The Word This Week
Hebrews 11:1...
The author of Hebrews has been constantly reminding these Jewish born-again believers in Jesus Christ their faith in Christ is superior to any other faith they may choose to place in any other form of worship – in this case the rituals and practices of Judaism.
The same holds true for us, and whatever religious practice we may consider returning to.
The key point of this whole discussion is: The object of our faith.
Everyone has faith and employs faith in every aspect of life. Faith, in a sense, is trusting in a pattern of life which has proven to be demonstrably true over time, even though we haven’t seen it yet. For example, we have faith the sun will rise tomorrow even though we haven’t seen it happen. But we’ve already seen it happen so many times we trust by faith it will happen again.
What if the sun didn’t rise? We’d all freeze to death very quickly, instantly. Do we live in the terror of that happening? We certainly would if we thought there was even the remotest possibility it might. But instead, we live in peace by the faith we place in the knowledge the sun WILL rise tomorrow.
Now apply this to our relationship with Christ. It is impossible to please Him without faith in Him. We haven’t seen Him with our eyes yet, but we have seen the effect of His presence in our world.
This is the importance of knowing our history. Our history with the sun is it rises every morning, reliably, dependably. The history of the Jewish people has been the power of Christ in their lives, reliably, dependably.
They never saw Christ with their eyes – but they believed in His coming because God said so. Every aspect of their faith-life reflected that fact. And in their faith-life God rewarded them for their faith in His truth – a faith they possessed because it had always been their history with God.
Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Isaac saw Abraham’s history of faith in all God’s Word declared, and he placed his faith in all God’s Word declared as well. And so did those who followed their demonstrable pattern of faith. In so doing, the faithful Hebrews developed a history of faith in their God, and they were rewarded for their faith.
There were also unfaithful Hebrews, and their tragic unfulfilled unfaithful lives demonstrated something else entirely.
Pastor Bill
The author of Hebrews has been constantly reminding these Jewish born-again believers in Jesus Christ their faith in Christ is superior to any other faith they may choose to place in any other form of worship – in this case the rituals and practices of Judaism.
The same holds true for us, and whatever religious practice we may consider returning to.
The key point of this whole discussion is: The object of our faith.
Everyone has faith and employs faith in every aspect of life. Faith, in a sense, is trusting in a pattern of life which has proven to be demonstrably true over time, even though we haven’t seen it yet. For example, we have faith the sun will rise tomorrow even though we haven’t seen it happen. But we’ve already seen it happen so many times we trust by faith it will happen again.
What if the sun didn’t rise? We’d all freeze to death very quickly, instantly. Do we live in the terror of that happening? We certainly would if we thought there was even the remotest possibility it might. But instead, we live in peace by the faith we place in the knowledge the sun WILL rise tomorrow.
Now apply this to our relationship with Christ. It is impossible to please Him without faith in Him. We haven’t seen Him with our eyes yet, but we have seen the effect of His presence in our world.
This is the importance of knowing our history. Our history with the sun is it rises every morning, reliably, dependably. The history of the Jewish people has been the power of Christ in their lives, reliably, dependably.
They never saw Christ with their eyes – but they believed in His coming because God said so. Every aspect of their faith-life reflected that fact. And in their faith-life God rewarded them for their faith in His truth – a faith they possessed because it had always been their history with God.
Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Isaac saw Abraham’s history of faith in all God’s Word declared, and he placed his faith in all God’s Word declared as well. And so did those who followed their demonstrable pattern of faith. In so doing, the faithful Hebrews developed a history of faith in their God, and they were rewarded for their faith.
There were also unfaithful Hebrews, and their tragic unfulfilled unfaithful lives demonstrated something else entirely.
Pastor Bill