Faith is much more than the holding of a certain set of beliefs. Faith, I suppose, is both the rule of life and the source of strength. By a "rule of life," I mean that we act according to our faith. This seems to me to be the force especially of Hebrews 11, but also of how Hebrews generally discusses faith. Faith is trust, and to have faith in something is to put trust in it. If we have faith in Christ, that means we trust that Christ's teachings are correct and that we ought to live our life by them. This can apply to many things. For instance, my roommate had faith that the Baylor Basketball team would make it to the Elite Eight and therefore he bought tickets to the game before it was certain that Baylor would make it there. The team made certain promises, my roommate believed those promises and (more importantly) conducted his life according to his belief in those promises (and was rewarded, but that's a different story).

On the other hand, faith seems to carry the force of enablement as well, and this aspect of faith seems limited to the relationship we have with God. I suppose one could say that my roommate's faith in Baylor's team gave him the confidence to purchase tickets, however I believe that the power we receive through faith in God is far superior to this "confidence of action" which may be attributed to other kinds of faith. In chapter 11, the heroes of the Old Testament do many wondrous things and all of it was by faith. I do not believe that they were capable of accomplishing things and, like the modern movies tell us, all they had to do was "believe in themselves," or "believe that they could do it." Rather, they had to know that they had no hope of doing any of it, but they believed that God could do it through them. Thus, since they put their trust in God and conducted themselves according to that trust, they were empowered by God to accomplish the tasks He set before them.

Faith's Christological Focus

I was trying to think about Dr. Whitlark's question to one of my earlier posts (does faith have a christological focus) and I went back to meditate a little on the first verse of chapter 11, and Chrysostom's commentary on it.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. O what an expression has he used, in saying, an evidence of things not seen. For [we say] there is evidence, in the case of things that are very plain. Faith then is the seeing things not plain (he means), and brings what are not seen to the same full assurance with what are seen. So then neither is it possible to disbelieve in things which are seen, nor, on the other hand can there be faith unless a man be more fully assured with respect to things invisible, than he is with respect to things that are most clearly seen. For since the objects of hope seem to be unsubstantial, Faith gives them substantiality, or rather, does not give it, but is itself their substance. For instance, the Resurrection has not come, nor does it exist substantially, but hope makes it substantial in our soul. This is [the meaning of] the substance of things.

I wonder now, especially since Dr. Whitlark pressed me on the "things hoped for" and "things not seen" parts if this could not refer to Christ. That is, by their faith in what they could not see (Christ) they "obtained a good report." That is, according to traditional Christianity, the old testament fathers were also justified by Christ's sacrifice. This would also work, given that this is what enabled them to "obtain a good report."

Faith, then, is our participation in the body of Christ, which is why it "is itself their substance," and it is, of course, entirely Christ focused. This understanding also seems to have ramifications for our understanding of Christ, because He is a God who is made substantial in us through our faith (though of course He does not require our faith to be substanital in Himself).