Faith

General Information
Faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true (Phil. 1:27; 2 Thess. 2:13). Its primary idea is trust. A thing is true, and therefore worthy of trust. It admits of many degrees up to full assurance of faith, in accordance with the evidence on which it rests. Faith is the result of teaching (Rom. 10:14-17). Knowledge is an essential element in all faith, and is sometimes spoken of as an equivalent to faith (John 10:38; 1 John 2:3). Yet the two are distinguished in this respect, that faith includes in it assent, which is an act of the will in addition to the act of the understanding Assent to the truth is of the essence of faith, and the ultimate ground on which our assent to any revealed truth rests is the veracity of God.

Historical faith is the apprehension of and assent to certain statements which are regarded as mere facts of history. Temporary faith is that state of mind which is awakened in men (e.g., Felix) by the exhibition of the truth and by the influence of religious sympathy, or by what is sometimes styled the common operation of the Holy Spirit. Saving faith is so called because it has eternal life inseparably connected with it. It cannot be better defined than in the words of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism: "Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel." The object of saving faith is the whole revealed Word of God.

Faith accepts and believes it as the very truth most sure. But the special act of faith which unites to Christ has as its object the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 7:38; Acts 16:31). This is the specific act of faith by which a sinner is justified before God (Rom. 3:22, 25; Gal. 2:16; Phil. 3:9; John 3:16-36; Acts 10:43; 16:31). In this act of faith the believer appropriates and rests on Christ alone as Mediator in all his offices. This assent to or belief in the truth received upon the divine testimony has always associated with it a deep sense of sin, a distinct view of Christ, a consenting will, and a loving heart, together with a reliance on, a trusting in, or resting in Christ. It is that state of mind in which a poor sinner, conscious of his sin, flees from his guilty self to Christ his Saviour, and rolls over the burden of all his sins on him. It consists chiefly, not in the assent given to the testimony of God in his Word, but in embracing with fiducial reliance and trust the one and only Saviour whom God reveals. This trust and reliance is of the essence of faith.

By faith the believer directly and immediately appropriates Christ as his own. Faith in its direct act makes Christ ours. It is not a work which God graciously accepts instead of perfect obedience, but is only the hand by which we take hold of the person and work of our Redeemer as the only ground of our salvation. Saving faith is a moral act, as it proceeds from a renewed will, and a renewed will is necessary to believing assent to the truth of God (1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:4). Faith, therefore, has its seat in the moral part of our nature fully as much as in the intellectual. The mind must first be enlightened by divine teaching (John 6:44; Acts 13:48; 2 Cor. 4:6; Eph. 1:17, 18) before it can discern the things of the Spirit.

Faith is necessary to our salvation (Mark 16:16), not because there is any merit in it, but simply because it is the sinner's taking the place assigned him by God, his falling in with what God is doing. The warrant or ground of faith is the divine testimony, not the reasonableness of what God says, but the simple fact that he says it. Faith rests immediately on, "Thus saith the Lord." But in order to this faith the veracity, sincerity, and truth of God must be owned and appreciated, together with his unchangeableness. God's word encourages and emboldens the sinner personally to transact with Christ as God's gift, to close with him, embrace him, give himself to Christ, and take Christ as his.

That word comes with power, for it is the word of God who has revealed himself in his works, and especially in the cross. God is to be believed for his word's sake, but also for his name's sake. Faith in Christ secures for the believer freedom from condemnation, or justification before God; a participation in the life that is in Christ, the divine life (John 14:19; Rom. 6:4-10; Eph. 4:15,16, etc.); "peace with God" (Rom. 5:1); and sanctification (Acts 26:18; Gal. 5:6; Acts 15:9). All who thus believe in Christ will certainly be saved (John 6:37, 40; 10:27, 28; Rom. 8:1). The faith=the gospel (Acts 6:7; Rom. 1: 5; Gal. 1:23; 1 Tim. 3:9; Jude 3).

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Christian Faith

(Editor's Comments)
To a Christian believer, the articles of this presentation probably will make sense, but a non-believer might have great difficulty comprehending the concept of Christian Faith. For this purpose, we chose to interject an analogy here.

