Quotes about Faith-Defined

1

It is the office of faith to believe what we do not see, and it shall be the reward of faith to see what we do believe.

2

Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.

3

Faith is spiritualized imagination.

4

Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up all the former weary efforts to do or feel something good, in order to induce God to love and pardon; and the calm reception of the truth so long rejected, that God is not waiting for any such inducements, but loves and pardons of His own goodwill, and is showing that goodwill to any sinner who will come to Him on such a footing, casting away his own poor performances or goodnesses, and relying implicitly upon the free love of Him who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.

5

One definition of faith might be “Obeying the revealed will of God and trusting Him for the results.”

6

Faith…is a steady and certain knowledge of the Divine benevolence towards us, which being founded on the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ, is both revealed to our minds, and confirmed to our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.

7

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.

8

Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.

9

Faith is the instrument that God uses to save us through Christ.

10

[Christians] look away from themselves to Christ. They believe that God has loved them from eternity past. They believe that the payment of Christ on the cross for sins was for them. They find Christ irresistible, and following Him the greatest privilege of all. They have faith in Christ and what He has done for them. They trust Christ, looking outside of themselves to Him alone.

11

If my car was inoperative and I went to the mechanic for help, I would have to hand over the keys. That is my action of trust in the mechanic. It is fides vive – living faith. Without doing that, all my talk about the competency of the mechanic results in nothing. And so, without our giving the keys of life over to Christ, we have never really trusted. This is Bible belief simply stated.

12

Faith is not an instinct. It certainly is not a feeling – feelings don’t help much when you’re in the lions’ den or hanging on a wooden Cross. Faith is not inferred from the happy way things work. It is an act of will, a choice, based on the unbreakable Word of a God who cannot lie, and who showed us what love and obedience and sacrifice mean, in the person of Jesus Christ.

13

[Faith] is trust in God’s character and obedience to His living voice expressed in His Word. Consequently the object of faith in the Old Testament is the promise of God which awaits its fulfillment in the coming of Christ. Faith looked forward then, just as now it looks backward to its object in Christ. It is interesting to notice how this is expressed in the teaching of Hebrews that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Heb. 11:1).” In fact this perspective runs through the whole of Hebrews 11-Noah…Abel…Enoch…and Abraham “did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance (vs. 13).” Even the martyrs who were commended for their faith did not receive what had been promised (vs. 39). Faith for them was hearing the testimony of God, trusting His promise, and living in the light of God’s faithfulness to it.

14

Faith is a response to God’s initiative that trusts that we are empowered to do what God requires.

15

Faith is the way in which I can look away from myself – both from my sin and my progress in sanctification – and look to Christ as my only hope.

16

Faith is trusting God to do what he has promised because we are convinced by his provisions that God is both willing and able to keep His Word.

17

"Faith" is not believing the unbelievable but trusting in God’s word because of what one has come to know of God’s character. And faith always "goes public" in acts of obedience, since a "faith" that does not obey is not a true, justifying faith at all (James 2:21-26).

18

“Believing” in Christ does not merely refer to intellectual assent to a proposition about Christ. Rather, the biblical concept of “belief” involves a personal response and commitment to Christ’s Person.

19

Faith, obviously, is not a mere matter of feeling. It cannot be, because one’s feelings in this kind of condition can be very changeable. A Christian is not meant to be dejected when everything goes wrong. He is told to “rejoice”. Feelings belong to happiness alone, rejoicing takes in something much bigger than feelings; and if faith were a matter of feelings only, then when things go wrong and feelings change, faith will go. But faith is not a matter of feelings only, faith takes up the whole man including his mind, his intellect and his understanding. It is response to truth.

20

Faith is this extraordinary principle which links man to God; faith is this thing that keeps a man from hell and puts him in heaven; it is the connection between this world and the world to come; faith is this mystic astounding thing that can take a man dead in trespasses and sins and make him live as a new being, a new man in Christ Jesus.

21

Faith…holds on to truth and reason from what it knows to be fact.

22

Faith is a refusal to panic.

23

Faith honors him whom it trusts with the most reverent and highest regard since it considers him truthful and trustworthy. There is no other honor equal to the estimate of truthfulness and righteousness with which we honor him whom we trust. Could we ascribe to a man anything greater than truthfulness and righteousness and perfect goodness?

24

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.

25

Faith is the flip side of repentance. While repentance speaks of turning from sin, faith is turning to the Savior. The object of saving faith is not a creed, not a church, not a pastor, not a set of rituals or ceremonies. Jesus is the object of saving faith.

26

Faith as [Jesus] characterized it is nothing less than a complete exchange of all that we are for all that He is.

27

Faith is man’s response to God’s elective purpose. God’s choice of men is election; men’s choice of God is faith. In election God gives His promises, and by faith men receive them.

