What does the Bible say about faith?
Faith runs through Scripture as the one principle by which people have always been linked to God — from Abraham's long story in Genesis to the roll-call of Hebrews 11, and on into the letters where it is named some 240 times. The passages raise a few sharp questions: what does faith actually do, where does it come from, what is it looking at, and how can you tell whether yours is alive.
What faith does — Hebrews 11:1
The chapter opens with a description that commentators read as an account of faith's working rather than a dictionary entry. One writer pictures it as an instrument that brings distant realities into focus:
F. B. HoleThe first verse defines, not what faith is in the abstract, but what it does in practice. It is "the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." … Faith then is the telescope that brings into our view the unseen truths of which God speaks; making them real to us, giving us assurance of them, and turning them into solid substance in our hearts.
Another puts the same thing as certainty about a promise not yet in hand:
J. N. DarbyPerfect certainty of realisation is the effect of faith. The definition of faith is that it "sets to its seal that God is true." It remains that, what we hope for, we with patience wait for. The promise is just as certain as if we had the fulfilment of it.
Where faith comes from — Romans 10:17 and Ephesians 2:8
Paul traces faith back to something heard, and that hearing to God's word:
A J PollockHearing is by the Word of God — the Word of God is the only Book that brings a positive revelation of God and His truth, and hearing comes by it, not merely the physical act of responding to sounds, to spoken words, but the real hearing of the Word, receiving it into the soul. And if hearing is by the Word of God, faith comes by hearing — that mysterious something that gives a link of the soul with God, that sets the soul at a different angle and in a different relation to everything it was formerly related to.
Ephesians 2:8 pushes the credit further back still. Commentators note the grammar has been disputed, yet hold the sense:
J. N. DarbyI know well it is said that "that" does not agree grammatically with faith — let it be so, but it does not agree with grace either; and to say that grace is not of ourselves is nonsense, for grace means of another… this is why the apostle asserts, "and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
Faith's object — a Person, not itself
Because faith is a gift, examining it for reassurance defeats it. One writer names this as the point where decline sets in:
The Bible TreasuryWhat is faith without an object? Men may speak of faith, and even boast of it; but if Christ as the one object does not fill the eye and heart, all the talk about faith is mere imagination… It may seem to some a paradox, but it is no less true that when faith looks at itself, it ceases to be faith.
The pastoral use of this is direct — the cure for "I can't believe" is a change of gaze:
George CuttingHe had been looking at faith as an indescribable something he must feel inside himself in order to be sure he was all right for heaven, whereas faith always looks outside to a living Person and His finished work, and quietly listens to the testimony of a faithful God about both. It is the outside look that brings the inside peace.
Justified by faith — Romans 4 and 5
Romans 4:5 says faith is counted for righteousness. That must not be read as a transaction in which faith is the payment:
F. B. HoleAbraham is the great example of what is meant (verse 3). He — and we — are accounted or held by God as righteous in view of faith. That is its simple meaning. Faith brings in all the justifying merits of the blood of Christ; these are the great basis of that righteousness.
Romans 5:1 then names the result, and commentators distinguish the peace made from the peace enjoyed:
F. B. HoleNo one has "to make their peace with God." Nor could they make peace with God if they had to do it. Christ is the Maker of peace. He made it, not by His life of singular beauty and perfection, but by His death… The only possible basis for the peace enjoyed inside us is the peace made outside us when the blood of the cross was shed.
Living by faith — Habakkuk 2:4, 2 Corinthians 5:7
Hebrews 11 is read as an extended commentary on a line first given to a prophet troubled by his times:
F. B. HoleIt has been suggested that in the three New Testament quotations of that little text the emphasis falls on a different word each time, and very clearly here the emphasis is upon the word "live." The point here is not that we start by faith, nor that we are saved and justified by faith, but that we live by it. It is the great operative principle of Christian life.
That daily walking is contrasted with Israel's visible guidance in the wilderness:
William KellyFor we walk through faith, not through sight (2 Cor. 5:7). It was not so that Israel marched through the wilderness, but guided visibly by the cloud or the pillar of fire. The Christian now, whether a Jew or a Gentile, has to walk through faith, of which the Lord Himself was the blessed pattern and perfection.
Dead faith and living faith — James 2
James allows that something can carry the name and still be lifeless:
F. B. HoleIt is human faith, mere head belief, and not the living faith that finds its spring in God. Demons share this faith, as the following verses show. It appears on the surface to be much like real faith, but on closer inspection it is seen to be false. It "has not works." It is a fruitless tree, with nothing but leaves.
Summary
- Source. Faith is not produced by us: it comes by hearing God's word, and Ephesians 2:8 attributes it to God's gift.
- Object. It looks outward to Christ and His finished work; the moment faith studies itself, it stops being faith.
- Reckoning. God accounts the believer righteous in view of faith — not as payment exchanged, but because faith brings in the merits of Christ's blood.
- Walk. What justifies also becomes the daily principle: the just live by faith, walking without the visible guidance Israel had.
- Evidence. Living faith bears works; faith that produces nothing is a tree with leaves only, a belief demons also hold.