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What is Faith? Do You Have it?
By Lane Joffrion | December 27, 2006
What is faith? Do you have faith? Do you have the faith spoken of in the Bible? How can you know? Can you understand what Biblical faith is and be enabled to examine your own life to see if you have it? I believe the answers to these last two questions are ‘yes’ and ‘yes’!But I also wonder if many Bible readers and people in the world’s churches often think of faith in a way that is less Biblical and more of a generic, vague, hope that things will turn out all right in the end. And this especially seems true when we Christians are confused or fearful in the various circumstances of our lives. We can’t exactly say why, but we seem to cling to a hope that everything will turn out OK! Exactly what “everything” is and what ‘OK’ means is often a vague feeling, but we are hoping everything will be OK anyway. This is not the faith of the Apostles.
In a glorious way, the Bible – the very Word of God – gives us a more tangible and defined description of what faith is and how its presence in our lives leads us to actions which we can see and know are the result of Biblical faith. By understanding God’s Words on the subject of ‘faith’, our faith and our resolve to live by faith can be strengthened. The author of Hebrews tells us that “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). The term for ‘assurance’ is a word which in this usage means substructure or foundation or that which provides a stable platform for or is the ground of what is hoped for. The term for ‘conviction’ means proof of or that by which invisible things are proved and we are convinced of their reality – i.e. convicted of. So the gist of this statement is that faith is that which gives us assurance and conviction or a ‘convinced-ness’ of certain things which are hoped for and as yet are unseen or unrealized.
Now what are these things that the writer speaks of? They are things spoken of in the Bible – works done by God, promised by God, foretold by God. They are not just any “thing’’ one might hope for such as good school grades, or cars which run trouble free, or to be promoted at your job. They are the spiritual things hoped for by those who have heard the Word of God, have listened to His promises, and have considered what to expect. These are all the things taught of in the Blessed Holy Scriptures. These are the “things” of which faith is the assurance and conviction.
Now, how would a person live if he or she had such a ‘faith’ that brought about assurance and convictions of things hoped for and unseen? Indeed, they would live their lives making choices based upon their assurances and convictions! That is if they really and actually had assurances and convictions of the things spoken of in the Scriptures. Their lives would be marked by choices and decisions based upon these assurances and convictions. This is indeed what faith is! It is the assurance of the Truth of the Words of God and the convictions to act on what is not yet seen. It is conduct of one’s life as if the Word of God is true! Sounds simple doesn’t it?
But isn’t this exactly the picture we see of faith in the Bible? The examples given by the writer of Hebrews illustrate this faith. If you read further in Hebrews chapter 11, you will see that “By faith Noah … prepared an ark” (v. 7), and that “By faith Abraham … obeyed by going out” (v. 8 ), and that “By faith Abraham … offered up Issac” (vs. 17), and that “By faith [Moses] kept the passover and the sprinkling of the blood” (v. 28). You can see that the assurance and convictions of Noah, Abraham, and Moses led them to make choices and take decisions about what they would and would not do. This is what faith is! This is what faith does in a person!
Now where do you learn what is promised by God, what are His works, what He says we can expect? One learns this in the Bible – in the Word of God. Learning what God says in his Word is how we will know what to be assured of and what unseen things we can be convicted of. Isn’t this what Paul indicates in Romans 10:17 when he writes that “faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ”? And Paul also indicates this in Galatians 3:5 when he says that God provided them with the Holy Spirit and worked miracles amongst them “by hearing with faith”! Thus to have faith, we must be hearers and readers and studiers of the Scriptures for without familiarity with God’s Word we cannot have the assurances or convictions of His message. So then faith is a belief in God’s Word which leads to actions and decisions and life choices and this faith comes from Bible hearing, reading, and studying. It sounds so simple doesn’t it? But it is true. How can you know if you have Biblical faith? Look at the decisions and choices you make in life. What convictions have you expressed by making choices? What assurances you have demonstrated by the decisions which you have taken in life for yourself or your family? If you are choosing to live life in a certain manner because of what you read in the Bible – because of what you read in God’s living Word, then you have faith! If you have chosen to live life by following Christ, by not stealing or not lying to get ahead, or by honoring God in your handling of money, by not cheating on tests in school, or by self sacrificial love for those people around you, then you have faith and you have the faith spoken of in the Bible. All these acts and more become our “steps of faith” in imitating Abraham (Rms 4:12). We can see this very picture of faith, of belief working itself out in actions, in other examples in the Scriptures.
- See the example of Paul in 2 Cor 4:13 as he mentions speaking because of his belief.
- Paul points to the Thessalonians “work of faith” in 1 Thess 1:3 and 2 Thess 1:11.
- Paul urges Timothy to “fight the good fight of faith” in 1 Tim 6:12.
- Paul says the he has “kept the faith” by fighting and finishing the course in 2 Tim 4:7.
- The writer of Hebrews recognizes that the faith of the Hebrew’s leaders resulted in the way they conducted their lives and urged the Hebrews to imitate them (Heb 13:7).
- James wrote that “faith without works is dead” because real Biblical faith involves works based upon our Biblical assurances and convictions (James 2:18-20, 26).
And even more, we can see faith pictured in the actions of those who believed Jesus – the four friends of the paralytic who climbed a house and made a hole in the roof for the expected benefit of a friend (Mark 2:1-5); The centurion who was concerned for his servant (Matt 8:5-10) and ‘knew’ that it was not necessary for Christ to come to his house; The woman with a 12 year hemorrhage who believed she could be healed by touching Christ and acted upon her belief (Matt 9:19-22); and the Canaanite woman pleading for her daughter who was so sure of the opportunity to help her daughter that she vigorously pursued her cause before the Lord (Matt 15:21-28). Jesus remarked at the great faith of all these and the faith that they had led them to have certain assurances and convictions and thereupon to choose certain decisions and take certain actions.
So I hope you won’t let faith be a vague, misty, cloudy concept for you any longer. Faith is not an undefined hope that “things” will all work out in the end. Faith is an assurance of specific hopes and convictions of specific unseen things that God has said or promised will come to pass and that based on these assurances and convictions I will choose to live out the details of my life in certain ways and I will choose not live my life in certain other ways. These assurances and convictions arise from knowing the Scripture – from knowing God’s Word. Thus, let us ask ourselves “Do we have faith?” and let us answer with a resounding ‘yes’ in the way we choose to live now, driven by our Biblical assurances and convictions.
Topics: Faith |
January 27th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
“Faith is an assurance of specific hopes and convictions of specific unseen things that God has said or promised will come to pass and that based on these assurances and convictions I will choose to live out the details of my life in certain ways”
- If we truly grasped this concept, Lifeway Bookstores would go out of business. L’Abri rhymes with L’Katy.
- Great commentary here, Mr. Joffrian.
January 27th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Matt,
It is good to hear from you, and to see that you read the blog. I hope to update it more frequently. Lesson for the seminary student: a pastor never has as much time as he would like!