Hebrews 11 1 10 commentary

HEBREWS 11 1-10 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
By Faith
1 ow faith is being sure of what we hope for and
certain of what we do not see.
1. BAR ES, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for - On the general
nature of faith, see the notes on Mar_16:16. The margin here is, “ground or confidence.”
There is scarcely any verse of the New Testament more important than this, for it states
what is the nature of all true faith, and is the only definition of it which is attempted in
the Scriptures. Eternal life depends on the existence and exercise of faith Mar_16:16, and
hence, the importance of an accurate understanding of its nature. The word rendered
“substance” - ᆓπόστασις hupostasis - occurs in the New Testament only in the following
places. In 2Co_9:4; 2Co_11:17; Heb_3:14, where it is rendered “confident” and
“confidence;” and in Heb_1:3, where it is rendered “person,” and in the passage before
us; compare the notes on Heb_1:3. Prof. Stuart renders it here “confidence;”
Chrysostom, “Faith gives reality or substance to things hoped for.”
The word properly means “that which is placed under” (Germ. Unterstellen); then
“ground, basis, foundation, support.” Then it means also “reality, substance, existence,”
in contradistinction from what is unreal, imaginary, or deceptive (täuschung). “Passow.”
It seems to me, therefore, that the word here has reference to something which imparts
reality in the view of the mind to those things which are not seen, and which serves to
distinguish them from those things which are unreal and illusive. It is what enables us to
feel and act as if they were real, or which causes them to exert an influence over us as if
we saw them. Faith does this on all other subjects as well as religion. A belief that there is
such a place as London or Calcutta, leads us to act as if this were so, if we have occasion
to go to either; a belief that money may be made in a certain undertaking, leads people to
act as if this were so; a belief in the veracity of another leads us to act as if this were so.
As long as the faith continues, whether it be well-founded or not, it gives all the force of
reality to what is believed. We feel and act just as if it were so, or as if we saw the object
before our eyes. This, I think, is the clear meaning here. We do not see the things of
eternity. We do not see God, or heaven, or the angels, or the redeemed in glory, or the
crowns of victory, or the harps of praise; but we have faith in them, and this leads us to
act as if we saw them. And this is, undoubtedly, the fact in regard to all who live by faith
and who are fairly under its influence.
Of things hoped for - In heaven. Faith gives them reality in the view of the mind.
The Christian hopes to be admitted into heaven; to be raised up in the last day from the
slumbers of the tomb, to be made perfectly free from sin; to be everlastingly happy.
Under the influence of faith he allows these things to control his mind as if they were a
most affecting reality.

The evidence of things not seen - Of the existence of God; of heaven; of angels; of
the glories of the world suited for the redeemed. The word rendered “evidence” - ᅞλεγχος
elengchos - occurs in the New Testament only in this place and in 2Ti_3:16, where it is
rendered “reproof.” It means properly proof, or means of proving, to wit, evidence; then
proof which convinces another of error or guilt; then vindication, or defense; then
summary or contents; see “Passow.” The idea of “evidence” which goes to demonstrate
the thing under consideration, or which is adapted to produce “conviction” in the mind,
seems to be the elementary idea in the word. So when a proposition is demonstrated;
when a man is arraigned and evidence is furnished of his guilt, or when he establishes his
innocence; or when one by argument refutes his adversaries, the idea of “convincing
argument” enters into the use of the word in each case.
This, I think, is clearly the meaning of the word here. “Faith in the divine declarations
answers all the purposes of a convincing argument, or is itself a convincing argument to
the mind, of the real existence of those things which are not seen.” But is it a good
argument? Is it rational to rely on such a means of being convinced? Is mere “faith” a
consideration which should ever convince a rational mind? The infidel says “no;” and we
know there may be a faith which is no argument of the truth of what is believed. But
when a man who has never seen it believes that there is such a place as London, his belief
in the numerous testimonies respecting it which he has heard and read is to his mind a
good and rational proof of its existence, and he would act on that belief without
hesitation. When a son credits the declaration or the promise of a father who has never
deceived him, and acts as though that declaration and promise were true, his faith is to
him a ground of conviction and of action, and he will act as if these things were so.
In like manner the Christian believes what God says. He has never seen heaven; he has
never seen an angel; he has never seen the Redeemer; he has never seen a body raised
from the grave. “But he has evidence which is satisfactory to his mind that God has
spoken on these subjects,” and his very nature prompts him to confide in the
declarations of his Creator. Those declarations are to his mind more convincing proof
than anything else would be. They are more conclusive evidence than would be the
deductions of his own reason; far better and more rational than all the reasonings and
declarations of the infidel to the contrary. He feels and acts, therefore, as if these things
were so - for his faith in the declarations of God has convinced him that they are so - The
object of the apostle, in this chapter, is not to illustrate the nature of what is called
“saving faith,” but to show the power of “unwavering confidence in God” in sustaining
the soul, especially in times of trial; and particularly in leading us to act in view of
promises and of things not seen as if they were so. “Saving faith” is the same kind of
confidence directed to the Messiah - the Lord Jesus - as the Saviour of the soul.
2. CLARKE, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for - Εστι δε πιστις
ελπιζοµενων ᆓποστασις· Faith is the Subsistence of things hoped for; πραγµατων ελεγχος ου
βλεποµενων· The Demonstration of things not seen. The word ᆓποστασις, which we
translate substance, signifies subsistence, that which becomes a foundation for another
thing to stand on. And ελεγχος signifies such a conviction as is produced in the mind by
the demonstration of a problem, after which demonstration no doubt can remain,
because we see from it that the thing is; that it cannot but be; and that it cannot be
otherwise than as it is, and is proved to be. Such is the faith by which the soul is justified;

or rather, such are the effects of justifying faith: on it subsists the peace of God which
passeth all understanding; and the love of God is shed abroad in the heart where it lives,
by the Holy Ghost. At the same time the Spirit of God witnesses with their spirits who
have this faith that their sins are blotted out; and this is as fully manifest to their
judgment and conscience as the axioms, “A whole is greater than any of its parts;” “Equal
lines and angles, being placed on one another, do not exceed each other;” or as the
deduction from prop. 47, book i., Euclid: “The square of the base of a right-angled
triangle is equal to the difference of the squares of the other two sides.” Ελεγχος is
defined by logicians, Demonstratio quae fit argumentis certis et rationibus indubitatis,
qua rei certitudo efficitur. “A demonstration of the certainly of a thing by sure
arguments and indubitable reasons.” Aristotle uses it for a mathematical demonstration,
and properly defines it thus: Ελεγχος δε εστις ᆇ µη δυνατος αλλως εχειν, αλλ’ οᆓτως ᆞς ᅧµεις
λεγοµεν, “Elenchos, or Demonstration, is that which cannot be otherwise, but is so as we
assert.” Rhetor. ad Alexand., cap. 14, περι ελεγχου. On this account I have adduced the
above theorem from Euclid.
Things hoped for - Are the peace and approbation of God, and those blessings by
which the soul is prepared for the kingdom of heaven. A penitent hopes for the pardon of
his sins and the favor of his God; faith in Christ puts him in possession of this pardon,
and thus the thing that was hoped for is enjoyed by faith. When this is received, a man
has the fullest conviction of the truth and reality of all these blessings though unseen by
the eye, they are felt by the heart; and the man has no more doubt of God’s approbation
and his own free pardon, than he has of his being.
In an extended sense the things hoped for are the resurrection of the body, the new
heavens and the new earth, the introduction of believers into the heavenly country, and
the possession of eternal glory.
The things unseen, as distinguished from the things hoped for, are, in an extended
sense, the creation of the world from nothing, the destruction of the world by the deluge,
the miraculous conception of Christ, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension to
glory, his mediation at the right hand of God, his government of the universe, etc., etc.,
all which we as firmly believe on the testimony of God’s word as if we had seen them. See
Macknight. But this faith has particular respect to the being, goodness, providence,
grace, and mercy of God, as the subsequent verses sufficiently show.
3. GILL, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,.... The "faith" here
spoken of is not a mere moral virtue, which is a branch of the law; nor a bare assent to
anything revealed, declared, and affirmed in the Gospel; nor a faith of doing miracles;
nor an implicit one; nor a mere profession of faith, which sometimes is but temporary;
nor the word or doctrine of faith; but that which is made mention of in the preceding
chapter, by which the just man lives, and which has the salvation of the soul annexed to
it: and it does not so much design any particular branch, or act of faith, but as that in
general respects the various promises, and blessings of grace; and it chiefly regards the
faith of Old Testament saints, though that, as to its nature, object, and acts, is the same
with the faith of New Testament ones; and is a firm persuasion of the power,
faithfulness, and love of God in Christ, and of interest therein, and in all special
blessings: it is described as "the substance of things hoped for"; and which, in general,
are things unseen, and as yet not enjoyed; future, and yet to come; difficult to be
obtained, though possible, otherwise there would be no hope of them; and which are

