Do you have a faith that can handle defeat? Or does tragedy and suffering leave you questioning God, and whether it is worth still giving him our allegiance? For this is the final question the author of Hebrews asks in his 11th chapter.
At the end of Hebrews 10, the author tells his readers to ‘persevere’ (v. 36), or literally to ‘hyper-stand’. He then embarks on a journey through the OT, highlighting example after example of ordinary sinful believers, just like you and me, who were able to stand through terrible suffering, and emerge victorious. The church today loves to hear these stories, do we not? We love to hear of Christians facing insurmountable odds, like David vs. Goliath, or Daniel vs. the lion’s den, and through faith conquer their respective situations.
Yet something changes in v. 35. The author outlines a very different looking list of ‘others’, who didn’t conquer. V. 35b-38 lists OT saints who were defeated by torture, jeering, stoning, sword and exile. Yet though they were defeated, their faith was not.
The question the author asks as he closes out his ‘heroes of faith’ list is, does your faith end at v. 35a? For some Christians it does. I have spoken to Christians, who when going through a difficult season, such as cancer or a terminally sick child, had Christians come up to them and say ‘if you have enough faith, God will heal this situation and everything will be OK’. These were well meaning people, who I believe are genuine Christians; but their faith ends at Heb 11:35a.
So how do we become the type of Christians whose faith can handle defeat? The author says it is through the hope of ‘a better resurrection’ (v. 35). The Bible says when Jesus returns, all those who have died in the faith will be ‘made perfect’ (v. 40) at the same time, when we receive our resurrection bodies. Then we will live forever in paradise, with the God who suffered the ultimate defeat on our behalf. Undefeatable faith comes from remembering that heaven is better than anything this life can give us, or death can take from us.
