Hello siblings in Christ, I grew up with the knowledge of Hebrews 11:1-2 to be the New Testament faith until I got the truth. Hebrews 11:1-2 is never a new creation kind of faith because the promise has been fulfilled.
Faith before Jesus died and faith after the resurrection are not the same. The faith of blind Bartimaeus and the woman with the issue of blood are based on Jesus the miracle worker and Son of David.
This faith we posses as new creation is based on the finished work of Christ, which is Christ himself.
Hebrews 11:1-2
[1]NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].
[2]For by [faith–trust and holy fervor born of faith] the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report.
Classic Amp says “Now…meaning the substance of those things they were hoping for is Christ, in those progressive revelations from the men of the old. The promise about Christ came to the men of the old bit by bit through the prophets.
The faith we have now is the assurance of what the prophets and people of the Old Covenant were waiting for but didn’t get even till death (read the whole of Hebrew 11) the things they hoped for was Christ coming as the Saviour to save us and fulfill all things. Now everyone who has received Christ has all the promises and need not to hope for it. As a believer, we have all things in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 1:20
[20]For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes [answer] in Him [Christ]. For this reason we also utter the Amen (so be it) to God through Him [in His Person and by His agency] to the glory of God.
Faith for a new creation is living in a manner consistent with our confident in God’s promises which we have received in Christ Jesus. Salvation through grace has freely brought everything we need unlike when we were under the law (bondage) where we had to fight to get everything.
Faith is a person and that person is Christ. As Christ lives in us, we are liberated from all bondages. We have been given all things pertaining to life in Christ, all we are required to do is believe and receive. Our faith now is Jesus seated at the right hand of God as the finished work.
We are no longer hoping or expecting things, we have received all that has been given to us by the Spirit.
“Without faith” which is without Christ, we cannot please God. How do we please God then? By believing in all He has done and provided for us. If we believe, we receive simple principle of the Spirit.
Old Covenant believe was in hoping, but we do not have to hope because our faith is NOW, it is here. Our thinking pattern should be rooted in the Word and our faith in the person of Christ, seeing the way Jesus sees, talking the way Jesus talks.
Siblings, the purpose of this writing is to explain Hebrews 11:1 faith for a New Covenant believer, clearly explaining it as not for today’s believer but for the saints of the Old Covenant.
Hebrews 11:13
[13]These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
We are in the PROMISE FULFILLED not promise hoped for. The people of the old walked in the reality of those promise even though it was not fulfilled in their time. We on the other hand, are not waiting or hoping, we have seen and existing in that reality.
Looking at it, the faith of the Old was based on what God will do in the future but today’s faith is based on what He’s done 2,000 year ago.
We know Abraham as the father of faith, the first man to believe God devoid of works but his faith is still nothing compared to ours.
Hebrews 11:1,9-10
[1]Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
[9]By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
[10]for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Abraham’s faith saw things in the future and started expecting, but never got to that land because God said to him in Genesis 15:1, that He will show him a land not take him to a land. We believers have arrived in that land which is Christ; we are the city built on Christ.
Abraham’s revelation was about us, so we are not to emulate Abraham’s kind of faith, we begin were the father’s stopped and we have attained what they desired.
Faith now is looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith not the men of the old.
Hebrews 12:2
[2]looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
You are unstoppable!
Love X Uju
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