promised and laid up; and in particular, the things hoped for by Old Testament saints
were Christ, and eternal glory and happiness; and by New Testament ones, more grace,
perseverance in it, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal life. Now faith is the
"substance" of these things; it is the ground and foundation of them, in which there is
some standing hope; in which sense the word υποστασις is used by Septuagint in
Psa_69:2. The word of promise is principal ground and foundation of hope; and faith, as
leaning on the word, is a less principal ground; it is a confident persuasion, expectation,
and assurance of them. The Syriac version renders it, the "certainty" of them; it is the
subsistence of them, and what gives them an existence, at least a mental one; so with
respect to the faith and hope of the Old Testament saints, the incarnation, sufferings,
and death of Christ, his resurrection, ascension, and session at God's right hand, are
spoken of, as if they then were; and so are heaven, and glory, and everlasting salvation,
with regard to the faith and hope of New Testament saints: yea, faith gives a kind of
possession of those things before hand, Joh_6:47. Philo the Jew (e) says much the same
thing of faith;
"the only infallible and certain good thing (says he) is, that faith which is faith towards
God; it is the solace of life, πληρωµα χρηστων ελπιδων, "the fulness of good hopes", &c.''
It follows here,
the evidence of things not seen; of things past, of what was done in eternity, in the
council and covenant of grace and peace; of what has been in time, in creation, and
providence; of the birth, miracles, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension of
Christ; of things present, the being, perfections, love, &c. of God; of the session of Christ
at God's right hand, and his continual intercession; and of the various blessings of grace
revealed in the Gospel; and of future ones, as the invisible realities of another world:
faith has both certainty and evidence in it.
4. HE RY, "Here we have, I. A definition or description of the grace of faith in two
parts. 1. It is the substance of things hoped for. Faith and hope go together; and the same
things that are the object of our hope are the object of our faith. It is a firm persuasion
and expectation that God will perform all that he has promised to us in Christ; and this
persuasion is so strong that it gives the soul a kind of possession and present fruition of
those things, gives them a subsistence in the soul, by the first-fruits and foretastes of
them: so that believers in the exercise of faith are filled with joy unspeakable and full of
glory. Christ dwells in the soul by faith, and the soul is filled with the fullness of God, as
far as his present measure will admit; he experiences a substantial reality in the objects
of faith. 2. It is the evidence of things not seen. Faith demonstrates to the eye of the mind
the reality of those things that cannot be discerned by the eye of the body. Faith is the
firm assent of the soul to the divine revelation and every part of it, and sets to its seal
that God is true. It is a full approbation of all that God has revealed as holy, just, and
good; it helps the soul to make application of all to itself with suitable affections and
endeavours; and so it is designed to serve the believer instead of sight, and to be to the
soul all that the senses are to the body. That faith is but opinion or fancy which does not
realize invisible things to the soul, and excite the soul to act agreeably to the nature and
importance of them.
5. JAMISO , "Heb_11:1-40. Definition of the faith just spoken of (Heb_10:39):
Examples from the Old Covenant for our perseverance in faith.

Description of the great things which faith (in its widest sense: not here restricted to
faith in the Gospel sense) does for us. Not a full definition of faith in its whole nature, but
a description of its great characteristics in relation to the subject of Paul’s exhortation
here, namely, to perseverance.
substance, etc. — It substantiates promises of God which we hope for, as future in
fulfillment, making them present realities to us. However, the Greek is translated in
Heb_3:14, “confidence”; and it also here may mean “sure confidence.” So Alford
translates. Thomas Magister supports English Version, “The whole thing that follows is
virtually contained in the first principle; now the first commencement of the things
hoped for is in us through the assent of faith, which virtually contains all the things
hoped for.” Compare Note, see on Heb_6:5, “tasted ... powers of the world to come.”
Through faith, the future object of Christian hope, in its beginning, is already present.
True faith infers the reality of the objects believed in and honed for (Heb_11:6). Hugo De
St. Victor distinguished faith from hope. By faith alone we are sure of eternal things that
they ARE: but by hope we are confident that WE SHALL HAVE them. All hope
presupposes faith (Rom_8:25).
evidence — “demonstration”: convincing proof to the believer: the soul thereby
seeing what the eye cannot see.
things not seen — the whole invisible and spiritual world: not things future and
things pleasant, as the “things hoped for,” but also the past and present, and those the
reverse of pleasant. “Eternal life is promised to us, but it is when we are dead: we are told
of a blessed resurrection, but meanwhile we molder in the dust; we are declared to be
justified, and sin dwells in us; we hear that we are blessed, meantime we are
overwhelmed in endless miseries: we are promised abundance of all goods, but we still
endure hunger and thirst; God declares He will immediately come to our help, but He
seems deaf to our cries. What should we do if we had not faith and hope to lean on, and if
our mind did not emerge amidst the darkness above the world by the shining of the
Word and Spirit of God?” [Calvin]. Faith is an assent unto truths credible upon the
testimony of God (not on the reasonableness of the thing revealed, though by this we
may judge as to whether it be what it professes, a genuine revelation), delivered unto us
in the writings of the apostles and prophets. Thus Christ’s ascension is the cause, and His
absence the crown, of our faith: because He ascended, we the more believe, and because
we believe in Him who hath ascended, our faith is the more accepted [Bishop Pearson].
Faith believes what it sees not; for if thou seest there is no faith; the Lord has gone away
so as not to be seen: He is hidden that He may be believed; the yearning desire by faith
after Him who is unseen is the preparation of a heavenly mansion for us; when He shall
be seen it shall be given to us as the reward of faith [Augustine]. As Revelation deals with
spiritual and invisible things exclusively, faith is the faculty needed by us, since it is the
evidence of things not seen. By faith we venture our eternal interests on the bare word of
God, and this is altogether reasonable.
6. CALVI , " ow faith, etc. Whoever made this the beginning of the eleventh
chapter, has unwisely disjointed the context; for the object of the
Apostle was to prove what he had already said that there is need of
patience. [200] He had quoted the testimony of Habakkuk, who says that
the just lives by faith; he now shows what remained to be proved --
that faith can be no more separated from patience than from itself. The
order then of what he says is this, -- "We shall not reach the goal of

salvation except we have patience, for the Prophet declares that the
just lives by faith; but faith directs us to things afar off which we
do not as yet enjoy; it then necessarily includes patience." Therefore
the minor proposition in the argument is this, Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, etc. It is hence also evident, that greatly
mistaken are they who think that an exact definition of faith is given
here; for the Apostle does not speak here of the whole of what faith
is, but selects that part of it which was suitable to his purpose, even
that it has patience ever connected with it. [201] Let us now consider
the words.
He calls faith the hypostasis, the substance of things hoped for. We
indeed know that what we hope for is not what we have as it were in
hand, but what is as yet hid from us, or at least the enjoyment of
which is delayed to another time. The Apostle now teaches us the same
thing with what we find in Romans 8:24; where it is said that what is
hoped for is not seen, and hence the inference is drawn, that it is to
be waited for in patience. So the Apostle here reminds us, that faith
regards not present things, but such as are waited for. or is this
kind of contradiction without its force and beauty: Faith, he says, is
the hypostasis, the prop, or the foundation on which we plant our foot,
-- the prop of what? Of things absent, which are so far from being
really possessed by us, that they are far beyond the reach of our
understanding.
The same view is to be taken of the second clause, when he calls faith
the evidence or demonstration of things not seen; for demonstration
makes things to appear or to be seen; and it is commonly applied to
what is subject to our senses. [202]
Then these two things, though apparently inconsistent, do yet perfectly
harmonize when we speak of faith; for the Spirit of God shows to us
hidden things, the knowledge of which cannot reach our senses: Promised
to us is eternal life, but it is promised to the dead; we are assured
of a happy resurrection, but we are as yet involved in corruption; we
are pronounced just, as yet sin dwells in us; we hear that we are
happy, but we are as yet in the midst of many miseries; an abundance of
all good things is promised to us, but still we often hunger and
thirst; God proclaims that he will come quickly, but he seems deaf when
we cry to him. What would become of us were we not supported by hope,
and did not our minds emerge out of the midst of darkness above the
world through the light of God's word and of his Spirit? Faith, then,
is rightly said to be the subsistence or substance of things which are
as yet the objects of hope and the evidence of things not seen.
Augustine sometimes renders evidence "conviction," which I do not
disapprove, for it faithfully expresses the Apostle's meaning: but I

prefer "demonstration," as it is more literal.
__________________________________________________________________
[200] Griesbach makes the division at the thirty-eighth verse of the
last chapter, and this is no doubt what the subject requires. -- Ed.
[201] "Faith is here generally described, not only as it justifies, but
also as it acts towards God and lays hold on his promises, works, and
blessings revealed in his word, past, present, and future." -- Pareus.
[202] The two words "substance" and "evidence" have been variously
rendered, though the meaning continues materially the same:
"substinance" and "demonstration" by Beza: "confident expectation" and
"conviction" by Grotius and Doddridge: "confidence" and "evidence" by
Macknight: "confidence" and "convincing evidence" by Stuart. When the
primary meaning of words is suitable, there is no necessity of having
recourse to what is secondary. The first word means properly a
foundation, a basis, a prop, a support: and what can be more
appropriate here? Faith is the basis or the prop (as Calvin renders it
in his exposition) of things hoped for; that is, faith is the
foundation of hope; it is the fulcrum on which hope rests. The other
word is properly "demonstration" a proof supported by reasons -- what
is made clear and evident. Conviction is the result of demonstration.
So, then, the meaning is this -- faith sustains hope, and exhibits to
view things unseen: it is the basis on which the objects of hope rest,
and the demonstration or manifestation of what is not seen. The word
"substance" is derived from the Vulgate: though its etymological
meaning corresponds with the original, yet its received meaning is
quite different. The original word occurs five times in the ew
Testament, and is rendered "confidence" in 2 Corinthians 9:4, 11:17;
Hebrews 3:14, -- "person" in Hebrew 1:3, -- and here "substance;" but
why not its more literal meaning, "foundation?" The things "hoped for"
include the promises; but the things "not seen," all that is revealed
as to what is past and is to come, -- the creation, the future destiny
of man, etc. -- Ed.
6B. CHARLES SIMEO , “THE ATURE OF FAITH
Heb_11:1. ow faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen.
CO SIDERI G how much the Scriptures speak of faith, one is surprised that the
subject of faith so little occupies the attention of the world at large, or even of the
religious world. But the truth is, that the nature of faith is but little known. The
world at large consider it as no more than assent upon evidence; whilst the religious
world confine their views of it almost exclusively to the office of justifying the soul

