Faith is an unequivocal belief in God and absolute confidence in His Word and promises—particularly in the promise of salvation that is offered through Jesus Christ. With faith, we receive God’s grace, guidance, and peace, and can know His will, way, and timing are best.
In Scripture, faith is translated from the Greek term pistis. The word appears more than 450 times in the Greek New Testament; it is a common word with an uncommon meaning. Although sometimes translated as “believe” in English Bibles, Strong’s Concordance presents pistis in more emphatic terms, “God’s divine persuasion.”
In truth, pistis has no equivalent English term. The way modern Western culture uses the words “believe” and “faith” falls short of their biblical meaning. It is similar to the way we use the word love. We say we love God and we love pizza, and when we do, the word love loses its potency. When we say we believe something will happen or that we have faith the economy will do well next year, we are really saying we think it is possible, or probable that something will happen. Faith is different—faith is not based on a statistical probability; it is based on God’s promises. Faith is not a probability; it is a certainty.
And this is where it gets difficult: In the world, probability is based on empirical evidence. We believe a sports team will win the game based on evidence of its past performance. But faith is different; often, we are called to believe when there is no empirical evidence. We are called to believe in heaven, hell, angels, Satan, and more. Why? Because God said so
And our faith in Christ and confidence in what God says must convey absolute confidence. This is true faith, this is why 3.95 million Christians were willing to die as martyrs for their faith before the year 500 AD—they absolutely, beyond any shadow of doubt, believed in Christ and His teachings. True faith is evident when what one believes aligns with how one lives their life.
From an English perspective, faith is a compound word. It is belief plus action; it is knowledge wrapped in certainty. And yet, this certainty is not linked to the things of this world. Hebrews 11:1 states: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
2 Corinthians 5:7 notes we are to “walk by faith and not by sight.” Faith, then, is not linked to what we can see or measure; it is linked to what God sees and says. By faith, we have the assurance that God knows best, that God’s Word is sure, that Jesus lives and leads and guides, and that every prophecy and promise in Scripture is true and will be fulfilled.
True faith helps us to have hope and be courageous. True faith helps us to understand that when God is at work, it does not matter what people say we can or cannot do, or even what Satan threatens he will do. What matters is: Have we placed our faith in Christ, and are we walking by faith and striving to fulfill God’s will in our lives?