What Is Faith?

The proper response of the gospel is to repent and believe, but this might be a bit deceiving. Our English vocabulary does not always mean the same as the original Hebrew or Greek. In this case, our word "believe" means less than the word used in Scripture.

Jesus' call to us is to have faith in him. That doesn't solve the problem for us since many people equate faith and belief, but the difference is that of merely holding a group of ideas in your head or becoming a disciple (the proper response to Jesus' invitation).

There are three components to faith: knowledge, assent, and trust. All three need to be present to say that you have responded to Jesus in faith.

The first is knowledge. This is a knowledge of what Jesus has done and what it means to us and the rest of the world. Without this basic knowledge, there is nothing to respond to. But how much knowledge do we need? We don't start with perfect knowledge, so you must respond to what you have, but this is why we see faith as an active, growing response to Jesus. As we walk with God, our knowledge will increase and so will our need to respond positively to God.

There are two responses that make up an act of faith. The first is assent. We need to accept the knowledge we have been given. This is the act of believing that what God has communicated to us is true. This is the part of faith that most of us understand.

The second response of faith (the third component) is trust. Belief is not enough, or at least the way we define belief today is not enough. We usually define belief as intellectual assent alone, but if our actions and our intellectual belief are at odds, then our intellectual belief is just a facade. We act on what we really believe.

This doesn't mean that our actions are perfect or consistent. There are always other factors involved (such as our weaknesses), but faith actively strives for perfection and consistency. This is what we mean by faithfulness.

Faith is not a one-time event in our life. Our knowledge should continue to grow. None of us know God's mind completely. Part of discipleship is to become a lifelong learner. This means that assent is not a finished act. As we learn, we must still decide to accept God's counsel. Trust is also ongoing. We are daily challenged to enter the life Jesus has won for us.

Without knowledge, we are just superstitious. Without assent, we are double-minded and confused. Without trust, we are aimless. Jesus promises that with all three we find life.