before God. But faith is of a far more comprehensive nature than even good men
generally suppose. It extends to every thing that has been revealed; and is the one
principle that actuates the Christian in every part of the divine life. From not
adverting to this, the description given of faith in our text has been frequently
misunderstood. The precise import of the passage will best appear by considering
the context. The Apostle is encouraging the believing Hebrews to hold fast their
profession. He tells them that faith is the only principle that will E ABLE them
to do this: he then proceeds to shew them in a great variety of instances, how faith
will act, and how certainly, if duly exercised, it will prevail for the carrying of them
forward even to the end.
It is in this general view, and not in the light of justifying the soul, that the Apostle
calls it, “the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.”
Let us then in this E LARGED sense consider,
I. The nature of faith—
Within its proper and legitimate scope is all that God has revealed in his blessed
word—
[Faith comprehends within its grasp the past, the present, and the future. By it, the
Christian knows that the universe, but a few thousand years ago, had no existence,
and that it was created out of nothing by the word of God. By it, he sees every thing
upheld and ordered by the hand that formed it, and not so much as a hair of our
head falling to the ground without his special permission. By it, he foresees that all
the human race which have in successive ages passed away shall be recalled into
existence at the last day, and be judged according to their works.
But more particularly faith views that great mysterious work, the work of
redemption. It beholds the plan formed in the eternal councils of the Father and of
the Son; and in due season with gradually increasing light revealed to man. It sees
the incarnation, the death, the resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the sending forth of the Holy Spirit in all his miraculous and new-creating
powers, to attest that the work was finished, and to render it effectual for the
salvation of a ruined world. This work it still beholds carrying on in heaven by the
Lord Jesus as our great High-priest within the vail, and as the living and life-giving
Head of his Church and people. And, carrying its eye forward to future ages, it sees
the Redeemer’s kingdom universally established, and every subject of his empire

seated with him upon his throne of glory.
All intermediate matters it beholds fulfilled in their season, and is assured, that, of
every thing that God has spoken, not one jot or tittle shall ever fall to the ground.]
Of all this it brings a full conviction to the mind, and, as far as it can be desired, a
full experience to the soul—
[Faith is “the evidence of things not seen.” By “evidence” is meant such a proof as
silences all objections. Of the past, the present, or the future, what could reason
declare? othing with any certainty. Of the mystery of redemption more especially,
it could determine nothing. With our bodily senses we could ascertain nothing.
Every thing is apprehended by faith only. Yet is it therefore uncertain? o: it is as
clear to the mind of a believer, as if it had been demonstrated to his reason, or
subjected to his sight. Having assured himself from reason, that the Scriptures are
the word of God, and that the great mystery of redemption, as apprehended by him,
is revealed in them, he has no doubt concerning it: his fall in Adam; his recovery by
Christ; his restoration to the Divine image through the influences of the Holy Spirit;
these things appear so worthy of God, and so suitable to man, that no doubt
respecting them exists in the mind: and all the objections which pride and ignorance
have raised against them are scattered like mists before the rising sun.
But it is not only as true that faith presents these things to the mind, but as good,
as desirable, and as promised: and it so apprehends them, as to give them an actual
subsistence in the soul: it is “the substance of things hoped for.” These things, as far
as they are good, and future, are the objects of hope; and therefore, as we might
suppose, unpossessed. But, though future, they are made present by the exercise of
faith; and, though only hoped for, are actually enjoyed. This is a wonderful
property of faith. Consolations, victories, triumphs, glory, though remote in
ultimate experience, are by anticipation rendered present, so that the first-fruits, the
pledge, the earnest, the foretaste are in actual possession; and whilst the grapes of
Eschol assure the soul of the final possession of Us inheritance, the views of Pisgah
transport it thither, and enable it to realize its most enlarged hopes and
expectations.]
From this description of faith we may see,
II. Its aspect on the welfare and stability of the soul—

As E TERI G into every part of the divine life, its influence might be pointed
out in an almost infinite variety of particulars. But we will content ourselves with
specifying two, which will, to a certain degree, give an insight into all:
1. It renders us indifferent to all the concerns of time and sense—
[Whilst we are in the body we cannot be absolutely indifferent to earthly things;
but comparatively we may. The unbeliever has respect to nothing else: he sees
nothing, knows nothing, cares for nothing, but what is visible and temporal. He is
“of the flesh,” and “savours only the things of the flesh.” His hopes, his fears, his
joys, his sorrows, are altogether carnal. So it once was with the believer: but it is
now so no longer. By faith he now views other things, which fully occupy his mind,
and engage all the powers of his soul. Earthly vanities once appeared as grand and
glorious as the starry heavens. But they are fled from his sight: they are all eclipsed
by the splendour of the Sun of Righteousness which has arisen upon his soul. There
indeed they are; and were the light of God’s truth withdrawn from his soul, they
would again resume a measure of their former importance. But they are now
reduced to insignificance: and the things which “once appeared glorious in his eyes,
have now no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth.” Ignorant persons are ready
to impute the believer’s withdrawment from the world to superstition, to
moroseness, to pride, to enthusiasm, to gloom and melancholy. But he renounces the
world as an empty vanity, and an ensnaring “lie,” that deceives all who follow it,
and ruins all who trust in it. Once “a deceived heart had turned him aside, so that
he could not deliver his soul, or say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” but now he
knows, that what he formerly grasped, was a mere shadow; and that there is
nothing substantial but what is apprehended by faith. Hence “What was once gain
to him, is now accounted loss; yea all things are now but as dung, that he may win
Christ, and BE FOU D in him.” Such are now his views of the cross of Christ,
and of the glory that shall be revealed, that “the world is crucified to him, and he is
crucified unto the world [ ote: Gal_6:14.].”]
2. It strengthens us both for action and for suffering in the service of our God—
[Before that faith has brought a man to a view of the things which are invisible and
eternal, he has no zeal for God, no fortitude to suffer shame for the sake of Christ.
But when once the realities of the eternal world are open to his view; when once
heaven with all its glory, and hell with all its terrors, are apprehended by him; who
shall stop him? who shall intimidate him? who shall persuade him? Bid him relax
his diligence, and give way to carnal ease and pleasure; he will say, ‘Go, offer your

advice to one that is running in a race, or fighting for his life: will he listen to you?
expect not me then to listen, who am running for eternity, and fighting for my soul.’
Is he called to suffer? He knows for whose sake it is that he is called to take up his
cross; and he takes it up with cheerfulness, and “rejoices that he is counted worthy
to bear it.” Has he made considerable advance in the ways of God? He does not on
that ACCOU T relax; but “forgetting what is behind, and reaching forward to
that which is before, he presses on towards the mark for the prize of his high calling
of God in Christ Jesus [ ote: Php_3:13-14.].” These are the things which are chiefly
insisted on throughout the whole of this chapter: and, as such were the operations of
faith in the days of old, such also they are at this hour; and such will they be to the
very end of time.]
See you not then, beloved,
1. How little there is of true faith in the world?
[If you will believe the report which men give of themselves, there is no want of faith
at all. Every one who calls himself a Christian, considers it as a matter of course that
he possesses faith. But how would faith operate under other circumstances? Let a
man believe that a house in which he is sitting is on fire; or that a vessel in which he
is embarked is ready to sink; will he not evince the truth of his faith by some efforts
to escape? But here men profess to believe all that God has spoken about the danger
of their souls, and the way opened for their deliverance, and yet are as unconcerned
about either the one or the other as the beasts that perish. Alas! how fearfully do
they deceive their own souls!
But even in the religious world there is an awful want of faith. For how little are
men actuated by the truths which they profess to believe! How strong is the hold
which earthly things yet retain of the believer’s soul, and how faint are his
impressions of eternity! — — — Well might our Lord say, “When the Son of man
cometh, shall he find faith on the earth [ ote: Luk_18:8.]?” Know ye, brethren, that
“if you had faith but as a grain of mustard-seed, it should remove mountains:” and,
consequently, you may judge of the smallness of your faith by the slender effects
which it has produced upon your souls. Pray ye then to Him who alone can give you
faith; “Lord, help my unbelief;” “Lord, increase my faith.”]
2. In what way alone you can hope to vanquish all your spiritual enemies?
[It is “by faith that you are to walk, and not by sight.” In order to form a correct

judgment of things, listen not to the report of sense, but consult the testimony of
faith. Send faith as a spy to search out the heavenly land that is before you. If you
attend to the voice of unbelief, it will tell you of nothing but Anakims that are
invincible, and “of cities that are walled up to heaven.” But if you ask for
the ACCOU T which faith will give, it will tell you, “They are bread for us
[ ote: um_14:9.],” and shall be as easily devoured, and as profitably to our souls,
as the food that is put into our mouths. What the effect of this principle shall be
upon your souls, you may see in the case of the Apostle Paul. Greater trials than his
you cannot expect to encounter: and greater supports you cannot need. But whence
arose his supports? He was animated by “a spirit of faith:” by that, he foresaw the
issue of his conflicts: and by that he was upheld: and, through the influence of that,
all his afflictions appeared but light and momentary, yea, and the very means of
augmenting his happiness and glory [ ote: 2Co_4:8-9; 2Co_4:13-18.] — — — Thus
shall faith operate in you: it shall “work by love:” it shall “purify the heart;” it shall
“overcome the world [ ote: 1Jn_5:4.].” Only “live by faith:” and if at any time you
be ready to stagger through unbelief, remember that “he is faithful who hath
promised;” and “be strong in faith, giving glory to God.” For of this you may be
perfectly assured, that the more lively your faith is, the more abundant will be its
fruits; and that in every hour of trial “according to your faith it will be done unto
you.”]
7. AUTHOR UNKNOWN, “Hebrews 11:1 says (if my Koine Greek is not too rusty)
"Faith is the SUBSTANCE ("hupostasis") of what we hope for, the TESTABLE,
INSPECTABLE, CONTROLLABLE, CRITIQUEABLE EVIDENCE ("eleghos"; also
found in John 16:16; 2 Tim. 4:2) of what we do not SEE (hence the importance of reason,
hence Thomas's lack of faith being not due to reason but rather due to empiricism - why
touch the scars of someone who has already walked through a solid door and whose
presence is seen by all those present, and who died three days before?). Isn't this why we
read "HOPE..." [NOT "faith"] "...that is seen is no hope at all; for who hopes for what he
already has?"? In other words, while eternal life has to commence after death if I am to
HOPE for it, don't I need to KNOW the truth-value of the claims concerning it in order to
not doubt for what I hope for (for what I hope for to have "SUBSTANCE"?)?
First of all, the Hebrews passage needs a little more examination. This verse is generally
understood along one of two different lines. One view (objective) sees faith as the
'guarantee' or 'evidence' of the reality of the spiritual realm. In other words, the fact that
Christians have come to believe so completely in a future and/or spiritual reality is
ITSELF evidence of the invasive reality of that 'other side'. Alternately, it is understood

