To take God’s new covenant way and to follow the Lord in this way causes us a lot of suffering in material things. For this, God has promised us a great reward (v. 35) that on earth today we may live by faith and not by sight. The life that follows the Lord in God’s economy is a life of faith.
To gain our soul in the coming age of the kingdom requires that we have faith (10:39; 1 Pet. 1:9). If we would not care for today’s enjoyments but for the coming day, we must have faith. Furthermore, if we would be sure that we shall have something better in the future and that it is worthwhile to sacrifice the enjoyments and entertainments of today in order to have it, we must have faith. As we shall see, faith is the conviction of things not seen. Since we cannot see into the future, how do we know that a glorious tomorrow is ahead of us? We know it by faith. Deep within me, I am fully convinced that a glorious tomorrow is awaiting me. This conviction comes by faith.
In 3:12 and 19 we are warned about having an evil heart of unbelief. In the eyes of God, no one is as evil as the one who will not believe in Him. The unbelieving heart is the most evil heart. Nothing insults God more than our unbelief, and nothing honors Him more than our believing in Him. We must believe whatever God says in His word. If our heart does not believe God’s word, it is in His eyes an evil, unbelieving heart.
Now we come to the matter of faith’s definition. Although faith is realized within our being, it is difficult to define. Faith is just faith. But the writer of Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, “Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). Since faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, it is the assurance, confidence, confirmation, reality, essence, supporting ground of things hoped for, the foundation that supports the things hoped for. The Greek word translated “substantiating” here is the same word rendered “substance” in 1:3, “assurance” in 3:14, and “confidence” (which knows it rests on a sure foundation) in 2 Corinthians 11:17 (KJV). It may also be translated confirmation, reality, essence (which means the real nature of things as opposed to appearance), foundation, or supporting ground. The King James Version uses “substance” instead of “substantiating” in this verse. But the meaning here is not of solid matter. The Greek word denotes an action and should be rendered as a gerund, a verbal noun. The paper on which this message is printed is a substance. But by touching it with your hand you substantiate it. You sense, realize, and have a full consciousness of it. This is an act of substantiating. Faith is not a substance; it is a substantiating action. To have faith is not to have a substantial element; it is to have a substantiating ability. Although certain things cannot be seen, heard, or touched, we nevertheless have within us the ability to substantiate them. This is faith. The Bible says that whoever believes shall have eternal life (John 3:15). When we hear this word, we sense that it conveys something real, although no one can see or touch it. Nevertheless, the faith within us substantiates what is conveyed in this word.
The Bible is a will filled with bequests. An unbeliever, however, would say that this is nonsense. To him, the Bible is simply a book which is difficult to understand. But for us, God’s called ones, the Bible is a book of bequests. When we hear this, something within us responds to substantiate it. This substantiating is what we call faith. How do you know that you have eternal life? How do you know that the Lord Jesus is in your spirit? We know these things by faith. We can neither explain nor show people that Christ dwells in our spirit. Although we cannot present this to others, we can substantiate it for ourselves.
This substantiating is not a small thing; it is like a sixth sense. Each of our five senses has a substantiating ability. For instance, our nose substantiates fragrances and our eyes substantiate colors. Faith is a specific and particular sense in addition to our five senses. It is the sense by which we substantiate the things unseen or hoped for.