What Does Faith Do?

Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. provided...: Or, foreseene - Hebrews 11:33-40

    Faith receives, embraces, and bows to Christ. Faith unites us to Christ. Faith believes Christ, trusting him alone for acceptance with God. But faith in Christ is not just a dream of “pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye.” Faith in Christ is the believer’s way of life in this world. It is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

    That does not mean that we are made alive by our faith in Christ. It is not our faith that gives us spiritual life, but God’s gift of life that gives us faith. So, when the Scriptures declare, that, “The just shall live by faith,” the meaning is that we live in this world by faith in Christ. That is what is set before us in Hebrews 11. What does this faith, by which all justified sinners live, do?

    Trusts God

    We trust a God who is without limitation, the Infinite Lord God with whom nothing is impossible. That enables faith (faith in this great God) to look at impossibilities and smile in light of God’s wisdom, power, and goodness (vv. 33-38).

    Faith still subdues kingdoms. Christ has made us kings. Faith works righteousness (Rom. 5:19), obtains God’s promises (2 Cor. 1:20), stops the mouths of lions (Rom. 8:33-34), escapes the edge of the sword (Rom. 8:35-39), out of weakness is made strong (2 Cor. 12:9-10), waxes valiant in conflict (1 Cor. 15:58), turns to flight the enemies (Rom. 16:20), quenches the violence of fire (Isa. 43:1-5) receives life from death (John 11:40), endures great trials (Rom. 5:1-5), and obtains a better resurrection (Rev. 20:6).

    Turns Loss To Gain

    Faith turns great loss into great gain and great failure in to great triumph. We sing, “Faith is the victory;” but we tend to think of mere temporal, earthly, creature comfort as victories achieved by faith. We aim too low! That’s why the rest of the chapter is needful. Read verses 35-40 carefully.

    The Holy Spirit does not identify the men and women he refers to in these verses, but they have been numbered in Heaven. Read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs or Men of the Covenant or The Reformation in England or The Scots Worthies or By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century or biographies of William Tyndale, Hugh Latimer, Jim Elliot, and Bill Wallace, and you will discover that throughout history countless brethren have faced great suffering and inhumane, barbaric executions. There were no thoughts of “health, wealth, and prosperity” among them, they pressed on through their trials by faith. Faith did not deliver them from the experience of suffering and death, but faith carried them through triumphantly. And if need be, faith will do so for you.

    “They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountain, and in dens and in caves of the earth.” The allurements of this world had nothing for these faithful and often penniless brethren. They lacked all the creature comforts of life but what people of faith they were! What knowledge of God they experienced in their temporal deprivations! The world was not worthy of them, though the world considered them unworthy. God judges by different standards than the world; loss, deprivation, and poverty are no failures in God’s sight. The only real failure is a failure to believe God!

    What do all of these believers through the centuries tell us? – “When you can have it all, faith says Christ is better; and when you lose it all, faith says Christ is better”

    Unites

    It is this common faith that unites all God’s elect in Christ. We have different cultures, come from different races, face different experiences, but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ sustains us throughout our days. Faith carries us through good times and bad, through abundant times and lean ones, through prosperity and poverty, through health and sickness, through births and bereavements, through peace and war. Faith unites us in hope, in life, in heart, and in eternity, for faith unites us in Christ (vv. 39-40).

    “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”

    Here the Spirit of God links believers from Old and New Testaments together, showing that there is a continuity and unity in our faith. There are not “two faiths,” one old and the other new, but one common faith among all God’s people in all places and in every age. Believers in the Old Testament looked to Christ in the shadows of the law, through a Levitical priesthood and animal sacrifices. We see Christ in all the fullness and sufficiency of his substitutionary death on the cross and resurrection glory on the throne. They lived under the old covenant, while looking for the fulfillment of the new covenant in Christ. Their faith looked forward. Our faith looks back. Both those of old and believers today look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting him alone as Savior and Lord.

    Trusting him, faith obtains a good report, a good report before God and a good report from God. Faith waits for the promise (1 John 3:1-2; Tit. 2:11-14). Faith brings all God’s elect into one inheritance of perfection, called “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” All God’s elect are one in Christ now. Soon, we shall be made perfect in one.