in a subjective mode (as in NIV and NAS) as being 'confidence' or 'being sure'--
connoting psycho-certainty. In this case, the believer's life of faith would generate
confidence over time--a firm experience of those spiritual realities which we will
experience FULLY in the future. The second clause serves only to point out that 'seeing'
is inadequate a foundation for apprehending the totality of existence---that some of the
best things in the Universe can only be known (pre-death) through trust in the revealing
and disclosing God (and His word). It is not in ANY WAY a commendation of 'reason'
nor rebuttal of 'seeing'--only a commendation of recognizing that the universe is bigger
than we are (and that, correspondingly, we need to depend upon the revealing God for
guidance and instruction.)
Secondly, empiricism WOULD HAVE finished the job and touched Him...the visual
experience (even coupled with the corroboration of the other witnesses--a non-empiricist
method, I might add) would not have been enough--IF OTHERS WERE ALSO
AVAILABLE (e.g. tactile).
Third, the hope-vs-faith issue needs slight refinement. Hope has to do with 'possession';
Faith has to do with apprehension, knowledge, trust, belief. We can "know" the object of
our faith (e.g. Jesus) WITHOUT 'having' the object of our hope (e.g. Heaven). Hope is
ontic (e.g., it uses the word 'has'); faith is epistemic (or pistic).
Finally, one caution here. On this side of death, the believer has a mixed character--we
partly embrace God and we party avoid Him. This shows up in the experiences of
Romans 8 and Gal 5.16ff: 16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the
desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit,
and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other,
so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not
under law.). The IMPLICATIONS of this dual-response to God and His revelation is that
IN ANY GIVEN SITUATION we may experience a 'duality' in our psycho-epistemic
responses to God. In other words, in any presentation of positive-God data, 'part' of us
will receive greater certainty; and 'part' of us will try to ignore/reject/twist the data
(generating anti-certainty). Doubt, therefore, will be a perhaps pervasive aspect of our
experience before death. Granted, over time it can be radically minimized through the
experience of God, it nonetheless should be recognized as being real, but not decisive for
our epistemic judgments.
8. GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE, “ ow faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.—Heb_11:1 .
1. This is the only place in the Bible where we have what can be called a definition of
faith. The text enjoys, indeed, the unique distinction of being the only approach to
definition that we find in the Bible.
In the Revised Version there are two changes made in the translation, which
perhaps make the meaning more clear than it is here: “ ow faith is the assurance of

things hoped for, the proving of things not seen.” The word translated “substance,”
which the Revisers have translated “assurance,” would be more exactly translated
by a word which is rather modern and would perhaps not be considered sufficiently
dignified in such a place as this, namely, the word “realization.” Faith is the
realization of things hoped for; it is a conviction that those things hoped for do exist
and may be obtained, may be realized, by those who have the necessary faith. The
word here translated “evidence,” and translated by the Revisers “proving,” means a
conviction that will stand of itself, a conviction such as proves the thing of which it is
itself the evidence.
2. The text, then, seeks to explain what faith is, in order that we may know it when
we see it, discover its otherwise unsuspected presence and trace its hidden working.
This faith is represented as having a double object—“things hoped for” and “things
not seen.” “Things hoped for” are personal and concern personal being, whether in
time or in eternity, whether incorporated in the individual or distributed through
collective society—man, the Church, the State, the people. What we hope for is what
we expect to achieve and to win, to possess and to enjoy. It is essentially a personal
good so realized that it may belong to a particular individual or to all mankind.
“Things not seen” are objective and universal. They move in the region of space,
they lie without and above, they dwell behind the apparent; they are what we term
the causes that produce the myriad effects which we describe as nature and man,
especially the Supreme Being and the supreme cause we name the invisible God.
Corresponding to the double object is a twofold function. “Faith is the substance of
things hoped for”; that is, it underlies them, gives them reality, brings them to
realization or fulfilment. And it is “the evidence,” or proof, “of things not seen”;
that is, it authenticates them to the reason, it makes them visible to the intellect, it
endues them with a body which thought can handle, and feel, and perceive. If, then,
we were to paraphrase this definition, it would be in language somewhat like this:
Faith is the energy by which we turn into reality the things we hope for; it is the eye
by which the soul sees unseen things.
A freer, but on the whole a better translation would be: “Faith is the giving of
substance to things hoped for, the putting to the test of things not seen.” Probably
the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews did not intend us to look upon this as a full
and complete definition of what faith is, but rather as a description of some of its
functions. And a very good description it is, too, as far as it goes. If you are
expecting something to happen which will be for your benefit, you give substance to
it, as it were, in your thoughts; you do not regard it as a mere dream, a desirable
thing, perhaps, but impossible of realization; you act altogether differently from

what you would if you did not believe the specified event or events would take place.
And, further, if you know that there are certain sources of help of which you can
avail yourself in time of need; or if you are sure you are right in following a certain
course, although others may differ from you and think you wrong; and if you are
sure that time will vindicate your action, you can rightly be described as putting
your confidence to the test when you draw upon your resources or are willing to
take risks for the sake of your convictions.1 [ ote: E. J. Campbell, in The Christian
Commonwealth, xxxiii. 305.]
I
The Realization op Things hoped for
1. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has done for faith what St. Paul did for
love in 1 Corinthians 13. He has not only given us a magnificent hymn in honour of
faith; he has laid down for all time the essentials of Christian faith; he has shown us
the roots of it and the fruits of it, how it begins and where it ends. Faith, he says, is
that which gives substance to things hoped for; it makes our hopes real and actual to
us. Faith is not merely assurance, as Luther taught: it is not only trust, not only
moral assent, not only even the resolution to stand or fall by the noblest hypothesis.
These are important, even essential, elements in faith; but behind all this activity of
the will, and justifying it, there lies the profound conviction, deeply embedded in the
core of personality, that the objects of faith are real, more real than the world we
live in; that salvation is not a mere hope, for faith gives substance to it; that it is not
a dream, for faith gives reality to it; for faith it is neither a hope nor a dream, but a
present fact.
The word here rendered “substance” means properly the act of standing under
something so as to support it. Thus in a philosophical sense it was applied to the
essence which forms, as it were, the substratum of the attributes, the supposed
absolute existence of thing or person, in which all the properties and qualities, as
they say in metaphysical language, inhere, and have their consistence. In this way
the word is once applied, and only once, in Holy Scripture, in the 3rd verse of the 1st
chapter of this Epistle, where we read of the person, or rather the substance, of God
Himself. The same word is applied to the essence of God, and the Divine Son is said
to be “the express image of God’s person,” or, more exactly, the very impress of
God’s essence. But there is another use of the word in which it meant the act of the
mind in standing under so as to support or bear the weight of some statement or
some communication making, as we say, a very heavy demand upon the faculty of
believing, and thus it passed from the idea of substance into the idea of assurance or
confidence. It is used by St. Paul in two passages of his Second Epistle to the

Corinthians, where he speaks of his confidence in the readiness of their almsgiving,
and again of their confidence in his glorying, though in weakness, about himself.
And so once again in the 3rd chapter of this Epistle to the Hebrews we find the
expression—it is the same word again—“If we hold the beginning of our confidence
firm unto the end.”
There can be no question as to the meaning of the word in the verse now before us.
Faith is the assurance of, faith is confidence in, things hoped for; faith is that
principle, that exercise of mind and soul, which has for its object things not seen but
hoped for, and which, instead of sinking under them as too ponderous, whether
from their difficulty or their uncertainty, stands firm under them, supports their
pressure; in other words, is assured of them, confides in them, relies upon
them.1 [ ote: C. J. Vaughan.]
2. Whatever the object in the future may be to which thought is directed, it is always
faith that apprehends it. We are not speaking of Christian faith particularly; we are
speaking of faith itself, the principle of faith. ow, the future in question may be a
year hence, may be next week, may be to-morrow, may be one hour from this very
moment; equally in all cases it is an act of faith to expect, to wait for it. We are not
to suppose that it is the Christian only who lives by faith in this general sense of
faith. Faith is no dreamy, imaginative, or mystical thing, which it is fanciful, if not
fanatical, to talk of. The schoolboy who expects a holiday which is to be earned by
his diligence, or forfeited by his misconduct, exercises faith in that expectation. The
husbandman who expects the harvest, and begins long months before to make
preparation for it by ploughing and sowing, is exercising that confidence in things
hoped for which is faith; the parent who anticipates the manhood of his boy, and
prepares for that distant maturity by the instruction and by the discipline of the
nursery and the schoolroom, is an example of that walking by faith which only
madmen and fools disparage or dispense with.
What is Faith? If I were to say that it is the absolute condition of all life, of all
action, of all thought which goes beyond the limitations of our own minds, I should
use no exaggeration. Faith is in every age, under all circumstances, that by which
man lays hold on the realities which underlie the changeful appearances of things,
and gives substance to hope, that by which he enters into actual communion with
the powers of the unseen world and brings their manifestation to a sovereign test. It
is the harmony of reason and feeling and purpose. It is, to say all briefly, thought
illuminated by emotion and concentrated by will. Faith, as applied to our present
life, is a principle of knowledge, a principle of power, a principle of action. It may be

