Hello Readers and welcome back to Renaissance Woman!

I missed posting last week due to an aggravation of my shoulder injury.  I’ve been taking it easy, sitting in my chair, reading some books, and thinking about faith.  And now, back to it!

The Apostle Paul describes faith as a shield in Ephesians 6:16 and as a breastplate in 1 Thessalonians 5:8.  Faith then is pictured as something that protects but, in order to understand how faith is protective, it’s important to understand what faith is.

I’ve been looking at the various definitions of faith.  A word is defined by its usage but that doesn’t necessarily mean that definition will bear any resemblance to the original meaning of the word.  Such is true with faith where I find it defined as an unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence and as a religion or system of religious beliefs whereas the original meaning of the word was that of confidence, trust, be convinced or persuaded, a compact.  I’ve shared J. Preston Eby’s definition of faith: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”  I find this definition is the closest to what I have discovered both “faith” and the New Testament Greek pistis originally meant.  Pistis is related to peitho which carries the idea of being convinced or persuaded and I think it’s important to keep both meanings in mind when attempting to define “faith”.

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  The Young’s Literal Translation has this verse as, “so then the faith [is] by a report, and the report through a saying of God”.  I’ve been thinking about this verse a great deal over the last week as I have meditated on the meaning of faith and this verse has helped to answer a question that surfaced in my mind at the beginning of the study.  That question is this: does the Bible describe different kinds of faith namely, our faith verses God’s faith?  If I’d had to give an answer at the beginning of this study, I would not have answered with an unequivocal “yes”; but I would have had to admit the Bible does appear to do so.

The faith recorded in the gospels, the faith that so astonished and pleased Jesus, could not have been the “faith of the Son of God” the Apostle Paul mentions in Galatians 2:20.  Jesus had not yet been crucified, risen from the dead, and ascended to the right had of The Father nor had the Holy Spirit been poured out.  So, the faith that caused people to come to Jesus was a faith inspired by the signs and wonders He performed and the word about Him that spread throughout the land but could not possibly have been His faith.

My study of “faith” meant I read the entry in the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology.  There, I found; “The accounts of Jesus’ teaching contain several sayings which appear to go beyond the specific situation in which they occur (Mk. 9:23, 11:22 ff.; Lk. 17; 5,; Matt. 17:20).  The distinctive feature of these sayings about faith consists in the fact that they present the believer with unlimited possibilities, and that Jesus expressly summons his disciples to this boundless faith…There was a special kind of faith in God or Jesus-faith.  The antithesis between small and great (Lk. 17:6; Matt. 17:20) presents a contrast between the human attitude and the greatness of the promise.  What takes place in man is small compared with the greatness that comes from God.  However, Jesus spoke of a boundless faith as if of something new.  He did not build on something that was already there, but upon something new (Page 600).”

In his study series on Faith, J. Preston Eby references the Story of the Fig Tree related in Mark 11: 12-25.  Mark 11:22 (referenced in the above quote) is where Jesus is recorded as saying “have faith in God”.  Mr. Eby points out this is a mistranslation of the Greek and it ought to be rendered as “have the faith of God”.  I had never heard this before so, of course, I had to check. I have two Interlinear Greek New Testaments and each one renders this passage the same: ΄Έχετε πίοτιν Θεοΰ (Echete pistin theou). This is literally “Possess Faith God”.  There is no en in this passage but I cannot say that rendering it as “Have faith in God” is incorrect.  The King James, Amplified, New American Standard, and New International all have “Have faith in God”.  Young’s Literal Translation as “Have faith of God” and the rendering on Bible Hub has “from God”.  Whether the translations ought to have “in” or “of” or “from” is not an argument I have any interest in getting involved in.  I do find there is enough to question whether “in God” is the most accurate translation and, were I to stop here, I would have to say, “yes: the Bible is describing different kinds of faith”.

However, Mr. Eby brings up this passage and the translation thereof in these paragraphs:

“We have already stated that faith is produced by someone beyond oneself, therefore we need to have no hesitation whatever in saying that faith in God is not something that you and I just “decide” to have.  It is our Lord, Himself, who must produce faith in the apprehended ones.  It is not something that originates with us as a result of our decision or determination to “have faith” in God.  GOD is the source and originator of our faith!  The unfailing testimony of scripture is that all faith originates in God and is imparted to men by God.  There is no such thing as “our” faith apart from “God’s” faith.  Our faith is simply the faith that God has given us-the faith that HE has evoked in us by the revelation of Himself unto us.

