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| Faith |
| Introduction Read Hebrews 11:1-3 Read Romans 5:1-2 & Philippians 3:7-9 Read Ephesians 2:8-9 & Romans 4:3-5 Read Romans 10:17 Read Matthew 17:14-20 Read Luke 8:2-29 Read James 2:14-26 Conclusion |
| Faith is one of those terms that people often struggle to understand. Volumes of books, lectures, and studies exist on what faith is and how we obtain it. Though many of these studies are wonderful guides, any study should begin with what the Bible tells us. In these verses, we see how the Bible defines what faith is. Faith is believing in what is not seen and is more than what is hoped for. In Genesis 1, we see God creating the world out of nothing, with no substance, with nothing except by His command. Have we seen this or can we fully understand this? Of course not, but we can have faith that this is the way it happened. God declares us to be righteous because of the faith we have. Righteousness means "right standing" before God. We are able to stand before God and know that our sins have been washed away because we have faith. Faith is a free gift that God gives us because he is saving us. God's grace is what truly saves us and it is through faith that we receive grace. But faith is not works for we can not do some level of good works and expect to receive faith. Faith only comes from God and though we do not worthy of it He has given it to us freely. In this verse, the original Greek word "rhema" is translated as "word" but has the meaning of 'that which is or has been uttered by the living voice.' Therefore faith comes from hearing the voice of God. Is this truly an audible voice? For most of us, this will not be the case though there are many examples in the Bible where this has occurred. One can read the "word" of the Bible or some one can tell them about the "word", but until a person hears the Word for themselves, they will not have faith. And without faith, there is no salvation. . The amount of faith we have is not as important as how genuine our faith is. This is very important, for even the faith of the disciples who were with Jesus faltered when a storm appeared (Matthew 8:25-27). Often "belief" and "faith" are used interchangeably, and many times this is fine. But there is a slight difference between the two. Just having a "belief" in a "god" is not the same as having faith in Jesus. Just believing that Jesus is the son of God is not the same has having faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. In Matthew, chapter 4, we see that Satan not only knew who Jesus was, but also Satan tried to tempt Jesus, yet we all know that Satan is not saved. These set of verses bring disagreement among different Christian groups. Are we saved by faith alone or must we also have works to be saved? Romans 4:1-5 says that Abraham was justified by faith alone, so do the Bible contradicting itself? Titus 1:16 clears this up by saying that some can publicly profess God but then deny Him in their daily lives. Therefore we are justified through our faith, but our faith is demonstrated by our active obedience. When we believe that a God exists and the world says that there is no evidence, then we have faith. When we trust that Jesus went to prepare us a place in Heaven and the world can't see it, we have faith. |
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