Imagine that a very nice stranger came to your town, and that he asked you to do something that would be very difficult for you. He asks you to collect ALL the money and assets you have ever accumulated in your life, including car title, house title and all the rest, and to flush it all down a toilet! Everything! But why would you even consider doing that? Because this nice man says that once you do that, the future will bring enormous financial prosperity to you, beyond your wildest imagination!

(You might note that this analogy resembles all of the huge Lottery programs that many States now operate, but in a more extreme sense.) You certainly want to listen to this nice man, because he keeps talking about unimaginable wealth and prosperity! But why can't you just flush "a little" down the toilet? He tells you that will not work, and that you would have to flush absolutely everything that you own of material value in order for this to work.

Can you imagine the dilemma you would be contemplating? If this nice man can be trusted to be telling the truth, then you are absolutely guaranteed of unimaginable wealth. But what if it doesn't work, or if he is lying to you? In that case, everything you have ever worked for is gone forever, and you are now destitute. No "shades of gray" are available here, your choice is very simply "black or white", yes or no.

So, how do you wind up resolving this situation? You think and think, and you try to figure out this nice man. You have absolutely no evidence whatever that what he says is actually true! But the reward is so attractive that it is very hard to ignore. At some point, you will have to decide whether you really, really believe what he is saying or not, without any way to confirm your choice.

You can easily see that many people would choose to consider him a liar or a scoundrel or simply a misinformed nice man, and thereby pass on that opportunity. However, there would also be some people who would accept the offer, for any of a number of personal reasons. There are some people who are extremely trusting, and they would agree very quickly. There are others who are more cautious or skeptical, and would only agree after studying the man for a while, watching for any errors or inconsistencies, and eventually concluding that they did not see any. There are yet others who might be skeptical people, but who have recently experienced horrendous hardship and have already "lost everything" and so feel that they have little to lose. After all, if all you have in the world is a nickel, flushing that nickel down a toilet might not be unusually stressful.

This analogy is meant to show the main aspects of Faith. A person has already established something that is felt to be of (great) value, a personality and a way of living. Then along comes Christianity, which expects the person to voluntarily dismiss many of the central thoughts and behaviors which have been built up, and for what? For the "absolute promise" of future happiness and prosperity that cannot be imagined! And the "program" is such that it cannot be done "part way"; it is presented as an all or nothing choice. When each person evaluates this opportunity, the reactions and responses are many and varied. There are some who are trusting and who immediately accept. There are others who are very "practical" and who insist on "solid evidence" before agreeing, and since such absolute proof is not available, they are unwilling to make a commitment, and maybe they never will. In between, there are countless people who are attracted to the possibility of Everlasting Life and Happiness in Heaven, but who are (rightfully, in the modern world) skeptical of such amazing offers. They want to learn everything they can about what is claimed by Christianity and about this "Jesus" around Whom it all depends.

But no matter how much studying they will do, no one will ever find absolute proof that the claims (which are therefore called beliefs) of Christianity are actually true. So, however an individual arrives at that point, a "leap of Faith" is eventually necessary, if the person is to make the "total commitment" that is necessary.

It is reasonable to think of it this way: the Lord offers each person a sort of "contract". On His side, He offers entrance to Heaven and eternal Happiness. On the person's side, the contract requirements are relatively simple but absolutely required, that of a total commitment to the Lord God as the One and Only god, and of a consistent belief and behavior from that moment on. This "contract" is referred to as Salvation. The person does NOT receive a written copy of it! It is entirely on Faith that a person must continue to believe that the Salvation contract is in effect, since the actual proof will not be available until after physical death.

The scholarly articles in this presentation tend to imply that Faith is a rather cold and impersonal subject. In order for Christian Faith to develop and exist, we believe that it MUST be extremely personal and even emotional. That being the case, then dictionary definitions or ANY mere words can never fully describe it, and this analogy and these words are meant to try to express that intangible aspect of Faith.

An additional point might be made, which represents a sort of hedging around Faith! Blaise Pascal is recognized as one of the greatest minds of history. He proposed some comments that are now referred to as Pascal's wager. It was his (analytical) argument for believing in God. He first observed that the beliefs of Christianity are either true or they are not. If they are true, and one "wagers" that they are true, then Eternal Bliss is gained. If those beliefs are wrong or false, and death is final, what has the bettor lost? On the other hand, if the person wagers against God's existence and turns out to be wrong, the result is Eternal Damnation. Pascal felt that this argument avoided the need for Faith in deciding to believe in God and Christianity!

