What is faith?

People use the word faith in many ways. Sometimes it means a religion, sometimes a vague hope that things will turn out fine, and sometimes believing something without any reason at all. The Bible means something more personal and more solid: faith is trust in God, taking Him at His word and relying on Him.

Faith is trust in what God has promised

The letter to the Hebrews gives the Bible’s best-known description of faith.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Heb 11:1 · King James Version (1769)

Albert Barnes calls this the only definition of faith that Scripture attempts. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that it is less a full definition than a description of what faith does, written to encourage believers to persevere: faith makes God’s promises so real to us that we treat them as present. Matthew Henry describes faith as “a firm persuasion and expectation, that God will perform all he has promised to us in Christ.”

The rest of Hebrews 11 shows what this looks like in real lives. Abraham left his home when God called him, without knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). Adam Clarke sees in that obedience the fullest proof of his faith. Earlier, Abraham believed God’s promise of a son, and God counted it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain that the Hebrew word means to trust, as a child leans on the arm of the one who carries it. John Wesley notes that Abraham rested on the power and faithfulness of the One who made the promise.

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.
Heb 11:6 · King James Version (1769)

Barnes explains that we cannot please God without confidence in His faithfulness, truth and promises, just as a child cannot please a father he does not trust. Faith believes both that God exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

Faith comes from hearing God’s Word

Where does faith come from? Paul explains how God gives it.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Rom 10:17 · King James Version (1769)

Wesley and Clarke point out that hearing the message of Christ is the ordinary way God brings people to faith. Paul also says that we are saved by grace through faith, and that this is God’s gift, not our achievement (Ephesians 2:8). Wesley pictures faith as an empty hand that receives the gift without any claim to deserve it. Commentators differ on what exactly the word gift refers to: Barnes applies it to salvation, while Wesley takes it to mean the whole of being saved through faith. John wrote his Gospel so that readers would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in His name (John 20:31).

Faith in the Bible has a clear center: Jesus Christ, who died and rose again. Paul writes that those who confess Jesus as Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead will be saved (Romans 10:9). Clarke sums it up: believe that He was raised for our justification and depend solely on Him.

Faith does not mean never having doubts. A worried father told Jesus that he believed and in the same breath asked Him to help his unbelief (Mark 9:24). Wesley paraphrases the plea: my faith is so small it might be called unbelief, yet help me. Henry draws the lesson that those who struggle with unbelief should look to Christ for grace against it. Jesus also spoke of faith as small as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20); Barnes notes that some read this as the smallest genuine faith, others as faith that grows from small beginnings.

Faith that saves is never alone

The Bible teaches that we are made right with God by faith, not by our own works (Romans 5:1). Yet James writes something that at first sounds different.

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Jas 2:17 · King James Version (1769)

Paul and James do not contradict each other. Wesley explains that they speak of different moments: Paul of Genesis 15, where Abraham was counted righteous by faith long before Isaac was born, and James of the offering of Isaac many years later. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that James means being shown righteous by works before people. Henry puts it this way: true faith alone saves, but it produces holy fruits, while mere agreement with doctrine is something entirely different. James points out that even demons believe there is one God and tremble (James 2:19). Wesley comments that such faith is no more than the faith of devils.

Abraham showed his faith when he obeyed God in the hardest test of his life (James 2:21–23). Paul describes the same thing as faith that works through love (Galatians 5:6). Wesley’s note is short: faith alone, but the faith that works by love. Good works do not buy salvation; they grow out of it.

Living by faith every day

Faith is not only the first step of the Christian life; it is the way the whole journey is walked. Paul says that believers walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Clarke explains that in this life faith takes the place of direct vision; in the world to come we will see. Proverbs calls us to trust the Lord with all our heart rather than leaning on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5–6).

Hard times test faith, and the testing produces endurance (James 1:3).

If your faith feels weak, look to Jesus. Hebrews calls Him the author and finisher of faith (Hebrews 12:2). Wesley reads this as Christ beginning faith in us, carrying it on and bringing it to completion; Barnes, noting that the word our is not in the Greek, sees Jesus as the first and the last, the perfect example of trust in God. Either way, the answer to weak faith is not to stare at our faith but at Him. Keep listening to His Word, bring your doubts honestly to God in prayer, and take the next step of trust.