Christian "Faith" Defined

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Introduction

            The Christian faith is far more then mere dogmas arranged in such a fashion as to create symmetry amongst a peoples or obedience to a defiant group. The Christian faith is a relationship that causes humans to act and trust according to the things that they come to know and learn about God. But how does this look functionally speaking and what does this mean per se? That is what this discourse is set out to get straight, define the Christian faith in the fullest sense possible so that the believer may function appropriately within the body and live accordingly as each should.

The Christian Faith Defined

            At the outset the proper understanding of faith should be defined and understood so that there is some clarity regarding this muddied issue. Faith essentially means to believe or trust. But more fully faith has three components: notitia (understanding the content of the Christian faith), fiducia (trust), and assensus (the assent of the intellect to the truth of some proposition).[1] Trust is an important aspect of faith which is a two-way street; by this I mean that the person should be trusting of the things plainly seen of God and they themselves should be trust worthy (Hab 2:4).

            Faith (as stated above) has three components to it, there is the relational because the Christian faith is a relationship, there is the behavioral because we are acting out and trusting that faith and a cognitive part because one must think and know their faith is warranted. Alvin Plantinga said it this way, “It isn’t merely a cognitive activity, because it also involves both the affections and the will.”[2] Faith is a grounding aspect in how we perceive the world because it gives us the assurance of the things we have warrant to believe and hope that our convictions based on our evidence are well founded (Heb 11:1).

            Something that should be mentioned early on is that faith though functions as an essential aspect of the Christian foundation and very little of it is required for God to operate (Matt 17:20), faith is part of an array of functioning aspects that work in concert to achieve an end in the believer (1 Cor 13:2). This at the basic level means that love is an essential component that assists in faith functioning properly. Works is another aspect that is essential to faith, where the two are interwoven in such a way that they are inextricably linked. The Bible teaches that we are saved through faith and not works (Eph 2:8-9) but faith has works (Jas 2:17).[3] This is of course not exhaustive in nature but showcases the point that this aspect of faith (as well as other aspects) of the person are interwoven components that function as a cohort system and lean on each other for their essential functionality.

            Since faith is an act of trusting in something that we have reason to believe we are to walk by faith in the things that we do in life (2 Cor 5:7). This should be viewed through the lens of reasonable to believe and not leaping the gap of the unknown. As can be seen above leaping across an unknown gap would be counter to the foundational understanding of the biblical concept of faith.

            A brief caveat should be presented here so as to cover some essential components or core beliefs for Christian faith. A foundational core belief comes from Romans 10:8-10, coming from the word of faith they have brought, confessing Jesus with your mouth as Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead is foundational to salvation. Jesus declared to love (a relational aspect) God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul and your neighbor as yourself (Deut 6:5; Matt 22:37; Luke 10:27; Mark 12:30-31); these are considered the greatest and second greatest commandments, and both carry the relational aspect. Also, understanding that God provided this free gift of salvation for the entirety of human creation could be considered foundational since God’s love permeates every crevasse in the universe (John 3:16).

            One component that is profound is that of justification by faith (Rom 5:1). Being justified is being declared righteous in the sight of God. So, faith is an aspect of what makes the believer righteous in God’s sight. Again, it is important to note that this kind of faith discussed here is trust, so trusting in God is what justifies the believer. Trusting in what is reasonable to believe based on the evidence that we have weighed, and the moving of the Holy Spirit is what justifies the believer and this trust component cannot be overstated because the trust mentioned here carries the connotation of the relational aspect. The Christian faith is a relational endeavor and cannot be separated from this aspect because relationship is one of those components that is interwoven within the web of aspects that makes the faith function within the believer, such as love. To take the trust component one step further Job had to do this during his trials and this is an important function of that trust whereby it is certain in times of goodness and hardship because God’s will is ultimately rooted in what is best (Job 29:11-12).

            Faith (as mentioned above) also functions as a sort of catalyst for all functioning Christian or human attributes that can result in some sort of good (or stated more appropriately serve the function to bring those things to serve the good purpose). Faith can bring joy, be sound, give full assurance, is done through hearing (i.e. heard through testimony which is reasoned to a conclusion to be sound), we ask in it, protected by it, etc (Phil 1:25; Titus 1:13; Heb 10:22; Rom 10:17; Jas 1:6; 1 Pet 1:5).[4] What this points out is that faith serves many different functions within the scope of the person and the aspect of faith cannot be simply relegated to a singularly functioning aspect within the Christian life. Since it permeates the multifaceted nature of who we are as God’s unique creation then it needs to be thought of and used as such.

            To contemplate what this may look like in practice for the thoughtful Christian mind or the wanderer searching for some proposed truth some applicational material or ideas should be given. Discipleship is an important element of any Christian life and faith as has been laid out is a foundational and interwoven aspect to the Christian life, so discipleship should be considered vital to growth in life and faith. Bonhoeffer gives credence to this idea when he says, “the idea of a situation in which faith is possible is only a way of stating the facts of a case in which the following two propositions hold good and are equally true: only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.”[5] This bolsters the relationship between faith and works that is discussed in James (stated above). Another practical guide to understanding faith as it coincides with the Christian life is that it is directly linked to salvation. Faith and repentance are two aspects that are necessary in conversion and if conversion were to be viewed or compared to a coin, repentance and faith would be the “heads and tails” of that coin.[6]

Conclusion

            Faith has been shown to be an aspect to the Christian life that as multiple components to it such as relational, behavioral, and cognitive. Essentially, this means that Christian faith will bring the person into a relationship with God and they will inevitably act on that faith after they have done some thinking about it. There is strong biblical support for understanding the multifaceted nature of faith and how it is not only grounded in reason but more so grounded in trust. Trust is a major component of biblical faith. The person must trust the message, trust the content, and trust the source of it all before they can reasonably act on it. There are certain things that can be seen within the Christian life that would make it know that faith is evident or rather what faith in general looks like. Discipleship is a large part of what faith looks like in the Christian life. Foundationally, salvation is at the beginning of all of this and faith is part of this two-part equation. Simply stated faith is not a singular aspect but a complex array of aspects that cohere into a system of components that fully equip the person to live a functional life that is glorifying to God.



[1] J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), Chapter 1. This source is an ebook and does not offer page numbers so all references from this source will be labelled as chapter references.

[2] Alvin Plantinga, Knowledge and Christian Belief (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2015), 58. He is discussing the fact that faith is an epistemic or cognitive state but extends further then that and is an extension of his A/C model.
[3] Gabriel Etzel and Ben Gutierrez, Praxis: Beyond Theory (Virginia Beach: Academx Publishing, 2012), 9. Section that discusses how the two aspects of faith without works and faith has works go together because of God’s changing the person’s heart.
[4] Scripture verses are listed in order in relation to the list given in the sentence to match the points made.

[5] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Touchstone, 1959), 63.

[6] Elmer L. Towns, Theology for Today (Mason: Cengage, 2008) 454.

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