A Christian Guidebook: What Is Faith? (1)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11.1 (my translation) 

A faith to live
In his classic book, The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer identified a problem affecting post-World War II Christians, one that continues into our own generation.

Tozer lamented the fact that, for too many believers, the life of faith was little more than an intellectual and subjective experience. The reality of Christ and His saving work was something to understand, consent to, and confess and, perhaps, to experience; however, to Tozer it seemed to have had little impact on the way Christians of his day lived. Tozer saw little evidence that believing in Jesus made a difference in people’s lives.

For most of the Christians Tozer knew, the only real world was the world of sight, sound, and touch. The world where Christ rules at the right hand of God was not real, at least, not in the same way that the material world is real. He wrote, “Our trouble is that we have established bad thought habits. We habitually think of the visible world as real and doubt the reality of any other. We do not deny the existence of the spiritual world but we doubt that it is real in the accepted meaning of the word.” He continued, “If we would rise into that region of light and power plainly beckoning us through the Scriptures of truth, we must break the evil habit of ignoring the spiritual. We must shift our interest from the seen to the unseen.” 

Assurance and evidence
In other words, true faith has a certain focus—the things that are above, as Paul defined them—and it issues in certain actions that give evidence of the reality of that unseen realm where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Col. 3.1-3).

Tozer’s understanding of the life of faith thus comports nicely with that of the writer of Hebrews. A literal translation of Hebrews 11.1 is, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith itself is a gift of God, the fruit of His grace working in our lives (Eph. 2.8, 9). Full faith, faith that saves and that continues increasing in salvation, consists of two aspects—assurance and evidence. Faith, the gift of God, has an inward and an outward dimension.

Assurance is an inward conviction, a sense of confidence, often accompanied by a sense of wellbeing. Evidence is something outward, something we can see, that can be observed and judged. True faith, therefore, consists both of an inward assurance of the truths we believe, and the outward practice of those convictions, so that the evidence of what we confess is on display in every aspect of our lives.

Having provided this definition, the writer of Hebrews next presents a kind of “Hall of Fame” of the faithful (Hebrews 11), showing by the example of well-known saints of old how what we believe is only brought to fullness by the way we live.

Full and lively faith—true faith—consists of two facets: the content of our faith—what we understand, believe, consent to, and feel assured of; and the practice of our faith—the evidence of our beliefs as this emerges in every area of life. The writer’s definition of faith is consistent with what we read everywhere else in the Bible. True faith, full faith, faith that leads to salvation, eternal life, and ongoing sanctification, is not just a matter of intellectual consent and affective experience.

Merely saying that we believe, or even feeling strongly that we are in the favor of God can offer no assurance that we are true followers of Christ. We must have full faith—two-faceted faith—or we have no faith at all.

Known by our fruit
Jesus concurs, for, as He said in Matthew 7.20, “by their fruits you shall know them.” Anyone can say he believes in Jesus and feel sure that his sins are forgiven and that he is going to heaven when he dies. But true faith is not simply this assurance of the things we hope for. It’s not just a good and comforting feeling. True faith is borne out in evidence, the evidence of a life wholly given over to the unseen Lord, a life dedicated to Him and devoted to the pursuit of His agenda, by His means, and for the sake of His outcomes and glory. A life of self-denial, cross-bearing, good works, and increasing righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The apostle James says that if we profess to believe in God, that’s fine as a starting-point. But there needs to be evidence of the reality of that faith. Otherwise, faith in the Lord, having no evidence to demonstrate it, is simply dead and non-existent (Jms. 2.14-26).

Dead and non-existent, says James. Faith is not just something we affirm or feel. Faith results in a changed life that looks more and more like Jesus in all its aspects.

The challenge to us as followers of Jesus Christ is to make sure that what we profess and practice is true faith, full faith. Certainly we need a clear understanding of the Christian hope—the hope of glory and eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That hope must be understood, embraced, nurtured, enlarged, and expanded day by day, using all the means the Lord has provided.

But that assurance of things hoped for, if it is real, will ultimately bring forth evidence that we are devoted to God and Christ, seeking to live increasingly “under the heavens”, and determined to bring the reality of the unseen realm to light in very concrete ways through our own words and deeds.

Full faith is two-dimensional, expressing an inward assurance and hope, and issuing in an outward life of devotion, service, witness, and love.

Search the Scriptures
1. How would you explain to an unbeliever what it means to “believe in Jesus”? What Scripture would you use?

2. Explain what it means to have assurance as part of one’s faith. Can you think of, say, a psalm that illustrates this?

3 Why do we insist that faith must also bring forth evidence? How can you see that in Ephesians 2.8-10?

Next steps—Conversation: Ask some of your Christian friends to explain the difference between assurance of faith and evidence of faith. How do they see these as fitting together?

Additional Resources
If you have found this study helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

To grow in faith we must have a vision of the greatness of our salvation. Our book, Such a Great Salvation, can help. You can order the book by clicking here or the free PDF by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.