Faith

Faith is a word thrown about even by irreligious politicians seeking votes. It is also sometimes used as theological jargon, tending to obscure its true meaning. In the English Holy Bible, believe is the verb form and faith is the noun form of what is basically the same Greek word. Thus, faith and believe refer to the same concept: to trust and be committed to; less importantly, persuasion, confidence, and assurance. The English words trust and believe, on the other hand, are slightly different from one another; we may trust someone completely, but not believe a particular statement he makes. With respect to our Lord Jesus Christ, that is never acceptable thinking. The Old Testament is full of exhortations to trust God. Faith is rarely used to translate the Hebrew, but the concept is the same as faith in the New Testament where that word is widely used. Thus, there is great continuity between the Testaments concerning one of the most important commands of God to us. As noted above, no human is able to evaluate or judge God, His being, or His works. Therefore, trusting God, having faith in God, is the only possible rational and acceptable response of the human to God. Obedience and love of God and neighbor will naturally flow from true saving faith in God.

There is nothing wrong with seeking evidences in the Scriptures or good history or science in order to strengthen our assurance or persuasion of particular truths about God; such can be helpful and edifying. But fundamentally, faith is not just persuasion, but an act of the will, a choice we make, and must make, to trust in God and Christ, even in the face of apparently absent or contrary evidence. In this sense, faith resembles courage. Courage is not absence of fear, but doing the right thing in spite of fear. Likewise, faith is exercised when one obeys God and trusts in Christ, even if there is supposed evidence to the contrary or we have emotional doubts or intellectual uncertainty. And, the exercise of faith builds persuasion.