What is Faith?

 1 Corinthians 14:20         
"Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature."       

Maturity is very important in the Christian faith.

For some reason many think that in order to have faith, you need to not be mature. 

Jesus did tell us to have "faith like a child" but he didn't say "BE a child."  There is a difference. 

We need to take the whole Bible in context and look at the whole picture, not just one verse.

Faith is "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  It is not thinking that everything you see and hear comes from God.  It is not forgetting your mind and just following what you feel.  It is not being naïve to how the devil may be working in the world and not being on your guard.

Faith is to believe in God even when you haven't seen anything all that miraculous.  Jesus said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe."

That is what faith is. 

 Verses on faith:

Romans 10:17         

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."

This verse describes faith as logical.  We gain faith mentally in God by hearing the Word, the Bible.  Our primary means of gaining faith is God's word, not               

James 2:24         

"You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."

This is a key element that many Christians forget about.  Faith is not all that God requires of us.  He wants us to have good fruit as well, works.  If we do not, how can we really say that our "faith" is genuine?  Jesus said, "If you love me you will keep my commandments."  You can't expect faith alone to get you into heaven.  We need to "walk in a manner worthy of our calling" and "show ourselves approved" and worthy of being a child of God.                     

James 1:5-8         

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

Does this verse mean that we are meant to command God to give us what we want?  Is that what faith is? 

No.  It is believing that God is capable of giving us anything and everything, but we should not presume that he will.  He is God.  He can do whatever he wants.          

2 Corinthians 5:7         

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."

It takes greater faith to not see signs and wonders and still believe.  The problem with signs and wonders is that people may become dependent on them so much so that when they are gone, they have a hard time sustaining faith without them.  We need to be cautious of this.         

Mark 16:16         

"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."

What are we called to believe?   Here is an example of a creed: a basic statement of faith for the Christian.  If we believe all of this, we can know that we are saved. :)

"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us.  He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.  And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I have faith and hope regarding a life in heaven when I die."   Amen! :)             

Romans 10:9

"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

This means more than what it looks like at face value. What does it mean to confess that "Jesus is Lord?" It means that you give Jesus the steering wheel of your life. It means you let him take over, you let him call all the shots. It mean...s you are no longer in charge of your own life. Paul said, "I no longer live but Christ lives in me." It means we die to ourselves and live through Christ. It means we give up our agenda and tell God that he can have his way in our lives, he can do with us whatever he wishes. It is to surrender everything to God, not just some things, but everything. That is what it means to say to Jesus, "You are now Lord of my life." It has a Lot more implication than we realize. We step off of our own throne and put Jesus on it, where he belongs.

And what does it mean to believe "in your heart that God raised him from the dead?" Many believe this in their heads. They have a good head knowledge and head faith of the life of Jesus. But has it become real to them personally? You can't just say you are Christian because your parents were and so you automatically are. No, it doesn't work that way. You have to believe it for yourself, "in your heart." A good quote I heard is, "Many people miss God by 12 inches, the distance from their head to their hearts." Jesus said, "These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me." I noticed that a lot in the Christian college that I went to. Many people knew everything there was to know about God, but their heart was not turned toward God, or it did not seem to be. Their heart seemed to still be hard. The Bible says that God will replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh. You can kind of have a sense about someone if their heart is still stone of if God has made it flesh. Is your heart stone? Or flesh? Do you have a tender heart? Then you can know that you are saved. Is Jesus absolutely your Lord and you believe everything about him in your Heart? Then you can know you are saved. We are saved with our heart, not our mind.

James 2:18         

"But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

     

This is very important.  To have faith without works, or a good life, means nothing.  If someone does not have fruit how can we say they are saved?  "You shall know them by their fruits" Jesus said.  Not by their supposed signs and wonders or what they say seems to sound good.  Look at their LIFE.  How do they live?  Are they walking faithfully with God?  It doesn't matter how much of a nice person they seem to be or how on fire they seem to be for God, that can all be a show or a mask that people wear.  They may just be playing the part of a Christian very well.  Satan can masquerade as an angel of light.  But does the person live up to God's commandments as best as they can?  Are they a loving person generally?  If they are, then you can know they are saved.  Jesus said, "By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another."  Many who are capable of amazing signs and wonders are not loving people.  If someone is not loving how can we say they are saved?  1 John 4:7-8 says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. "

 

Often times people who seem to be very gifted by God get prideful about their gifts so much so that they then lack the ability to love others.  They let certain gifts puff them up and they become prideful.  But the gifts of the Spirit are given for the benefit of others, not to build ourselves up and make us think that we are better than others.  We need to be cautious of this, in any gift from God's Spirit.  Use it to build others up, not tear them down. 

2 Timothy 4:7         

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

The Christian walk is not about how we begin, but about how we end.  Paul says that he "kept the faith," meaning he was never swayed from believing the truth about God, about Jesus etc.  Often times people will seem to have faith for a time, they will seem to be Christian, and then when hard times come and their faith is tested, they walk away from the faith.  :(  This is very sad but it happens all the time.  This is the seed that fell on the thorny soil.  Our faith means nothing if we do not keep it our whole lives.

I have written some on the perseverance of the saints.  If we do not persevere in our faith, we are not really saved.  If someone walks away from God, they cannot expect to still be saved.  We have to "keep the faith" until the day we die in order to really say that we are saved.            

1 Timothy 1:19         

     "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith."

What does this mean?  Does this mean someone can loose their salvation?  It seems to say that.  How can this be prevented?  By waging good warfare, as in resisting the devil so he will flee from us.  Many fall to temptations from Satan but we need to resist him firmly.  Tell him to shut up when he tries to talk to you and tempt you in your mind in any way.  Don't give him any place in your mind or life.  Be firm and vigorous in how you resist him.  He is your enemy.  Treat him as such.  Amen!

Also we need to hold onto the faith.  We need to not be tricked into believing false things, like that all roads lead to God etc.  We need to not believe anything that contradicts the Bible.  We need to always stick with what the Bible says, not with what other people say.  "Fear God," not people.  Listen to God, before you listen to other people. 

And we need to keep a good conscience.  Sin will not make us loose our salvation, but un-confessed can become a problem for us.  "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us."  It says "if."  God forgiving us is conditionally on us confessing to him.  He does not have to forgive us.  He is not obligated to.  But what if we don't confess our sins?  The Bible says, "God opposes the proud."  At the very least he will oppose us.  Pride keeps us from confessing sin to God.  But it is so vital to constantly confess sins to God in order to maintain a good relationship with Him.

The Bible says also that if we don't forgive others God will not forgive us.  That is pretty serious. 

So is our salvation guaranteed beyond a shadow of a doubt?  Do we pray the prayer and then automatically know we have a golden ticket into heaven?  No.  It is conditional on how we live out our Christian lives.  Jesus said, "To him who overcomes to the end I will give the crown of life."  Not all will overcome to the end.  Look at the parable of the ten virgins, some ran out of oil, being the Holy Spirit, and some did not.  Only those who persevere to the end will be saved.          

 

Amen.  May God bless you! :)