What is Faith for paper

The bible uses the 2 words “believe” and “faith” in relation to being saved. Faith is defined in scripture: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11: 1  Faith is not an action on our part, it is a gift. It is part of the gift of being saved. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God,” Ephesians 2: 8 and “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” Hebrews 12: 2

You cannot believe without understanding, and understanding comes from God, by his grace. “We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.”  1 John 5:20 First God opens our eyes and ears, he lets us understand so the bible does not appear as foolishness to us. With understanding we can then believe. Belief can mature into faith. Faith is not a one time occurrence; it is living and needs to be nourished. As Hebrews 12: 2 said above Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith. He creates faith in us and provides the means by which that faith can grow. Even a child that is baptized is provided with faith by God. Faith may start out as an acknowledgement of the existence of God, and an acknowledgment that Jesus was a real person who died for your sins. However that level of faith needs to grow. Stating that there is a “big guy up there someplace that looks after you” may signify that you recognize some type of God, but it is significantly lacking when compared to “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”.

Believing that there is a God, that Jesus is real and lived and died some 2000 years ago is faith in its infancy. Satan knows with certainty that God and Jesus are real and that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, yet it is of no value to him.

When I was a young man I was told a story that describes mature faith and this story will help you see that faith is something more than just believing the facts.

A young man who lived in Niagara Falls heard that a tightrope artist was coming to walk a tight rope over the mouth of the falls. He arrived early the day of the event and was standing right next to the platform where the tight rope originated. After the usual preliminaries the tight rope artist mounted the platform and with his balancing pole prepared to walk across the falls. Just before he started he noticed this young man staring intently at him, and he asked the young man “do you believe I can walk across the falls on this tight rope?”. “Oh yes” the young man answered. “I am sure you would not try it if you could not do it”.

So away the tight rope artist went, performing numerous feats of daring as he walked the tight rope and then returned to the podium. Next he gets out a bicycle and states he will ride it across the tight rope. Once again he asks the young man, “do you believe I can ride this bicycle across the falls on this tight rope?”. “Oh yes” the young man answered. “I am sure you would not try it if you could not do it”. So away the tight rope artist went, easily riding the bicycle across the tight rope and returning to the podium.

Next he gets out a wheelbarrow and states he is going to push the wheelbarrow across the falls on the tightrope. Once again just before starting out he asks the young man, “do you really really believe I can push this wheelbarrow across the tightrope?” “Oh yes” the young man starts to reply. “Then come up here and get in the wheelbarrow” the tightrope artist tells the young man.

Believing allowed the young man to state “I am sure you would not try it if you could not do it”. Faith would let him get in the wheelbarrow. The difference is trust. So mature faith in Jesus is more than believing the facts, it is believing and trusting in all that Jesus accomplished by his life, death and resurrection. Not just believing it for everyone, but believing and trusting it for yourself personally. The faith described above is mature faith. It would be very rare for a non Christian to suddenly have the level of faith described above. If this column has you now struggling with your faith, in my next column I will talk about maturing you faith so you and also “get in the wheel barrel.”

Blessings