About eight months after first wife Marie died I was engaged in one of the final service calls that I would conduct before I passed my locksmith business to my son-in-law. My customer was a ninety-two-year-old lady. She had a well used Bible on the table, and I asked her if she was a Christian. She was, and it turned out that she was a very deep thinker as well. She had lost her husband several years before, so we shared both our faith and our grief. I told her that one of the passages that had come to mean a lot to me over the past few months had been Hebrews 11, because I believed that Marie could see me as I carried on God’s work.
My customer’s reply caught me off guard. She said, “Oh, I think the saints in heaven are so caught up with Jesus and his glory that they don’t know anything about what is going on down here.”
Since I did not have a chapter-and-verse retort, I could not challenge her opinion. For the next several months, I imagined my wife sitting before God’s throne, enraptured in Christ without another thought or care. I tried to accept the conclusion that neither she nor any of the other witnesses in Hebrews 11 would be concerned with the history unfolding beneath them.
A disconcerting thing began to occur. I found myself facing a growing emotional hole. I began to feel the despair of those who lack the hope of reconnection. If Marie had lost all care about her former earthly history, then any connection I imagined we had to each other was severed. For a while I slogged on, telling myself, Put the loss behind you and try not to dwell on it. In the end the tactic failed, and I began to search the Bible to see if it had anything to say about the subject.
It did. One of the places where I rediscovered hope was in a reexamination of Hebrews 11. Upon studying it more closely, I discovered two critically important truths concerning those who have blazed the trail before us. My elder sister in Christ had seen one, but not the other. We need both for a proper understanding regarding the condition and activity of the saints who have died before us.
Our objective today will be to discover what those two truths are and how they bear on our present calling as Christ followers.
THE FIRST TRUTH: THE SAINTS AS WITNESSES FOR THE COURT
Most of us are familiar with Hebrews 11, rightfully called the Faith Hall of Fame. With the skill of a virtuoso, the author has woven his two themes, doctrine and exhortation, through the book. When he presents the heroes of faith, the book achieves a full-orchestra crescendo, and we listen in awe. We sit in the presence of greatness.
Let’s look at Hebrews 11:1-2. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation” (All Scripture quotations are English Standard Version).
This is one of the six places where the writer uses the term, “witness” in this context, either as a noun or a verb. The verb form of the word is martureo, from which we obtain our modern word martyr. Many saints did die for their faith, but martureo by itself does not imply death. The verb means, “I testify,” or, “I bear witness.” Various Bibles have translated the term in this verse:
• “Obtained a good testimony” (King James)
• “Gained approval” (New American Standard)
• “Were Commended” (New International Version)
• “Received their commendation” (English Standard Version)
In other words, witnesses are not necessarily martyrs, or even eyewitnesses. They are those who proved their testimony by acting on what they believed. Early in the chapter, the author uses the term four times in three verses. I will be reading from the English Standard Bible, because it remains consistent in the way that it translates the word.
• Heb. 11:2—“For by [faith] the people of old received their commendation.
• Heb. 11:4—“ By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.”
• Heb 11:5—“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.”
The language depicts a sense of finality in these verses. The chapter almost suggests a courtroom setting in which God, the Great Judge, calls forth his saints one by one:
“Abel, Son of Adam, approach the bench.”
Abel steps forward and takes his seat on the witness stand.
“Abel, what do you bring for your testimony?”
“Your Honor, I bring the testimony that you accepted my sacrifices.”
“You are commended. Step down from the witness stand and take your place among the faithful.”
“Enoch, approach the bench.”
“Your Honor.”
“Enoch, what do you bring for your testimony?”
“Your Honor, I bring the testimony that I walked with you before you took me up to be with you.”
“I commend you. You may take your place.”
“Noah, approach the bench.”
“Your Honor.”
“Noah, what do you bring for your testimony?”
“Your Honor, I bring the testimony that I was moved with reverence, and obeyed in building an ark to save the lives of my family and all who would come.”
“You have received your commendation. You may join the faithful.”
The chapter moves through Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and all the rest who have proven their faith through their righteous lives.
In this context, the words sound a note of finality. The witnesses in Hebrews 11 have fought the good fight, and God was pleased with them. They have finished their course and now stand before God’s throne.
I believe my elder sister in the faith understood this truth. If this were all we had, we would have to conclude that her interpretation on the departed saints is the correct one. The former saints, having received their commendation, have taken their places in rest. They would be oblivious to anything else in the cosmos
But we have a second truth that gives us a far more immediate connection with them, and this is where my sense of hope begins to take root.
THE SECOND TRUTH: THE SAINTS IN WAITING
Verses 6-7 conclude the commendation section of the chapter. Starting in verse 8, the writer shifts from completed commendation to yet-to-be-fulfilled promises. He does not return to the commendation theme until verse 39. Look at that verse with me. Here the writer takes up the term martureo once again, but this time alongside the other balancing truth connects us with the former saints. Follow with me as I read all of this verse and part of the next. I am going to stop in the middle of a phrase in verse 40.
