What is faith? Mat 9:28-29 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. Eph 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The Greek word in these typical examples is #4102 in the Concordance, pistis. The Greek scholar Zodhiates writes that the word in the context of the above verses is: "Being persuaded, faith, belief. In general it implies...knowledge of, assent to, and confidence in certain divine truths..." Tyndale's Illustrated Bible Dictionary says, "Faith is the attitude whereby a man abandons all reliance in his own efforts to obtain salvation, be they deeds of piety, of ethical goodness or anything else. It is the attitude of complete trust in Christ, of reliance on him alone for all that salvation means." Does the Bible give us some defining characteristics of faith? Yes, it does. Heb 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Heb 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Young's Literal Translation expresses Heb. 11:1 in a way that might help us better appreciate the concept: And faith is of things hoped for a confidence, of matters not seen a conviction. (The Greek word elegchos can be seen to denote evidence, or proof, or conviction. I think this is because evidence or proof are what can convince or convict a person.) From all this we can see that faith is belief, being persuaded. Strong faith, as we shall soon see in the Bible, is a strong conviction... a firm persuasion...a living (lively) faith... a belief strong enough to spur action. Mat 9:2 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. How did Jesus see the faith of these men? Their faith was made visible by their action: they carried their sick friend to Jesus because they believed that Jesus could make him well. Jesus responded by healing the man and forgiving the man's sins. Mat 8:5-10,13 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel... And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. Here we see an example of strong faith in Jesus. The Roman soldier had heard about Jesus, he heard that Jesus had the power to heal people, and he believed what he heard. His belief was strong enough to spur him to action, to make a request of Jesus on behalf of a servant. The centurion understood that by Jewish custom a rabbi would be ritually defiled by stepping into a gentile's abode, so (and this is astounding) he believed so strongly in Jesus' power to heal, he actually believed that Jesus could do so from a distance (without actually touching the sick person). This was exceptional faith in the power of Jesus, and He was amazed. Jesus responded to him, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. The centurion received a positive answer to his request; Jesus healed the servant in response to the centurion's "great faith" in Him. Here is another example of strong faith: Luke 8:43-48 And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. In that culture, a bleeding woman was not supposed to be out in public, because if she came into physical contact with another Jew that person would be rendered ritually unclean. There was some risk that she could be stoned for such an act. But this woman had heard of Jesus' healing power. She thought to herself, 'I don't dare touch or be touched by Jesus in my condition, but His healing power is so great that I can be healed just by touching the tassels of his prayer shawl.' So she acted on her belief: she made her way through a crowd of people (no telling how many she may have bumped into!) and touched Jesus' garment. Immediately Jesus knew, and He looked for the person whose faith was so strong as to draw healing power from Him by mere contact with His clothing. We can appreciate why the woman "came trembling" and fell down before Him! But Jesus comforted her and said, thy faith hath made thee whole. We can see that faith is believing, a conviction based on what we have heard. Strong faith is a conviction firm enough to spur us to act upon what we believe. The purpose of faith, the reason God gives us faith, is to affect (and hopefully govern) what we think and say and do; the foremost intended effect, of course, is to bring to us into God's family! 2Co 4:13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; Is faith the words (or actions) we take? No. By definition, faith is the firmly held belief within us. How we express that faith in words or deeds, though important, is not faith in and of itself. Our words and deeds are manifestations (signs) of the faith that resides within our hearts. Words and deeds are ways in which our faith is demonstrated and can be seen by others.
