21 The Hall of Faith – Part 1

Hebrews chapter 11 is one of the most well-known chapters in the New Testament and has frequently been referred to as “The Heroes of the Faith.”

As chapter 10 ended with the exhortation for believers to live by faith, in chapter 11, the author provides several examples of those who succeeded in doing so. However, before providing those examples, he laid the foundation, by first providing a definition for faith:

1 Definition of Faith

Hebrews 11:1-3

The author broke down faith into three basic aspects:

• The basic nature of faith
• The part that honor plays
• The way faith looks at things

Combining those three aspects develops the assurance which faith brings.

In verse 1, the author speaks of how faith is “substance”.

The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines “substance” in the following manner:

“A particular kind of matter with uniform properties.”

Therefore, there is uniformity (organization) to faith.

It also shows that faith can provide observable factors – “evidence”.

Therefore, faith provides the evidence of those unseen things in the spiritual world.

Even though faith is required to observe that which is found in the spiritual realm, it doesn’t cancel our reason.

Even though faith doesn’t require that we suspend our reasoning, faith will always exceed it.

Faith is required for that which we can neither see nor understand.

The idea of “things hoped for” points to the idea of expectancy.

After defining faith in verse 1, the author spoke of “the elders obtained a good testimony” which not only set the foundation for the examples of faith-filled examples he would discuss throughout the chapter, but it pictures the attitude that the Tribulation saints will have:

Revelation 12:11

In verse 3, we’re shown how faith also aid in our understanding of the Creation:

Hebrews 11:3

Sadly, many in the “faith movement” have twisted this verse into claiming it presents “God’s faith”, suggesting that God used his faith as a resource by which He created the worlds, when describing the following verse:

Genesis 1:3

It is blasphemous to assert that the Lord would require faith, which would then make it a force either equal to, or more powerful than Himself.

• If the Lord required faith, it would negate His omniscience, which would be the ultimate in heresy.

2 Faith in Early History

Hebrews 11:4

He begins by speaking of how the Lord respected Abel’s offering, while rejecting that of his brother Cain:

Genesis 4:3-5

While Abel offered the first of his flock as his offering, we’re only told that Cain offered fruit from his crops.

Even though these sacrifices were offered over 2500 years prior to the institution of the Old Covenant Law, the Lord had established the principle that blood, and a life was required to cover sin.

We can see that, in how when after Adam and Eve sinned, they attempted to cover their sin with fig leaves (Genesis 3:7), whereas the Lord had something else in mind, as He covered them with animal skins, which means He was showing that a death would be required to cover sin:

Genesis 3:21

Therefore, we can see that Abel’s sacrifice was found acceptable, because the Lord viewed him as being righteous, because of his faith.

In verse 4, we see that Abel’s sacrifice is still pleasing to God, even though Abel has been dead for thousands of years, which shows that our rewards are not always fully seen on earth but will last through eternity.

The next example the author presented was Enoch:

Hebrews 11:5-6

The Bible doesn’t provide us with much information about Enoch, with the first found in Genesis:

Genesis 5:21-24

Then, in the New Testament, we’re told that he was a prophet:

Jude 1:14-15

So, from all we see, Enoch was someone who so faithfully walked with (and served) the Lord, that God just brought him home to heaven, without him experiencing death.

Enoch is therefore a picture of the rapture of the church, being an example of those believers who will not die but will be suddenly caught up to heaven.

The next example the author presented was Noah:

Hebrews 11:7

The Lord warned Noah that He would judge the world because of sin, and Noah therefore began the construction of a huge ship, which took him approximately 120 years to build.

Since the Lord had declared that He would judge sinful man by a flood, which it come from waters raining from the sky, it probably seemed unthinkable to the people of that day for at least two reasons:

• They had never experienced rained.
• They were located in an extremely arid area, therefore it would also have seemed quite strange to see Noah building a ship in what was for all intents and purposes, a desert.

Yet, Noah faithfully built the ark for 120 years, in effect both preaching and prophesying the will of God.

So, with each of these three men, we can see the importance of faithfully trusting and obeying the Lord.