Articles
What Kinds of Faith in God Are There?
What Kinds of Faith in God Are There?
Bob Oliver
How many times have we heard someone say that to be saved all one must do is have faith or believe in Jesus Christ as their personal savior? A good question to raise is, “What does it mean to “believe on the Lord?” The words “faith” and “belief” are related to each other in the Greek language. For instance, the word “faith” is often translated from the Greek word “pistis” which is defined as “conviction of the truth of anything, belief;” and the word “belief” is translated from the Greek word “pisteuoÌ„” which is defined as “to have faith”.
The reason that is important is that the Bible speaks of different degrees of “faith” or “belief”. Consider the following:
Matthew 6:30 - “Oh ye of little faith”
Matthew 8:10 - “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
Acts 6:5 - “a man full of faith”
Acts 6:7 - “priests were obedient to the faith”
Romans 4:19 - “weak in faith”
Romans 4:20 - “strong in faith”
James 2:22 - “by works was faith made perfect”
James 2:26 - “faith without works is dead”
It might be interesting to also note the following verse. James 2:19 reads, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” To argue that “faith alone” saves is to argue that the devils, which this passage teaches as truth, will by necessity also be saved.
So what kind of faith saves? I would argue that the passage found in Acts 6:7 actually answers this question. It is those that are “obedient to the faith” that will be saved. Whatever God tells us to do must be done. That is obeying the faith.
