While I understand that your primary concern is probably the question of the necisity of Baptism, you avoided the question in my last posting. I find it difficult to believe that you would affirm that our obedience saves us, yet you have passed up the opportunity to deny it. The author has come to the point where he is preparing his readers for some application of his point.
Faith is that which stands under , or the foundation, of things hoped for.
In other words, our faith is the legal title to what we hope for from Christ. And most of all, faith in this passage appears to be a noun , something we possess , not a verb or action. By faith unnamed men escaped the edge of the sword While there is obviously a relationship in these verses between faith and action, the action is often God's action while the list portrays the person with faith as inactive, simply having faith. Nor does it imply that God will not still achieve His purposes in me if I disobey. Well, maybe .