NOTES for Heb 11:32-40
Concluding the discussion of faith and faithfulness, the author of the epistle mentions many cases of those testimonies of faithfulness to God and to the covenant made with Him, cases that would take so long to list that he simply would not have enough time for such a listing (vv. 32-38). But none of them, the author says, received what was promised, because they could receive it only together with those for whom, in his words, "God had provided something better," those who, having become witnesses of the Savior's coming into the world, through Him shared in the life of the Kingdom, "having been made perfect" (vv. 39-40). Clearly, this refers to that fullness of the Kingdom which, of course, could not be opened to the world before the coming of the Messiah. But now, when the Kingdom, according to the Savior's word, has "drawn near" and opened itself to the world, transforming it more and more, it turned out that all who had sought it and waited for it, regardless of when they lived and when they completed their earthly path, received the possibility of sharing in the fullness of life that they had sensed beforehand but could not receive. Clearly, the action of the breath of God that permeates the Kingdom extends not only to the present and the future, but also to the past.
Of course, within the boundaries of our world, which has not yet been transformed, such an effect on the past would be completely impossible, but the Kingdom lives by other laws, and, as it spreads in the world, it clearly includes within its boundaries not only all existing space, but also all existing time (or, as it appears to us, all times, both the present and all others, whether past or not yet come). Of course, this does not mean at all that everything that has ever happened or is happening in the world today automatically becomes part of the Kingdom, transformed and brought into its life. Only what is akin to the Kingdom, what does not contradict its nature and its laws, can enter it. The evil in which, according to the Savior's word, the world lies today will have no place in the Kingdom, just as there will be no place in it for those who consciously choose the path of evil. But those who have chosen the Kingdom and the path of righteousness will enter it even if the laws of the untransformed world do not allow such a thing: for they are one with the Kingdom, the Kingdom is their spiritual homeland, and therefore, as soon as its laws reach our world, which has not yet been transformed, those who sought and awaited the Kingdom immediately find themselves in it and begin to live by its laws, while the laws of the untransformed world lose all power over them. Only in this way can the triumph of the Kingdom become complete; only in this way can every seeker obtain it, regardless of when he was destined to pass through his earthly path.