“And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for…”
The question is, “Better for whom?” The weight in the first part of the sentence bears down on the former saints. Therefore, we would be perfectly justified to anticipate a continuation of the line of thought, “God had provided something better for them.” But look at your Bibles and read verse 40 with me.
“:...since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”
This wording grabs us from behind and wrenches us around. What is the writer talking about?
If we look closely, we immediately learn two things about the Old Testament saints. They have received something eternally valuable, but they lack something equally valuable.
• They have obtained their commendation through their faith. This is a reminder of the first truth.
• But at the same time, they did not receive the promise.
How can this be? Didn’t Abel receive God’s smile on his sacrifice? Didn’t Noah preserve his family inside the ark? Didn’t Abraham and Sarah receive the son that God had promised them?
Yes, but these things are not what the writer understands as the promise. Look at what he says in verse 19. “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” This point is critically important. Their promise was not an earthly promise. Their hope was not an earthly hope.
So what was the promise? Go back up to verse 40. The writer states it in the last part of the verse. “Since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” In this context, the word “perfect” means complete. During their lifetimes, the Old Testament saints waited for the completion of God’s work in their lives. Yet to this day they have yet to achieve completion, because God has tied it up in that something—whatever it is—that is better for us.
This immediately raises two questions.
• One, what is the better thing that God has provided for us?
• Two, what does our better provision mean for the former saints?
Once we answer the first question, the answer to the second will become evident. In Hebrews 12:1, the author calls his audience to complete their race with endurance, with the words, “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...” The two chapters, therefore, belong together. That means the better thing is the completion of the race. I want us to notice several things about it.
• The race is not done. We are still running it, and we will be running it for a long time. It is a history-long race.
• The race does not come at our choosing. It is “set before us.”
• The race is not fair, and it never claims to be fair. Some enjoy great victory (Heb. 11:32-35a), while others have to endure intense grief and pain (Heb. 11:35b-38). God does not tell us why. He tells us only to run.
• We do not own the race in the individual sense of the word. In other words, I do not run “my” race, Frank does not run his race, and Carol does not run her race. We all run in the one race that the heroes of the faith began. We are engaged in a relay. That means that when we run, we run with the others who have gone before.
• The race is not and never has been focused on any kind of ultimate resolution in this life. It is focused on eternity.
This, then, answers the second question. What does our better provision mean for the former saints? It means they are joined with us in the race, and will be with us as long as it endures.
APPLICATION: HOW THE TWO TRUTHS AFFECT US
You have been very patient with me today, and I ask only one more indulgence. Having established the two pillars of our hope, let me go back and look at two words in the opening phrase of Hebrews 12:1. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…”
The first is the word, “witnesses.” This is the noun form of martureo. The author’s inclusion makes his purpose clear that he intends to tie these two chapters together. We follow in the footsteps of those who have been recognized for their faithful walk.
The other word is “surrounded.” The author has chosen it carefully. We get an idea of its strength from its other occurrences in the New Testament.
• Mark 9:42 and Luke 17:2 use it in connection with the horrifying end for the person who causes Jesus’ little ones to stumble in their faith. There Jesus says it would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be drowned in the sea.
• In Acts 28:20, the apostle Paul, a prisoner under Roman guard, uses the word to describe how he is bound by his chain.
• And the author of Hebrews uses the word earlier in his letter in Hebrews 5:2. A high priest, he argues, is able to be faithful precisely because he shares the same basic nature as the people he serves. Specifically, because he is “beset with weakness,” he is able to exercise compassion toward others who struggle in their walk.
I do not think we are out of bounds if we apply these meanings to Hebrews 12:1. We are tied, bound, and even beset by the witnesses in chapter 11. In other words, they are here to stay. To use a modern figure of speech, they corral us. When we carry on the faith, we run in their shadow.
The author wrote to a group of believers who faced severe grief and loss themselves (Heb. 10:32-36; 13:23). This truth cemented them to the community of hope, and called them back to task. Yes, when we face deep loss, the pain can be unbearable. But we find two sources of comfort.
• First, God himself encourages us, and in a time of his choosing, calls us back into the running.
• Second, the other runners call us back as well, because our race belongs to them as much as it belongs to us. When we run the race, we run the long relay that began with the saints from the beginning of time and continues to the saints at the end of time. We are connected to those who have gone before, and they are connected with us.
The realization, that the saints carry such a strong interest in our race is the other truth that my elder sister in the faith missed. And it is the one that reconnected me to Marie in my thinking. Yes, she worships before the throne, but she has not forgotten me or the rest of our family, or our universal Christian family who carries on the walk of faith. This is hope, the prospect for a brighter future. It is the basis for joy. According to the writer to the Hebrews, our ultimate joy begins to emerge when we embrace our call to continue our race. The collective hall of saints corrals us. The Scripture invites us to listen for their cheers.
