The Bible speaks often speaks of “faith”? But how exactly is it defined biblically?
The Bible speaks or implies several ways the idea of faith is applied.
Here’s a partial list.
Saving faith or acting faith, Ephesians 2:8
Gift of faith, 1 Corinthians 12:4a, 9a
Measure of faith, Romans 12:3
Dead faith, see James
Demon faith, see James
Some false teachers have invented false faiths like Oral Roberts “seed faith”.
Other false teachers have warped biblical faith in a multitude of ways. For example, some say people must possess a certain amount of faith to receive healing but Jesus often healed and performed miracles in the presence of the faithless regardless of their lack of faith.
Concerning the abundance of error and false teaching, it is very important to know precisely what faith is and what it isn’t.
**THE ONLY THING THAT COUNTS IS **FAITH** EXPRESSING ITSELF THROUGH LOVE**!!{Galatians 5:6}
Acts 26:17,18: Jesus said to Paul, "I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are **SANCTIFIED BY FAITH**!"
Romans 1:17: For in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed--a righteousness that is **BY FAITH FROM FIRST TO LAST**!!
Romans 3:23-25: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood--to be received **BY FAITH**!!
Romans 3:27,28: Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? **NO**, because of the law that **REQUIRES FAITH**! For we maintain that a person is **JUSTIFIED BY FAITH** apart from the works of the law!!
Romans 5:1,2: Therefore, since we have been **JUSTIFIED THOUGH FAITH**, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access **BY FAITH** into this grace in which we now stand!!
Romans 10:5-9: Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the law: "The person who does these things will live by them." {Lev 18:5} But the righteousness that comes **BY FAITH** says...The word is near you: it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the message concerning **FAITH** that we proclaim: IF you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your **FAITH** and are saved!!
Romans 12:3: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the **FAITH** God has distributed to each of you!!
Romans 14:23: Everything that does not come **FROM FAITH** is sin!!
2 Corinthians 1:24: We work with you for your joy, because it is **BY FAITH** you stand firm!!
2 Corinthians 5:6-10: We are always confident and know that as long as we are at home with the body we are away from the Lord. For we live **BY FAITH**, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please Him... For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad!!
Galatians 2:16: We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but **BY FAITH** in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our **FAITH** in Christ Jesus that we may be **JUSTIFIED BY FAITH** in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law **NO ONE WILL BE JUSTIFIED**!!
Galatians 3:23-26: Before the coming of this **FAITH**, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the **FAITH** that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be **JUSTIFIED BY FAITH**. Now that this **FAITH** has come we are **NO LONGER UNDER THE SUPERVION OF THE LAW**. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God **THROUGH FAITH**!!
Galatians 5:5,6: For through the Spirit we eagerly await **BY FAITH** the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is **FAITH** expressing itself through **LOVE**!!
Ephesians 2:8-10: For it is by grace you have been saved, **THROUGH FAITH**--and this is not from yourselves, it is the **GIFT** of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are **GOD'S HANDIWORK**, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do!!
Ephesians 3:16,17: I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts **THROUGH FAITH**!!
I Thessalonians 1:3: We remember before our God and Father you work produced **BY FAITH**!!
2 Thessalonians 1:3,4: We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your **FAITH** is growing **MORE AND MORE**....Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and **FAITH** in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring!!
2 Thessalonians 1:11: We constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed **PROMPTED BY FAITH**!!
I Timothy 1:3,4: Command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer... Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God's work--which is **BY FAITH**!!
2 Timothy 3:14,15: Continue in what you have learned and become convinced of...and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation **THROUGH FAITH** in Christ Jesus!!
Hebrews 11:1,3,6: So **FAITH** is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see...**BY FAITH** we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, in that what is seen was not made out of what was visible... Without **FAITH** it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He **REWARDS** those who earnestly seek Him!!
Matthew 16:27: Jesus says, “The Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels and **THEN** He will **REWARD** each person according to what he has done!”
Hebrews 12:1,2: Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our **FAITH**!!