quickened and intensified; it may be dulled and neglected. As it is used so it will be
fruitful; and we are severally responsible for the use which we make of it.1 [ ote: B.
F. Westcott, The Historic Faith.]
3. When Christ bids us to be men of faith, He is not contradicting nature, He is not
even introducing into the world an entirely new principle of action; He is only
applying a principle as old as nature herself in matters beyond and above nature,
which it needed a new revelation from the God of nature to disclose and to prove to
us. If this proof be given us, it becomes as reasonable, then, to anticipate and to
prepare for eternity as it is reasonable to anticipate and to prepare for a holiday or
a harvest, a wedding or a profession. Faith is this confidence in these things hoped
for; and whether the expected future be a later day of this life or a day which shall
close this life and usher in an everlasting existence, the principle which takes
account of that future is one and the same, only debased or elevated, profaned or
consecrated, by the nature of the vision and by the character of the object.
That all genuine Common Faith, or the common rational sense of mankind, is
divinely trustworthy, because inspired by God, is a postulate on which science itself
rests, in all its previsive inferences. Scientific verification is finally unconscious
religious trust. It has been scientifically verified that the sun will rise to-morrow;
but till the sun shall have actually risen, the assertion only expresses faith in the
Divine natural order. All expectation, scientific or common, is so far a leap in the
dark; it is taken without the light of sense. The expected event has not the proof
afforded by felt perception till the event has happened. If sense were our only light,
it would follow that we must remain in the darkness of doubt about every future
event. To be practically consistent, if we insist that that only can be reasonable into
which no ingredient of moral venture enters, we must cease to live; for life depends
upon expectation, and expectation postulates faith in the Divine reasonableness of
the universe, which implies that men will not be finally put to scientific confusion by
reasonable submission to this moral faith. If they must, the universe would be
undivine illusion.1 [ ote: A. C. Fraser, Philosophy of Theism, 312.]
4. In the highest region of conduct faith creates its facts. Life, beforehand, presents
us with a whole circle of unrealized possibilities; they surround us on all sides with
their clamorous invitation; each, good or bad, cries out to us, “Realize me, turn this
supposition into an act; bring down that ideal which floats before you as a vision,
and transform it into a reality.” And faith is what enables us to do this. We trust
that we may do, we believe that we may ourselves become, what we believe in.

wish to show what to my knowledge has never been clearly pointed out, that belief
(as measured by action) not only does and must CO TI UALLY outstrip
scientific evidence, but that there is a certain class of truths of whose reality belief is
a factor as well as a confessor; and that as regards this class of truths faith is not
only licit and pertinent, but essential and indispensable. The truths cannot become
true till our faith has made them so.
Suppose, for example, that I am climbing in the Alps, and have, had the ill-luck to
work myself into a position from which the only escape is by a terrible leap. Being
without similar experience, I have no evidence of my ability to perform it
successfully; but hope and confidence in myself make me sure I shall not miss my
aim, and nerve my feet to execute what without those subjective emotions would
perhaps have been impossible. But suppose that, on the contrary, the emotions of
fear and mistrust preponderate; or suppose that, having just read the Ethics of
Belief, I feel it would be sinful to act upon an assumption unverified by previous
experience—why, then I shall hesitate so long that at last, exhausted and trembling,
and launching myself in a moment of despair, I miss my foothold and roll into the
abyss. In this case (and it is one of an immense class) the part of wisdom clearly is to
believe what one desires; for the belief is one of the indispensable preliminary
conditions of the realization of its object. There are then cases where faith creates its
own verification. Believe, and you shall again be right, for you shall save yourself;
doubt, and you shall again be right, for you shall perish. The only difference is that
to believe is greatly to your advantage.2 [ ote: W. James, The Will to Believe, 96.]
II
The Test of Things not seen
1. Faith is the proof or test of things not seen. Faith tries the spirits, as St. John says;
that is to say, tests beliefs by living them and acting them; tries them until
experiment becomes experience, proves them until faith wins its crown by passing
into knowledge and into love.
Somewhere in his ESSAYS Huxley writes: “Theology claims that the just shall live
by faith: science says the just shall live by verification.” ow here this acute thinker
gives a clear proof that he did not in the least understand the meaning of this great
ew Testament word—Faith. He confounded it with credulity, that tendency by
which we accept a thing on trust without making any attempt to find out if it is true.
Faith, on the other hand, in the true sense, is the faculty by which we take a thing on
trust in order to find out if it is true. It is the basis of all religious experiment, the
background of all moral effort, the standing-place of the soul in its leap towards

God.1 [ ote: E. Griffith-Jones, Faith and Verification, 19.]
2. By faith we are able to rest in the assurance of the hope of everlasting life and
happiness through Christ; we are able to experience proof in ourselves of an unseen
God, an unseen Christ, an unseen Holy Spirit, an unseen world, and an unseen life.
Of these things we are assured and positive. “Whatever doubts may agitate the
minds of others, however old parchments and ancient inscriptions and the study of
grammar may shake the foundations of other people’s belief, and cast them into a
restless sea of perplexing opinions, the true Christian rests with a fixed heart and a
calm mind in the assurance and proof of the living faith which is in his soul. This is
indeed—to quote the words of St. John—this is indeed “the victory that overcometh
the world,” the victory that overcometh philosophic doubts and scientific
perplexities, as well as the forces of evil and of worldliness—“even our faith.”
That which is common to every great act of faith is that it lays hold upon some word
of God and holds it against the world; through it, it transcends or overcomes the
world, and inherits a promise of something above and beyond the world. The doer
of such an act makes himself greater than the world, and though he lose it, in doing
so he finds, or gains, or makes himself.1[ ote: W. P. Du Bose, High Priesthood and
Sacrifice.]
We may consider Christian faith as a supernatural gift of God to us, a “power of the
world to come,” enabling us to live already in a higher world than that which is
seen, a faculty for approaching God, touching God personally, possessing God
Himself—the faculty by which every relation to God is realized and vitalized. As we
begin to use this higher faculty, we find ourselves no longer imprisoned by
circumstances from which there is no escape. The imprisoning circumstances
remain, but there is no prisoner. Faith in Christ gave him secret access to another
world, and he is free. There was no external change, nothing was seen to happen;
the man prayed in secret, and the prayer of faith proved to be a working of the Holy
Ghost in his mind, and heart, and will, and he became conscious of light and power
within, enabling him to rise out of his own emptiness, folly, and sadness.2 [ ote:
George Congreve, Christian Progress.]
3. or is this exercise of the principle of faith in the least incompatible with the
fullest use of our intellectual faculties on the subject-matter of religion. The genuine
believer will not, cannot, consistently hold back the tide of criticism from searching
into the very foundations of his creed. Unwillingness to join in this process argues
not faith, but a subtle doubt—doubt, that is, lest the realities of faith might dissolve

and vanish into nothingness in the alembic of critical thought. Those who thus
defend their faith against the principle of criticism thereby prove that at heart they
are not believers but sceptics. It would be well if religious thinkers were to act with
the same confidence as the scientific in their special departments. o attempt is
made to hinder any one from inquiring to his fullest bent into the constitution of
matter. Why? Because we know that no examination into the constituents and
behaviour of the material world will endanger our sense of its practical reality. On
the other hand, we all feel assured that the closest scrutiny of, the most laboured
inquiry into, the character and behaviour of the physical universe will end not in the
dissipation of matter, but in its better comprehension and its fuller mastery. Why
should it be otherwise with the deeper realities that appeal to our spiritual nature?
A true-hearted inquiry into the substance and core of religion cannot possibly result
in dissolving its realities into mist and nothingness; it will result in their truer
understanding, and in a surer realization of the distinction between what is absolute
and relative, eternal and temporal. True, there are special perils in this process, but
our mind should be directed not against the process itself, but against these perils
that are involved in it.
What is needed perhaps more than anything else in theology to-day is a thorough
criticism of the methods of criticism, so that the mind may be properly equipped for
its special task and safeguarded from the many pitfalls, ethical and intellectual, that
waylay the religious as distinguished from the physical inquirer. If the energies of
those who still rail against all criticism as an essentially destructive process were
directed to this question instead, it would greatly further the arrival of unity and
progress in religious thought. And the first condition of so doing is a thorough and
whole-hearted faith in the immovable realities on which faith rests and with which it
has to do. The deeper our faith in our religion, the more eager we shall be to submit
its experiences to the test and experiment of both criticism and life.1 [ ote: E.
Griffith-Jones, Faith and Verification, 22.]
4. What is the influence of the unseen things upon us when thus verified by faith?
(1) The things unseen keep us separate from the world.—This separation is not
merely a rending asunder at the outset, but a keeping asunder all the days of our
life; a walk of separation from the world every day; even in those things which we
have outwardly in common with the world, such as business and recreation—even
in such things we walk by faith and not by sight. Our business, our amusements, our
conversation, our reading, our employments, our family life, our private life, our
public life—all are regulated by the things unseen. In all of these we manifest

nonconformity with the world.
Spirituality, I should say, was perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of Dr.
John Brown’s mental constitution. As an essence it pervaded his entire life and
work. Although reserved on sacred subjects, it was frequently apparent to those
most intimate with him that, even in states of sunny brightness and sparkling
humour, a dark CLOUD of emotion overspread his countenance, revealing the
workings of the inner man. In his later years he was often seen with his eyes closed,
as if excluding the outer world from his thoughts, and giving himself up to devout
contemplation. Divine reverence and human sympathy were as parts of himself.
This was alike shown in a keen appreciation of nature—the glory of the heavens,
and the grandeur and beauty of the earth; in his gentle and tender consideration for
the feelings of others, and in sympathy with all sorrow and suffering. A near relative
of his own [Professor Crum Brown], who knew him thoroughly, has truly said: “He
was a sincere, humble, and devout Christian. His religion was not a thing that could
be put off or on, or be mislaid or lost; it was in him, and he could no more leave it
behind than he could leave his own body behind. It was in him a well of living water,
not for himself so much as for all around him. And his purity, truth, goodness, and
Christlike character were never more clearly seen than in those periods of darkness
when they were hidden from his own sight. He very seldom spoke expressly of
religion; he held ‘that the greater and the better, the inner-part of man is, and
should be private—much of it more than private’; but he could not speak of
anything without manifesting what manner of man he was.”1 [ ote: A. Peddie,
Recollections of Dr. John Brown, 151.]
(2) The things unseen sanctify us and lift our affections above.—We need to be drawn
upward, and the things unseen are all above; so that their influence is all upward.
The unseen Christ, the unseen glory, the unseen inheritance, are all above: in
realizing them we are lifted upward. And as we are lifted upward, so are we
sanctified by the heavenly vision. Sin is made hateful; lusts and carnal feelings are
more loosened from us and fall off. We become more unlike the men of earth, more
like the citizens of heaven. The clearer these heavenly objects appear, the more
influential, the more sanctifying, and the more elevating they are. In beholding them
we are made like them; purified, changed into the same image from glory to glory.
Cultivate the Heaven-born instinct of spiritual insight; your nature-endowment to
rend for you veils of time and sense, to dispel the illusion of outward seeming and
fleeting fashion of world-allurement, to give to you the underlying realities of
Hope’s fair dreams of future joy, the heart’s true intuition and clear vision of things

