HEBREWS 11:6 “But without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
INTRODUCTING THE TOPIC
Biblical Faith is the SAVING FAITH that rewets purely on the WORD OF GOD without lending credence to human philosophy, vain deceit, traditions of men and rudiments of the world.
Genuine faith is not in religious festivities and rituals, denominational creeds and doctrines. This type of FAITH is NOT only a profession about Jesus Christ, but an activity coming from the heart of the believer who seeks to follow JESUS CHRIST as the LORD and SAVIOUR.
I want to present these questions to enable us have clear and simple understandings of the word FAITH.
1. Where does faith come from?
Romans 10:17 “so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God”. Examples: – Paul the Apostles lecture at Ephesus in the synagogue and in the school of one Tyrannous produced faith in the hearts of the hearers to the extent that they abandoned their old and former pattern of faith. Acts 19:8-10, 17-20, Lesson derived from hearers of Paul’s lecture at Ephesus is that a practical separation from the world is demanded of us. We need a great deal of undiluted word of God that will increase our faith to leave the worldly ways and continue to live a submissive life and remain separated from the world all the days of our lives.
2. Who is the source of Faith?
Acts 17:28 “For in him we live, and move, and have our beings; as certain also of your poets have said, for we are also His offspring”. This verse indicates that we are totally dependent upon God, the creator, thus it is fool-proof to conclude that GOD is our source of all that is in life, even our faith.
3. Who is the Author of Faith?
A very keen study and serious digest of Colossians’1:16-18 and Hebrews 12:1-2 reveal that Jesus Christ is the author of our faith and
nothing was created before Him.
4. How can we please God?
Hebrew 11:6 “But without Faith it is impossible to please Him (God) for he that cometh to God must believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”. This verse indicates that we must believe that He will reward us when we earnestly seek Him, knowing that our greatest reward is the joy and presence of God Himself. He is our shield and our exceeding great reward. Genesis 15:1; Matthew 7:7-8; 8:7-8, 10.
BIBLICAL VIEW OF FAITH THAT INVOLVES REPENTANCE
Jesus Christ, the Living Word is the surest foundation on which to build the purest faith. The central characteristic of people in the Old Testament is faith from Abraham, the first patriarch to Malachi, the last prophet in the Old Testament, faith was the essential thing that linked each of them to God.
When discussing Biblical faith in full we must not fail to mention people like Abel, Barak, Caleb, Enoch, David, Joshua, Joseph, Gideon and many other; faith was the remarkable thing in their lives. Faith is the essential thing in the New Testament.
DEFINITION OF FAITH
Hebrews 11:1 ”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things Not seen11. Going by this definition, faith believes the testimony of God. It is a firm persuasion of that which is hoped for, Faith provides a firm, foundation while we await the fulfillment of God’s promises. Faith furnishes our hearts with a sure support while we look not at things which are seen, but at things which are not seen. Faith shuts its eyes to all that is seen and opens its ears to all God have said. See attached note on promises of God.
Faith in the New Testament: The definition of saving faith as mere TRUST in Jesus Christ as Saviour is NOT adequate in the light of Christ’s demand for repentance. Does this statement provoke you? Yes or No, If yes, you need to understand that faith involves repentance i.e. turning from sin with true sorrow and turning to God through Christ. Acts 17:30, 2 Corinthians 7:10.’ In short, there must be a radical break from sin in order not to distort the Biblical view of redemption, because faith which includes repentance is a condition for salvation e.g. Mark 2:15.
Furthermore, Faith means:
a. Continuous and strong belief and trust in the Crucified and risen Christ as our Lord and SAVIOUR – Romans 1:17.
b. Heart belief and not head belief, for the heart belief yields to total submission of our wills and selves to Jesus Christ e.g. Acts 8:36-38; Romans 6:17-18; Ephesians 6:6-7.
c. Obedience to Jesus Christ and His Word e.g. John 14:15, 21-24.
d. Heartfelt personal devotion and attachment to Jesus Christ; noticeable things from here are loyalty, love and gratitude to Jesus Christ e.g. John 21:15-17; I Peter 1:8-9.
The Biblical faith in this study when diligently expressed brings us into a new relationship with God and exempts us from extreme anger of God. E.g. Romans 1:18; 8:1-2.
It is proper to present something to the Almighty God for providing us with SAVING FAITH? Yes, yes and yes. Suggestions … Can we build a mansion with rugs for the interior decoration and white marbles for the external and present to God? Very good, but my Bible tells me that God does not live in a house built by man… Acts 7:48-50.