Bishop Browne had a number of observations (to which I had provided a link on the previous thread), in his commentary on Art. 11: According to its derivation the word [faith] should mean persuasion of the truth of anything. But this does not decide its force as a theological virtue, still less its signification in the peculiar language of St. Paul. There can be little doubt that it is used in very different senses in different parts of Scripture. For example: 1. It is used to signify truth or good faith in Matt. 23:23, "the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy and faith"; and in Rom. 3:3: "Shall their unbelief make the faith (or faithfulness) of God without effect?" 2. It is used of the assurance given by one person to another, Acts 17:31, "whereof He hath given assurance unto all men." 3. It is used as a term to designate the Christian Religion, "the faith" or "the faith of Christ." So Acts 6:7, "we obedient to the faith." Acts 13:8, "seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith." Rom. 1:5, "for obedience to the faith among all nations" (i.e., to convert all nations to the Christian Religion)...In this sense St. Paul appears especially to use it in his Epistle to the Galatians; where perhaps we may consider, that in his constant antithesis of Law and Faith, he is contrasting the Law of Moses, or the Religion of the Jews, with the Faith of Christ, or the Religion of the Gospel... 4. There are passages in the Epistles in which it seems plain that faith is spoken of as separable from its results, as an assent to Christian truth without the heart being duly moved by it, and so the life corresponding with it...Thus St. Peter (2 Pet. 1:5) bids men "add to their faith virtue" and all other Christian graces, as though faith might be considered as apart from other graces...Especially St. James (2:14-26) considers the case of faith without works, and declares such a faith unable to justify. 5. Yet, on the other hand, since it is the nature of faith to open the eye of the mind to things spiritual, and to bring home to it the view of Heaven, and hell, of God's justice and mercy, of man's liability to judgment, and Christ's Atonement and Mediation; therefore it is most commonly spoken of as an operative and active principle, "purifying the heart" (Acts 15:9), and "working by love" (Gal. 5:6). Accordingly, in Heb. 9 St. Paul [sic] attributes to the energy of faith all the holiness and heroism of the saints and martyrs in times of old. 6. Especially, as the principal subjects of God's revelations are His promises, therefore faith came to mean reliance on the truth of God's promises, or trust in His mercy and grace. Only 1 of the above 6 categories of use of the term 'faith' described above involves the consideration of faith as separate from other virtues, actions, etc. Ergo, I stand by my original proposition: 'faith' can include belief, but it is not limited to belief. The Homily on Salvation - the only one of the Homilies specifically mentioned in the Articles of Religion (Art. 11) - also makes a number of interesting observations on the subject. The Homily makes it clear that if 'faith' is something we do, then it is a 'work'; the 'faith that justifies', then, is not our faith at all, but Christ's. That is something we receive, on the passive side. Our own personal belief, charity, partaking of the sacraments, etc., is what we do in response to 'the faith' that we have received, beginning at baptism. And remaining in that faith, as Jesus stressed so very clearly on so many occasions, requires far more than mere belief. "But the one who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt. 24:13).
I hope no one expected an exhaustive analysis of the word 'faith' as it is used in the Bible to appear within a single brief post. Certainly, the word is used to indicate such things as "the faith" and "dead" faith. The definition for "the faith," for example, is of course going to be different than that for "faith."
The Homily on Salvation has been mentioned. We certainly can draw some insight from it concerning the nature of faith. What is the true and justifying faith. For the right and true Christian faith is, not only to believe that holy Scripture, and all the aforesaid articles of our faith are true, but also to have a sure trust and confidence in GODS merciful promises, to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ: whereof doth follow a loving heart to obey his commandments. And this true Christian faith neither any devil hath, nor yet any man, which in the outward profession of his mouth, and in his outward receiving of the Sacraments, in coming to the Church, and in all other outward appearances, seems to be a Christian man, and yet in his living and deeds shows the contrary. The homily's description goes beyond the Bible definition of faith in that it details what writings contain the things we believe. It says a "right and true Christian faith" is to believe the Scriptures and the (Thirty-Nine) Articles, and to "have a sure trust and confidence" in the promises of God. It goes on to point out that those who have such faith "doth follow a loving heart to obey" the things our Lord tells us to do. And it says that people whose manner of "living and deeds" show a consistent pattern of disobedience are not holders of this faith. It is important to note that the above-quoted statement is given near the end of the homily and is preceded by numerous, repeated statements reminding us that no good deeds, works, or acts of obedience can in any way contribute to justification by faith. For example: Nor when they say, That we be justified freely, they mean not that we should or might afterward be idle, and...that we should do no good works at all... But this saying, That we be justified by faith only, freely and without works, is spoken for to take away clearly all merit of our works, as being unable to deserve our justification at GODS hands, and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of man, and the goodness of GOD, the great infirmity of our selves, and the might and power of GOD, the imperfectness of our own works, and the most abundant grace of our Savior Christ, and therefore wholly to ascribe the merit and deserving of our justification unto Christ only, and his most precious blood shedding. (emphasis added) Once again we are shown, without equivocation, that works are of a separate class than faith; not that we shouldn't do good works, but those good works are to be regarded as an outgrowth of faith rather than as an element of faith itself. "For all the good works that we can do, be imperfect, and therefore not able to deserve our justification..." This is not to say that faith (which is from God) can be regarded as a meritorious element within ourselves to make us deserving of justification. Rather, faith might be likened to our hand outstretched in hope and response to God's promise to freely give us His grace, into which hand He graciously places the priceless gift. (Who among us cannot relate to the image of an adult telling a child, "I have something for you; put out your hand...")
