Faith and Perseverance

Having shown the greatness of Christ and of his sacrifice, the letter draws from it an exhortation: to hold firm. To believers tempted to give up under persecution, the author sets the strength of faith, that of the ancients and that which looks to Christ. The stakes of this perseverance are grave, and the letter says so plainly: to abandon the faith after receiving it is not to stumble but to cut oneself off from salvation. The grace received can be lost, and final perseverance is itself a gift to be asked for and kept. This is why the exhortation presses: to hold to the end is a matter of salvation.

The definition of faith

The letter gives of faith a definition that has remained famous: it is the anticipated certainty of what God promises, the assurance of realities not yet seen. “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 To believe is not to know without proof: it is to hold for certain, on the word of God, what the eyes do not show.

The cloud of witnesses

The author then unfolds the whole history of believers, from Abel to Abraham, from Moses to the prophets: all lived and acted by faith, and it is by it that they pleased God. “without faith it is impossible to please God; for whoever draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 These witnesses form around the Christian an immense throng, which encourages him and shows him the way. This history the letter unfolds in examples, not in a bare list. By faith Abraham offered his son Isaac, holding that God can raise the dead, and he received him back as a figure of the resurrection: “He reasoned that God had the power to raise even the dead.” Hebrews 11:19 By faith too, Moses preferred to all the treasures of Egypt the contempt borne for Christ, already looking toward him (Hebrews 11:26). And yet none of these just ones received in his lifetime what was promised: God had provided something better for us, and they reach perfection only with us. “they were not to reach perfection apart from us.” Hebrews 11:40

To run looking to Jesus

From this cloud of witnesses the author draws an impulse. The Christian life is a race to be held to the end, without letting oneself be weighed down: “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every burden and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race set before us.” Hebrews 12:1 And the gaze is fixed not on oneself, but on the one who ran first and opened the way: “looking to Jesus, who opens the way of faith and brings it to completion. Instead of the joy that was offered him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

The correction of the Father

There remains to understand the trial itself. The sufferings of the believer are not the sign that God abandons him, but that of a Father who forms his child: “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastises every son he receives.” Hebrews 12:6 Endured in faith, trial becomes an education: it does not destroy, it strengthens and makes grow.