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Faith

Advanced Information
Faith is the noun corresponding to the verb "believe," for which the Hebrew is heemin, the hiphil form of aman, and the Greek (LXX and NT) pisteuo. The latter is a key word in the NT, being the term regularly used to denote the many sided religious relationship into which the gospel calls men and women, that of trust in God through Christ. The complexity of this idea is reflected in the variety of constructions used with the verb (a hoti clause, or accusative and infinitive, expressing truth believed; en and epi with the dative, denoting restful reliance on that to which, or him to whom, credit is given; eis and, occasionally, epi with the accusative, the most common, characteristic, and original NT usage, scarcely present in the LXX and not at all in classical Greek, conveying the thought of a move - ment of trust going out to, and laying hold of, the object of its confidence). The Hebrew noun corresponding to aman (emuna, rendered pistis in the LXX), regularly denotes faithfulness in the sense of trustworthiness, and pistis occasionally bears this sense in the NT (Rom. 3:3, of God; Matt. 23:23; Gal. 5:22; Titus 2:10, of man).

The word emuna normally refers to the faithfulness of God, and only in Hab. 2:4 is it used to signify man's religious response to God. There, however, the contrast in the context between the temper of the righteous and the proud self sufficiency of the Chaldeans seems to demand for it a broader sense than "faithfulness" alone, the sense, namely, of self renouncing, trustful reliance upon God, the attitude of heart of which faithfulness in life is the natural expression. This is certainly the sense in which the apostolic writers quote the text (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38), and the sense which pistis, like pisteuo, regularly carries in the NT, where both words are used virtually as technical terms (John preferring the verb, Paul the noun) to express the complex thought of unqualified acceptance of, and exclusive dependence on, the mediation of the Son as alone securing the mercy of the Father.

Both normally bear this whole weight of meaning, whether their grammatical object is God, Christ, the gospel, a truth, a promise, or is not expressed at all. Both signify commitment as following from conviction, even in contexts where faith is defined in terms of the latter only (e.g., compare Heb. 11:1 with the rest of the chapter). The nature of faith, according to the NT, is to live by the truth it receives; faith, resting on God's promise, gives thanks for God's grace by working for God's glory.

Some occasional contractions of this broad idea should be noticed:

James, alone of NT writers, uses both noun and verb to denote bare intellectual assent to truth (James 2:14 - 26). But here he is explicitly mimicking the usage of those whom he seeks to correct, Jewish converts, who may well have inherited their notion of faith from contemporary Jewish sources, and there is no reason to suppose that this usage was normal or natural to him (his reference to faith in 5:15, e.g., clearly carries a fuller meaning). In any case the point he makes, namely, that a merely intellectual "faith," such as the demons have, is inadequate, is wholly in line with the rest of the NT. For example, when James says, "Faith without works is dead" (2:26), he is saying the same as Paul, who says in essence, "Faith without works is not faith at all, but its opposite" (cf. Gal. 5:6; 1 Tim. 5:8).

Occasionally, by a natural transition, "the faith" denotes the body of truths believed (e.g., Jude 3; Rom. 1:5; Gal. 1:23; 1 Tim. 4:1, 6). This became standard usage in the second century.

From Christ himself derives a narrower use of "faith" for an exercise of trust which works miracles (Matt. 17:20 - 21; 1 Cor. 12:9; 13:2), or prompts the workings of miracles (Matt. 9: 28 - 29; 15:28; Acts 14:9). Saving faith is not always accompanied by "miracle - faith," however (1 Cor. 12:9); nor vice versa (cf. Matt. 7:22 - 23).

General Conception

Three points must be noted for the circumscribing of the biblical idea of faith:

Faith in God Involves Right Belief about God
The word "faith" in ordinary speech covers both credence of propositions ("beliefs") and confidence in persons or things. In the latter case some belief about the object trusted is the logical and psychological presupposition of the act of trust itself, for trust in a thing reflects a positive expectation about its behavior, and rational expectation is impossible if the thing's capacities for behavior are wholly unknown. Throughout the Bible trust in God is made to rest on belief of what he has revealed concerning his character and purposes. In the NT, where faith in God is defined as trust in Christ, the acknowledgment of Jesus as the expected Messiah and the incarnate Son of God is regarded as basic to it.

