Faith is one of those things in Christianity that gets a lot of attention. Many believers are trying to conjure up more and more faith because they think that faith is what’s lacking in their Christian life.
Often, when people speak of faith, they actually mean belief. The idea being that if they could just believe hard enough, that would enable them to receive whatever they are believing for.
As with most elements of the Gospel, human nature tends to complicate what God has made simple. So today I would like to share with you one simple secret to give you unshakable faith and belief.
Faith is the Foundation of Belief
Before we begin, a brief explanation of the difference between faith and belief is appropriate to help us understand the context. Most believers consider Hebrews 11:1 to be the official scriptural definition if what faith is— though I take a slightly different perspective. While verse one of Hebrews chapter eleven is certainly a good start to a description of faith, it is exactly that, a start.
The entire chapter of Hebrews eleven is defining faith and belief, and notice that the two are different. In Hebrews 11:1, we read the familiar verse which reads:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
And this is where most people stop— assuming that this single verse is the complete definition of faith. Yet as we examine the details, we can see that this first verse is only the start of the complete definition of faith.
We see that faith is the substance of things hoped for… and this one part of the first sentence can cause a lot of confusion. The word ‘substance’ in Greek is the word ὑπόστασις (hypostasis); a combination of hypo meaning under, and stasis meaning to stand.
So faith is the foundation that stands under the things which we ‘hope’ for.
Now, that word ‘hope’ doesn’t mean what we usually think either. We use the word hope as a wish— gee, I hope so, kind of way.
In the scripture, however, the word hope means a confident expectation. Scriptural New Covenant hope is a certainty, a sure thing. And so we have our second piece of information.
Faith stands under [supports] what we confidently expect.
The second half says that it is the evidence of things not seen.
The word ‘evidence’ is the Greek ἔλεγχος (elegchos), which means conviction, or proof
So we can see that faith is also the conviction or proof of things not seen.
As we put all of these details together, we begin to get a different idea of faith than what is typically thought. Far from the mystical ethereal force that we think faith to be. In the scriptures, the word faith is a noun, and believe is a verb. What this third detail tells us along with the rest of what we have seen so far, is that faith is spiritual information, and belief is the action that we take based on that information. You don’t need to take my word for it of course, this is where the rest of Hebrews chapter eleven comes in, to fill out the definition of faith for us.
Demonstrations of Faith and Belief
Starting with verse three, and continuing through verse eleven we see some examples of how faith and belief work together. We see that it is by faith, the spiritual information about God and what He has done, that we understand how the universe was created by God; this is the most fundamental example of faith.
We see that Abel, had faith, he understood something of God’s grace, and his faith caused him to offer a superior sacrifice compared to Cain.
Noah, received faith, some spiritual information from God about what was going to happen, and what he should do, and Noah believed by acting upon his faith. Noah constructed the ark, and was saved from the flood.
We also read about Abraham, who received some faith information about his future and his descendants, and he believed by acting upon that, leaving his home and traveling to a far country.
Sarah, having heard the faith information about being given a son, acted upon that information (I’ll leave the details of that up to you)
These are real and practical examples of having some level of faith— spiritual information about God, what He has done, or what He is about to do, and then choosing to believe that information. These examples help to define faith for us, and understand how faith and belief work together in a meaningful way to obtain tangible results.
The Secret Key of Faith is Jesus
Now that we have a solid understanding of faith and belief, we could just end here, but if we did, we would still miss a crucial aspect. If we simply stopped with the definition of faith and believe, we’d be left looking to our own strength and effort to believe enough on our own. And that’s the way I tried to live for a number of years; notice that I said tried to live.
Trying to build up faith for the things you are seeking is a very big trap for a lot of people, and trying to believe really hard, is also a pitfall.
As we looked at previously in Hebrews chapter twelve verse 2, Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith. That is a verse that often gets bantered about, but with what we have learned today, it should begin making a lot more sense and open our perspective to how Jesus perfects our faith.
Jesus is both the author and finisher of our faith. He begins our faith, and He completes our faith. Since we know that faith is the spiritual information which we receive from God about what He has done, and what He is doing (and we can add to that, who we are as a result of His actions), it becomes crystal clear how Jesus is the ultimate source and perfecter of our faith.
Today, we have all of the spiritual information that we could ever need in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We look to Jesus, we see what He has accomplished, we see His glory, and by extension, we see ourselves, because we are in Christ and He is in us. We are covered in His righteousness, and made clean new creations.
The righteousness of God is no small thing! His divine righteousness has enormous implications for your entire life. As divinely righteous, no curse even has the right to touch you! Have you ever considered that? Proverbs 26:2 says that a curse will never land without a cause, and there can be no curse on one whom God has pronounced completely righteous— as you have in Christ Jesus.
And this is the key, recognizing what Christ has done, for you personally. Understanding that you are grafted into His vine, and you thrive by receiving from Him.
So with all of this magnificent faith in hand, how exactly do we believe in the scriptural sense? Good question! We find our answer in 2nd Corinthians 4:13, which says, having the same spirit of faith, we believe, and therefore we speak.
Do you see, my friend? Our action of belief, is to speak the truth of Christ in our lives. Whenever we admit the truth of what Jesus has done, how righteous and blessed we are, and how good God is, we are believing in the scriptural sense. Because the Holy Spirit of God is indwelling us, that gives a power and voice to our words that few have ever known or understood, but we see it mentioned here in this verse.
As we close today, I want to encourage you, that now you see how simple and easy Jesus has made our faith and our belief. Faith is not some mystical magical energy or force that cannot be explained or understood. Faith is not something that you need to work really hard to conjure up. As with everything, it is all wrapped-up in the finished work of Christ, and your personal union with Him.
So take a deep breath, release the tension, and I look forward to thriving with you again, as we see more of Jesus together.
Be blessed.