close-veiled to outward sense: so that you become enamoured of the infinite and feel
upon you the spell of the Eternal. Let your horizon be constantly receding, your
outlook on life be increasingly luminous, your expectation from the future well-
balanced and hopeful. The glory of the Son of Man breaks in suddenly, in wondrous
wise, upon the drudgery and monotony of disappointed life, and lo! the
commonplace becomes a Holy Mount. Beneath some seeming failure we see capacity
for higher good; and dull, grey tints of hope-deferred life become rose-hued, or
crimson-lit, in the wonder-change of the After-glow in which the Incarnation
suffuses life. And if the brightness thereafter fade, yet life can never take such
sombre hues again: for the Christ remains in the heart He has relieved, and the soul
remembers that it is when earthly lights are paling that the glory lingers brightest
and longest upon the Mountains of Hope. The glory passes, but memories abide, and
the After-glow returns when evening skies pale. We feel ourselves better men for
having seen the beauty and having realized how quickly God can alter the
appearance of life. And we pass into the coming days with a truer and nobler
conception of life, because we see the Transfiguration and the Beatific Vision where
some see only the fading light and the gathering shade. The glory of the Incarnation
lingers to keep the miracle-touch and the beauty-sheen on life, until He comes to
bring back upon human nature all it erstwhile had lost.1 [ ote: A. Daintree, Studies
in Hope, 6.]
(3) The things unseen strengthen us.—The feebleness, fadingness, vanity, poverty of
things which we do see here are very enfeebling and disheartening; whereas the
greatness, enduringness, glory, excellence of the things which we do not see
strengthen, nerve, animate, invigorate us. These glorious invisibilities quicken our
steps, kindle zeal and love, make us willing to endure hardness, to count labour,
privation, suffering, poverty, as nothing. Thus we walk in strength, with erect heads,
zealous, earnest, untiring, because of what faith shows us—the things within the
veil.
One who was present in Christ Church Cathedral on ew Year’s Day 1864, when
Richard Chenevix Trench was consecrated Archbishop of DUBLI , has vividly
described the impression which the ceremony made upon him. The utter unself-
consciousness, the deep humility, the intense devotion, and the almost divine
spirituality of the new Archbishop was what struck this onlooker, who says, after
catching a glimpse of Dr. Trench’s beautiful face lit up with a strange peace of joy,
“From that one moment all things, eternal and unseen, seemed invested for me with
a depth of reality they had never had before. Since then I have passed through many
experiences of spirit and of heart. I have had flashes of doubt. “Who, in these days,

of perhaps too great mental activity, has escaped them? I have had days and hours
of sorrow and of joy. I have had hopes and fears. But I can truly say that the
countenance of Archbishop Trench as I saw it during that one moment of my life,
expressing, as it did, the deepest devotion and the most perfect realization of the
Unseen, and rising, as it does, entirely unbidden before my mental vision, has
dispelled doubts, soothed sorrows, sanctified joys, strengthened hope, and calmed
fear, by leading me to realize for myself, as nothing else has ever done, the personal
existence of that living God, whose power and Spirit were so vividly portrayed
before me in that one moment of my life.”1 [ ote: Archbishop Trench: Letters and
Memorials, ii. 3.]
(4) The things unseen comfort us.—Our walk here is not all smoothness and
sunshine. Tribulation, weariness, pain, sickness, bereavement, throw their
thick CLOUDS over us. We take refuge in the future from the present. Our
prospects, ever bright, ever glorious, cheer, sustain, and console us. Life is so brief;
its sorrows will so soon be done; Christ will so soon be here; resurrection and glory
and gladness will so soon dawn on us. We need not be over-burdened or over-
sorrowful because of the present. Faith shows us the light beyond the darkness, and
that comforts us. The eternal kingdom will make up for all.
As years go on, and the sadness of life comes home to us, we feel that we get comfort
and strength nowhere else but in the reality of God and in a simple trust in Christ’s
“Hereafter.” It is like a strong hand in the dark to believe that God our Father loved
us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace. That is the infallible
way of finding comfort for our hearts and stablishing them in every good work and
word. The only way to make peace SECURE , and to save our work from futility
and our lives from vanity, is the way of faith. Without faith in God and God’s love
and God’s future for us, there cannot be for us any true and permanent comfort.
Without it, we are open at every turn to any shock of chance and to every alarm of
fate. But with such faith we can lift up our burden with serenity, and perform our
tasks with peace, and find joy in our work, looking upon it simply and sweetly as
service. And if, and when, the very worst comes, when all our activities are taken
from us, we are not robbed of everything; nay, we are robbed of nothing; for our life
is hid with Christ in God. True faith expands for every fresh need, and when the
need comes the comfort comes also, and out of weakness men are made strong.
When we are oppressed by the burden and overwhelmed by the spectacle of human
misery, we must learn that there is a deeper thing than happiness, and that is peace;
and eternal peace is only to be had in communion with the eternal God.1 [ ote:
Hugh Black, Comfort, 24.]

O Love, the indwelling, by Thee are we shriven,
Ineffable Comforter, Lord of delight!
To those who are born of Thy Spirit, is given
The quickening of peace in the thick of the fight.
Thou comest, and swift, through the doorways of dulness,
Come joy and vitality, glory and grace!
Who loves Thee will serve Thee with life in its fulness,
Or die at his post with Thy joy on his face.
O Christ, the unconquered, how dimly we know Thee,
Thou Sun of the universe, Light of the world!
For all the sweet fire of our life that we owe Thee,
Thy heart took the anguish the enemy hurled!
O Thou who wast born of a brave human Mother,
Some kneel in Thy presence, some, worshipping, stand!
Life’s Symbol and Mystery! Master and Brother!
We grope in the darkness and feel for Thy hand.2 [ ote: Annie Matheson, Maytime
Songs, 17.]

9. BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “Now faith is the substance
The use of history:
Hitherto the Jewish Christians had continued to celebrate the ancient ritual, and their
presence in the temple and the synagogue had been tolerated by their unbelieving
countrymen; but now they were in danger of excommunication, and it is hardly possible
for us to conceive their distress and dismay.
Their veneration for the institutions of Moses had not been diminished by their
acknowledgment of the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus; for them, as well as for the rest of
their race, an awful sanctity rested on the ceremonies from which they were threatened
with exclusion. Therefore, the writer of this Epistle calls up the most glorious names of
Jewish history to confirm his vacillating brethren in their fidelity to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was not by offering sacrifices, nor by attending festivals, nor by the pomp and
exactness with which they had celebrated any external rites and ceremonies, that the
noblest of their forefathers had won their greatness, but by their firm and steadfast trust
in God. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
What is faith?
The word “faith” is sometimes used for the object of faith, for the thing to be believed; as
when it is said in Acts, “A great company of priests were obedient to the faith.” But it is
quite evident, from the whole series of the examples by which the definition is followed,
that it is not of the thing believed, but of the act of believing, that the apostle speaks in
the chapter before us. Yet when used of the act of believing, faith will be found to have
different senses. Thus it is applied to what may be called historical faith—a bare assent to
the truths revealed in Scripture; and this would seem to be the strict use of the term
when St. James says, “Faith, if it have not works, is dead.” Then, besides historical faith,
there is what may be called temporary faith—faith which for a time seems productive of
true fruits, and then comes to nothing. There is also another kind of faith mentioned in
the New Testament; but it does not similarly occur amongst ourselves. This is what
divines call the faith of miracles, belief in some particular promise or power, through
which, whether as an instrument or as a condition, some supernatural work is wrought.
Many had faith in Christ’s power to heal their bodies who knew nothing of Him as the
Physician of their souls. But, confining ourselves to the cases of historical faith and
temporary faith, as being those which are but too likely to pass with us for saving faith,
will either of the two answer strictly to the definition which constitutes our text? Let us
look carefully at the definition. It consists of two parts; and the one is not to be
considered as a mere repetition of, or a different way of putting the other. First, the
apostle calls faith “the substance of things hoped for.” Now “things hoped for” are things
which have no present subsistence; so far as our enjoyment or possession of them is
concerned, they must be future. But “faith,” the apostle says, “is the substance of things
hoped for.” It is that which gives a present being to these things. It takes them out of the
shadowy region of probability, and brings them into that of actual reality. Faith is,
moreover, the “ evidence of things not seen.” By “things not seen” we understand such as
are not to be ascertained to us by our senses, or even by our reason—not seen either by
the eye of the body or by the far more powerful eyeof the mind. These are the truths and
facts revealed to as by the Word of God, and of which, independently on that Word, we
must have remained wholly ignorant. Its province is with invisible things, and of these it
is “the evidence”—the demonstration, or conviction—as the original word signifies. It

