Now Faith Is

Now Faith Is.  “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread” sank the barb by Alexander Pope (An Essay on Criticism, 1711) that shamed over-confident critics who bullied young writers though they themselves had not published anything. The same danger exists when offering commentary on faith if, while attesting self-expertise in faith, I functionally discourage another’s faith. The far safer and wiser course defers to The Faith to make comments on faith.

“The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), unsurprisingly, says a lot about faith, comprising the distinguishing characteristic of Christianity. The same Greek word (pistis) sometimes translated as belief, faith has over 200 occurrences in the New Testament as a noun (faith), over 200 as a verb (to believe/have faith), and over 60 as an adjective (faithful). Faith is a huge subject. To give faith its proper attention would take centuries, but the Bible itself offers roughly three aspects of faith, equally true and truly equal in the exaltation of Jesus Christ as the epicenter of all faith: (1) covenant loyalty, (2) Christological understanding, and (3) hopeful expectation of the future.

This triple-tiered view of faith helps us see its generous overlaps and appreciate its exquisite texture. James emphasizes faith’s covenant loyalty, Paul emphasizes faith’s Christological understanding, and Hebrews emphasizes faith’s hopeful expectation of the future. Thus, the first verse of Hebrews’ Chapter of Faith leans toward the hopeful expectation of the future in its characterization of faith. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). It is not a technical, exhaustive definition of faith, per se, but a functional explanation for a particular situation in the historical, mid-first century, Jerusalem church (60-69 ad). Faith is the way, the only way, that we can functionally relate to God’s invisible order. “Physical eyesight produces a conviction or evidence about visible things; faith is the organ which enables people to ‘see’ the invisible order” (F. F. Bruce). This unique aspect of faith is trust in things unseen, especially when spiritual pressure is applied.