What is faith?
What is faith? If there’s one central theme that runs through the Bible from beginning to end, it’s faith. So, in order to really understand the Bible well, we need to have a good grasp on the concept of faith. Faith is the fundamental part of salvation (John 6:47, Romans 3:28). In fact, our only hope of eternal life in heaven rests solely on our faith in Jesus (John 3:16). Jesus tells us our prayers are answered when we pray with faith (Mark 11:24). The Bible also says we cannot please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). What’s more, faith is the foundation that we build our lives on (Galatians 3:11), and our societies too for that matter (Psalms 33:12, Romans 13:1-7). That being said, faith is a very important topic, and we should try to understand it to the best of our ability.
Now, to be honest with you, I have a very ambitious outline prepared for this blog post. In fact, I think it would be better to turn it into a Bible study and make several posts out of it instead of trying to cover everything in one post. And, to be clear, I am not writing this out of some sense that I know exactly what I’m going to say before I start. I’m writing this as an exploration of a topic that I want to know more about, and be more organized and clear in my thinking about. I know enough to know that faith is a fundamental place to start when it comes to studying the Bible, but I am far from being able to claim any more depth than that on the topic, at this point.
With that in mind, here’s what I plan to cover with this series on faith. You’ll notice that these topics are all posed as questions, and indeed I am treating them as questions that require prayer and research in order to answer correctly. We’ll see where the chips fall as to what gets included in each post.
- What is faith?
- Is belief the same as faith?
- Where do we get our faith from?
- How are we responsible for our faith?
- Why was Noah’s, and Abraham’s, and the other Old Testament saints’ faith counted to them as righteousness?
- What is it about faith in Jesus that grants us eternal life in heaven?
- What does it mean to pray with faith?
- What does it mean to live by faith?
- What is saving faith?
We will begin our journey into understanding faith with the book of Hebrews from the New Testament. Scholars think that the book of Hebrews is actually a sermon, which would have been delivered in a Jewish synagogue, that was converted to a letter. And it’s message is all about faith in Jesus Christ. The author begins with laying the foundation of why Jesus is the right and true focal point of our belief, but the end of the letter is where the idea of faith is really driven home. See, the author was trying to convince his audience that salvation is gained by faith alone in Jesus alone, and that the concept of salvation through faith was not new, but, in fact, had been well documented throughout the Old Testament scriptures.
God please help us meditate on your word, and gain understanding and wisdom from it. Amen.
What is faith?
OK. So now we have our plan, and our place to start. The first question we’re trying to answer is - what is faith? Now, you might notice that I’m not going to the dictionary to get the definition of faith. I think that the dictionary defines faith in a way that appeals to non-believers. I’m not saying that the dictionary’s definition of faith is invalid, I just think that we, as believers in God, need to have a deeper understanding of the word. Thankfully, the Bible gives us a straight forward definition of what faith is. Let’s break it down to see what insight it gives us.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
This definition has a parallel structure, which is a technique used in writing to emphasize the equal importance of multiple ideas. In this sentence “assurance” and “conviction” are presented as parallel concepts, and “things hoped for” is parallel to “things not seen.” Let’s take a closer look at these parts to try to figure out how they gel together into the word faith. To do this we’ll look at what those words mean to us - based on our modern dictionary, and what they might also mean to scholars - based on how they were translated differently in different translations of the Bible.
Assurance
Assurance has three main definitions that apply to its use here, which I will paraphrase. The first is defined as the state of being certain or confident in thought or action. The second definition says assurance is something that inspires confidence - such as giving evidence or encouragement. And third it’s defined as the action of assuring someone, such as by giving a pledge or guarantee.
The above quote of Hebrews 11:1 was taken from the English Standard Version (ESV) translation of the Bible. Other translations translate this word, assurance, as substance (KJV), reality (NLT), sure (CEV), or confidence (NIV), but most use the word assurance.
So now we see that faith, since it is, in part, defined by the word assurance, contains an element of certainty, confidence, and even a sense of having a guarantee. It is a positive, optimistic type of word. One gets the feeling that to be assured is a good thing. Now let’s take a look at it’s parallel and see if that offers us any further insight.
Conviction
Conviction also has three main definitions. Get this, the first definition given of conviction is - the act or process of finding a person guilty of a crime especially in a court of law. Second, it’s defined as a strong persuasion or belief; the state of being convinced. And third, conviction is defined as the act of convincing someone of error, or compelling the admission of truth.
Again, the word conviction in the quote from Hebrews 11:1 above is from the ESV. Other translations translate conviction as assurance (NIV), evidence (KJV and NLT), or proof (CEV).
You can see that the word conviction carries with it the sense of serious consequences. Not only is it used to describe the act of being found guilty of a crime, but also in the everyday sense of convincing someone of their mistakes, or getting them to admit the truth. It’s also defined as a strong belief. I find that striking. The fact that belief and guilt are both used to define conviction, well, that tells you it’s not something that you can just shrug off or change your mind about on a whim. It’s something that stays with you, on your permanent record - if you will, or is seared into your conscience.
Now let’s compare these two words based on their parallel usage in the definition of faith. The word assurance seems to carry an implication of optimism, or encouragement. Conviction, on the other hand, seems to be more serious and consequential. They are both concepts that convey a sense of permanence, as in a guarantee or a prison sentence. They seem to be presenting a fuller picture together than either of them could have drawn on their own. It seems that faith is a permanent mental state that carries both positive guarantees and negative consequences. It gives a sense of empowerment as well as responsibility; a sense of promise as well as judgement.
OK! I don’t know about you, but that went deeper than I thought it would. What a powerful word faith is! Thank you God for helping us understand it.