The ‘faith that justifies’ is consistently described in the Homily, the Articles, and the Protestant Confessions as God’s action, not ours. Our personal belief is therefore not the ‘faith that justifies’ in Anglican doctrine; it is a response to it.
The Bible must 'win out' in any situation where other documents appear to say something contradictory. Heb 11:6 But without faith (pistis) it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe (pisteuo) that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Scripture teaches us that faith and belief are synonymous.
That particular passage does. Others which I've already cited employ a more expansive definition. Why are you ignoring those and only citing the ones that appear to confirm what you're saying? The Bible does not speak for itself; it requires interpretation. My goal here has simply been to defend the authentic Anglican interpretation, not to "reinvent the wheel" by trying to construct my own system out of an isolated reading with no context to guide me. The latter is a useless endeavor.
And yet you are a devotee of Sanders, who (with a couple others) constructed their own system of interpretation, that flies in the face of an "authentic Anglican interpretation" of Paul, faith, works, and justification. Selective reasoning?
The New Bible Dictionary IVP has 25 long paragraphs of 10 point text on OT and NT definitions of the way the word faith (noun : pistis and verb : pisteuo, having also various different tenses) are used and the different contexts in which they are used by different authors. John for instance uses the verb pisteuo 98 times in the fourth gospel alone. Curiosly the noun pistis is not even used once in that gospel. In fact John uses the word pisteuo more often than any other writer in the New Testament, three times as many in fact as the first three gospels put together. It goes on to say why. . . . . .
If you have that dictionary in front of you, go ahead and share the "why" with us, Tiffy. Don't hold us in suspense!
No, no, and no. Sanders is a historian, not a theologian; he is also a very good writer. He shows excellent attention to detail, but he doesn’t meander for 300 pages to get to the point, like Wright often does. Although Sanders is a Methodist, not an Anglican, I am not aware of anything he has written which would be considered ‘heterodox’ by Anglican standards.
Faith (pistis) appears in the Gospels two dozen times. Each time, it is used with pretty much the same meaning: belief. The word has a slightly variant flavor in Luke 18:8 when Jesus says, "when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" but the basic meaning remains, for we could easily substitute "belief" for "faith" and the verse would mean the same thing. In a handful of instances, "little faith" is the translation for a related Greek word, oligopistos. This word can carry the connotation, 'lacking confidence.' An example can be found in Matt. 8:25-26. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. Between the noun form pistis and the verb form pisteuo, we can count nearly 500 uses in the N.T. With so many verses to work with, we should be able to obtain a clear picture of meaning simply by letting scripture interpret scripture!
I don't think this is quite the way it is. Faith involves the kind of belief which requires a response and trust. I may believe that you live in the USA, That belief does not require a response or trust. You may live in the UK, the USSR, or Cuba. If I believe Jesus calls me to follow after him, faith will clearly show a response to that belief. Even shakey faith will have some response. Part of the confusion comes from the development of Western thought in the post-enlightenment period, where we discovered the concept of concept and engaged in a new level of intellectualisation. Belief implies intellectual acknowledgement, Faith implies trust and action.
Mountains out of molehills. I agree that living faith implies trust and leads to action. I'm not going to reiterate that in every post, though. As I've shown in post #6, the Bible uses "faith" and "belief" somewhat interchangeably so we should be safe in doing the same. Here are more examples: Heb 4:2-3 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith (pistis) in them that heard it. For we which have believed (pisteuo) do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith (pistis) of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe (pisteuo): for there is no difference: By the way, if we were to assume that "believe" implies nothing more than intellectual acknowledgement, then perhaps we would have to write a letter of protest to the Bible translators who use that word to translate pisteuo every time it's attributed to Jesus... such as in John 3:18-- He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. I don't think Jesus was saying that "he who has intellectual assent is not condemned."
