The Substance of Things Hoped For (Defining Faith Pt 1)

I realized that in my last post I threw around the word, "faith" a good bit. I think this is ok, because the Bible throws the word faith around a lot, too (it occurs 278 times in the ESV). But assuming everyone knows what faith means is not going to be helpful. I called my last post "The Fight for Faith." The person who doesn't know quite what faith is would be left scratching their head thinking, "The Fight for What?". And you can't fight if you don't know what you're fighting for, at least not in this battle.

There is a place where the Bible clearly defines faith, and I think that would be the best place to start for a good understanding of what faith is. Many probably already know what verse I'm talking about, so go to Hebrews 11:1. It says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." I also like the NKJV that says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

The first part of the verse "Now faith is" shows that the author is about to provide a definition of faith. He uses two phrases in this verse that describe faith. First "the assurance (or substance) of things hoped for" and second "the conviction (or evidence) of things not seen." We can see that these are two different ways of saying the same thing. So lets take the two halves of each phrase and put them together. Faith is:

"the assurance and conviction (or the substance and evidence)"

of

"things hoped for and not seen"

So lets take each part and try to understand it. What does the author mean by "assurance and conviction"? I think the words "substance" and "evidence" are helpful in understanding this. I like these words cause it puts us in a scenario we understand: a court-room. In a court-room, people are trying to prove things. And the best way to prove things is with evidence. Not just any evidence, but substantial evidence. Like for example: Whereas the testimony of "that man killed my husband" is less than substantial, a pistol, covered in the suspects fingerprints, registered to the suspect, that has been proven by ballistics tests to be the weapon from which the fatal bullet came, would be a very substantial piece of evidence. Especially if there is surveillance video evidence that the subject fled the scene with said pistol. Those things taken together would be concrete and real. Such evidence would likely be the pillars of the prosecution's case.

In other words, substance and evidence are real. "Assurance" and "conviction" then, are the personal apprehension of the real. When you take hold of what is real, that becomes assurance. When the Jury sees those real factual concrete manifestations(i.e. evidence) of the claim "that man killed my husband" they will be assured of their conviction: Guilty. Or, to put it another way, assurance and conviction are a present reality. As real as the computer I'm typing on. It's substantial, almost as if you could touch it. So that's the first part: Faith is "the present reality" of "...something." Let's look at the second part now.

"things hoped for and not seen." This one is a lot easier. Most everyone can clearly get the idea of "hope." First of all, hope is future. This is where the "not seen" part comes in. Paul puts it this way in Romans 8:24: "Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?" In other words, no one says, "Gee, I hope I have enough gas to drive home from work tonight" as they park their car in the driveway from coming home from work that night. That makes no sense. You don't hope for what you already see exists. The word "expectation" comes to mind as a synonym of hope. So put together this synonym with the "not seen" part and you get: "future expectation." Now we can put the whole thing together.

Faith is "the present reality" of "future expectation." And in a later post I'll talk about what that "present reality" and "future expectation" is for a Christian.