Faith works through love to produce tangible evidence of its existence in a person’s life (Gal 5:6). James writes that “faith by itself, apart from works, is dead” (James 2:17). Genuine biblical faith expresses itself in everyday life. At an intellectual level you may believe that he could successfully push you across the rope over the falls, but you are not exercising biblical faith until you get in the wheelbarrow and entrust yourself to the tightrope walker. ![]() After watching him go back and forth several times, he asks for a volunteer to sit in the wheelbarrow as he pushes it across the falls. To use an old illustration, imagine you are at Niagara Falls watching a tightrope walker push a wheelbarrow across the rope high above the falls. ![]() Thus faith means putting your trust in God and having confidence that he will fulfill his promises.įaith is more than intellectual agreement. Commenting on this, the Apostle Paul writes, “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” (Rom 4:20-21). In response to God’s promise of countless descendants, Abram “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” (Gen 15:6). A clear example of this is Abram’s encounter with God in Genesis 15. In the Bible, the object of faith is God and his promises. The closest that the Bible comes to offering an exact definition is Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” From this particular passage we see that the central feature of faith is confidence or trust. What does faith mean according to the Bible? ![]() But is that what the Bible means by faith? The answer is a resounding no! So what does faith mean? Some of that confusion comes from the many different ways the word faith is used in everyday conversation a quick look at shows seven different uses! One common way that people use the word faith is to refer to belief in something despite lacking any evidence for it. Faith is one of those words that is commonly used but not always understood.
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