Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 11:3

"By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear." — Hebrews 11:3 (ASV)

“By faith” runs through the chapter with compelling emphasis. For the most part it is attached to the deeds of the great ones of previous generations. Here, however, the writer and his readers are involved in the “we.” Faith is a present reality, not exclusively the property of past heroes. Faith gives us convictions about creation. Belief in the existence of the world is not faith, nor is it faith when people hold that the world was made out of some preexisting “stuff.” But when we understand that it was the Word of God that produced all things, that is faith. The emphasis on God’s word agrees with Ge 1, with its repeated “And God said.” The point is emphasized with the explicit statement that the visible did not originate from the visible. For the author the visible universe is not sufficient to account for itself. But it is faith, not something material, that assures him that it originated with God. This world is God’s world, and faith assures him that God originated it.