The Excellency of Faith continues Heb. 11:1–3
Faith believes God and relies upon His veracity: as it does so, the heart is anchored and remains steady, no matter how fierce the storm nor how protracted the season of waiting. To sum up the contents of v. 1. “Faith shuts its eyes to all that is seen and opens its ears to all God has said. Faith is a convictive power which overcomes carnal reasonings, carnal prejudices, and carnal excuses. It enlightens the judgment, moulds the heart, moves the will, and reforms the life… It emboldens against discouragements, laughs at difficulties, resists the Devil, and triumphs over temptations. It does so because it unites the soul to God and draws strength from Him.” Pink Arthur W
- “For by it the elders obtained a good report” (v. 2). It is by faith we are approved of God. The “elders” namely, the O. T. saints—included among the “fathers” or Hebrews 1:1. It was not by their amiability, sincerity, earnestness, or any other natural virtue, but by faith that the ancients “obtained a good report.” The Hebrews pious progenitors were justified by faith, and to the end of the chapter he shows that faith was the principle of all their holy obedience, eminent services, and patient sufferings in the cause of God. Faith is no new thing, but a grace planted in the hearts of God’s elect from the beginning. The faith of Abel laid hold of Christ as truly as does ours. God has had but one way of salvation since sin entered the world: “by grace, through faith, not of works.” The “fathers” had the same promises we have: not merely of Canaan, but of heaven—see Hebrews 11:16. God took care that a record should be kept (complete in Heaven, in part transcribed in the Scriptures) of all the actings of their faith. God witness to the fact that Enoch “walked with Him” Gen. 5:24, to David 1Sam. 13:14, Abraham 2Chron. 20:7.” Pink A. W. Obseve the “practical observations” on v. 2 of John Owen: “1. Instances or examples are the most powerful confirmations of practical truths. 2. They who have a good testimony from God shall never want reproaches from the world. 3. It is faith alone, which, from the beginning of the world (or from the giving of the first promise), was the means and way of obtaining acceptance with God. 4. The faith of true believers, from the beginning of the world, was fixed on things future, hoped for, invisible. 5. That faith whereby men please God acts itself in a fixed contemplation on things future and invisible, from whence it derived an encouragement and strength to endure and abide firm in profession, against all opposition and persecutions. 6. Men may be despised, vilified, and reproached in the world, yet if they have faith, if they are true believers, they are accepted with God, and He will give them a good report.”
- “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (v. 3). The origin of the universe presents a problem which neither science nor philosophy can solve, as is evident from their conflicting and ridiculous attempts; but that difficulty vanishes entirely before faith. Faith is the vehicle or medium of spiritual perception: Jn 11:4; 1Tim. 4:3. “What does faith give us to understand concerning the worlds, that is, the upper, middle, lower regions of the universe? 1. That they were not eternal, nor did they produce themselves, but they were made by another. 2. That the Maker of the world is God; He is the Maker of all things; and whosoever is so must be God. 3. That He made the world with great exactness; it was a framed work, in every thing duly adapted and disposed to answer its end, and to express the perfections of the Creator. 4. That God made the world by His word; that is, by His essential wisdom and eternal Son, and by His active will, saying, let it be done, and it was done. 5. That the world was thus framed out of nothing, out of no pre-existent matter, contrary to the received maxim, that out of nothing nothing can be made, which, though true of created power, can have no place with God, who can call things that are not as if they were, and command them into being. These things we understand by faith” (Matthew Henry)