28

Put simply, faith is believing in something you haven’t seen. If you’re a Christian, that means believing that what God has said is true and then acting in accordance with that conviction, regardless of what everyone else believes and how the world expects you to act. It means you’ll probably act in ways that defy reason. It may mean giving up your ambition, and it may cost you your comfort. It may even cost you your life.

29

Faith is man’s response to God’s elective purpose

30

Having faith is trusting in the revelation of God.

31

In sharp contrast to the contemporary definition of faith, biblical faith is not an irrational “leap in the dark.” It is not a mystical encounter with the “wholly other” or the “ground of being.” Nor is it optimism, psychological self-hypnosis, or wishful thinking. True faith is a reasoned response to revealed truth in the Bible, and salvation results from an intelligent response, prompted by the Holy Spirit, to that truth.

32

Faith is the confident, continuous confession of total dependence on and trust in Jesus Christ for the necessary requirements to enter God’s Kingdom. It involves more than mere intellectual assent to the truth of the gospel; saving faith includes trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and surrender to His lordship.

33

Faith is a dynamic, powerful force, through which the believer is intimately united with Christ, his Lord.

34

True faith is man’s weakness leaning on God’s strength.

35

Seeing is not believing. Seeing is seeing. Believing is being confident without seeing.

36

Faith is the steady trust which never wavers.

37

Faith has nothing to do with feelings or with impressions, with improbabilities or with outward experiences. If we desire to couple such things with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God, because faith needs nothing of the kind. Faith rests on the naked Word of God. When we take Him at His Word, the heart is at peace.

38

Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.

39

Faith is the assurance that the thing which God has said in His word is true, and that God will act according to what He has said in his word… Faith is not a matter of impressions, nor of probabilities, nor of appearances.

40

Faith is knowledge passing into conviction, and it is conviction passing into confidence.

41

Faith involves knowledge, assent, and trust. We must know the biblical facts concerning Jesus Christ; we must believe them to be true; and on that belief we must commit ourselves to Jesus in trusting reliance.

42

I wonder how many believers today realize that faith is not merely believing that Christ died for our sins. Faith is also being confident that His way is better than sin. His will is more wise. His help is more sure. His promises more precious. And His reward more satisfying. Faith begins with a backward look at the cross, but it lives with a forward look at the promises

43

This is why the Bible teaches that faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to salvation from sin. Faith is the anti-work. It’s the realization that there is nothing you can do but trust in what has been done for you in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Faith is the realization that God’s pleasure in you will never be based upon your performance for Him. Instead, God’s pleasure in you will always be based upon Christ’s performance for you.

44

Faith is a many-splendored thing; it is a living, breathing, and pulsating reality. Yes, salvation is by faith alone, but faith is dynamic, energetic, and life-changing.

45

Yet what is faith? What is true biblical belief? It is not merely intellectual assent. Rather it’s a reliance upon Christ. It’s a dependence on Him that commits one’s entire life into His loving arms. It’s living for Him. It’s a desire to be like Him. Ultimately, it’s a desire for Him.

 

46

Faith is belief. Faith is trusting God for the forgiveness that He has offered us in Christ. Faith is believing this message that we can be saved from His judgment though the means He has provided. Faith is rejecting our own goodness and trusting in God’s goodness for salvation.

 

 

47

Testing God is a lack of faith. It’s blasphemy for the created to demand that the Creator prove Himself to be worthy of our trust. True faith is not testing God, but trusting God, knowing that He is not obligated to prove His power and love at every turn.

 

 

48

Faith…involves trusting in the future promises of God and waiting for their fulfillment.

49

Faith is believing that Christ is what He is said to be, and that He will do what He has promised to do, and then to expect this of Him.

50

Belief is confidence placed in the truth of what God has revealed to us in Scripture about who He is and our relationship to Him through Jesus. Belief does not hover aimlessly in mid-air, but plants itself in the firm foundation of inspired, revelatory words inscripturated for us in the Bible.

51

There are at least 3 kinds of Christian faith:

1. Saving faith (product of the new birth).

2. Sanctifying faith (the fruit of the Holy Spirit), which comes in two forms:

a. Our faith/belief in the truth of God’s Word (faith in the doctrines of the Bible).

b. Faith in the trustworthiness/goodness of God Himself.

3. Supernatural faith (a spontaneous gift of the Holy Spirit).

52

Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God.

53

Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible. 

54

Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God.

55

Faith, as Paul saw it, was a living, flaming thing leading to surrender and obedience to the commandments of Christ.

56

Belief is not simply a function of the brain. No, it’s an investment of the heart that fundamentally changes the way that you live.

 

57

Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservations.

58

Faith is the empty hand that takes hold of the Savior.

59

If I trust in Christ, I believe in the wisdom of His commands as well as in the sincerity of His promises. God does not command me to believe in this or that promise of Christ. No, He tells me I must believe in the Lord Jesus Himself.