Atheists claim that "atheism" simply means they don't believe in a god. I disagree, because if they didn't believe in GOD, then they wouldn't bother getting rid of crosses and prayer in schools. Some people think the groundhog predicts the spring weather. If the groundhog made a mistake in forecasting and I decided to kill all the groundhogs as a way to get back at them, it would reveal that I did believe in groundhogs... lol If you don't believe in something, you just ignore it and it doesn't bother you.
So, what does faith mean in general? When Jesus said, "BELIEVE IN ME," it means we should accept Him as the Christ, as the Messiah, as the Son of God, as our Lord and Savior. Just like people accept that whatever they hear in the news is likely true, they need to accept that whatever the Bible says is true. Some say that the Bible was written by men. Well, so is the newspaper, yet you believe the newspaper.
So, one definition of faith is simply "to accept the Gospel as truth." Another definition which Jesus talked about is found in Hebrews. And Jesus said in Mark 11:23, "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says." So, Jesus revealed to us that faith is the currency of heaven. We can walk into a store and buy a diamond or a gold coin if we have the money. You could buy a whole skyscraper if you have enough money. Jesus explained to us in Mark 11:23 that if we want to perform supernatural acts, we have to have faith. In this context, faith is an understanding that our words have power and the name of Jesus has power. And faith is a certainty that when we use His name, things are going to happen.
Jesus also explained to us that faith in itself does not guarantee that one will go to heaven. In Matthew 7:20-23, Jesus says that there will be people who use HIS name to cast out demons and do all kinds of amazing things, yet HE never knew them. These verses reveal to us, first of all, that the condition to go to heaven is not faith but love. "Love the Lord your God" is the first great commandment. (See also: 1 Cor 13:2)
The second thing it reveals to us is that faith is the only condition to move mountains. If people who never really knew Jesus were able to perform supernatural miracles, then it doesn't matter whether you're good or bad. Faith works regardless of who uses it, which is amazing. Nearly every preacher says, you got to be good in order to receive from God. You got to tithe. You got to do this and that. But if you examine the Gospel, you realize that Jesus is suggesting that ANYONE can receive a miracle using His name, even sinners.
Some people say, "Maybe God doesn't want to give you the stuff because it's bad for you." Excuse me, didn't Jesus say you can move a mountain? Moving a mountain isn't necessarily a good thing for all. First of all, it's ridiculous. Secondly, what happens to all the people who live on the mountain? Are they going to fall into the sea and drown? So, it might not be a good idea to move a mountain. But just to make a point, Jesus said that even if you wanted a mountain to move, it would obey.
You are the one setting the limits through your unbelief. If you want to believe that God doesn't want such and such, then you're limiting your faith and the miracle, and it's going to be exactly as you believe. If you believe that something is too impossible, then it won't happen. And we see the same thing happen in the Bible. In Mark 6:5, "He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them." That's because of the people's unbelief. If unbelief limits the hand of God, we really need to pay attention to it.
Sometimes in the Bible, faith overpowered unbelief. For example, we see that in 2 Kings 7:19. It's a story where one man had unbelief, and he had to die because of it. When faith meets unbelief, one or the other has to yield. Either the person with unbelief leaves the story or the person with faith yields and accepts the limits. Jesus didn't come to kill people. He didn't kill people who were sinful or those who didn't believe. He simply stepped aside and tried to maneuver around them. But God can override our unbelief anytime. He is not limited by anything. When man meets God, we're done. If we try to limit God and we meet His overpowering force, we become like Saul who fell off his horse and became blind or like Zacharias who became mute because he didn't believe the angel. Or we become like Israelites who had to wander in the desert for 40 years until they died, because they couldn't believe that they can conquer Jericho. The bottom line is faith and unbelief just don't mix.
If I had to define faith, I'd say it is seeing the future. It's like looking into the rear view mirror of your car. If you see a big red truck following you, you don't have to look back to check if it's really there. You KNOW it's there, because you have seen it in the mirror. Faith is like that. Faith gives us a glance into the future. And when you see that something will happen in the future, when God gives you that insight, then you KNOW it will happen. God-given faith drives out all unbelief just like Light drives out darkness when you turn on the lightswitch. When you're reading a book and you skip ahead and read the last chapter, then you KNOW what the end will be. That's faith. You skip ahead and KNOW what will happen. Faith is a God-given opportunity to see what God will make happen in the future for you.
