What Is Faith?

Romans 10:8-11 (NASB) 8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

John 11:25-26 (NASB) 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” 

On what do you base your salvation? The answer could come back :

• your response to an altar call 

• receiving baptism

These things, some more than others, may assist in strengthening our faith but do any of them have the power to ultimately save us? When our lives are done, what or Whom do we then face? No one? Nothing? Another shot at life on a higher or lower plane? Some weird entity? God? Whether it is instantly upon death or after a gap, Christians would agree that all human beings will meet God. When we are finally face to face with God, on what basis will He save us or condemn us?

For most of my life I did not want to think of death and what happens after it. On one occasion, a few short years before I started this website, I was convinced I was about to die. A sudden medical condition came over me and, long story short, the next thing I knew I was in the specialist’s office. Something the specialist said at my appointment came back to me that night. Convinced that I was on the brink of death, I went into a state of terror; not peace, not even resignation, but sheer, unmitigated terror. O me of little faith! Here was the test. In that spiral downwards that kept escalating and would not stop, God suddenly spoke to me. His communication was not audible but was more a deep sense of communication, a deep impression of words and scant words at that; an economy of words with a powerful impact. I knew the communication I sensed came from God. Why? How? There was a powerful sense of the words coming to me not from within my own thoughts but external to me. The communication was other than what I would have expected God to say in my state of panic. Maybe He would tell me I wasn’t going to die. No, He didn’t say that. He said something much better and unexpected. It may seem strange to say that it was unexpected because it is the message running throughout the entirety of Scripture. But because God communicated this message to me directly, I became instantly and otherwise inexplicably calmed. It was a deep calm and a total contrast to the panic that had gripped me up until that moment. God told me, “Trust Me”. Such power in those words He gave to me. Is not one of the Holy Spirit’s attributes that of Comforter?

I came to realise that when I meet God on the other side of death, I will have absolutely nothing to depend upon but God Himself to save me. The applicability of Christ’s death, not just as a theological concept but as a personally applicable reality, struck me. Faith is the TRUST I put IN GOD to save ME. The acceptance of coming to God empty-handed is a relief, one big relief. God has done all that needs to be done to save us as long as we respond to His invitation to put our faith in Him. This will result in allegiance to Him. It is not faith if we continue to live as if God does not exist or does not care how we live. I believe that we change as people of faith although we do not become sinless this side of death. The Apostle John tells us this in his letters in no uncertain terms.

Belief in God has many manifestations in the life of the believer depending on his or her gifts and stage of life. Belief, trust, faith in God usually eventuates in baptism and taking of Holy Communion, church attendance and participation, working towards God’s kingdom on earth as participators with Him in facilitating God’s kingdom to come, His will to be done on earth. Christ’s Church is the light, salt, leaven in the world by God’s design. But amidst all of these manifestations of discipleship, it is not these things that save us. Believing in God Himself to do what He said He came to do – save us from sin, the second death and hell – forms the basis of our faith. God saves us. We cannot save ourselves by any other means. The alive awareness of this takes the sting out of death :

1 Corinthians 15:54-58 (NASB) 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55 O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

We have seen God’s faithfulness to His ancient Israelite people in delivering them from bondage in Egypt. We have seen His faithfulness in delivering those who would put their faith in Christ; we are delivered from sin, death and hell through Jesus’ death as our substitute on Whom God’s wrath was directed because of our sin. Here is a part of what an angel from the Lord said to Joseph in a dream:

Matthew 1:21 (NASB) 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

Jesus has saved people from their sins in numerous ways: salvation from all manner of sin, transforming the repentant into beautiful new creations, salvation from wrong belief, salvation from superstition, salvation from fear itself. Faith is believing in God’s power and intention to save us from sin, the second death and hell.

Isaiah 53:5-7 (NASB) 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.