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Faith: Trusting in God

(Romans 10:9–10). There can be no faith without true repentance, for
only those who are truly sorry for their sins feel the need of a Savior and
salvation for their souls. On the other hand, there can be no repentance
without faith in God’s Word, for how else could one believe in the offer
of salvation and the threat of eternal judgment?

The Nature of Faith

The Definition of Faith
While Hebrews 11:1 gives us a description of one of the effects of
faith, it does not define the term. For our purposes, faith is “a voluntary
act and attitude that places
complete confidence in a trusted
object, allowing that object to
govern one’s actions.” In the Faith is a voluntary
spiritual realm, the object of faith act that places
is God, and the voluntary act is
brought about by hearing and complete confidence
believing the Word of God.
in a trusted object,

Faith is both belief and trust. allowing that object to
In the Old Testament, the term govern one’s actions.
believe is used to translate a
Hebrew word which means “to
build up or support, to make firm
or faithful; to trust.” In the New Testament, believe is used to translate
two Greek words: one which means “to have faith or trust, put trust
in, commit,” and another which means “to assent, rely, be persuaded,
have confidence in.” When used with God or Christ as its object, belief
involves three things: (1) to be in agreement with the truth of what
He says or reveals, (2) to receive and trust Him personally, and (3) to
commit oneself to obey Him.

The word believe is used quite frequently with the prepositions in or on;
for example, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
This emphasizes the elements of trust and commitment. We must be
careful not to limit belief to intellectual assent only. The truth about God
is necessary, for the Scripture says that “anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”

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