Can we suggest the latest of the Benz car? Oh yes, the answer is in the passage above.
What about the biggest ox or cow? The answer is in Psalm 69:30-31. Then, please, sing this song:
PR AISE YE THE LORD
PRAISE GOD IN HIS SANCTUARY
PRAISE HIM IN THE FIRMAMENT OF HIS POWER
LET EVERY THING THAT HATH BREATH
PRAISE THE LORD. Psalm 150:1&6.
Better still; can we have some other questions for further studies on this topic Yes.
1. What is the importance of FAITH in Christian life? .
Answers:-
a. We live by faith – Romans 1:17
b. We walk by faith – Romans 4: 12
c. . We pray by faith – Matthew 21:22
d. We resist evil by faith – Ephesians 6:3 6
e. We overcome the world by faith – I John 2:13-17
THE NATURE OF FAITH
Outside the scriptures, the word faith has many wide and different meanings. Society rests on the faith which man has in man. The workman, toiling through the week for the wage which he will receive; the passenger, procuring a ticket for a distant town, because he believes the statements of the timetables; The sailor. steering his bark with unerring accuracy in murky weather, because he believes in the charts and tables; The entire system of monetary credit, by which vast sums circulate from hand to hand without the use of a single coin – all these are illustrations of the immense importance of faith in the affairs of men. Everyone, saved and unsaved alike, has a natural human faith.
For example, people everywhere, have faith that when they sit in a chair it will support their weight. We can talk about having faith in a newspaper, or in a “medicine, or in a political leader: But faith is not used that way in the Bible. In the Bible, faith is related solely and exclusively to two things we cannot see with the natural eye: first to God, and second to God’s Word.
What is Faith?
Faith is one comparatively few words actually defined in the Bible. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews deals exclusively with the theme of faith and its opening verse provides us with a definition of faith as the term is used in the Bible. The King James Version of the Bible defines it this way: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. The Living Bible defines Faith as “The confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead”. The New International Version of the Bible defines faith as, “Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”. These verses may also be translated: “Now faith is the ground, or confidence, of things hoped for, a sure persuasion, or conviction, concerning things not seen. Faith is a combination of several things trust, confidence, assurance, courage, and action.
What is Scriptural .Faith?
The above scripture is not talking about natural, human faith. It is talking about scriptural faith. Biblical Faith is different from human faith. The unsaved world does not understand true Bible Faith, probably because it sees so little faith in action in the church today. Within the scriptures, there are two different, distinguishing features of faith, as there used. – First such faith always originates directly in God’s Word; second, it is always directly related to God’s Word. Biblical Faith may be defined as our total response to what God has revealed, in His Word. It is faith that believers in the heart in spite of what physical senses or circumstances may say. This faith operates quite simply. God speaks and we hear His Word. We trust His Word and confidently act on it in spite of circumstances and consequences. The circumstances may be impossible and the consequences frightening and unknown, but we obey God’s word just the same and believe Him to what is right and what is best.
This important verse in Heb. 11 also tells us two main things about faith First, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for” Second, Faith is the “evidence of things not seen”.
1. Faith is the Substance of Things hoped for…
Faith is so real that it is actually called substance. The Greek word is hypostasis. It means literally “that which stands under” something else or “provides the basis for” something else, or “to support” something else. Faith is to a Christian what a foundation is to a house: it gives confidence and assurance that he will stand. So you might say, “Faith is the confidence of things hoped for…” When a believer has faith, it is God’s way of giving him confidence and assurance that what is promised will be experienced. We may say that faith is the “underlying reality” of things hoped for. Faith is real; faith is a substance.
Faith is distinct from Hope.
This important verse also brings out various facts about faith. First, of all, it indicates a distinction between faith and hope. Faith and hope are closely related, but there are two main ways in which faith differs from hope. The first is that hope is directed toward the future, but faith is established in the present. Hope is an attitude of expectancy concerning things that are still future but faith is a substance – something real and definite within us, that we already possess here and now, something that we already enjoy, a reality.
