Hebrews 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The biblical meaning of faith and hope is not some passive resignation to my circumstances, but a confident expectation that God will do what He says He will do. We see in our passage this morning that faith and hope are twin pillars of the Christian life. In 1 Timothy 1, The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is called our hope, but in Hebrews, Jesus is The Author and Finisher of our faith. So this faith and hope that I am speaking of this morning is a confident expectation that is rooted and grounded in the character of God Himself.
Peter writes that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is living proof that our faith and hope can be placed in God. For the child of God, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, we have been given the promise of an endless hope. The gospel is the message that, being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
It is this confident expectation in the character and promise of God that sustained Abraham’s faith when God told him to bring Isaac to the top of the mountain. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. It was faith and hope in the promise of God that caused Abraham to believe that God would do what He said He would do.
Life is fragile, saints, isn’t it? The winds of circumstances can change from one minute to the next. But God never changes. When we are walking in the light with Him, we can have a confident expectation that what He has promised, He is able to perform. Hope thou in God says the Scripture. Your faith in God is not in vain.
