Tim Morrow

I hear a lot of the use of the word “faith” in our culture. We use the word so often it becomes like the word “love.” We seldom stop to think about what “faith” is, or ask the question of what we have “faith” in.

In most contexts, the word faith has a religious connotation to it. People will ask, “What is your faith background?” Or people who have left traditional religion will say, “I left my faith.” They will say they “believe” in God, but aren’t necessarily followers of God. It’s as if they have faith in their faith. They believe that by merely coming to some intellectual ascent in acknowledging God, they are then exerting true faith. But is that what the Bible actually teaches?

The Bible certainly gives us not only a definition of what faith is, but who we should put our faith in. In fact, the words faith, trust, believe, etc., are found countless times in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. 

Hebrews 11:1 gives us the most definitive definition. It says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” That verse answers what faith is. But then we must press on to ask, what is it that we are hoping for, and what is the thing that I have assurance in that I cannot see?

Certainly, it is not some ethereal thing that cannot be answered in the Bible. Scripture does answer it. The faith that it speaks of is faith, belief, or trust in a specific person. In the New Testament that person is fully revealed as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul uses the phrase “faith in Christ” several times — Romans 3:22 and Galatians 2:16, for instance. In fact, Paul uses the phrase “faith in Christ” in nearly all of his letters freely. James 2:1 uses “faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Finally, Jesus Christ himself says in John 14:1, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” (John 14:1) Jesus is saying, if you are going to say you have faith in God, then you have to have faith, “believe,” in me.

If you are going to have real Biblical faith, real saving faith, it’s not enough to only say, “I have faith.” You must have faith in something specific; that specific person is Jesus Christ.

The beauty of that for believers is that my faith is in a secure unmoving salvation. I believe that Jesus Christ is all that the Bible says of him, his death, burial, and resurrection. It’s in Christ alone that I have faith for eternal life.

The most famous of all New Testament verses (John 3:16) sums it up perfectly: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes [has faith] in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Is your faith a true faith? Have you been just saying you have faith, but never actually put your faith “in” something? Have you only had faith in your faith? Today put your faith in the God of the Bible, revealed to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you have put your faith in Christ, rejoice today that in him, and only through him, your salvation is secure … your “faith” is not in vain. Your faith is real because he is real!

(Tim Morrow is the pastor at New Life Church in Powell.)