serves as a glass by which we can see what we cannot see without a glass; not putting
stars where there are none, but enabling us to find them where we saw none. Now will
the historical faith, or the temporary faith answer to this description of faith? We may
put out the case of temporary faith, for this is excluded not so much by not
corresponding to the definition while it lasts, as by not lasting. We may not be able to
show its defects while alive, but we can of course detect them when dead. But historical
faith—the believing what is represented of Jesus Christ, in the same sense, mode, or
degree as they believe what is represented of Julius Caesar—this, which passes with
many men for the faith which Scripture demands—will this answer to the Scriptural
definition of faith? Is, then, this historical faith “the substance of things hoped for”? Nay,
the heart, the affections must be interested, before there can be “ things hoped for.” And,
by a similar brief process, we may prove the want of correspondence between historical
faith and the second clause of St. Paul’s definition. Is such faith “the evidence of things
not seen”? Does it make things not seen as certain to a man as things seen?—for this is
the force of the definition. Does it, for example, make hell, which is not seen, as certain
to the sinner as the gallows, which is seen, to the criminal given over to the executioner?
None of you will maintain this. Unseen things, which, if they exist at all, must
immeasurably transcend things seen, cannot be as certain to a man as things seen, if that
man give them not the preference, and far more if he treat them with neglect: Now this
turns the definition in our text to good account, forasmuch as it operates to the
separating historical faith from saving faith, the faith of the great mass of men from that
intended by the apostle when he said, “For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness.” If, then, we now turn to justifying faith, we shall have to give it a seat in
the heart as well as the mind—and see whether this will not make it correspond with the
apostle’s definition. And when a man thus believes with the heart as well as with the
mind, faith will be to him “the substance of things hoped for.” The things on which his
expectation rests will be the things promised in the Bible. These, as the chief good, will
seem to him immeasurably preferable to any good already in possession. They will,
therefore, be the objects of his hope. But will they be mere shadows, brilliant and
beautiful, but perhaps only meteors, which may cheat him to the last, and vanish within
his grasp? Not so; faith gives them a present subsistence. And this “faith is” moreover
“the evidence of things not seen”; it gives to the invisible the sort of power possessed by
the visible. A thing may be unseen and yet have just the same power as if it were seen.
Let me be only sure that a man concealed by a curtain is taking aim at me with a
murderous intent, and I am moved with the same fear, and make the same spring for my
life, as if the curtain were away and I were face to face with the assassin. Now faith takes
away the curtain; not that faith which is only the assent of the understanding, for this
may leave me indifferent as to the emotions of the mind, but that faith which, having its
seat in the affections, must excite dread of danger and desire to escape. This faith takes
away the curtain; not so, indeed, as to make the man visible, but so as to make me as
sure of his being there, and with the purpose of bloodshed, as if he were visible.
Therefore is such a faith the conviction of things not seen; and the believer, he who
believes in God’s Word with the heart as well as with the understanding, may be said, in
virtue of that great principle, to draw back the veil which to every other eye hangs so
darkly between the temporal and the spiritual, and therefore suited to inspire him with
confidence. It is in this way, then, that faith, which is such an assent of the mind to the
truth of God’s Word as flows into the heart, and causes the soul to build upon that Word,
answers thoroughly to both parts of that definition of faith which St. Paul has ]aid down
in our text. But now you will say to me, Is this justifying faith? have I not rather given a
description generally of faith, than of that particular faith which is represented as
appropriating the blessings of the gospel? Not so. True, saving faith has for its object the

whole revealed truth of God, though we call it justifying faith, as it fixes specially on the
promise of remission of sins by the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be my faith in one
particular declaration or doctrine which justifies me, but, nevertheless, my faith in that
one particular doctrine is noways different from my faith in every other doctrine
similarly announced and similarly established. The “things hoped for” from Christ are
especially the pardon of sin, the gift of righteousness, and admission to the kingdom of
heaven. Of these things is faith the substance; to these it gives a sure and present
subsistence, making them as though not only promised, but performed; so strong while
faith is in true exercise, is the sense of acceptance, the assurance of being “heirs of God,”
yea, “joint heirs with Christ.” And the “things not seen” are the past work of Christ in His
humiliation and the present work of Christ in His glory. But of these “things not seen”
faith is the evidence or conviction. The believer is just as sure of Christ’s having died for
him, as if he had seen Him die; just as sure of Christ’s ever living for him, as if, with
Stephen, he “ saw heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” There is,
however, one caution which should be here introduced; for otherwise, whilst we wish to
give instruction, we may but darken knowledge, and minister to anxiety. You are not to
confound faith and assurance, as though no man could be saved by believing, unless he
believe himself saved. “It seems,” says Archbishop Usher, “that justifying faith consisteth
in these two things, in having a mind to know Christ and a will to rest upon Him; and
whosoever sees so much excellency in Christ, that thereby he is drawn to embrace Him
as the only rock of salvation, that man truly believes unto justification. Yet it is not
necessary to justification to be assured that my sins are pardoned and that I am justified,
for that is no act of faith as it justifieth, but an effect and fruit that followeth after
justification. For no man is justified by believing that he is justified—he must be justified
before he can believe it; no man is pardoned by believing that he is pardoned—he must
be pardoned before he can believe it. Faith as it justifieth, is a resting upon Christ to
obtain pardon. But assurance, which is not faith in Christ, but rather faith in my faith,
may, or may not follow on the justifying faith. You see, then, that our text accurately
defines what is justifying faith, though it does not distinguish that faith from faith
generally, neither does it leave us to confound it with assurance. You are not to go away
and say, “Oh! saving faith is something altogether strange and mystical, unlike any other
species of faith; it is not a kind by itself, it is peculiar only in its object. All faith which is
not merely historical, is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen”; and he who has this faith in the truth that God made him, has the principle of
which he has but to change the direction, and he has faith in the truth that Christ
redeemed him. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Faith:
This is the only place in the Bible where we have what we can call a definition of faith.
That faith which is the foundation of all other Christian graces—the title by which we
keep our place as Christians—the inward working which has its fruit in good works—the
hand by which we lay hold on God and on Christ, is here said to be the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen; and by substance, no doubt, is here
meant firm confidence, and by evidence is meant conviction. Faith is the laying hold of
the future in the midst of the present, of the unseen in the midst of the seen. It is this
which marks the true disciple of Christ, that he walks by faith and not by sight. If the
world were what it ought to be, there would be little trial of this faith. But though the
world was made very good, and though all that cannot be touched by the influence of our
sins is still very good, yet the world, as we have made it, is by no means like the

handiwork of God. We see all around us a strange contradiction to what we are told, that
justice, and truth, and goodness are the most precious of all things known to man. We
see often wrong prevail over right; we see the highest honour constantly given to what we
know not to be the highest desert; we see mere strength, whether of body or mind,
receive the consideration which ought to be reserved for real goodness. How often do we
see plain instances of the success of mere rude strength; sometimes of forwardness;
sometimes eve,, of cunning and want of strict truth. Nor is this all. Besides this incessant
evidence that good does not govern the world, we are perpetually betrayed in the same
thought by a traitor within ourselves. At every moment temptation comes; and the
temptation is ever close at hand; the evil consequences of yielding seem far away.
However much we may be convinced that in the end obedience to duty is better than sin,
we find it hard to remember our conviction at the moment that it is wanted. But in the
midst of all this, in spite of what our eyes perpetually tell us, and in spite of the strange
forgetfulness which our inclinations perpetually cast over Us, in spite of contradictions
without and weakness within, there is a voice from the depths of our own souls that
never ceases to repeat that right is really stronger than wrong, and truth is better than
falsehood, and justice is surer than injustice. To believe this voice, and to obey it; to
surrender to it the guidance of the life in the firm conviction that it will guide us to the
true end of our being; to do this is faith. This trusting to the voices that speak within,
even when they flatly contradict the voices that speak without, is obviously not peculiar
to Christians. The Jew had put into his hands the Word of God as far as it was then
written. He was put under a system which God had commanded to be observed. Both in
one and in the other he found much that was unintelligible, much that seemed either
without a purpose or with a purpose not worth pursuit. Through all that was strange and
dark, and even contradictory, it was impossible not to know in his heart that the Spirit
which inspired the Bible was the same Spirit as that which sometimes whispered and
sometimes thundered in his own conscience, an authority which he could not awe, and
could not influence, entering into the very secrets of his soul, and yet no part of himself,
and that this Spirit was the voice of God. To throw himself unreservedly on the power
which was thus revealed to him, both from within and from without, to accept with
unconditional submission the guidance of that Word: of God which was, in fact, the
fuller expansion of the message given by conscience, to trust in Him who was thus
revealed, in spite of every trial and every temptation; this was the faith of the Jew. Their
revelation was imperfect. There still remained one question unanswered. The enemy
which is hardest for us to encounter is not after all the sight of this world’s wrong and
injustice. It is when conscience, at the very moment of demanding our obedience,
proclaims also our sinfulness. We would believe, and live by our belief, in spite of all the
contradictions and evil with which the world is filled: but we are so weak, so wicked, so
hampered with the fetters both of nature and of habit. Will that awful voice, whose
authority we dare not doubt, really lead us to peace or to our own destruction? The
gospel gave the answer. We read there of One whose life, and words, and death force us
to confess that He is the express image of that Father of whom our own conscience, and
the prophets of old, have ever told us. We read of One who laid hold on human nature
and made it His own, and consecrated it with a Divine power. We read His promises
exactly corresponding to that very need which our souls feel every day more keenly. And
all this is written down not merely in words but in the deeds of a history such as never
man passed through beside, of a history whose every word touches some feeling of our
heart, echoes some whisper of our spirit. He bids us surrender ourselves to Him,
following His leading, trust in His protection, His power; He promises us by sure, though
it may be by slow degrees, but with the certainty of absolute assurance, to join us to His
Father and to Himself: He promises not merely to undo some day the riddle of the world,

and give the good and the just a visible triumph over the evil and the wrong, but, what we
need much more, He promises to give us the victory over sin within ourselves, and to
prove to us that God has forgiven us by the infallible token of His having cleansed us. To
throw ourselves on these promises, to purify ourselves in the full assurance that Christ’s
love can carry us through all that we shall encounter, to cling to Christ not only in spite
of pain and darkness, and strange perplexity, but in spite of our own sins also, this is our
substance of things hoped for, this is our evidence of things not seen, this is Christian
faith. This is, St. John tells us, the victory which overcometh the world. This is the power
which, both in great things and in small, both in hard trials and in easy, ever supports
the disciple of Christ by bringing within his reach all the strength of his Master. (Bp.
Temple.)
Faith defined:
I. FAITH IS THE CONFIDENT PERSUASION OF UNSEEN THINGS. The word
translated “ substance” occurs in Heb_3:14; 2Co_9:4; 2Co_11:17, and is translated
“confidence.” The word translated “evidence” is from a verb which signifies “to
convince.” “Faith is the confidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not
seen.”
1. Faith is not belief on the evidence of the senses.
2. Faith is not credulity. God is essential truth, then it is reasonable to repose in what
He has said.
3. Faith is not a mere assent of the understanding.
II. FAITH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL SPIRITUAL ACHIEVEMENT. “By it the elders”
achieved all that this chapter records. Faith was the secret of what they were and did.
1. The New Testament ascribes all Christian life to faith. “Whosoever believeth shall
not perish,” &c.; “sanctified by faith”; “this is the victory that,”&c.; “wherein believing
ye rejoice,” &c.; “kept by the power,” &c.
2. This is due to the fact that all Christian life is the result of heavenly influences, and
faith lifts it into these. It raises the soul into the heavenly world; brings future things
near, and makes Christ live before us. The effect of this on our spiritual nature is its
development, like that of a tropical plant brought from a cold land into its native
clime and proper conditions.
III. FAITH IS THE MEANS OF SECURING THE DIVINE COMMENDATION.
“Obtained a good report.”
1. This shows our personal responsibility with regard to faith.
2. This is a strong consolation to infirm and secluded believers. (C. New.)
Saving faith:
There were those who one time asked the Saviour, “What shall we do that we might work
the works of God?” To this He replied, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him
whom He hath sent.” The issue, then, between God and men is narrowed down to this
—“only believe.”

