FAITH
TRUE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS A LOVE FOR JESUS CHRIST AND CONFIDENCE IN THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE, SUCH THAT LIVING AS THEY TEACH, BECOMES THE PREEMINENT PURPOSE OF ONE’S LIFE
What is faith? God says that without faith no one can please him and the most important tenant of Christianity is that we are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ. That’s why the issue of faith is the first Meta Concept. But, since everyone has faith in something, God obviously wants his people to have a certain type of faith, which supersedes our faith, or hope in all other things.
What does it really mean to believe, or to have faith in the biblical sense, so that we can be sure we are a child of God? Satan knows Jesus Christ is the Son of God, (James 2:19) yet he clearly is not a “believer." Most Americans claim to be Christians, but also are clearly not believers. So to believe in the faith sense must mean far more than simply agreeing with a set of doctrinal statements one thinks is true. What is it then which differentiates a “knower” from a true “believer”?
Faith is acting with confidence based on something one believes is true, even if the outcome is not absolutely certain. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Heb. 11:1. Dallas Willard states it this way: "To believe is to act as if it were so."1 Therefore, the inverse of Willard’s definition is “If we do not live out what we say we believe – we actually do not believe or have faith in it.” Intellectual agreement is not faith. Faith, in the end, is obedience.
Another way to put it is this: A person’s worldview is the sum total of everything they believe to be true, whether it is or not. But, not all things which we believe to be true rise to the level of faith. Each of us holds certain beliefs of passion and conviction. They are the beliefs so dear to us that to hold them, we are willing to risk our public image, our comforts, our security, and even our lives, if necessary. These beliefs of passion often defy human logic and reason, but ultimately they define a person’s faith and shape their character.
When certain truths found in scripture are held with such passion and conviction that they have enormous control over our lives, so much so that they significantly shape the way we think and live, we are very close to what the Bible calls true faith. I say very close because even if I have absolute faith in the Ten Commandments, for example, but not in Jesus Christ, I still would not have saving, or Christian faith.
Ultimately, to have faith in the Christian sense is to have a profound confidence that God, through Jesus Christ his Son, loves me personally in spite of the fact that I’m so unworthy of it. When the magnitude of that love becomes too certain to be denied, we cry out to Jesus to forgive us and we are born again. Our Holy Spirit induced response is always, “What should we (I) do?” (Acts 2:37) Paul says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God in you, enabling you to both will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:12, 13) Virtuous living is not the cause of our salvation, but it is one of the most powerful evidences of it. James said it more strongly, “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:17)
Dallas Willard puts it this way, “The vast majority of professing Christians today have been led to believe that God, for some unfathomable reason, just transfers credit from Christ’s merit account to ours, and wipes out every sin debt, upon inspecting our mind and finding out that we believe a particular theory of the atonement to be true – even if we trust everything but Christ in almost all other matters that concern him, or us.”2 Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey me.” (John 14:15) Therefore, Jesus assumes all his true followers will have radically different lifestyles, virtues, interests, and values than the rest of the world.
Many who hear the good news of the gospel respond emotionally and enthusiastically for a time. They often begin taking baby steps of faith. They may begin going to church, attending Bible studies, and ceasing some obviously sinful behavior in their lives. This could be the point at which a person is truly born again and simply maturing in their faith. It could also be the actions of an honest seeker who is experimenting with faith and obedience, but not yet indwelt, or born again by the Holy Spirit.
At the point at which obedience begins to be costly, embarrassing or inconvenient, many will fall away from their experiment with true faith; others are distracted or deceived into lives of spiritual mediocrity and cultural, religious Christianity. Because of this, I believe the term “Christian” has lost much its original meaning. While we will use it in the Meta Concepts, I believe the term “followers of Jesus” better captures what we are called by Christ to both be and do. If this is true, would those who know you best consider you a Christian or a follower of Jesus?
Jesus made it very clear that if one truly has faith in him, as they mature spiritually, he or she will begin denying themselves, (saying “no” to their own self-interests), take up their cross (be willing to suffer for doing good and identifying ourselves with Jesus), and follow him (live the way he taught). Jesus warns that few will take this “narrow road” and most will choose the wide, easy road that ultimately leads to destruction. Our behavior ultimately reveals what we truly believe and who and what we truly love.
My definition of a follower of Jesus is this: A follower of Jesus is a person so in love with Jesus Christ and confident in the teachings of the Bible, that living as they teach becomes the preeminent purpose of their life.
- Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, (New York: Harper San Francisco Publishers), p. 318.
- Willard, Divine Conspiracy, p. 49.
Heb. 11:1, 6; Matt. 13:18-23; I John 2:3-6; James 2:14-19; John 14:15, 21, 23; Matt. 7:13, 14, 21-23; Acts 26:20