Faith is the present
Faith is a substance, something that is already here; hope is an expectation, something that necessarily looks toward the future. For instance, the Bible says, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray; believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24). Notice-that Jesus tells us to receive what we pray for at the very moment that we pray and not at some undetermined point in the future. This simply means that we “ask” and at the same moment we “receive” by faith. Thereafter, we know that the things we asked for “shall be granted us”. “Granting” still remains in the future, but “receiving” by faith takes place; when we pray. Having received now by faith, we know, that at God’s appointed time, the things we receive at the moment of praying will actually be granted us. Faith to receive is in the present; the manifestation of that which we receive is in the future. But without present faith there is no assurance of future manifestation.
True Biblical Faith Originates in The Heart
The second main difference between faith and hope is primarily in the realm of the mind; faith is primarily in the realm of the heart. This is very strikingly brought out in the description of various items of scriptural armor by the Christian soldier, given by the apostle Paul in I Thess. 5:8; “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation”. “Notice that faith – together with love – is found in the region of the breast – that is, the region of the heart, but hope on the other hand is associated, as helmet, with the region of the head that is the region of the mind. Thus hope is primarily a mental attitude of expectancy concerning the future; faith primarily a condition of the heart, producing within us, here and now, something so real that it can be described by the word ‘substance’.
In Prov. 4:23, Solomon warns us: “Keep your heart with all difference, for out of it springs the issues of life”. Everything that finally decides the course of our life proceeds out of our heart. True Biblical faith proceeds from the heart and determines the way we live. It is not mere intellectual concept, entertained by the mind; it is a real, active force at work in the heart. Faith at work in the heart produces hope in the mind. This follows from the definition of faith that we presently examining in Heb. 11:1: Faith is the substance of things hoped for … Faith in the heart is the substance -the underlying reality. Faith at work in the heart produces hope in the mind. Hopes that are based on true faith in the heart will not be disappointed. This provides a valid, scriptural basis for the hope that we entertain in our mind. But without this basis there is no assurance that our hope will be fulfilled.
True Biblical Faith is Never Static
In Romans 10:10, the exercise of faith or believing is again directly associated with the heart, for Paul says there: with the heart one believes to (more literally, into) righteous… True Biblical Faith is never static. It always expresses itself in motion, change, and activity. When associated with the heart, the verb ‘to believe’ becomes a verb of motion.
Hence, Paul says: with the heart one believes into righteousness… not merely ‘in righteousness’, ‘but’ into righteousness. It is one thing to believe with the mind, ‘in righteousness’, merely as an abstract theory, or ideal It is quite another thing to believe with the heart ‘into righteousness’ – that is, to believe in a way that produces a change and a transformation of habits, and character, and life.
Many people make a profession of faith in Christ and the Bible, but their faith is only in the realm of the mind, it is a mere intellectual acceptance of certain facts and doctrines. Mental acceptance of truth is not true faith. As a result, it does not produce any vital change in the lives of those who profess it. To produce faith, truth must penetrate beyond the conscious mind into the inner center and source of life which is called the-heart. True Biblical faith which originates in the heart always produces a definite change, a definite experience, in those who profess it.
A person who truly believes will be changed by what he believes; on the other hand, a person… who merely accepts truth with his intellect can remain unchanged by it. Truth received intellectually by the mind may be sterile and ineffective, but truth received by faith into the heart is always dynamic and life-changing in its outworking.
In the words of Christ Himself, the verb ‘to believe’ is regularly followed by the preposition ‘into’ – that is; to express change or motion. For instance, in John 6:47, He says: ‘most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in (literally, into) me has everlasting life…” This brings out the fact that the verb “to believe’ is associated with a process of change* or motion, It is not enough to believe ‘in’ Christ, with mere mental acceptance of the facts of His life, or the truths of His life, or the truths of His teaching.
We must believe ‘into’ Christ – we must be moved by heartfelt faith out of ourselves and into Christ, out of our sin and into His righteousness, weakness and into His power, out of our failure and into His victory, out of our limitations and into His omnipotence.
This true, Biblical faith of the heart always produces a change and transformation, it always believes into Christ and righteousness; and the result is always something definite, experienced here and now, not something merely hoped for in the future. For this reason, here in John 6:47, Christ uses the present, and not the future tense. He says: “he who believes into me has everlasting life”.- not ‘shall have’, but already “has” everlasting life. The scriptural faith into Christ produces everlasting life here and now within the believer. It is not something that we hope to have in the next world, after death. It is something that we already possess, something that we already enjoy, a reality, a substance within us.
