Faith

πίστις

אֱמוּנָה

Trust that takes God at his word.

FAITH

1. Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority and veracity, without other evidence; the judgment that what another states or testifies is the truth. I have strong faith or no faith in the testimony of a witness, or in what a historian narrates.

In Scripture, faith is trust in God that rests on what he has said. Hebrews 11:1 calls it "assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen" — a settled confidence about what God has promised but not yet shown. It begins with God himself: whoever comes to him "must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him" (Hebrews 11:6).

Faith is also the way a person receives what God gives. We are "justified by faith" (Romans 5:1) and saved "by grace ... through faith" (Ephesians 2:8); the gift is God's, and faith is how it is received. And because it is trust in a person, it goes on living: "the righteous shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4).

Faith is not a leap in the dark or a feeling worked up from within. It looks away from itself to someone trustworthy, and its strength lies in the one trusted, not in the one trusting. That is why the heroes of Hebrews 11 are remembered for what they did because God had spoken: Noah built, Abraham went out, Moses left Egypt.

Faith also involves the whole person. It hears and believes, but it also leans its weight on God and obeys. James 2:17 warns that faith "if it have not works, is dead in itself" — living trust shows itself in what it does. Galatians 2:20 puts it simply: "that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith."

The English word faith is overwhelmingly a New Testament word in the ASV, where it translates pistis and is gathered most thickly in Romans, Hebrews and Galatians. The same Greek word can mean trust, conviction, or faithfulness, and its verb is usually rendered "believe" — so the idea runs wider than the count of the noun.

In the Old Testament the idea is everywhere even where the word is rare. Emunah speaks of firmness and steadiness, and is most often translated "faithfulness"; it comes from the same root as amen. Abraham "believed in Jehovah" (Genesis 15:6), and the psalms call again and again for trust in God.

Terms

• faith

Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him; but the righteous shall live by his faith.

The prophet's line that Paul takes up in Romans and Galatians: the righteous live by trusting God.

And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

Jesus points faith to its proper object — not faith in faith, but in God.

And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

Faith can be small and can grow, and the apostles ask the Lord himself to increase it.

For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith.

The gospel reveals God's righteousness, received by faith from beginning to end.

Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;

Justification by faith brings a settled peace with God.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

Faith is not a single moment but a whole life lived trusting the Son of God.

for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Grace is the source of salvation and faith the means by which it is received.

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.

The Bible's nearest thing to a definition: confidence about what is hoped for and unseen.

and without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.

Faith believes that God is, and that he rewards those who seek him.

Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.

Living faith shows itself in what it does; a faith with no works is dead.

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