Faith

Faith (Greek pistis; Hebrew ʼĕmûnāh) is a settled trust in God — in his character, his promises, and his saving acts — that rests wholly on him and issues in obedience. It is more than intellectual assent: even the demons believe that God is one and shudder (James 2:19). True faith is the heart’s reliance on God, taking him at his word.

In the Old Testament, Abraham is the paradigm: he "believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3) — trusting God’s promise against all appearances. The prophets distilled the life of the people of God to the same posture: "the righteous shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4), a text Paul makes central to the gospel.

The New Testament focuses faith on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Justification before God comes "by faith apart from works of the law" (Romans 3:28; Galatians 2:16) — through trusting Christ crucified and risen, so that "whoever believes in him" has eternal life (John 3:16). Such faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10:17) and is itself God’s gift (Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 1:29). Hebrews defines it as "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1) and parades a great cloud of witnesses who lived and died by it.

Saving faith is living and fruitful: it "works through love" (Galatians 5:6), and "faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:17) — not that works justify, but that genuine faith inevitably bears them. Faith is the sole instrument by which sinners receive Christ and all his benefits; "without faith it is impossible to please him" (Hebrews 11:6), for the believer walks "by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7).