Faith – in Other WordsSample

The writer of Hebrews immediately links faith and the unseen, by stating it is faith that comprehends that what we see was “not made out of things that are visible.”  We see something – “the universe that was created” – which was formed by - “the word of God.” 

In as much as you can’t see words, you can certainly see the effect of them.  Words are breath – but they create all manner of realities.  Words that are invisible, direct, create, and give form to things that are visible.  

Faith brings us an understanding, a conviction, an assurance.  Faith in this instance is not about receiving something, gaining something, but about seeing something, grasping something, and therefore, believing something.  

Faith then, understands what God has done in creation, and thereby believes. 

It was this belief, this faith, that commended the “people of old” to God.  It is not however, as though this alone stood them in God’s good graces, but the action/s that ensued from this position of faith.  This is axiomatic in the rest of Hebrew 11 as it articulates what they did because they believed. 

Faith is not inert, or merely an agreement that God is.  It is more than this – in other words.