The writers allow that faith in some form can exist where as yet information about Jesus is incomplete (Acts 19:1ff.), but not where his divine identity and Christhood are consciously denied
1 John 2:22 - 23; 2 John 7 - 9); all that is possible then is idolatry (1 John 5:21), the worship of a manmade unreality. The frequency with which the epistles depict faith as knowing, believing, and obeying "the truth" (Titus 1:1; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:22, etc.) show that their authors regarded orthodoxy as faith's fundamental ingredient (cf. Gal. 1:8 - 9).

Faith Rests on Divine Testimony
Beliefs, as such, are convictions held on grounds, not of self evidence, but of testimony. Whether particular beliefs should be treated as known certainties or doubtful opinions will depend on the worth of the testimony on which they are based. The Bible views faith's convictions as certainties and equates them with knowledge (1 John 3:2; 5:18 - 20, etc.), not because they spring from supposedly self authenticating mystical experience, but because they rest on the testimony of a God who "cannot lie" (Titus 1:2) and is therefore utterly trustworthy. The testimony of Christ to heavenly things (John 3:11, 31 - 32), and of the prophets and apostles to Christ (Acts 10:39 - 43), is the testimony of God himself (1 John 5:9ff.); this God - inspired witness is God's own witness (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10 - 13; 1 Thess. 2:13), in such a sense that to receive it is to certify that God is true (John 3:33), and to reject it is to make God a liar (1 John 5:10).
Christian faith rests on the recognition of apostolic and biblical testimony as God's own testimony to his Son.

Faith Is a Supernatural Divine Gift
Sin and Satan have so blinded fallen men (Eph. 4:18; 2 Cor. 4:4) that they cannot discern dominical and apostolic witness to be God's word, nor "see" and comprehend the realities of which it speaks (John 3:3; 1 Cor. 2:14), nor "come" in selfrenouncing trust to Christ (John 6:44, 65), till the Holy Spirit has enlightened them (cf. 2 Cor. 4:6). Only the recipients of this divine "teaching," "drawing," and "anointing" come to Christ and abide in him (John 6:44 - 45; 1 John 2:20, 27). God is thus the author of all saving faith Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29).

Biblical Presentation
Throughout Scripture, God's people live by faith; but the idea of faith develops as God's revelation of grace and truth, on which faith rests, enlarges. The OT variously defines faith as resting, trusting, and hoping in the Lord, cleaving to him, waiting for him, making him our shield and tower, taking refuge in him, etc. Psalmists and prophets, speaking in individual and national terms respectively, present faith as unwavering trust in God to save his servants from their foes and fulfill his declared purpose of blessing them. Isaiah, particularly, denounces reliance on human aid as inconsistent with such trust (Isa. 30:1 - 18, etc.). The NT regards the self despairing hope, world renouncing obedience, and heroic tenacity by which OT believers manifested their faith as a pattern which Christians must reproduce (Rom. 4:11 - 25; Heb. 10:39 - 12:2). Continuity is avowed here, but also novelty; for faith, receiving God's new utterance in the words and deeds of Christ (Heb. 1:1 - 2), has become a knowledge of present salvation.
Faith, so regarded, says Paul, first "came" with Christ (Gal. 3:23 - 25). The Gospels show Christ demanding trust in himself as bearing the messianic salvation. John is fullest on this, emphasizing (1) that faith ("believing on," "coming to," and "receiving" Christ) involves acknowledging Jesus, not merely as a God - sent teacher and miracle worker (this is insufficient, John 2:23 - 24), but as God incarnate (John 20:28), whose atoning death is the sole means of salvation (John 3:14 - 15; 6:51 - 58); (2) that faith in Christ secures present enjoyment of "eternal life" in fellowship with God (John 5:24; 17:3). The epistles echo this, and present faith in various further relationships. Paul shows that faith in Christ is the only way to a right relationship with God, which human works cannot gain (see Romans and Galatians); Hebrews and 1 Peter present faith as the dynamic of hope and endurance under persecution.

