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Hebrews Chapter 11 is titled “Faith In Action” in the NIV (2011) version. The writer of Hebrews shares this practical matter at this stage of his letter with his readers/listeners. He has presented to them in the earlier chapters about Jesus as the Superior One in the salvation plan of God. People come to Jesus in faith confident that He will lead them to God. Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). They receive forgiveness of sin because He shed His blood and paid the ransom price on the cross at Calvary.
“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1). Establishing this, the writer goes on to give a long list of people in the Bible who stand out as leaders of “Faith In Action”. From patriarchs like Abel, Enoch and Noah to all the prophets in Israel and Judah, they all simply trust in “what we do not see”. They press on in their faith in God who gives them the promise that He would commend them as those who please Him. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him” (Heb. 11: 6).
Our faith in Jesus must be a “Faith In Action” like the Christians who have gone ahead of us. There are things we do not fully understand like the troubles we regularly go through. But like those who preceded us, we can trust that God “rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb. 11:6). In our Christian lives of “Faith In Action” we can say with the song writer Helen Lemmel who wrote in 1922:
O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Saviour, And life more abundant and free!
His Word shall not fail you—He promised; Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.