So many people have a religion which they hope will somehow do them good in the hour of death, when they reach the threshold of eternity. But true Bible faith gives the believer a here-and-now experience and an assurance of everlasting life already within him. His faith is a real substance within him; and because of this present faith he also has a serene hope, a sure confidence concerning the future. A hope that is based on this present faith will stand the test of death and eternity; but a hope that is not built on this present substance of faith is doomed to final, bitter disillusionment.
2. Faith is the Evidence of Things not seen
Faith is related solely and exclusively to two thing we cannot see with the natural eye; first to God, and second to God’s word. Faith relates to the invisible. It takes us behind the visible to the invisible. It is the evidence of things we cannot see. The word evidence simply means “conviction’. This is the inward conviction from God that what He has promised, He will perform, for instance, when you prayed according to Mark 11:24 and made a claim by faith, you believed that you received whatever you asked for at that particular moment, even though you had not seen the things you prayed for yet in the physical realm. It had not been manifested to your senses. But you believed that you already had it. How? By faith. Faith becomes the evidence that your request has been granted. Thereafter, that which we have already believed’ Faith deals with things we cannot see.
By Faith, Not by Sight
Faith is not based on the evidence of our physical senses, but on the eternal invisible truths and realities revealed by God’s Word, In 2 Cor. 5:7, Paul brings out this contrast between the objects of faith and the objects of sense perception, for he says: “For we walk by faith, not by sight”. ‘Faith’ is here contrasted with ‘sight’. If we walk by sight, we do not need faith. If we walk by faith, we do not need sight. Each excludes the other. ‘Faith’ and ‘sight’ are opposite in their nature. Sight and the other physical senses are related to the objects of the physical and material world. Faith is related to the truths revealed in God’s word. Our senses deal with things that are material, temporary, and changeable. Faith deals with the revealed truths of God, which are invisible, eternal and unchanging.
Believe, and You will See
In spiritual experience, sight comes after faith, not before it. This is contrary to-our natural way of thinking. The world says, “Seeing is believing”. But the Bible reverses the order: First we must believe, and then we will see. If we are carnally minded, we can accept only that which our senses reveal to us. But if we are spiritually minded our faith makes the truths of God’s word more real than anything, which our senses may reveal, to us. We do not base our faith on that which we see or experience; we have our faith on God’s word. Thereafter, that which we see or experience is the outcome of that which we have already believed.
This principle is so important that we will look at some passages of scriptures that illustrate it. In Psalm 27:13, David says “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”. David did not see first, and then believe. He believed first, and thereafter he saw. What was true for David is true for all of us. If we cannot believe that we will see the goodness of the Lord, we will despair. The thing that keeps us from despairing is not what we see but what we believe.
This agrees with the statement made about Moses in Heb. 11:27; “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible”. Nothing in Moses’ visible circumstances at this time could give him any hope or encouragement. But in spite of all that was against him, he “endured” because he was able to “see the unseen”. How did he do this? By faith. Faith enables us to “see the unseen” and thus to endure when the visible would offers us no hope or encouragement.
This same lesson is brought out in the conversation between Jesus and Martha outside the tomb of Lazarus, recorded in John 11:39-40 (39) Jesus said, “Take away the stone”. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, Lord by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days” (40) Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
How Jesus makes it plain that faith consists in believing first, then seeing -not in seeing first, then believing. What Jesus asks here of Martha, He asks of all who desire to see the glory of God. We must ‘believe that we will see”. We do not see first, then believe. We believe first, then as a result of believing, we see. Faith comes before sight. Most carnally minded people reverse this order. They say, ‘I only believe in what I can see’. But this is incorrect. When we actually see a thing, we do not need to exercise faith for it. It is when we cannot see, that we need to exercise faith. As Paul says, ‘faith’ and ‘sight’ are opposite in their nature.
In 2 Cor. 4; 17-18 we are challenged yet once more by the contrast between the visible and the invisible: (17) for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; (18) while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Paul’s language here contains a deliberate paradox. He speaks about “looking at things which are not seen” How can we do this? There is only one way “by faith”. Quite often in our experience we find that there is an apparent conflict between the evidence of our senses and the revelation of God’s word. For instance, we may see and feel within our bodies all the evidence of physical sickness. Yet the Bible reveals in Matt. 8:1 7, that Jesus Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses, and again in 1Peter 2; 24, by whose stripes you were healed.