I. THE MEANING OF THE TERM.
1. Sometimes the word refers merely to a creed, with no notion in it of spiritual
experience at all (1Ti_4:1; Jud_1:3).
2. When the Bible speaks of faith, it sometimes means mere belief in facts
(Heb_11:3). This kind of faith is necessary, in a certain sense, to salvation: “for he
that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him.” The facts of the Saviour’s life are to be received in that way. But
this is not saving faith at all.
3. Again; faith sometimes means that conviction of the understanding which results
from proofs laid before it, or arguments adduced. This is that which the woman
wrought among her neighbours when she came back from the conversation with
Jesus at Jacob’s well. This also is the faith which Thomas had when asked to put his
hand in the side of his Lord. But this is not saving faith; for our Lord immediately
added, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
4. And sometimes the Bible means the faith of miracles. This was a peculiar gift,
bestowed by Christ upon His immediate followers. Now, whatever was the nature of
this peculiar endowment, it is evident enough that there was no grace in it to save the
soul; for the Saviour Himself declared Mat_7:22-23).
5. Then, lastly, the Bible means saving faith; the true belief in the Lord Jesus Christ,
through which we are justified, and by which we live.
II. THE NATURE OF THIS EXERCISE. The old writers used to say that faith was
composed of three elements: a right apprehension, a cordial assent, and an unwavering
trust. Let me seek to exhibit these in turn in a very familiar way.
1. To apprehend is really a physical act, and means to seize hold of. When applied to
mental operation, it signifies to conceive clearly any given object, and hold it before
the mind for examination and use. It does not always include a full comprehension. A
drowning man may catch a rope that hangs near him, and be rescued by it, without
knowing who threw it to him, or who will draw it in, or what vessel it trails from. He
apprehends it, but he does not comprehend it. He sees it, but he does not see all with
which it is connected. The two essential things for every man to apprehend, are his
own need and Jesus Christ’s fitness to supply it. There is the inward look, and then
there is the outward look. I cannot help myself, and the Saviour can help me are the
two thoughts that must lie buried deep in his soul. It matters little how these things
are learned.
2. Then comes the second element of faith, already mentioned—namely, assent. This
is a step in advance of the other. A simple illustration will make plain what is meant
by it. An invalid is sometimes very unwilling to admit his danger, even when he has
nothing to oppose to the reasoning of one who proves it. He feels his weakness, but
he resorts to a thousand subterfuges to avoid yielding to the physician. His judgment
is convinced, but his will is unbroken. He apprehends his danger, and knows the
remedy; but he refuses to be helped. What he needs now is assent; and this requires
humility and the renunciation of self-will. Faith includes this. It calls for a cheerful
submission to God’s requirements, the moment we apprehend them, no matter how
humiliating the assertion of our ill-desert may be.
3. The third element of saving faith is trust. By this I mean reliance on the truth of
what God said He would do; a quiet resting on His promises to accomplish all we
need for salvation.

III. THE USE TO BE MADE OF THIS ANALYSIS comes next to view. Your experience
hitherto has been something like this. You have seen your need; you have gone in prayer
to Jesus confessing it. You said in your prayer, “O Lord, I am vile, I come to Thee; I plead
Thy promise that Thou wilt not cast me out; I give myself away in an everlasting
surrender; I leave my soul at the very foot of the Cross!” And then you rose from your
knees, murmuring, “Oh, I am no better; I feel just the same as before!” You saw that you
had made a failure. Now, where was the lack? Simply in the particular of trust. You
would not take Jesus at His word. When you have given yourself to Christ, leave yourself
there, and go about your work as a child in His household. When He has undertaken
your salvation, rest assured He will accomplish it, without any of your anxiety, or any of
your help. There remains enough for you to do, with no concern for this part of the
labour. Let me illustrate this posture of mind as well as I can. A shipmaster was once out
for three nights in a storm; close by the harbour, he yet dared not attempt to go in, and
the sea was too rough for the pilot to come aboard. Afraid to trust the less experienced
sailors, he himself stood firmly at the helm. Human endurance almost gave way before
the unwonted strain. Worn with toil, beating about; worn yet more with anxiety for his
crew and cargo; he was well-nigh relinquishing the wheel, and letting all go awreck,
when he saw the little boat coming with the pilot. At once that hardy sailor sprang on the
deck, and with scarcely a word took the hehn in his hand. The captain went immediately
below, for food and for rest; and especially for comfort to the passengers, who were
weary with apprehension. Plainly now his duty was in the cabin; the pilot would care for
the ship. Where had his burden gone? The master’s heart was as light as a schoolboy’s;
he felt no pressure. The pilot, too, seemed perfectly unconcerned; he had no distress. The
great load of anxiety had gone for ever; fallen in some way or other between them. Now
turn this figure. We are anxious to save our soul, and are beginning to feel more and
more certain that we cannot save it. Then comes Jesus, and undertakes to save it for us.
We see how willing He is; we know how able He is; there we leave it. We let Him do it.
We rest on His promise to do it. We just put that work in His hands to do all alone; and
we go about doing something else; self-improvement, comfort to others, doing good of
every sort. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Faith convinced of the invisible
I. No faith will carry us through the difficulties of our profession, from oppositions
within and without, giving us constancy and perseverance therein unto the end, BUT
THAT ONLY WHICH GIVES THE GOOD THINGS HOPED FOR A REAL
SUBSISTENCE IN OUR MINDS AND SOULS. But when by mixing itself with the
promise which is the foundation of hope, it gives us a taste of their goodness, an
experience of their power, the inhabitation of their first-fruits, and a view of their glory,
it will infallibly effect this blessed end.
II. The peculiar specificial nature of faith, whereby it is differenced from all other
powers, acts, and graces in the mind, lies in this, THAT IT MAKES A LIFE ON THINGS
INVISIBLE. It is not only conversant about them, but mixeth itself with them, making
them the spiritual nourishment of the soul (2Co_4:18).
III. THE GLORY OF OUR RELIGION IS, THAT IT DEPENDS ON AND IS RESOLVED
INTO VISIBLE THINGS. They are far more excellent and glorious than anything that
sense can behold or reason discover (1Co_2:9).
IV. GREAT OBJECTIONS ARE APT TO LIE AGAINST INVISIBLE THINGS, WHEN
THEY ARE EXTERNALLY REVEALED. Man would desirously live the life of sense, or at

least believe no more than what he can have a scientifical demonstration of. But by these
means we cannot have an evidence of invisible things; at best, not such as may have an
influence into our Christian profession. This is done by faith alone.
1. Faith is that gracious power of the mind, whereby it firmly assents unto Divine
revelations, upon the sole authority of God the revealer, as the first essential truth,
and fountain of all truth.
2. It is by faith that all objections against invisible things, their being and reality, are
answered and refuted.
3. Faith brings into the soul an experience of their power and efficacy, whereby it is
cast into the mould of them, or made conformable unto them Rom_6:17; Eph_4:21-
23). (John Owen, D. D.)
Shadow and substance
I. THE HOPE OF ATTAINING A PERFECT LIFE IS ONLY TO BE REALISED BY FAITH
IN CHRIST.
II. THE HOPE OF PERFECTING OUR LIFE-WORK CAN ONLY BE REALISED BY
FAITH IN CHRIST.
III. THE HOPE OF PERFECTING OUR HAPPINESS IS ONLY TO BE REALISED BY
FAITH IN CHRIST. (R. Balgarnie, D. D.)
Faith;
First, then, this chapter shows us the different ways and modes of the working of faith.
And secondly, it speaks to all characters of persons, showing the manner in which faith
will affect particular characters. New men declare faith to be unreasonable. “Acting on
trust! “ says a godless man, “how strange a mode of acting! Surely those who do it are
trusting to some vague fancy or feeling, they scarce know what, and call it faith.” I
answer, Although the thing which we believe, the object of faith, is most marvellous, yet
faith itself, belief in the object, is no such strange or unusual thing. Every man constantly
acts on faith, and the very man who laughs at another for acting on faith acts on faith
himself every day.
1. That man trusts his memory. He does not now see or feel what he did yesterday,
yet he has no doubt it happened as he remembers it.
2. Again, when a man reasons he trusts his reasoning powers; he knows one thing is
true, and sees clearly that another follows from that. For example, he sees long
shadows on the ground; then he knows the sun or moon is shining without looking
round to see. But some one raises an objection. He says, “Very true; but in memory,
reason, and daily life we trust ourselves; in religion we trust the word of another, and
that is hard.” But there is no real difficulty. In this world we act on the evidence of
others. What do we know without trusting others? Are there not towns and cities
within fifty miles of us we never saw, yet we fully believe they are there. (E. Munro.)
Faith:

Hebrews 11 1 10 commentary

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Hebrews 11 1 10 commentary