The time leading up to the signing of the title deed is the time you hoped for something, but with the title deed in hand, it is yours even if you have never seen the house. When you buy a house, you may make an offer on the house, but until the title deed is signed over to you, you are not sure that you will have it. The dictionary defines it as "guarantee of ownership/entitlement, title deed." It's a guarantee of ownership. The first term, ὑπόστασις, is a koine Greek word that is frequently used to mean a title deed. Both are legal terms used for proof or evidence.
The one translated as "substance" is ὑπόστασις, and the one translated as "evidence" is ἔλεγχος. There are two legal terms used in Hebrews 11:1. Faith is founded on the best evidence that men can have - God's testimony in the Bible - the only infallible thing in life. Faith is not irrational - like Kierkegaard was. Without evidence without knowledge, there can be no faith. In fact, the Greek terms used there are very powerful figures of solid evidence. He doesn't say that faith is leaping without evidence (or against evidence-as Søren Kierkegaard would say). Hebrews 11:1 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But let's read what the text actually says. After all, we can't see what we are believing - we believe against all evidence. But my teacher, who was evangelical, claimed that since faith is defined as the evidence of things not seen, it must be a leap in the dark. That is actually a liberal definition of faith made popular by Søren Kierkegaard. One of my teachers in Bible School used to teach that faith was a blind leap in the dark. Let's go to Hebrews 11:1 to correct the first counterfeit of faith. Background - Counterfeits to Faith A blind leap of faith Hopefully this will introduce next week's sermon a little bit better.
But because this chapter has been used to promote some pretty crazy ideas about faith, I want to spend a few minutes looking at what faith is not and then we will look at what genuine faith looks like.
Faith trusts that if God commands us to do something, we can do it by His grace. It is a marvelous example of faith in action - or what the literal Greek of Romans 16:26 (and 1:5) calls the "obedience of faith." Faith steps out and obeys God's clear commands even when it seems foolish to do so. So, Lord willing, we will go through this verse by verse next week.īut today I want to show how this is a perfect chapter to oppose some of the counterfeit views of faith that are being promoted in some circles. Most children's picture books do not portray this chapter properly. And there are a lot of other details that I hope to dig into next week. To have the bottom of the river instantly dry (all the moisture sucked out) so that young and old could easily cross it was also a spectacular miracle. Back in 1854, an expert swimmer tried to swim across the Jordan at the exact time of year and the exact point of crossing that Joshua used, and he was not able to swim across because of how wide the river was and how strong the current was. But during flood time the river at this point of crossing is often a mile wide and more than 10 feet deep. And there are times of the year that you can - especially now that it is being depleted with irrigation. Most Christians think of the Jordan as a small river that you could wade across. Lord willing, I want to go verse by verse through this chapter next week and show that this river-crossing was far more spectacular than what most people make it out to be.
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