12. Faith: From Believing Something to Trusting Someone

 

12. Faith: From Believing Something to Trusting Someone

Faith is one of the most familiar words in Christian language. Yet it is also one of the words whose meaning has changed considerably in Christian usage.

For many Christians, “faith” primarily means believing that certain statements are true: believing that God exists, believing particular doctrines, or believing certain things about Jesus.

Those dimensions of faith are important in later Christian theology. But when we examine the language of faith in the biblical world, the picture is broader. The Greek word pistis and related terms can carry meanings associated with trust, reliability, loyalty, and faithfulness. Contemporary scholarship therefore often resists reducing faith either to intellectual belief or to trust alone; trust and loyalty can belong together.

This is particularly important when we return to Jesus.

The question is not simply:

“What did Jesus want people to believe?”

It is also:

“Whom did Jesus want them to trust, and what kind of life would that trust produce?”

Belief and Trust

There is an important difference between believing a proposition and trusting a person.

I may believe that a bridge is structurally sound.

But trusting the bridge means that I am willing to walk across it.

I may believe that a physician is competent.

But trusting the physician means that I am willing to place myself in the physician's care.

In the same way, faith in the biblical sense is not exhausted by agreeing that certain statements are true.

It involves entrusting oneself.

This does not mean that faith has nothing to do with belief. It means that belief becomes significant when it leads to trust and trust becomes visible in life.

Thus:

Belief → Trust → Action → Character → Way of Life

Faith in Jesus' Teaching

The Gospel stories frequently present faith in precisely this practical setting.

People come to Jesus because they trust that something can happen.

A sick person approaches him.

A desperate parent asks for help.

A blind person calls out to him.

A person in fear turns toward him.

In such stories, faith is not simply possession of correct information. It is expressed through movement, dependence, courage, and action.

The person who has faith does something because of what he or she trusts.

This helps explain why Jesus can speak of faith in connection with healing. Faith is not merely an idea held in the mind; it is a response that moves the person toward Jesus.

At the same time, we should avoid turning every healing story into a formula according to which sufficient faith guarantees physical healing. The Gospel narratives are more complex than that. Faith is presented as trustful response, not as a technique for controlling God.

Faith and the Kingdom

This becomes even clearer when faith is placed within the larger framework of Jesus' proclamation.

Jesus announces:

The Kingdom of God is at hand.

He calls people:

Repent.

He teaches them:

Trust God.

He invites them:

Follow me.

These are not disconnected instructions.

If God is King, then faith means trusting the King enough to live under God's reign.

If God is Father, then faith means entrusting oneself to the Father.

If God's Kingdom is already breaking into human life, then faith means living according to that reality even when circumstances seem to contradict it.

Faith therefore becomes a bridge between vision and action.

A person sees reality differently.

That person begins to trust differently.

That trust produces different decisions.

Those decisions gradually form a different character.

And that character produces a different way of life.

Faith Is Not the Absence of Questions

This understanding also protects faith from being confused with absolute psychological certainty.

A person can trust while still having questions.

A person can have faith while still experiencing fear.

A person can trust God while not understanding what God is doing.

Indeed, the biblical tradition contains people who struggle, question, protest, and lament while remaining in relationship with God. Contemporary scholarship on early Christian faith likewise recognizes that faith and doubt are not always simple opposites; doubt can exist within a continuing relationship of trust.

Faith therefore does not necessarily mean:

“I have no questions.”

It can mean:

“I do not have all the answers, but I will continue to trust.”

This is especially important for Jesus' teaching.

The disciples themselves frequently misunderstand him.

They fail.

They become afraid.

They sometimes act from ambition rather than service.

Yet Jesus continues to call them.

Discipleship is therefore not built upon perfect certainty.

It is built upon a willingness to trust and follow.

Faith and Fear

The contrast between faith and fear appears repeatedly in the Gospel tradition.

When the disciples are frightened, Jesus asks why they are afraid and questions their faith.