History of Discussion
The church grasped from the first that assent to apostolic testimony is the fundamental element in Christian faith; hence the concern of both sides in the Gnostic controversy to show that their tenets were genuinely apostolic.
During the patristic period, however, the idea of faith was so narrowed that this assent came to be regarded as the whole of it. Four factors together caused this: (1) the insistence of the anti Gnostic fathers, particularly Tertullian, that the faithful are those who believe "the faith" as stated in the "rule of faith" (regula fidei), i.e., the Creed; (2) the intellectualism of Clement and Origen, to whom pistis (assent on authority) was just an inferior substitute for, and stepping stone to, gnosis (demonstrative knowledge) of spiritual things; (3) the assimilation of biblical morality to Stoic moralism, an ethic not of grateful dependence but of resolute selfreliance; (4) the clothing of the biblical doctrine of communion with God in Neoplatonic dress, which made it appear as a mystical ascent to the supersensible achieved by aspiring love, having no link with the ordinary exercise of faith at all.

Also, since the doctrine of justification was not understood, the soteriological significance of faith was misconceived, and faith (understood as orthodox) was regarded simply as the passport to baptism (remitting all past sins) and to a lifelong probation in the church (giving the baptized opportunity to make themselves worthy of glory by their good works).

The scholastics refined this view. They reproduced the equation of faith with credence, distinguishing between fides informis ("unformed" faith, bare orthodoxy) and fides caritate formata (credence "formed" into a working principle by the supernatural addition to it of the distinct grace of love). Both sorts of faith, they held, are meritorious works, though the quality of merit attaching to the first is merely congruent (rendering divine reward fit, though not obligatory), and only the second gains condign merit (making divine reward due as a matter of justice). Roman Catholicism still formally identifies faith with credence, and has added a further refinement by distinguishing between "explict" faith (belief which knows its object) and "implicit" faith (uncomprehending assent to whatever it may be that the church holds). Only the latter (which is evidently no more than a vote of confidence in the teaching church and may be held with complete ignorance of Christianity) is thought to be required of laymen for salvation. But a mere docile disposition of this sort is poles apart from the biblical concept of saving faith.

The Reformers restored biblical perspectives by insisting that faith is more than orthodoxy, not fides merely, but fiducia, personal trust and confidence in God's mercy through Christ; that it is not a meritorious work, one facet of human righteousness, but rather an appropriating instrument, an empty hand outstretched to receive the free gift of God's righteousness in Christ; that faith is God - given, and is itself the animating principle from which love and good works spontaneously spring; and that communion with God means, not an exotic rapture of mystical ecstasy, but just faith's everyday commerce with the Savior. Confessional Protestantism has always maintained these positions. In Arminianism there resides a tendency to depict faith as the human work upon which the pardon of sin is suspended, as, in fact, man's contribution to his own salvation. This would be in effect a Protestant revival of the doctrine of human merit.

Liberalism radically psychologized faith, reducing it to a sense of contented harmony with the Infinite through Christ (Schleiermacher), or a fixed resolve to follow Christ's teaching (Ritschl), or both together. Liberal influence is reflected in the now widespread supposition that "faith," understood as an optimistic confidence in the friendliness of the universe, divorced from any specific creedal tenets, is a distinctively religious state of mind. Neo orthodox and existentialist theologians, reacting against this psychologism, stress the supernatural origin and character of faith. They describe it as an active commitment of mind and will, man's repeated "yes" to the repeated summons to decision issued by God's word in Christ; but the elusiveness of their account of the content of that word makes it hard sometimes to see what the believer is thought to say "yes" to.

Clearly, each theologian's view of the nature and saving significance of faith will depend on the views he holds of the Scriptures, and of God, man, and of their mutual relations.

J I Packer
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)

Bibliography
E D Burton, Galatians; B B Warfield in H D B and Biblical and Theological Studies; G H Box in H D C G; J G Machen, What is Faith? B Citron, New Birth; systematic theologies of C Hodge (III) and L Berkhof (IV, viii); D M Baillie, Faith in God; G CBerkouwer, Faith and Justification; J Hick, Faith and Knowledge; O Becker and O Michel, N I D N T T, II; A Weiser, T D N T, VI; D M Emmet, Philosophy and Faith.

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