Untitled Sermon
Eph 5:17
The Three Dimensions of Faith
There appear to be three distinct concepts of faith in Scripture: covenantal faith; epistemological faith; and eschatological faith. These concepts regularly overlap, and multiple dimensions of faith can be found in the same passage.
Covenantal Faith: Faith as Covenantal Commitment
The biblical language of faith concerns a relationship of faithfulness and cooperation (Leclerc, “Faith in Action,” 184–95). The concept of the covenant, which is especially explicit in the Old Testament, informs the biblical writers’ use of the language of faith. To have faith in God or Jesus is to be faithful to a covenantal bond, which is initiated by God and bound according to appropriate promises and expectations on both sides. The command for Christians to have faith is not merely a cerebral exercise or eager wish, but a command with the expectation of fidelity and trust. This definition of faith is apparent in Josh 24:14: When the Israelites renew their covenant to the Lord after taking possession of Canaan, Joshua demands, “Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord” (NRSV).
Epistemological Faith: Faith as Spiritual Perception
New Testament authors like Paul promote a concept of faith that is opposed to the common phrase “blind faith.” For example, Paul affirms that Christians live “by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7 NRSV). With this phrase, he refers to Christians’ capacity for a kind of spiritual perception that allows them to interpret the world in a godly way. God’s people are able to see and perceive His work in the world, while the rest of the world ignores or rejects it (Hays, “Salvation by Trust,” 218–223).
Eschatological Faith: Faith as the Living Eschatological Expression of Christian Hope
While faith in the present involves seeing as God sees, eschatological faith is necessary because sin has corrupted human understanding (Rom 1:18–32). To see properly is a dimension of present faith, but God promises that all that is hidden will be revealed when Christ returns (at the Parousia; 1 Cor 4:5). On the day of judgment, the righteous will be honored and rewarded, and the reprobate and corrupt will be exposed and punished. Part of Christian faith, according to Scripture, is living in light and anticipation of that “day of illumination.”
The Concept of “Faith” in the Old Testament
Christianity’s emphasis on faith is largely based on the themes and theological distinctives of the New Testament. However, Jesus and the New Testament writers’ teachings about faith are built on the foundation of the Old Testament—particularly in its descriptions of the covenantal life of Israel. The Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) employs the term πίστις (pistis) to translate several Hebrew words:
1. אמן ('mn), “trust” or “reliability.”
2. אֱמוּנָה (emunah), “trust” or “reliability.” In contexts related to human relationships, this term “often refers to those who have the capacity to remain stable (i.e., faithful) amid the unsettling circumstances of life, realizing God’s truth has established them” (Wilson, 183). For example, the term is used of Moses’ hands as Aaron and Hur supported him on the hill at Rephidim (Exod 17:12). Thus, his hands were firm, steady, and reliable.
3. אֱמֶת (emeth), “faithfulness” or “truth.” Sakenfeld glosses this term as “loyalty” when it regards covenantal relationship and defines it as demonstrated loyalty, or “faithfulness in action.” The term frequently appears alongside the Hebrew term for “lovingkindness”(חֶ֫סֶד, chesed) in describing Israel’s God (e.g., Gen 32:10; Neh 9:17; Pss 25:10; 86:15; 98:3).
Brueggemann stresses that the language of “faith” in the Old Testament is everywhere associated with covenant. Within that theological construct, “faith” has less to do with particular ideas than it does with the integrity of a relationship. He states,” ‘Faith’ concerns attentive engagement in a promissory relationship. Only rarely does the Old Testament suggest that ‘faith’ is a body of teaching that Israel is to ‘believe.’ Israel’s faith does not necessarily lack normative substance nor is it vacuous, but the relationship is more elemental than the substantive teaching which reflects upon that relationship. That in the Old Testament faith is regarded as ‘trust in’ is more elemental than ‘assent to’ is a matter often discounted in formal theological articulations, but ‘trust’ is not to be understood primarily in emotive terms. Trust is a practice that entails obedience to Torah [the law] and its specific requirements. Israel’s fidelity to Yahweh, not unlike fidelity in marriage, thus consists of concrete acts that take the other party with defining seriousness” (Brueggemann, Reverberations of Faith, 78).
Aside from this primary sense of covenantal faith, the Old Testament contains some examples of epistemological faith. An example is Prov 3:5–7: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” Here the sage warns the reader that the sinful mind is distorted, and that only relying on the Lord will lead one on the proper path (Prov 14:12).
“Faith” in Classical and Hellenistic Jewish Usage
In its broadest usage, the Greek word πίστις (pistis) referred to conviction, commitment, and faithfulness. Spicq explains that πίστις (pistis) tended to appear in the papyri in a legal context, carrying a meaning of “guarantee, security” (Lexicon, 3.110–116). In classical Greek, words with the πιστ (pist)- root were not commonly used for religious beliefs. However, Lindsay argues that there is a precedent for the use of the word group regarding “trusting and relying upon God or upon God’s promises” (Josephus and Faith, 18).
