Speaking about faithfulness to God ("faith"), the author of the letter calls it "the foundation of what we hope for and assurance of things...
Speaking about faithfulness to God ("faith"), the author of the letter calls it "the foundation of what we hope for and assurance of things unseen" (v. 1; in the Synodal translation, "the realization of what is hoped for and assurance of what is unseen"). This definition of faithfulness implies not only trust in God, but also a certain activity on the person's part within the context of the relationship that binds him to God. The author of the letter gives examples of this kind of relationship, which he finds in the Old Testament books (vv. 2-5, 7-12). All of them are united by that attitude toward God which he calls "faithfulness" (the corresponding Greek word means first of all "faithfulness," although it can also be translated as "faith") and without which one who comes to God cannot become worthy of Him (v. 6; in the Synodal translation, "please God").
Continuing his thought, the author of the letter rightly observes that, when coming to God, it is important not only to believe that He exists, but also to believe that He rewards those who seek God's will; and here what is needed is not only belief in God's existence, but also trust in Him, unthinkable without a personal relationship with Him. Only such a relationship can give the faithful both the firm foundation for hope of which the author of the letter reminds his fellow believers, and confidence in what has not yet come, but will certainly come because God has promised it.
Of course, no deeds or acts in themselves can make a person worthy of God in the sense in which a person can become worthy of a human reward. Speaking about rewards for those who seek God and about those who deserve them, the author of the letter has in mind first of all precisely the fact of trust in God, which gives meaning to everything done in fulfillment of God's will. All the examples he gives are vivid witnesses to this: neither Abel, nor Noah, nor Abraham, with all that they did, can be imagined without complete and unconditional trust in the God who revealed Himself to them and whom they knew. Like his teacher, the author of the letter understands that the righteous person becomes righteous only through a trusting relationship with God, while his deeds are only the outward expression of this relationship. Such was the path of the ancient righteous, and such is the path of those who seek the Kingdom now, when the One who opened it to every seeker ready to trust and follow Him has come into the world.
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11:1 The definition of faith given in this verse, and exemplified in the various instances following, undoubtedly includes justifying faith, but not directly as justifying. For faith justifies only as it refers to, and depends on, Christ. But here is no mention of him as the object of faith; and in several of the instances that follow, no notice is taken of him or his salvation, but only of temporal blessings obtained by faith. And yet they may all be considered as evidences of the power of justifying faith in Christ, and of its extensive exercise in a course of steady obedience amidst difficulties and dangers of every kind. Now faith is the subsistence of things hoped for, the evidence or conviction of things not seen - Things hoped for are not so extensive as things not seen.The former are only things future and joyful to us ; the latter are either future, past, or present, and those either good or evil, whether to us or others. The subsistence of things hoped for - Giving a kind of present subsistence to the good things which God has promised: the divine supernatural evidence exhibited to, the conviction hereby produced in, a believer of things not seen, whether past, future, or spiritual; particularly of God and the things of God.
11:2 By it the elders - Our forefathers. This chapter is a kind of summary of the Old Testament, in which the apostle comprises the designs, labours, sojournings, expectations, temptations, martyrdoms of the ancients. The former of them had a long exercise of their patience; the latter suffered shorter but sharper trials. Obtained a good testimony - A most comprehensive word. God gave a testimony, not only of them but to them: and they received his testimony as if it had been the things themselves of which he testified, Heb 11:4-5, Heb 11:39. Hence they also gave testimony to others, and others testified of them.