Heb. 11:1-7, Faith and Hope

We now come to Hebrews 11.  From my childhood this was always “the Hall of Faith” or “chapter of faith.”  It had a reputation as a “stand-alone” chapter in the Bible.  You could meditate on Heb. 11, apart from the rest of Hebrews, and get great encouragement.  This is true, to an extent.  But our purpose today is to be sure we understand that Heb. 11 comes between Heb. 10 and 12.  If you read Heb. 11 without the context of the entire letter, you will miss the significance of the faith of these saints.  And you also will be lost when you arrive at 11:39-40. 

First, let’s recap 10:35-39.  The Spirit admonishes the readers not to cast away their confidence or faith, but to endure or hope.  The just, those who have come to God through Christ, live by their faith.  They were believers but they were in a hard trial.  So, the Spirit reminds them that, “He who is coming will come and will not tarry.”  They must endure and not draw back.  Their faith must endure until the promised hope is fulfilled. 

For Hebrew Christians, this hope involves Messiah’s coming kingdom on earth, when Israel will be saved and made great under their King.  We saw this in Heb. 6, with the reminders of God’s covenant with Abraham.  Yet, these people are about to see the destruction of Jerusalem and the total dispersal of what is left of the nation of Israel.  Who knows when Messiah will come and bring in the “times of restoration” (Acts 3:21)?  It may not happen until after they have died. 

Which brings us to Heb. 11:39-40.  What is so important about this “hall of faith?”  It is that they were faithful to the end of their lives, even though they never experienced the thing in which they were faithful.  “They did not receive the promise” and were “not made perfect apart from us.”  Abel had faith in God’s promise of a Savior; but he was always looking forward to the fulfillment of that promise.  Without the Savior, upon his death, he remained in Hades, in the place of comfort (Luke 16:19-31).  But now, the Savior had come. providing a better sacrifice.  He entered the temple in heaven and sprinkled the blood of the New Covenant.  Abel was perfected the same time Christ provided for our perfection.

Thus, we see that Heb. 11:1 is not so much a definition of faith as an explanation of the relationship of faith and hope.  Abel had nothing but a promise of the Savior (Gen. 3:15).  He offered his sacrifice in hope, believing the promise of God.  The Hebrew believers had a promise, that the Messiah was coming.  They needed to believe the promise, and live in the hope of its fulfillment.  Hebrews 11 provides good testimonies (11:2) of this enduring faith in their ancestors.  These “elders” surround them with good testimonies (12:1) as an encouragement to the Hebrews and to us.  And among those witnesses, at the very center, is Jesus Himself (12:1-2), the “forerunner” (6:20) who has run the race successfully before us.