Faith Is

Daily Bible Reading – Hebrews 11:1 – 13:35

Faith is a common denominator of life. No one can live a single day without exercising faith - faith in men. Salvation is on the same principle. God has thus made it available to all men everywhere, without regard to education, physical ability, social status, national origin, or native talent. For everyone has faith. The basic difference between the faith exercised by the individual in the daily round of life and the faith exercised by that same individual to the saving of his soul is the object of his faith.

The Muslim puts his faith in the Koran and in Muhammad; the idolater puts his faith in his graven images; the humanist puts his faith in himself; the philosopher puts his faith in his own ideas; the materialist puts his faith in his money; and the religionist puts his faith in his own good works. None of these can save, because the object of faith, in each case, is wrong. Saving faith is faith that rests upon Christ. The Holy Spirit, having brought enlightenment to the soul, insists that we personally put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. He and He alone can save. As Peter bluntly told the members of the Sanhedrin, “Neither is there salvation is any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The writer of Hebrews thus turns his attention to the whole question of faith and presents his readers with a significant sampling of Old Testament people who believed God when faced with something entirely new. Enoch, had never seen anyone translated, Noah had never known of a universal flood, Abraham had never seen the Promised Land. Each believer exercised personal faith in God. Many of them “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off” (Heb. 11:13). Throughout the Old Testament period this was the case, for Christ and His cross were still in the future. But now these daring Old Testament saints form a “great... cloud of witnesses” (12:1) standing astride the path of the Hebrew people to bar the way back to Judaism. They triumphed by looking away to the living God and by believing His Word, so that unseen things were seen and spiritual things became real. They traded earthly things for heavenly things, and God honored them. The Hebrew believers must do the same. The earthly Temple and its related system of religion were now to be traded for the ultimate realities in heaven. The marshaled examples of these Old Testament believers close ranks to witness to this truth.