Christian faith what is it?

Christian faith is a whole hearted trust and belief in the true and living God. It is based on the premise that He is the Creator God and that we as His creatures are resposible to and accountable to him for all our deeds and actions. 

The writer of the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament in the Holy Scriptures commences the book with these words.

Hebrews 11:1:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

The Amplified New Testament translates this verse as:
"Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality - faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses."

Perhaps an anagram of the word faith will give us more clarity in his matter.

 

Fidelity	Loyalty Faithfulness Devotion
Assurance	Affirmation Safety Promise
Integrity	Soundness Consistency Virtue
Trust	Belief Commitment Confidence
Hope	Anticipation Trust Optimism

 

When a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ exercises his or her faith, they are revealing to us that they have the moral courage to believe in the true and living God. They believe that what God had promised and affirmed in His Holy Scriptures, He will carry out.

People in the world generally want physical proof before they will believe in something. What is the old saying? "Seeing is believing." They want visual proof. Oftentimes, God tests our faith to see if we have persevering faith in the face of difficulties. Remember, what God promises in His word He will perform; perhaps not according to our time frame but according to His own perfect timing.

Let's have a look at our anagram of the word faith.

F is for fidelity. When I thought of the word fidelity it immediately brought to mind the word loyalty. If you are married, loyalty to your spouse must be a guiding principle in your life. That's what fidelity is all about staying true to your spouse. That's where the word faithfulness comes into play. Loyalty and faithfulness go hand in hand in a marriage relationship. This of course will lead to devotion between the spouses. How often do you hear someone say, "He is devoted to her" or, "She is devoted to him?"

A for assurance. I immediately thought that assurance gives you freedom from doubt. If you have assurance from the true and living God; you will have His affirmation of that assurance. This means that you can depend on His promises in the Holy Scriptures.

Let's look at 2 Peter 1:3-4:
"(3) ...His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
(4) by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

This brings us to the thought of the word safety. The word safety conveys to us the thought of being safe from harm and danger. Let's have a look at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 10:27-29:
"(27) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
(28) And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
(29) My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand." Here is eternal safety!

I for integrity. Unfortunately in the world today integrity seems to be on a slippery slope downwards. When you think of a person who has high integrity you know they will not be easily dissuaded from doing what is right. Why? It is because they have a sound moral basis for their actions. There is a soundness about their life and actions. There is consistency in their life. The next word in this set is the word virtue. Philippians 4:8:
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things." Note that there is virtue in all of the things mentioned in verse 8.

T for trust. If you trust someone this means that you have a strong belief that that person will do the right thing by you. Their past life and actions signify their trustworthiness. So when you trust someone you are making a commitment to that person. You are relying on them. This means that you have confidence in the person.

H is for hope. If you hope something will happen it means that it may happen in the future. Hope brings us an anticipation of our wishes or desires. If we have a strong hope then we trust that it will come to fruition.  We will have a certain amount of optimism about the outcome. A half-hearted hope is merely wishful thinking.

Our anagram of FAITH encapsulates all the words of fidelity - assurance - integrity - trust - hope. Godly faith as per The Amplified New Testament is, "...the assurance...of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality..." This is faith in action! However, the next part of the verse really hits the nail on the head. "...faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses."

Here is the pure essence of godly faith; our faith reaching beyond the senses and wholly trusting in the Lord that what He has promised He will do! By faith believing that the Lord will act according to His words in the Holy Scriptures.

A small child walks into a skyscraper building with his parents. They walk over to the elevators. His father tells him to press a button to bring an elevator to them. When the elevator arrives a ding is heard and the doors of the elevator open. They get in and his father tells the child to press the button with the number 5 on it. The elevator doors close and the elevator carries them swiftly up to the fifth floor of the building. The doors open and they get out. The child did not have to know the 'ins and outs' of how and why the elevator works. All he needed to know was that if he pushed the correct buttons the elevator took them to the fifth floor. Anyone could have done the same thing!

So it is with godly faith. It is like the elevator. When you walk into a building, you go to the bank of elevators. By faith you press the button to summon the elevator. When it arrives you then press another button to have the elevator take you to your designated floor. You are exercising your conviction that the elevator will carry you to your chosen destination. You trusted that if you carried out the correct procedure that you would arrive at your chosen destination.

Hebrews chapter 11 gives us a remarkable list of Old Testament people who by faith believed in God and achieved great things on God's behalf. They had a living, vital faith in their God. They were normal flesh and blood people like you and I. It was their godly faith that set them apart.

Christian faith - are you practising it? 

Jon Peasey

Biblical Perspectives blog www.jon-peasey.blogspot.com
Ebooks author page https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JRPeasey

[All Scriptures quoted are from the New King James version; unless otherwise noted. Words enclosed in [ ] are inserted for clarity. Words in bold type emphasise a point. You may notice some verses are quoted with ... at the beginning, ending or elsewhere in a verse. Only the relevant part or parts of the verse, that relate directly to the current subject matter is quoted.]

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