Saving Faith

Everyone knows what faith is. Faith is when you believe in something even though there is no reason to. No, wait, that is a popular one -- perhaps the most popular -- but it isn't accurate. The dictionary says it is "Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing." Of course, it also says it is "strong or unshakable belief in something, especially without proof or evidence". So even the dictionary today likes that popular one. The biblical version, however, is somewhat different. The New Testament uses the word pistis (or some variation thereof). The word means "to be persuaded; to be convinced (by argument)." Now that puts a kink in things, doesn't it? Biblical faith is not devoid of reason. In fact, it banks on it.

Some people will ask, "How can that person be a Christian if they deny basic Christian doctrine?" and others will respond, "Well, they believe in Jesus, so they are." End of discussion. Your argument has no validity because they claim "faith". But is that the way it works?

Biblical faith has a variety of components. (I say "biblical" over against "contemporary use" -- "a belief without reason".) First, there is the content of faith. You have to believe in something. The phrase above was "They believe in Jesus." That would be the "something" in that case. Of course, for faith to be valid, that "something" would have to be real for it to be significant. A belief in unicorns is something like "faith", but it is not significant since there are no unicorns. By the same token, the "Jesus" in which the person believes would have to be the real Jesus. A belief in a Jesus that was not the genuine one fails this first test.

The second component is the obvious one. It is basically mental assent. That is, "I am recognizing the truth claim and I agree with it." The "truth claim" in the previous example would be the genuine Jesus. The assent, then, would be "I agree with the reality of the genuine Jesus." This aspect of faith is the one that nearly everyone recognizes. In fact, some see this as the simple definition of faith entirely -- mental assent. The problem with this limited definition is shown in an example. "I believe in George Washington" would include the recognition of the truth claim about George Washington and the mental assent that the person existed as it is claimed ... but provides no other benefit.

Genuine faith requires one more component. There are a variety of terms for it. Theologians call it "fiducia". I like John's gospel for this one. When he references belief in Christ, he uses an unusual phrase. He calls it "believing into". But in plain language, most of us have heard the chair analogy. "Do you have faith in that chair?" "What do you mean?" "Do you believe the chair exists?" "Yes, of course." "Do you believe the chair can hold you up?" "Sure!" "Is it holding you up right now?" You see, in this example, it's not genuine faith until it is "supporting your weight", so to speak. It's not genuine faith until you're leaning on it. Thus the "believe into" concept. "Believe in" carries a sense of detachment, the idea of a mental assent without actually placing any reliance on it. Genuine faith requires that extra concept of reliance.

So essential is this to genuine faith that the Bible demands that living faith necessarily produces change. Lots of people claim to be "believers", but they go on to say that it makes little or no difference in how they live their lives. That would be what James calls "dead faith" ... and it's useless. It's as valuable as the demon's faith. He recognizes the truth claim and mentally assents to it, but puts no reliance on it. That is not a faith that produces salvation.

Faith is vital to Christianity. It is not an unreasoning belief. It requires, instead, a substance of truth. A vague "I believe in Jesus" isn't sufficient. The "Jesus" in question must be the true Jesus. It requires mental assent to that truth. Recognizing the truth claims of who the true Jesus was and is, you have to agree with those claims. Even that is not sufficient. Jesus claimed, for instance, to be the only way to the Father. If you are going to have faith in Jesus, you will need to rely on Him as the sole source of access to the Father ... or it isn't saving faith. And that, dear reader, can be a real problem for us humans because we have a real tendency to put our reliance on a whole lot of other things. Sometimes we are putting our reliance on faith itself ...