Schleiermacher had some interesting things to say about faith in the chapter on Justification in his dogmatics: "It is perhaps this formula [that faith is the causa instrumentalis of justification] that has betrayed many theologians into maintaining the position that faith must be our own work, and that only when this work has been accomplished can the operation of divine grace begin."
Mat 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Pistis in the above verse does stand out as a bit of a special case, as @Invictus noted earlier. We can see that it might carry a connotation of 'fidelity' or something similar; as noted, Browne suggests 'truth' or 'good faith' (the latter does not resonate with me, but it's conceivable). The ESV translates it 'faithfulness.'
I think that @Botolph 's objection to mere intellectual assent is a very important point. Faith is not simple head knowledge or bare mental 'acceptance' of the proposition that Christ died to redeem people from sin. Faith is deeper than that. The answer, I think, lies in Romans 10:10. Rom 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above) Rom 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Rom 10:11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Rom 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! Rom 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:10 specifies that we must believe in Christ "with the heart" (the spirit, the inner man, the part of us that God breathed into us) and not just with the soul (the intellect, the seat of rational reason). With the heart man believes (trusts in) Jesus as his Redeemer, and receives the imputation of God's righteousness. (What a gift!) Whoever believes (trusts, has firm confidence) in Him "shall not be ashamed" and "shall be saved" (v. 13). Verses 14-17 delve into an issue that relates to the Great Commission. The point is made that people can't believe (have faith) in Christ unless they have heard the Gospel, and people won't hear the Gospel unless God calls and sends someone, and they go willingly, to communicate the Gospel. Verse 17 concludes this thought by observing that faith comes by (or through) hearing the Gospel message ("the word of God"). How does faith come? Faith comes by hearing about Jesus' sinless life, ignominious death, and glorious resurrection, all of which He did to remove the penalty for sin on behalf of every person who trusts in Him.
Heb 4:2-3 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. Heb. 4:2-3. ESV πίστις STRONG’S NUMBER:g4102 Dictionary Definitiong4102. πίστις pistis; from 3982; persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself: — assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity. AV (244) - faith 239, assurance 1, believe + g1537 1, belief 1, them that believe 1, fidelity 1; conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith... I find the ESV delivers this passage more clearly and less ambiguously than the KJV simply because of its use of English language that is contemporary with our common useage. When we see the words faith or belief in English in the Bible we need to be very careful to notice the context the word exists within. Otherwise we are liable to misunderstand the meaning of the whole passage that it appears in. Notice how cleverly the writer to the Hebrews has used the word 'faith' in two different contexts at one and the same time. Both the faith of the individual believer AND the corporate faith of the Christain church, in his use of the words (they were not united by faith with us who believe). .
John’s Dictionary from the 1760s may be really helpful here. He has an exhaustive list of meanings for word faith, as they existed in the 18th century: https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Faith FAITH. n.s. [foi, French; fede, Italian; fides,Latin.] 1. Belief of the revealed truths of religion. The name of faith being properly and strictly taken, it must needs have reference unto some uttered word, as the object of belief. Hooker, b. ii. s. 4. Faith, if it have not works, is dead. Jam. ii. 17. Vision in the next life is the perfecting of that faith in this life, or that faith here is turned into vision there, as hope into enjoying. Hammond’s Pract. Catech. Then faith shall fail, and holy hope shall die; One lost in certainty, and one in joy. Prior. 2. The system of revealed truths held by the Christian church; the credenda. Felix heard Paul concerning the faith. Acts xxiv. 24. This is the catholick faith. Common Prayer. 3. Trust in God. Faith is an entire dependence upon the truth, the power, the justice, and the mercy of God; which dependence will certainly incline us to obey him in all things. Swift. 4. Tenet held. Which to believe of her, Must be a faith, that reason, without miracle, Should never plant in me. Shakespeare’s King Lear. 5. Trust in the honesty or veracity of another. 6. Fidelity; unshaken adherence. Her failing, while her faith to me remains, I should conceal, and not expose to blame By my complaint. Milton’s Paradise Lost, b. x. l. 129. 7. Honour; social confidence. For you alone I broke my faith with injur’d Palamon. Dryd. Knight’s Tale. 8. Sincerity; honesty; veracity. Sir, in good faith, in meer verity. Shakes. King Lear. They are a very forward generation, children in whom is no faith. Deutr. xxxii. 20. 9. Promise given. I have been forsworn, In breaking faith with Julia whom I lov’d. Shakespeare.