called the “substance” – it substantiates, or makes evident, our internal, unseen hope etc. Heb. 11:17-19 is maybe the best example of how they are different qualities – sometimes even at odds with each other – but yet working together. Abraham hoped to receive Isaac back from the dead (because of God’s revelation that “through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned”), but still “offered” him because “God tested him”. The Bible uses the words “even though” to illustrate the tension between his hope of the fulfillment of God’s promised blessing, and the obedience that was necessary to “substantiate” faith.

One might hope that they win the lottery, but try and place that in Heb. 11:1 and watch what happens… “Faith is the substantiation of my hope of winning the lottery”. Doesn’t work does it? But when you place God’s revelation in, it does “Faith is the substantiation of my hope that I will win souls in response to God’s call on my life”. That works. To go further with the Heb. 11 illustration (and at the risk of appearing to elevate myself to these great individuals of the Bible!) I could say “By faith Dave Gregg, when called by God to preach the gospel, left the music business, went into prisons, the inner city, went back to school, accepted the pastorate of the Lighthouse”, etc. But that could not be said apart from that initial call. If there were no initial call, and I simply presumed to serve God for my own reasons, it would not be faith at all. Faith, in order to be faith, must be preceded by a command, promise, or revelation from God. Otherwise, what is it faith in?

You might want to look at Romans 4:18, Romans 5:1,2, Romans 15:4, 2Cor. 9:14, Galatians 5:5, Eph. 1:18, Eph. 2:11,12, Eph. 4:4, Col. 1:22,23, 27, 1Thes. 4:13, 1Thes. 5:8, and Titus 2:12,13, for further illustration of the difference between self-generated desire and God imparted hope. It’s always important to get the biblical definition of the word before attempting to activate it practically. Just as “love” in the Bible is a usually a verb (not a noun as in the world), and as there is godly grief compared to worldly, or godly jealousy vs. carnal, etc., the hope Hebrews is speaking of is that quality that accompanies the reception of the promises of God, not simply what we wish might happen.

Remember – “A text out of context is a pretext”.

Hope (no pun intended) that helps!

Dave