Faith in Action
11: 1-40
In the first ten chapters of Hebrews, the writer has proven over and over again that the New Covenant in Yeshua’s blood is better and takes the place of the First Covenant in animal blood. He showed the superiority of the Son to the three pillars of Judaism: angels, Moshe, and the Levitical priesthood. Now, having proved this proposition, he tells this first century Jewish unbeliever how to step over the line from knowledge to faith.
The first century Jew saw everything as a matter of works. Even after being shown the basic truths of the B’rit Chadashah, the tendency was for them to try to fit those new principles into the mold of works righteousness.
By the time of Christ, Judaism was no longer the supernatural system that YHVH had originally given. It had been perverted into a works system, withal kinds of legalistic requirements called the Oral Law (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Ei – The Oral Law). It was a system of self-effort, self-salvation, and self-glorification. It was far removed from the system of faith ADONAI had originally given. In many ways it was a religious cult based on corrupted ethics.
As with all systems of works, Ha’Shem despised it. Especially because it was a corruption of the true system He had given. YHVH has never redeemed mankind by works, but always by faith (Habakkuk 2:4). As this chapter makes clear, from Adam on, God has honored faith, not works. Good works have always been a by-product of faith, never a means to salvation. The LORD doesn’t tolerate any self-imposed system as a means of reaching Him.
This theme of faith connects with Chapter 10, where the writer has already presented the principle of salvation of faith, of which the righteous of the TaNaKh named in Chapter 11 are examples. He quoted from Habakkuk, a Jewish prophet, reinforcing the truth that this was the principle of redemption that God has always honored: But those who are righteous will live their lives by faith (Hebrews 10:38 CJB quoting Habakkuk 2:4 CJB). Faith is the only way to ADONAI, there has never been any other way.285
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