A Few Thoughts About Faith
One of the great vital subjects of the Bible, and of the New Testament in particular, is faith, for it is by faith that we receive the grace of God that saves us and provides for every need we have in Christian life. We walk by faith, not by sight. Yet there is misunderstanding as to what faith is, with sometimes very regrettable results. Thus we will think for a few minutes about the definition of faith.
The great problem with the matter of faith is that in the English language we have identified it with belief: faith/belief, have faith/believe. It is true that belief is an element of faith, but it is not all there is to faith, and therein lies the problem. In English the word believe can mean simply to accept a proposition as true. Two and two are four. There is a nation called Bolivia. I believe these propositions, but the latter will never have any significance for me unless I decide to travel to Bolivia or it becomes important for some other unanticipated reason. It really does not matter whether I believe there is a Bolivia or not. It will not help me to believe it or hurt me not to believe it.
But faith is much more than the acceptance of a proposition as true. It is that, but that is only one side of the coin. Faith is not just intellectual acceptance of a statement, but it is an action word, though the action may be simply declaring that something is true and waiting on the basis of it. Faith acts on what it believes. If there is no action, there is no faith. This is the reason James could write that faith without works is dead and that Abraham and Rahab were justified by works. Did he disagree with Paul on justification by faith? No, he simply meant that faith that does not work is no faith at all. Faith works. If it does not, it is not faith. There is a fine line. Faith is not a work, but faith works. It is the faith that saves, but the work that says it is real faith.
The great tragedy lies in stopping with belief as the acceptance of a proposition as true. In the New Testament people experienced the Lord Jesus. They were convicted of their sins, they accepted the forgiveness and justification he offered by his death and resurrection, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and knew it at once. They were forever changed by their Lord and Savior. Later they developed theology, doctrinal statements that explained what had taken place. The development of such doctrines was not wrong in itself, and indeed can be very helpful. I am making statements in this article that need to be evaluated doctrinally to see if they are true or if they are misleading God’s people, deliberately or otherwise. But over time what occurred was that people who had experienced the Lord Jesus then put their experiences into doctrines, then believed the doctrines and taught them, stating that others should believe them, too, since they were correct Christian doctrine. Others believed the doctrines. At some point many believed the doctrines intellectually as acceptance of propositions as true without having experienced the Lord, but because they believed the correct theology they were considered Christians. Slowly faith as belief PLUS surrender and obedience became just belief. Soon the church was filled with people who believed Christian doctrine, but did not know the Lord. The problem persists to this day. I suspect that there will be people in hell who believed Christian doctrine in this life.
A good passage from the Bible to use to illustrate this truth from the negative side is Heb. 3.18-19: “To whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest except to those who did not obey? And we see that they were not able to enter because of ‘unfaith.’” I have deliberately translated unfaith to make my point. The writer shows that there were two elements in the failure of Israel to enter God’s rest, disobedience and unbelief, the two sides of the coin of faith. It is very instructive to us that the word used for “did not obey” is the negative of a Greek word that means first to be convinced or persuaded that something is true, and then to act on the basis of such conviction. If we believe what the Bible says, it is disobedience not to live by it.
Conversely, it is obedience to live by it, and that combination of belief or conviction and obedience is faith. Without the obedience there is no faith, only intellectual agreement. Intellectual agreement does not enter into God’s rest, or gain anything else from God that he has provided.
It would be good if we stopped using the words “believe” and “belief” and instead used “have faith” and “faith” and taught clearly what faith is: belief PLUS action based on the belief. Perhaps this is not a practical suggestion, but it points out the need.
It must be stated that the believe side of faith is believing what God says (Rom. 10.17). It is not believing just anything. A great error of our day is the teaching that if you want something, believe God for it and you will get it. That is not faith because it does not begin with believing what God says. It is believing whatever I want to believe. If God does not speak, there can be no faith, precisely because faith begins with believing what he says. Of course, he has spoken in the Scriptures and we can believe everything in them. That in itself, though, is not faith. It is when we believe what God says and surrender our lives to him to live on the basis of what he says that we have faith. There will probably be people in hell who believed the Bible from cover to cover in this life.
God can also speak to us about his will for us or about decisions we must make. These specific words would not necessarily be in Scripture, but they must be evaluated in the light of the written word. God will not speak in disagreement with the Bible. If we have direction that goes against the Bible, we can be sure it is not God speaking and we can disbelieve it and not act on it. God does speak today, but the devil does, too, so we need to be very careful about what we think we hear from him. People have committed murder because a voice told them to. That voice was against the Scriptures and was not the voice of God. In addition to searching the Scriptures about our guidance, it is invaluable to be in fellowship with others who know the Lord deeply and can pray with us for clear direction and give wise counsel. Ultimately we must make our own decisions, but God has provided sufficient safeguards for us avoid going the wrong way.
An example will picture the truth we are trying to establish. A tight wire performer says that he can push a wheelbarrow across a chasm on a tight wire. He asks if anyone believes he can do it. Many raise their hands. That is belief. He challenges those who believe to get into the wheelbarrow. If anyone does, that is faith. If not, there is only empty, useless belief. God give us grace to exercise faith in him and his word, believe him and act on the basis of that belief.
Copyright © 2002 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others,
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