What is “Faith”?

Ichabod at Plain View recently wrote a post about faith responding to one of my comments. In the comment, I basically asked him what he meant by “faith is within.”

I *think* he said that he trusts in the thing inside him (what it is he doesn’t define) that pushes him to do the right thing.

If I’m still missing him on this, I hope he corrects me.

Here’s my take on what he wrote about:

First, what’s our nature? We human beings are caught coming both directions. We bear God’s image and are therefore capable of great things. At the same time, though, we have decided to be kings unto ourselves and rebel against our Creator. This is called sin, and it has horrible consequences on our nature. We are capable of so much good, but we are so twisted by sin.

Second, what does “faith” mean? That word is kinda vague in the 21st century. Very few people who wield it have a clear idea what it means. Usually its just a word that, when uttered, brings about warm fuzzies.

I’m not saying that Ichabod uses the word in this way, but many people out there use it like that.

Due to the vagueness, I prefer to say “trust.” I think that word captures what the biblical writers meant when they talked of faith. Trust, at bottom, has three components: knowledge, assent, and trust. This is somewhat redundant, but all it means is that in an act of trust, someone knows something (or at least they think they know something), they assent to that knowledge, and they act on it like its true.

Let me illustrate: say I go hunting in Minnesota in the dead of winter. I come to a frozen lake. I have to cross it. I examine the ice and see that it is quite thick–at least 4 feet thick (its cold in Minnesota), so I carefully walk across the ice. After testing the ice, I had certain knowledge about its sturdiness, I gave assent to that knowledge, and I put my trust in it *only when I actually walked across it.* If I said, “I have faith that this ice can hold me up,” but I never walked across it, that’s just talk, not faith.

To use another illustration, you can talk all you want about how you believe in marriage, but it means nothing until you actually walk down the isle.

Why does all this matter? Two things.

First, it matters because it helps us see that what matters is not “faith” itself, but the *object* of faith. Faith is only as strong as its object. To go back to the illustration, if I had to cross the lake in May, I can have all the faith in the world that a 1 inch-thick sheet of ice will hold me up, but I will end up miserable and my hunting buddies will get a good laugh. Conversely, I can have just a smidgeon of faith that the 4 feet thick block can hold me up, but I will get across safely.

The same goes in spiritual matters: faith or trust in a weak object does no good.

Secondly, it matters because it shows that there is an active element to faith/trust. Intellectual assent is meaningless. Does your life show that you have trust in X?

What’s the object of my trust? Jesus. He’s pretty sturdy.

Does it show? I will leave it up to those that know me to say.

What are you trusting in? Is it solid? Does it show in your life?

Check out the following videos from Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason on Faith: