Joshua Hawk

“To trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust Him in the dark – that is faith.” Charles Spurgeon

‘I’m taking a leap of faith!’ ‘I have faith in you!’ ‘My faith in humanity has been restored!’ We all have heard these phrases countless times and most of us have probably used them ourselves a time or two. Not only is faith a commonly used word in the human vernacular, the Bible also talks a great deal about faith. In fact, the word “faith” appears over 300 times in the Bible. The word “faith” tends to conjure up images of mustard seeds and mountains; and for good reason. (Matthew 17:20). Faith is without a doubt an important aspect of Christianity but what is faith?

I asked this question to a small group of young adults a few weeks ago when I taught Sunday school at my church. The responses were nearly unanimous. The majority of believers say that faith is believing in something that we cannot see. After all the author of Hebrews said, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 NKJV But is faith simply just believing in something?

To understand what faith is, we need to go back to Genesis 15.

“After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him. “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:1-6 NIV

Most of us know the story of how God promised to give Abraham a child. It seems like an ordinary promise but what made this promise really bizarre was Abraham was 75 years old and his wife Sarah was 65! It was simply impossible for them to have children at that age. Not only were they beyond their child bearing years but they never had children. This could suggest infertility was an issue for them. Under those circumstances, there was no possible way for them to ever have children; however, Abraham believed God and God credited to him at righteousness.

The Hebrew word for “believe” that is used in Genesis 15:6 is the word ‘aman. ‘Aman is defined as to have faith; to trust. Since faith and trust essentially mean the same thing, we can deduce that faith is more than just believing; faith is trusting completely in God! Abraham had faith meaning he entirely trusted God to make good on His promise despite what he knew about human biology. A.W. Tozer puts it best when he said this about faith: “True faith rests upon the character of God and asks no further proof than the moral perfections of the One who cannot lie.”

Because of Abraham’s faith in God, God counted Abraham as righteous. This means that faith and righteousness are linked!

“…but the righteous shall live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4 ESV

To be righteous, one must have faith in God. That is to say one must have complete trust in Him. Righteousness is evidence of someone who has faith. We can also say that unrighteousness is evidence of someone with no faith. The apostle Paul knew this better than anyone else and wrote an entire book on faith and righteousness in his letter to the Roman believers. In fact, Paul used the very example of Abraham’s response to God’s promise to link faith and righteousness (Romans 4).

Faith is extremely important because it is the element that justifies us before God. Without faith in Jesus, there is no justification with God. The author of Hebrews said, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NKJV

It is essential to understand that faith isn’t limited to just believing in God. James said in his epistle, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” James 2:19-20 NKJV It simply isn’t enough to just believe. Faith must always accompany works otherwise faith is dead. The kind of works that must accompany faith is our obedience to God.

Back to my example of Abraham, God delivered good on His promise. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old when they had their son Isaac. What an amazing miracle that was in itself! God surely kept His promise but as the story goes, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19). For thousands of years, many people have questioned why God would ask Abraham to do such a thing. After all, child sacrifice was a common practice by Molek worshippers and God detested it. God also never reneges on His promises. Knowing this, if we go back to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 15, there were two parts to His promise: one, that Abraham would have a son and two, Abraham would have many descendants. Isaac was just a boy so the second half of the promise had yet to be fulfilled. So what was God’s intent? God was simply testing Abraham’s faith on a partially fulfilled promise made over 25 years ago!

It was never God’s intention or desire to take Isaac away from Abraham but God asked Abraham to do it to test his faith. Despite God’s difficult request, Abraham demonstrated his faith by being obedient. When it was clear that Abraham’s faith was resolute, the Angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son. Abraham passed the test of faith with obedience. It is impossible to have faith without obedience. It is obedience to God that demonstrates genuine faith. Without obedience there is self reliance and self reliance is the very reason we need Jesus! We do not have the capacity to be righteous on our own. We must always place our trust and obedience in the One who is!

“Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name.” Romans 1:5 NKJV

So what is faith? Faith is so much more than believing in God. It is also more than believing in things that are invisible. Faith is trusting fully in our Lord in the midst of circumstances where the outcome is uncertain. Faith in Jesus is what deems us righteous and justifies us before God. And faith is unapologetic obedience to God. Without faith we cannot please God. Faith is truly a powerful thing! Will you choose to walk by faith and trust in Jesus?

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV