Hebrews Chapter Eleven, The Gospel's Historical Veracity

 

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is…the evidence of things not seen.

 

The NKJV’s use of “evidence,” is translated, “conviction,” in the RSV, ESV and NASB, and “proof,” in the HCSB. Furthermore, faith is the evidence of the unseen. Paul writes, “For we are saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” Romans 8:24.

I trust that my family is safe at home while I’m at work. I trust that my money is safe in my bank account. I trust that my car will start when I use it next; I trust that I will still have a job tomorrow. Evidence and reason conspire to instill hope, or faith. I don’t know any of these things, but I trust they are so in a reasonable and logical way. To do otherwise would be to be torn apart with worry and anxiety, checking and re-checking as a fearful mind compelled me to ensure what faith implies. Paul was speaking of our redemption, which is not yet. We do not see what we shall become, just as we do not now see Jesus Christ like Thomas did. But our hope, well founded in the historical event of Jesus’ vicarious death and resurrection, buttressed by God’s own promise, does not disappoint, Hebrews 6:19.

 

Of the person and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Luke appeals to evidence when writing to Theophilus in both Luke’s gospel and Acts. Luke treats the Christian faith, not as mystical, but as evidentiary. In Luke 1:2 we read, “just as those from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us.” More to the point, he writes once more to Theophilus, stating about Jesus, “to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs,” Acts 1:3. To whom did Jesus appear? The apostles, and more than 500 brethren at once, 1 Corinthians 15:6. What were these proofs? He was seen by them during a period of forty days, teaching them. What was the end result? Luke records, “you shall be witnesses to Me,” Acts 1:8. Genuine faith is both substantive and evidentiary. Faith that drifts into the mystical, being buttressed by introspective feelings and subjective, personal validation, fails the litmus test of genuine faith. Christianity is founded on the life, death, resurrection and ascension of one Jesus Christ, the church’s Head and life. Like the Lord said to the Samaritan woman, we know what we worship, because God clearly manifested Himself in space-time by, as Luke writes, many infallible proofs. The first Christians are witnesses; a term used numerous times throughout Acts to describe the nature of the message the first Christians preached. Peter affirmed this in the very first Christian sermon, telling the Jews, “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses,” Acts 2:32.

 

Every man with Peter at Pentecost saw the living Christ after His crucifixion. Yet there they stood in solidarity, affirming that Jesus lived on by the power of God, raised from the dead so that anyone who places their faith in Him may be born again into God’s kingdom. This is not a whimsical or mystical message; it is a factual, historical narrative affirming the events that happened just recently to the Jews in Jerusalem, of which every man in that audience knew. The Old Testament Scriptures clarified the criteria for the Christ. Jesus fulfilled each necessary prophetic check mark to provide empirical evidence that His claims are well founded, and because of this, we may have confidence that what He says about eternal life and redemption is authoritative. If someone divorces himself from the historical truth in Christ and wanders into subjective experience, seeking some event to confirm his spiritual journey, they are no longer interested in what is true, but what feels right to them.

 

The gospel isn’t a panacea to meet felt needs; it is a message that speaks to our individual need of forgiveness and reconciliation with an offended, holy God. When appealing to King Agrippa, Paul resorted to the factual, historical narrative that provided the foundation for his own faith. “For the king, before whom I also speak freely, knows these things; for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done in a corner,” Acts 26:26. The systematic defense of his faith came from Moses and the prophets, who all foretold that the Christ would come, that He would suffer, and rise again as Savior to Jew and Gentile. He further argued that his testimony was grounded in, “truth and reason,” Acts 26:25. Our faith can be no less than Paul’s, sustained in the God-ordained boundaries of the historical narrative of the church, whose first witnesses preached the life, death and resurrection of the Lord. And by this truth, when it is appropriated by faith, we are saved, 1 Corinthians 15:1, 2. When we have entered in by faith, we will find an abundant resource to draw from to establish and settle our hearts in Christ. But first there must be reasons to believe, and when convinced, emotional integrity to support our intellectual assent. We decide with the mind, and emotions strengthen our conviction. If our faith in God is nebulous and flimsy, return to Scripture and search diligently for the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Otherwise, such vapid faith, when challenged, will dissolve before the enemy, because it is not grounded in Christ. As Hebrews 10:39 reminds us, we, “believe to the saving of the soul.”