Here is an apparent conflict. Our senses tell us that we are sick. The Bible tells us that we are healed. The conflict between the testimony of our senses and the testimony of God’s which confronts us, as believers, with the possibility of two alternative reactions. On the one hand we may accept the testimony of our senses, and thus accept our condition of physical sickness. In this way, we become the slave of our carnal mind. On the other hand, we may hold firmly to the testimony of God’s word, that we are healed.
If we do this with persistent, active faith, the testimony of our senses will in due course be brought into line with the testimony of God’s word, and we shall then be able to say that we are healed, not merely on the basis of faith in God’s word, but also on the basis of actual physical experience and of the testimony of our senses. Herein lies the difference between the carnal mind and the spiritual mind. The carnal mind accepts the testimony of the senses in all circumstances, and is thus ruled by the senses. The spiritual mind accepts the testimony of God’s word as invariably and unchangeably true, and then accepts the testimony of the senses only in so far as it agrees with the testimony of God’s word.
If outstanding scriptural pattern of this kind of faith that rises above the level of the physical senses to the realm of God’s unchanging truth is found in the experience of Abraham, as described by Paul in Romans 4:17-21. In verse 17, Paul tells us that Abraham’s faith was directed toward God, “…who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did…” This statement that God calls those things which do not exist as though they did means that, as soon as God has declared a thing to be true, faith immediately reckons that thing to be true, even though no evidence of its truths may be manifested to the senses.
Thus God called Abraham ‘a father of many nations’, and from that moment forward, Abraham immediately began to reckon himself as being what God had called him, ‘a father of many nations’, even though at that time he had not even one son born to Sarah and himself. Abraham did not wait to accept God’s statement as true until he saw the evidence of it being worked out in his physical experience. On the contrary, he accepted God’s statement as true first, and later, because of this, his physical experience was brought into line with what God had declared.
Then again, in the next verse 18 – Paul tells us that, “Abraham contrary to hope, in hope believed…” This phrase in hope believed tells us that at this time Abraham had both faith and hope – hope concerning the future, and faith in the present, and that his hope concerning the future was the outcome of his faith in the present. Again, in the next verse – verse 19 – Paul tells us that Abraham, “… did not consider his own body; already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the doubtless of Sarah’s womb”.
This indicates that Abraham refused to accept the testimony of his own senses as to the condition of his own and Sarah’s body. The testimony of his senses undoubtedly was that it was no longer possible for either of them to have a child. But Abraham did not accept this testimony because it did not agree with what God had said. On that account, Abraham turned a deaf ear to the testimony of his senses, he refused to consider it.
In the next two verses – verses 20 and 21 – Paul goes on to say “He (Abraham) did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief being … fully convinced that what He (God) had promised, He was also able to perform”. This shows clearly the object upon which Abraham’s faith was focused: God’s promise. Thus, faith is based on the promises and statement of God’s word, and accepts the testimony of the senses only in-so-far as they agree with the statements of God’s word.
A little earlier, in Romans 4:11, Paul calls Abraham the father of all those who believes, and in the next verse he speaks on those: “… who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham has…” This shows that true, scriptural faith consists in acting like
Abraham and in following the steps of his faith. In analyzing the nature of Abraham’s faith, we have seen that there were three successive steps, or stages.
Firstly, Abraham accepted God’s promise as being true from the moment that it was uttered.
Secondly, Abraham refused the testimony of his senses as long as it did not agree with the statement of God. Thirdly, because Abraham held fast to what God had promised, his physical experience and the testimony of his senses were brought into line with the statement of God. Thus, the thing which he had first accepted in naked faith, contrary to the testimony of his senses, became an actual reality in his own physical experience; confirmed by the testimony of his senses.
By many, this attitude of accepting God’s Word as true in defiance of the testimony of our senses would be dismissed as mere philosophers and psychologists of many different ages and backgrounds have agreed in declaring that the testimony of our physical senses is variable, subjective, and unreliable. If then the testimony of our senses cannot be accepted, by itself, as true and reliable, where can we find the correct standard of truth and reality, by which the testimony of the senses be judged? To this question neither philosophy nor psychology has ever been able to offer any satisfactory answer. Indeed, all down the centuries, philosophers and psychologists have echoed the question asked by Pilate as he sat in his judgment hall: What is truth?
For the Christian believer, however, the answer is found in the Words of Christ to His Father, in John 17: 17: “Your Word is truth”, the ultimate, unchanging standard of all truth and reality is found in God’s word. Faith consists in hearing, believing, and acting upon truth.