The issue is not that fear is psychologically impossible for a person of faith.

Fear is real.

The deeper question is:

Who will have the final word over my life—fear or trust?

Faith does not necessarily eliminate fear.

It refuses to allow fear to become the ultimate authority.

This connects faith with the teaching we encountered in the section on forgiveness:

What happens to me does not have to determine what I become.

Fear may be present.

Pain may be present.

Uncertainty may be present.

But trust can still determine the direction of life.

Faith and the Mustard Seed

Jesus' image of faith as a mustard seed is often misunderstood as though Jesus were measuring the quantity of faith.

The point is more naturally understood in terms of what even a small amount of genuine trust can do.

The mustard seed is small.

Yet it grows.

The image therefore directs attention away from the impressive appearance of faith and toward its living quality.

A small but genuine trust can become the beginning of a radically different way of life.

Faith is not impressive because it is large.

Faith is significant because it is alive.

Faith Becomes Faithfulness

There is another important dimension of the word pistis.

Faith and faithfulness are closely related concepts. Recent scholarship emphasizes that trust and loyalty should not necessarily be separated.

This is important for understanding Jesus.

If I say that I trust God but consistently organize my life in ways that contradict everything I claim to trust, there is a problem.

Trust seeks expression.

Faith becomes visible in faithfulness.

This does not mean that faithful people never fail. The disciples themselves provide ample evidence that failure and faith can coexist.

It means that genuine trust has a direction.

What we truly trust eventually shapes what we do.

Thus:

Faith → Trust → Faithfulness → Practice → Character

Faith is not merely something inside the mind.

It becomes visible in the way a person lives.

Faith and Allegiance

The language of loyalty also helps us understand the communal dimension of faith.

In the ancient world, pistis could communicate relationships of trust and loyalty. Early Christian communities themselves came to identify members as “those who believe,” a designation that carried communal and relational significance rather than functioning merely as a label for people who accepted a set of propositions.

This helps us see why faith and discipleship belong together.

To trust Jesus is not simply to agree with Jesus.

It is to orient one's life around him.

To trust God's Kingdom is not simply to affirm that God's Kingdom exists.

It is to begin living as a person under God's reign.

Faith therefore has an element of allegiance.

The question becomes:

“Whose reality will shape my life?”

Faith and the Way of Jesus

At this point the entire movement of the manuscript comes together.

The Kingdom tells us that God reigns.

Repentance means turning toward that reality.

The Father tells us what kind of God reigns.

Love shows what life under that reign looks like.

Righteousness describes the character formed by that life.

The neighbour becomes the person toward whom that character is directed.

The Sabbath reminds us that religious practice exists for God's purposes and human good.

Forgiveness teaches us to receive mercy and become merciful.

Prayer teaches us to place our lives within God's reality.

Faith now describes the response:

Trust God enough to live accordingly.

This gives us a fuller sequence:

Kingdom → Repentance → Father → Love → Righteousness → Neighbor → Sabbath → Forgiveness → Prayer → Faith

And the underlying movement is:

See → Trust → Act → Become

The Familiar Word, the Deeper Meaning

Faith was familiar.

Trust in God was familiar within Jewish religious life.

Faithfulness was familiar.

The language itself was not new.

But Jesus placed faith within his proclamation of God's Kingdom and his call to discipleship.

Faith therefore becomes more than an opinion about God.

It becomes a way of entrusting oneself to God.

It becomes confidence expressed through action.

It becomes loyalty expressed through life.

It becomes trust embodied in discipleship.

Jesus is not simply asking, “Do you believe?”
He is, in effect, asking, “Will you trust God enough to live this way?”

This is another example of Jesus' distinctive teaching pattern.

The word remains.
The meaning deepens.
The vision changes.
The life changes.

And once faith becomes trust expressed through life, another question inevitably follows:

What does a person actually do with that trust?

The answer is the next and perhaps most practical step in the Way of Jesus:

Discipleship: From Learning the Way to Walking the Way.