The Substance of Things Hoped For

 

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:1-3 ESV).

 

We cannot leave these verses without spending some time with the “substance of things hoped for” It may be that all this means is that faith is a deep confidence that the promises of God will come true so that we may depend on them. That would be enough to free us from the fears and greed and worldliness that block the flow of radical, risk-taking, sacrificial love. If we have a strong conviction that God will care for us and bring us to glory and fulfill all his promises to us forever, then we will be free from self-indulgence and free for serving others. But I think it means more, or maybe this is just a way of filling up this meaning with all that's really here. The word "assurance" here can mean "nature" or "substance" or "reality" or "essence" in other places, for example, Hebrews 1:3 ("exact representation of God's nature"). If that is what is meant here, then we should think like this.

 

What could the "substance" or "nature" of things hoped for mean? I think it could mean that faith apprehends the goodness and the sweetness of what God promises so clearly that this goodness and sweetness are substantially present in faith. In other words, faith grasps, or lays hold of, God's preciousness so firmly that in the faith itself there is the substance of the goodness and the sweetness promised. Faith doesn't create what we hope for. That would be a mere mind game. Faith is a spiritual apprehending or perceiving or tasting or sensing of the beauty and sweetness and preciousness and goodness of what God promises - especially his own fellowship, and the enjoyment of his own presence.

 

Faith does not just feel confident that this is coming someday. Faith has spiritually laid hold of and perceived and tasted that it is real. And this means that faith has the substance or the nature of what is hoped for in it. Faith's enjoyment of the promise is a kind of substantial downpayment of the reality coming. Act on that kind of faith! That is the gift God has given to every one of His children!