Faith is belief in something that can’t be touched, seen, or otherwise proved. In the Bible, faith describes belief in God.
DEFINITION OF FAITH
In the Old Testament and New Testament, faith carries several meanings. It may mean simple trust in God or in the Word of God, but it can also mean active obedience to God. Faith can also be expressed by saying verbal creeds, such as the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed, which many churches recite every week during worship. Faith thus comes to mean all the beliefs that make up Christianity-“the truth.” In Colossians 2:7, the word is used to mean something that Christians accept and attempt to live out in their lives. In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul describes himself as one who has “kept the faith.”
FAITH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Old Testament depicts faith as a continued belief in Israel’s God and in the covenant that God made with Israel. The Old Testament, beginning with the story of Abraham, tells the story of how that covenant was made and kept. God sustained and protected Israel from the beginning, and led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. In return, the people obeyed God without seeing him, and this set the pattern for faithfulness in the Old Testament. Abraham left his native land to go into unknown territory. The people of Israel followed God out of Egypt to a land they could not see. The promise of God gave them courage to possess the land promised to them. The covenant of Abraham was confirmed with the people of Israel by the sprinkling of blood (Exodus 24:6-7). The entire country, as a group, was ordered to show its faith in God by obeying God’s commands.
Old Testament poetry, as well as the writings of prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, also talks about faith. Again and again, the writers of the Psalms express their belief that God will protect them, even in the darkest of times. Habakkuk points out that “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hebrews 2:4). While the early parts of the Old Testament-Genesis, Exodus, and other books dealing with Israel’s history-often discuss faith as shown by whole nations or groups of people, these later books talk about the ways individuals can show faith through private actions.
FAITH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
If the Old Testament emphasizes God’s faithfulness to humans, the New Testament pays more attention to the faith humans can show when they hear and believe God’s word.
MATTHEW, MARK, AND LUKE
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke often use the word “faith” without naming what it is that people have faith in: “If you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed” (Matthew 17:20); “When Jesus saw their faith” (Mark 2:5); “Your faith has saved you” (Luke 7:50). Jesus’ work and his words make faith possible. The question is not whether the faith is in Jesus or in the Father; we are expected to have faith in both.
In the Gospels, Jesus is sometimes asked to work a miracle in order to prove that he is the Messiah, and he refuses many of these requests (Matthew 12:38-39; 16:1-4). He desires people to have faith in his word alone, without props or displays of power. Jesus’ Word demands that we surrender ourselves and commit to it; thus, it is a problem for the proud and the powerful.
In fact, Matthew, Mark, and Luke indicate that we can only see the power of God if we have faith-not the other way around. Faith can move mountains, heal the sick, and is the means of entrance into the kingdom. It may be mingled with doubt, as with the father who sought healing for his son (“I believe; help my unbelief!” [Mark 9:24]), or as with John the Baptist in prison, whom Jesus called the greatest man ever born to a woman even after he had doubted Jesus (Matthew 11:2-15). Peter (and the other disciples) often failed to understand Jesus, yet Jesus made Peter the foundation of the church. These three Gospels show us the weaknesses and limitations of the disciples’ faith, yet their faith is still real, because they respond positively to Jesus’ life and work.
JOHN’S GOSPEL
Faith is very important to the Gospel of John. Often the word has to do with the simple acceptance that something is true: “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me” (John 14:11); “If you believed Moses, you would believe me” (John 5:46).
John also talks of “believing into,” putting one’s trust into another. In John 3:16, whoever puts trust in Jesus has eternal life. Those who put their trust in him are given power to become sons of God-to be born of God (John 1:12). They will never thirst (6:35); they will live, even though they die (11:25).
In John 11:15 Jesus arrives after the death of Lazarus and is glad “in order that you might believe.” Similarly, in the prologue (1:7), John the Baptist bears witness in order that through him all might believe. As Jesus satisfies the doubt of Thomas concerning the Resurrection, he says, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (20:29). In these and other passages the result of Jesus’ witness to himself is trust.
Faith and knowledge are closely related. In John 6:69 Peter says, “We have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” In his prayer Jesus says that eternal life is to “know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Also, God is seen through the eyes of faith. No one has ever seen God, but his Only Begotten Son has revealed him (1:18). He who has seen Jesus has seen the Father (14:9).
To get at the kind of “belief” he means, John often uses the word “receive.” Those who receive Christ are given power to become the sons of God (John 1:12). Trust is a way of seeing, a way of looking at something, that allows the glory of God to be made present (1:14; 17:4).
PAUL’S WRITINGS
Paul writes about faith from a number of angles. He contrasts faith with “works of the law,” and says that faith is the only basis for righteousness (Romans 1-4; Galatians 1-4). He uses the example of Abraham to make his point: “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6; see also Romans 4:5; Galatians 3:6). This is entirely apart from the law (Romans 3:21); righteousness is the gift of God through faith in Christ and his atoning work. Paul is deeply aware of sin as a force that pervades everyone everywhere, making us helpless and unable to do good. Humanity is dead in sin but is made alive by faith in the word and work of Jesus through the gospel.
Faith, then, is faith in Jesus Christ. Paul uses a staggering number of metaphors to describe the things that this faith in Christ can do. It is by faith that believers are justified (Romans 5:1), reconciled (2 Corinthians 5:18), redeemed (Ephesians 1:7), made alive (2:5), adopted into the family of God (Romans 8:15-16), re-created (2 Corinthians 5:17), transported into a new kingdom (Colossians 1:13), and set free (Galatians 5:1). For Paul, faith is the basis of salvation.
It is also bound up with love; faith and love are so closely related that Paul, in writing about faith, must also write a great deal about Christian love. To say that faith is what saves us is only part of the truth, for faith expresses itself through love: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6); “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). Love is the beginning of faith, and at the same time, the ultimate expression of faith. Because of this, not even Paul can totally separate faith from works. The love Paul speaks of is a fruit of the Spirit, who allows us to live the life of faith. Only by virtue of the indwelling Spirit does faith find expression in love.
GENERAL EPISTLES
James speaks of faith as being completed by works (James 2:22). He opposed the idea that one can be saved simply by believing Jesus’ word without acting on it. Faith without works is not faith; it is barren (v 20). Much of James’s letter focuses on the practical dimension of faith.
The writer of Hebrews recognizes that faith has always been the thing that sets the people of God apart, especially their leaders. Faith makes unsure and murky things solid and certain; it allows us to see what is not visible. By faith the people of God have firm ground for their lives and their actions that the world cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). The great cloud of witnesses (12:1) bear testimony by their faith to the faithfulness of God.
Faith is opened up by the Word of God, is expressed through the Holy Spirit, and testifies to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