               Thus we read in Mark 11:21-22: “And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.”  That is how it reads in the King James Bible but that is not how the Greek text reads.  The Greek text says, “And Jesus said to them, Have the faith of God”-that is, the faith that originates in God and comes from God.  This is in beautiful harmony with what Paul says in Galatians 2:20: “…the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD who loved me, and gave Himself on my behalf.”  Can we not see by these significant words that we do not live in the spirit by virtue of our faith IN the Son of God, but by the faith OF the Son of God IN US.  We live by HIS FAITH that has been evoked in us!  It should not be difficult for any enlightened mind to comprehend that when Paul adds concerning the Son of God this precious expression, “…who love me, and gave Himself on my behalf,” he speaks of the transcendent fact that Jesus gave Himself, poured out Himself, shedding forth out of Himself all that He is and all that He has that we may be recipients of His fullness.  Oh, yes, He poured it out for us – sharing His wonderful life, victory, power, faith, nature, love, wisdom, and righteousness with us!  Oh, the wonder of it!” (The Law of Faith, Part 1).

I do not disagree with what Mr. Eby has said. And yet…I agree we cannot have a confident response to God unless God Himself reveals Himself to us.  I wholeheartedly agree He is both the source and originator of our faith.  And yet, the response is still mine.  In this sense, it is my faith because I am responding to the revelation I have received.

In my previous post The Future is Now!, I related how I had looked at “faith” as it appears in Hebrews 11:1 and how I’d read through the various commentaries on this passage.  Both the Pulpit Commentary and Vincent’s Word Studies speak of faith outside of a religious sense.  The Pulpit Commentary states, “Even in ordinary affairs of life, and in science too, men act, and must act, to a great extent on faith; it is essential for success, and certainly for all great achievements-faith in the testimony and authority of others whom we can trust, faith in views and principles not yet verified by our own experience, faith in the expected outcome of right proceeding, faith with respect to a thousand things which we take on trust, and so make ventures, on the ground, not of positive proof, but of more or less assured conviction.”  Vincent’s Word Studies says (of pistis) “Without the article, indicating it is treated in its abstract conception, and not merely as Christian faith.” (See Bible Hub link below).

This I can agree with: that faith is a universal experience to all humankind and it is only taking into consideration what has served as the source or originator that the type of faith is defined.  For example, suppose a friend comes to me having seen a movie and persuades me to go with her to see it for myself.  I am persuaded by her argument (peitho) and I go with her because I know her as a friend and trust or have faith (pistis) she knows me well enough that this movie will be something I enjoy.  Now, that trust may be misplaced but that is not relevant to the point I am making. “Faith comes by hearing” Paul says in Romans 10:17 and there are a myriad of voices speaking to us attempting to persuade us to their way of thinking.  Our confident response of faith depends on whether we have been convinced and trust the one doing the convincing.  When it comes to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, made real to us by the Holy Spirit, God is One speaking, revealing Himself, and convincing.  I am still left with the fact that I am the one convinced and my response of faith is still just that: mine.

I am convinced the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ Himself.  Thus, the Shield of Faith is His faith, not mine.  Therefore, what does it mean to live by the faith OF the Son of God?  Galatians 2:20 in its entirety says, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.  And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (KJV).  Malcolm Smith speaks of Jesus Christ in us as our very source and being of life and yet not displacing us.  I live and yet it is Christ living in me.  I have faith because Jesus has revealed Himself to me but I live by His faith.

I wonder if this my faith verses His cannot be resolved with another illustration.  I follow the Physics + Astronomy Facebook page.  There was a video posted not too long ago where a tuning fork was fixed to a table.  Another tuning fork, larger than the one on the table, was tapped on a surface so that it began to hum with its tone.  It was brought close to the fixed tuning fork but, since they were not keyed to the same tone, the fixed fork remained silent.  Then, a second tuning fork was tapped on a surface and it began to hum.  This time, when it was brought close to the fixed fork, that fork began to resonate with the same tone because both forks were tuned the same.  As they both sang together, it was impossible to distinguish how much sound was coming from one fork as opposed to the other: there was only the sounding of a single tone.

Now, this illustration does begin to break down because it is Christ in us, rather than next to us, but it is still an illustration that has stuck with me.  Many voices seek to attract my attention and persuade me the words they are speaking are the truth.  Their truth does not resonate with me because there is only one Truth and the words He speaks are spirit and life.  My faith has come, not only by the hearing of His words, but by His giving Himself to me.  He has come, resonating in the key of life, and His life is the key to which I, as I am conformed to His image, am tuned.  In reality then, there isn’t my faith and His faith because I cannot tell where mine ends and His begins.  I in Him and He in me: we are no longer two but One and I cannot tell us apart.

Hallelujah! It is so!

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

Mark 11 Interlinear Bible (biblehub.com)

Hebrews 11:1 Commentaries: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (biblehub.com)

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume 1, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1967, 1986

Green, Jay Pl. The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew Greek English, Volume 4, Authors For Christ, Inc. Lafayette, IN, 1985

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1953, 1976

Marshall, Alfred, The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grad Rapids, MI, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Young, Robert, Modern Young’s Literal Translation: New Testament with Psalms & Proverbs, Greater Truth Publishers, Lafayette, IN, 2005