What is Faith?
Faith as primarily translated in the New Testament scriptures is the Greek word πίστις (pistis) which the NAS Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries defines as follows:
assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity; i.e. Credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself — assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.
While being rooted in the word πείθω (peitho), which means “to persuade; to convince (by argument, true or false)”, it is not peitho, and the difference must be noted to understand its application.
Peitho is plain and simply not faith. It is never translated as faith anywhere in the NASB or Strongs transliterations anywhere that I can find. It is translated as assure (1), confident (3), convinced (7), followed (2), have confidence (2), having confidence (2), listen (1), obey (3), obeying (1), persuade (4), persuaded (8), etc. The word pistis however is translated as faith (238), faithfulness (3), pledge (1), proof (1).
I think the single synonym for pistis would be assurance. Be that as it may, I still believe it is best to ask the bible what is defines faith as.
[bibleblock]Heb 11:1-3[/bibleblock]
Is this blind faith? No. It is faith in a promise from God himself sent through his messengers and prophets. The principle that sacrifices were worthless without faith was true from the beginning (Heb 10:4; 1 Sam 15:22; Isa 1:10-17; Amos 5:21-24; Mic 6:6-8). It was for Christ alone to offer not only a better sacrifice, but the perfect sacrifice.
It continues on another point of “events as yet unseen” in Heb 11:7. Although faith perceives things that are invisible because they transcend the physical universe (Heb 11:3, 27), in this section the emphasis is on faith concerning things that are in the future but nevertheless certain because God promised them. The coming flood of judgement was not yet visible when God’s word of warning came to Noah. Noah built the ark in reverent response to God’s warning, and through his active faith his family received salvation. The unbelieving world was condemned for its preoccupation with the present, and Noah inherited the righteousness that comes by faith (Heb 10:38; Rom 4:13).
As Hebrews 11 draws to a close in Hebrew 11:39 we see that although some of the promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled, their true hope (the promise of the coming Messiah) was yet to come.
[bibleblock]Hebrews 11:40[/bibleblock]
Here the redemptive-historical difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament periods are asserted, along with the unity of the people of God across these eras. Though the Old Testament believers lived by faith (Heb 10:38), they were not privileged to witness on earth the fulfillment of the great promise of God. Nevertheless, they too participate in the benefits of Christ’s high-priestly work, and, along with new covenant saints, they are “made perfect.” Those of the old and new eras together await the perfection that will appear only at the second coming (Heb 12:26; Heb 13:14; Rom 8:18; Eph 1:9-10).
All this was done through faith, not a constant persuaded faith, but a faith assured by God’s promises. This is not blind faith as some call it, and it is not the kind of faith where you expect to be constantly be persuaded by someone or demand God persuade you every day. The Word is God’s breathed communication to us. Pray for understanding, pray for His guidance, pray for the unshakable faith (pistis) only He can provide.
