Faith – Part 1
Having faith is not a onetime deal which leads to salvation. No, the bible makes it very clear that once a person becomes ‘a born again’ believer, a Christian, it is not only impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6), we are emphatically told that we should live out our lives by faith. Habakkuk 2:4 tells us that “The just (or righteous) shall live by faith”. I find it quite incredible that this verse in Habakkuk is quoted three times in the New Testament (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 & Hebrews 10:38). This idea of living by faith is narrowed down a bit more in Galatians 2:20, where Paul stated that as far as he was concerned the life he went on to live, after his spectacular conversion, was by faith in the Son of God (Jesus).
I guess the big question is: what is faith? For me this is answered pretty comprehensibly in the great ‘faith chapter’ in the bible, Hebrews, chapter eleven. In verse one, we get the definition of what faith is. I still like the old NIV version that I remembered off by heart: “Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cannot see.” But, as quite often, no one particular version has it nailed completely. So, I think it’s best to look at other translations as well to get a bigger picture and greater understanding.
Firstly, I want to look at hope in this part of the faith equation. Hope, with regard to faith, is not something just wished for. Many translations use the word ‘assurance’. Personally, I love what the King James Bible says and that faith will involve ‘substance’ in this hope. The New American Standard Bible, like the earlier NIV version uses ‘certainty’.
The Amplified Bible, is really good, I think. It says: “Now faith is the assurance (title deed confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed).
So, this ‘hope’ is not mere wishful thinking. I could hope to win the National Lottery one day. But, what is the assurance, certainty of that? Well, currently, if I Google my chances, it says that the odds of me winning the jackpot in the UK Lottery (Thunderball) is 1:8,060,598. Therefore, I can safely say, that I don’t have any certainty, assurance and definitely no title deed confirmation!
Well, for me, the only thing of substance, the only certainty, the only real source of assurance and title deed confirmation that carries with it a divine guarantee is found in the promises contained in God’s Word. It will produce the correct basis of our hope required for faith.
I’ll talk more about the importance of the Word of God in part two, but for now, it’s so important to able to live a life of faith, by falling in love with God’s written Word and the God who gave us His Word.
After all, it’s the Word of the Lord that’s in Genesis 15:1.
It’s the Word of God that’s in Luke 8:1.
It’s the Word of His Kingdom in Matthew 13:19.
It’s the Word of salvation that’s in Acts 13:26.
It’s the Word of grace that’s in Acts 14:3.
It’s the Word of the Gospel in Acts 15:7.
It’s the Word of faith in Romans 10:8.
It’s the Word of the cross in 1 Corinthians 1:18.
It’s the word of reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5:19.
It’s the Word of Truth in 2 Corinthians 6:7.
It’s the Word of life in Philippians 2:16.
It’s the Word of Christ in Colossians 3:16.
It’s the Word of His power in Hebrews 1:3.
It’s the living and powerful Word in Hebrews 4:12.
It’s the Word of truth and light in Psalm 119:105.
It’s the Word that stands forever in Isaiah 40:8.
It’s the Word that is pure in Psalm 12:6.
It’s the Word that is nourishment and life in Deuteronomy 8:3.
It’s the Word that trains and equips us in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
Oh that we would fall in love with His Word that is the cornerstone the bedrock of our faith and hope.
Now, let’s look at the other half of Hebrews 11:1 and I love what it says in the Amplified Bible: “Now faith is….the evidence of things not seen (the conviction of their reality – faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses). This is huge! With faith, we cannot rely on our physical senses, i.e. what we can see, hear, touch & feel, smell and taste. We have to believe that there is more than just the physical realm. Again, the bible states that we are to “walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7). With faith, probably the greatest enemy we have is being distracted by our physical senses. Look what happened to Peter, who should be absolutely applauded for getting out of the boat, who was actually walking on water! However, he took his eyes off of Jesus and got distracted by his circumstances, that is the storm and waves around him (Matthew 14:22-33).
Again, we see a greater picture and gain more understanding of the second half of Hebrews 11:1 by comparing different translations. The NIV talks about having “assurance” of what we do not see. The King James Bible and the New Living Translation say that faith is the “evidence” of things we cannot see. Other versions say things like “proof”, “certainty”, “conviction” and “reality” of things that we cannot see.
So, for me there is one major source of certainty and that is what it says in the Bible. We can of course get a direct Word from the Lord via the Holy Spirit, but this will never contradict His written Word.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I am getting fired up as I really dwell on what faith is in just looking at the very first verse of Hebrews chapter one. But, the bible says that faith without works is dead (James 2:26). So, what can you and I do to grow and get more faith? Well, “faith comes by hearing the Word of God”. (Romans 10:17). There is another way that faith comes and that’s through a gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9) of course. But I want to concentrate on getting faith from the Word of God. So, to this end, I will be going over the whole chapter of Hebrews 11 in my next post. Just as a bit of homework, maybe, why not take some time to read it through yourself and maybe remind yourself of the people and incidents spoken about, and let faith begin to rise up!
