Be Assured in Tough Times

The apostle Paul writes in Philippians 1:29, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” It’s interesting how that believing, which is trusting Christ even in the most difficult of times, and suffering are linked together as something that is granted to believers.

Both verbs, believing and suffering, are in the present tense. Suffering is not always a given in a believer’s life and does not always have the same pain in it, but when it occurs it does not defeat a true believer! Instead it activates the faith that Christ alone produces in him to trust God no matter what. You see, faith is the “DNA” of all who believe in who God is and in what God says in His Word.  

In Hebrews, we find our text nestled in the context of Jewish believers who, because of intense persecution, were ready to defect back to the sacrifices of animals and endless temple ritual. In fact, many had already defected. Isn’t it interesting that when bad times come, we allow our minds to deceive us into thinking that no one is in control and everyone is on his own? So, we put ourselves into a survival mode and will do even the unthinkable just to escape what we have concluded is the worst thing that can happen to us—death. We tend to forget that God is in control and death has been conquered by Christ on the cross.

The author of Hebrews wants to encourage as well as admonish these fearful believers, so he takes them back to their own ancient history to remind them that faith is not a new idea. There were those in their very own history who, with little revelation to work with, so believed God that they lived and died willing to do whatever God said in the midst of the worst of times!

In chapter 10, the author had warned those who professed to know Christ, but had never possessed Him in their hearts, that as certain as the coming again of our Lord Jesus is His judgment!  “For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay” (Heb. 10:37). This is a quote from Habakkuk, promising that God will one day make all wrongs right!  But in the meantime the righteous are to trust Him and His Word: “But My righteous one shall live by faith” (Heb. 10:38). The righteous are marked not by religious works but by faith as they look to the promises of God. But to those who only know about Him and have never bowed before Him, he warns, “And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”

To the believer, however, His warning ends with an assurance to those that are standing firm. “But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul” (Heb. 10:39). He wants them to know that, while waiting on God’s promises to be fulfilled, they might have to suffer more. If they do, then the suffering would not last forever; their salvation based solely upon faith in Christ alone would hold them up and carry them through. What a word to us today! 

So, the author writes to encourage these errant Jewish believers in Christ, who were about to make the biggest mistake of their lives, to understand what faith is and how important it is to them! He has used the words “faith” or “believe” at least 39 times in Hebrews already, so we know it was very important that they understood (and that we  today understand) what it is. So, let’s listen in as he explains that faith is not the obvious but the actual.

In Hebrews 11:1 we see that faith rests on who God is and what He says: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The first thing that we notice is that the definite article is not used here before the word faith. This means that he is speaking of all that true faith is and does! The word “assurance” here is the Greek word hupŏstasis, which refers to that which stands up under and holds something up. Some translators translate it as “substance”. It is the foundation or the ground upon which one builds his hope.

Hupŏstasis was used in a legal sense for the documents that were stored in archives that would prove one’s legal ownership of property and therefore allow him to build upon it. This phrase, then, could be translated “Faith is the title deed of things hoped for.” The Holy Spirit energizes the act of faith by which one receives Christ into their hearts, and that becomes the title deed that God puts into his hand that guarantees the possession of all that God promised him that he hopes for. 

Have you fallen into the trap of believing no one is in control since nothing seems to be happening in the midst of your bad circumstances? There can be no greater assurance of our salvation and all the promises that God has given us than the foundation that was laid when you received Him into your life as your Lord and Savior. Our faith rests upon God and all that He has promised in His Word!

In the case of these first-century Jews, their act of faith in Jesus Christ as their Messiah and High Priest was the title-deed which God had given them which also guaranteed to them the possession of the eternal salvation for which they trusted God—His promise is fulfilled in the past, the present, and the future. This is why the New American Standard translators translated the word as “assurance”. 

To help us better understand this he adds “the conviction of things not seen.” “Conviction” is not saying something else but rather defines what he just said. This translates the Greek word ĕlĕgchŏs, which comes from the word meaning “to prove in a court room that which is true.” Here it means to be so persuaded and assured about something that you would be willing to act upon it, even if it defies what your physical senses tell you. The believer acts upon his belief because he is convicted that it is true. To the world, faith would seem to be nothing more than presumption. To them it is just a feebly grounded hypothesis that is only an elusive and unrealistic wish or dream.

But biblical faith is produced by the Holy Spirit working with the Word of God in one’s heart to assure him that what God says and who He is can be trusted. Paul said in Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, quickens the Word of God within our hearts producing an absolute assurance in what God says and a divine persuasion to act upon it. Faith is not produced by man but by God. 

Paul says in Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” “Faithfulness” should be translated “faith”, as it is based on the Greek word pistis instead of pistŏs. Faith is the fruit of God’s Spirit working in our hearts.  Without Christ living in our heart in the person of the Holy Spirit, living by faith is absolutely impossible. The Spirit energizes His Word so that we are moved with assurance to stand upon what it says even though it may defy our physical senses. 

So, faith in what God has declared gives the soul absolute assurance and firm conviction of the reality of things that the natural eye has never seen. Yet these things are as real to the man of faith as anything that he can see, feel, taste, smell, or hear. In fact, through faith they become even more real, for his senses might deceive him, but the Word of God, the believer knows, is absolutely infallible. 

Look up, my brother! Someone is in control, and the foundation that has already been laid in your life is assurance of the things hoped for and the things not seen. Let Christ lift your head today! All the promises of God are present in Christ!

Wayne Barber is senior pastor of Hoffmantown Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.