What Is Faith? Hebrews 11:1-3
THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH
"THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH," the declaration of the Christian's priciple of life is found four times in the Bible (Hab. 2:1-5) also (Rom. 1:17) and (Gal. 3:10-11) and (Heb. 10:38) also in Habakuk we see the difference between the lives of the unjust and just, the unjust are puffed up and live by their own self-sufficiency but the just live by faith - their confidence is in God to them. Faith is more than a philosophy of life: It is the very priciple of life (Hab. 2:4) the righteous shall live his whole life by faith, he is saved by faith (I Pet. 1:5) and he lives by faith (Gal. 2:20) His faith shall be tried many times and in many ways (I Pet. 1:7). But faith will always be vindicated, because it is more than equal to any occasion, faith knows how to wait on the Lord (Isa. 40:31), and it is always victorious (I John 5:4) faith defies reason, IT MOVES MOUNTAINS (Matt. 17:14-21) faith does not always face facts: It never gives up (Heb. 11:32-39) faith says, "God is working out his perfect will in my life, and I can wait, endure and suffer." Faith does not make anything easy, but it does make all things possible.
WHAT IS FAITH?
(A) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Now Faith is the substance (title deed) of things hoped for. . .your faith is your title deed to eternal lif. Just as title deed is evidence of real estate, so your faith is evidence of your eternal estate in God.
The word substance comes from a word meaning "Essence," Webster says that this word means the real part of a thing or the material of which a thing is made, so when we read Hebrews we can read it as:
(1) Faith is the essence of things hoped for.
(2) Faith is the inter part of your hope.
(3) Faith is the material of your hope.
Therefore, when we learn what faith is, we see that it is solid and it is what we are to fill our hope with, because if we have hope and no faith than our hope is empty, but when we add faith, faith makes our hope solid by filling us up and giving us a reason to continue to have hope.
This means that if faith makes hope solid then we want to know what "solid hope" is once it becomes solid.
(1) SOLID HOPE, is having its interior filled with matter; not hollow in this we know that we have no hope in nothing as long as we are unsaved so our hope is empty then one day we hear God's word and we are filled up with faith by the promises made by God in His word, therefore we now have something to look forward to "SO THEN FAITH COMETH BY HEARING AND HEARING BY THE WORD OF GOD." (Romans 10:17).
(2) SOLID HOPE, is strong, firm, reliable; we see here that solid hope is strong, firm, and reliable, for once we hear the word of God without knowing or seeing the outcome we receive faith by just believing it: we read that Abraham staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief; but was 'strong' in faith, giving glory to God (Rom. 4:20). Abraham shews how strong hope stands, and by looking at the way Abraham takes on faith we see that he was strong in belief, (HE STAGGERED NOT AT THE PROMISE) we also see that God could depend on him because he was 'reliable' (WHAT GOD HAD PROMISED, ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD WAS ABLE TO PERFORM) (Rom. 4:21). He was 'firm' (BUT WAS STRONG IN FAITH, GIVING GLORY TO GOD).
Please give your views on faith and share how you understand faith to work, don't be afraid to posts your comments their will be some that will disagree and some will agree we are here to share and maybe someone will be blessed and some will learn something new about faith including myself.
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Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