In the Septuagint, the term πίστις (pistis) often corresponds to the Hebrew term אמן ('mn) and carries the meaning “faithfulness” or “trueness” (e.g., the integrity and constancy that allows people to feel secure). An example is Prov 3:3: “Let not mercy and truth (πίστις, pistis) forsake you, but bind them around your neck” (NRSV). The term πίστις (pistis) can also mean “truth” (translating אֱמֶת, emeth), as in Jer 7:28: “This is the nation which has not listened to the voice of the Lord, nor received correction: truth (πίστις, pistis) has failed from their mouth.”
Sirach has the most occurrences of πίστις (pistis) in the deuterocanonical literature, most of which relate to advice concerning the wisdom of loyalty and trustworthiness in relationships. Sirach 22:23 is particularly insightful: “Gain the trust of your neighbor in his poverty, so that you may rejoice with him in his prosperity. Stand by him in time of distress, so that you may share with him in his inheritance” (NRSV). The first clause could be translated literally as: “Prove yourself trustworthy (πίστις, pistis) in poverty with your neighbor” (NRSV). This points to a kind of bond of friendship, perhaps involving sharing in the financial burden of his distressed neighbor. Additional occurrences of πίστις (pistis) in the Apocrypha include:
• once in the Wisdom of Solomon (Wis. Sol. 3:14);
• twice in the Psalms of Solomon (Pss. Sol. 8:28; 17:40);
• three occurrences in 1 Maccabees (1 Macc 10:27, 37; 14:35). These occurrences are properly glossed as “loyalty” or “faithfulness.”
Faith according to the Gospels
The Synoptic Gospels
Jesus initiates His ministry by proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15 NRSV). With this statement, Jesus calls for a serious commitment to His message and invites disciples to follow Him. The collocation of repentance and belief points to a radical reorientation of life for the Jews to whom Jesus preached. In this context, the call to belief refers less to treating Jesus as God and more to accepting that the long-awaited fulfillment of God’s promise has arrived, whereby He has come to break into the sin-dominated world and restore the covenantally unfaithful people of Israel.
Jews may have found it particularly challenging to have faith in Jesus’ gospel message because Jesus came from humble origins and did not seem to have the training and prowess that many expected of the messiah. The invitation to faith for first-century Jews was thus a call to allegiance—to accept the immanence of the kingdom of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
In the Synoptic Gospels, the language of faith relates to trust in God and in Jesus (Mark 4:40; 11:22–24; Luke 8:25; Matt 21:21–22), with some concern for its relationship to divine judgment (Luke 18:8). However, Jesus’ miracles are of greatest interest in regard to the subject of faith. The Synoptic Gospels record two particular phrases that connect healing with faith:
1. “Let it [the requested miracle] be done for you according to your faith” (Matt 8:13; 9:29 NRSV).
2. “Your faith has healed you” (Matt 9:22; Mark 5:34; 10:52; Luke 7:50; 8:48; 17:19; 18:42 NRSV).
The potential for modern misunderstanding and misapplication of this material necessitates further discussion on the relationship between faith and healing and how it should be understood from a theological perspective. Four important points can be made:
1. The miracle traditions in the Synoptic Gospels focus on the dynamic appearance of the good news and how it claims victory over evil and the damage of sin. The miracle stories point toward true faith in God through Jesus, not the joy and satisfaction of the person being healed.
2. While Jesus commends the faith of the ill (or his friends; see Matt 9:2; Mark 2:5), deeper faith does not guarantee physical health or security. For example, John the Baptist is portrayed as strong in faith, yet he was beheaded and remained dead despite Jesus’ approval of his ministry.
3. The faith of the person is not necessarily orthodox or complete, and sometimes even involves only a rudimentary understanding of the identity of Jesus. In most people He heals, Jesus observes and commends their resolve to seek Him in their darkest hour. The people Jesus heals recognize His power and authority, but many of them do not understand the bigger picture of what God has done in Jesus or what He will do through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Culpepper remarks that the Gospel of Mark “measures faith not by its orthodoxy but by its determination, courage, and persistence” (Mark, 77).
4. The Gospels should not be considered guidebooks for healing. While there is no reason to doubt that Jesus did perform healing miracles as the Gospels record, these stories seem to carry a symbolic meaning as well. Donald Hagner argues that they point to “the greatest healing experienced by the Church, the ‘healing’ of salvation” (Hagner, Matthew, 1.251). This association is more obvious, as the verb for “healed” (σῴζω, sōzō) is also used for “saved” in the spiritual and eternal sense.