Now let’s see what we can dig up on the objects of assurance and conviction; “things hoped for” and “things not seen.” First we’ll check out the definition of hope, and then the definition of see (since it’s the root of seen), and then we’ll see how they gel together into the word faith.
Hope
Hope turns out to be quite a complex word. It is defined as both a noun and a verb. That is to say, it can be an idea - as in “Jesus is our only hope,” or an action - as in “I hope to see Him in heaven.” As a noun it’s defined as - desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment, or someone or something on which hopes are centered. And as a verb it’s defined as (I’ll paraphrase again) desiring with anticipation and expectation of obtainment or fulfillment, to expect with confidence, to trust, or to want something to happen.
I looked at how the word is translated across different versions of the Bible, and, well, they all seem to be unanimous in using the word hope.
That definition is a lot to pack into a four letter word, but I think hope boils down to basically a positive sense of desire, expectation, and trust. If we look at in the context of its phrase - “the assurance of things hoped for” - it does give a sense of positivity and promise. And as for it’s use in defining faith, it certainly gives the word an uplifting, optimistic sentiment. Now let’s take a look at hope’s parallel.
See
See is also a complex word, actually the most complex yet. It too is defined as a noun and a verb, but the noun version doesn’t apply to how it’s used in the definition of faith, so we won’t go there. Its verb form is full of it’s own complexities, though - it has 13 definitions associated with it. That being said, I’m going to narrow down the definitions I choose (paraphrasing them of course) to get to the heart of what applies to the definition of faith. There are actually three definitions of the word “see” that solidly apply to its use in defining faith. They are, one, to perceive by the eye or detect as if by sight. Two, to be aware of, imagine as a possibility, form a mental picture of, or perceive the meaning or importance of. And three, to come to know, or have the experience of. Thankfully, these definitions also have words next to them that seem to summarize the definition in a concise way, and those words are: recognize, suppose, visualize, understand, and discover. See, I told you it was the most complex word yet. :)
Once again, all translations of the Bible are unanimous in their translation of the word see. But they do have slight variations of their wording around it: “do not see” (NIV), “cannot see” (NLT, CEV), “not seen” (ESV, KJV, CSB).
Now lets try to understand the word “see” more fully. On one hand you have the physical aspect of vision, as in the function of the eye, but all the other definitions refer to mental concepts like awareness, imagination, perception, and knowing. There are so many definitions related to these mental concepts (and even more that I didn’t list above) that it would clearly be missing the point to limit the definition of faith to the aspect of physical sight alone. In fact, after finding that there are so many mental aspects related to the word “see,” and the fact that all Bible translators chose it unanimously in their translations, I would go so far as to say that the aspect of physical sight is the least significant sense in which the word is used in the definition of faith.
Plus, there’s a catch with this particular piece of our analysis because the Bible uses a negative (“not”) along with the word “see.” So, we have to take our understanding of the definition of the word “see” and flip it to the opposite. So the use of “not seen” in the definition of faith implies that there are things that we do not physically see - either because they are physically absent from our field of vision, or there is no light to reflect off of them into our eyes. But, I think, more to the point of faith is that there are things that we are not aware of, do not perceive, do not imagine, and do not know.
If we consider the phrase in which “see” is used - “the conviction of things not seen” - we get the sense of there being a serious and consequential aspect related to things that we do not have a mental grasp on, let alone a physical recognition of. Oh, dear reader, I think this is exactly the point that will separate the humble from the proud. Can you admit that you do not fully understand God, but that you, nonetheless, have betrayed Him in your heart and are deserving of His wrath? Or do you use your lack of knowledge about God (or lack of proof of His existence, if you will) as an excuse for your submission to your selfish desires? Faith is a requirement for salvation, and “the conviction of things not seen” tells me that ignorance is not an acceptable excuse in God’s kingdom.
Now, to be fair, conviction is also defined as belief, or being convinced. So the conviction of things not seen can easily be taken to mean belief in things that we do not have a mental grasp on, or physical awareness of. I would say that this is valid, but can also be over-emphasized. The definition of conviction, remember, is two thirds dealing with wrong-doing, and other Bible translations use words like “proof” and “evidence” in place of conviction. So, by all means, believe in the things of God that you cannot see. YES! But don’t fool yourself into thinking that ignorance equals innocence in God’s eyes.
Alright, now we have a pretty good grasp on all the words used in the definition of faith, and we’ve considered what each of the parallel phrases mean. Now let’s compare the parallel phrases to each other to see how they gel together to form the definition of faith.
The phrases “assurance of things hoped for,” and “conviction of things not seen” are parallel phrases in the sentence, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). And, if you remember, parallel phrases are used to emphasize the equal importance of multiple ideas. Now that we have this fuller understanding of what each of those phrases means on their own, we have to fold them together in order to get the full sense of what the word faith means.
Assurance of things hoped for
The “assurance of things hoped for” is a positive, optimistic idea that gives one a sense of receiving what is desired with certainty. If I were to sum up that phrase in a single word, I would use the word “trust.”
Conviction of things not seen
The “conviction of things not seen” is a serious, consequential idea that gives one a sense of performing a duty, and paying the consequences for failing. In a word, I would say it points to “responsibility.”
Conclusion
For God’s part in faith He does promise good things to us, but He will also hold us responsible and accountable. This is no different than how parents generally feel towards their children, although it’s on God’s level, not merely human. As for our part in faith it would seem that we are to think and act optimistically but also responsibly. A desire pursued in foolishness is not an act of faith any more than a responsibility carried out with worry.
So, finally, let’s answer the question - what is faith? Well, it appears to me that it is a combination of trusting God and acting responsibly. We must be responsible about our desires, and we must carry out our responsibilities with trust in God. Faith is equal parts trust and responsibility.