By Faith, the Believers Experienced God’s Better Blessing
39 All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us. (Hebrews 11:39-40)
Everyone we have spoken of the past weeks in the “Hall of Faith,” were “approved through their faith.” Because of Christ dying on the cross and resurrecting, believers have eternal life and know who the Promised Messiah is. Yet, with the Old Testament believers, they did not know who the Messiah was going to be. “They did not receive what was promised.” They lived their entire lives never actually seeing or knowing the fulfilment of the promised Savior. Yet, through their faith in God that He was going to eventually provide the Savior, that in turn, allowed them to experience heaven. As Lea writes, “They lived and died in the hope of a fulfillment which none of them saw on earth. The reaping of the benefits did not occur until Christ opened the box of spiritual treasures.”
Finally, verse 40 is a small warning from the author to their Jewish Christian readers. After seeing all the great things the Old Testament saints accomplished through faith, the author urges them to not get complacent, but continue the work “since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.” The Old Testament believers had faith in the Promised Messiah and were able to accomplish great things for God’s glory. Therefore, since God has already provided His Son, which is so much better, believers should boldly live by faith and accomplish what God wants them to do.
Through Jesus Christ being revealed as the redemption plan of God to allow everyone who believes in Him to experience eternal life, believers of the present day should continue to spread the message of this saving gospel. And in the end of all time, both past and present believers will be reunited together, as seen in Ephesians 1:9-10,
“9 He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ 10 as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.”
Blessings,
Isaac De Guzman
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