What is Faith?

I was watching a movie the other day and, in it, there was a scene with a Catholic priest preaching about knowledge and faith. While preaching he mentioned the internet as a place where all knowledge is available. His point, however, was that faith is different from knowledge. It’s one thing to have knowledge of something (or have access to that knowledge through the internet) and quite another to have faith.

Now, I’m not on some crusade to point out weak theology in sermons—especially when it shows up in a movie—but this did get me thinking about how faith is generally understood. It’s often talked about as if faith is some abstract trust in the unknowable. As it stands in that popular understanding, you put your faith in something or someone you don’t or even can’t really know or understand.

There’s is probably some truth in that statement and, if you pressed me, I might be able to dig some of it out. However, just because it has some truth, doesn’t mean it’s a helpful description of what faith actually is. For that, as with all aspects of theology, let’s turn to Scripture.

In Hebrews 11:1 we read, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Notice the underlined words: confidence and assurance. These two words are important for an accurate understanding of what faith actually is.

When you read Hebrews 11:1, does it sound like faith is trusting in the unknowable? To me, it certainly does not. And I would submit that, for the writer of Hebrews, it doesn’t to him either.

Faith in Hebrews 11:1 is not trusting in the unknown; it’s trusting (having confidence and assurance) in what we hope for but do not see. And there in lies the distinction. There’s a world of difference between saying I am trusting in that which I cannot know and saying I am trusting in that in which I cannot see.

Later in Hebrews 11 the writer is going to list a bunch of people from the Old Testament who showed great faith. Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Rehab to name only a few. All of these people showed faith as they had confidence in what they hoped for and their assurance about what they did not see. Again, that is not even close to the same thing as trusting in the unknowable. Moses, for instance, trusted what God had made known to him—leading the Israelites to the promised land—even though he did not and would not see it.

So, is there a difference between having knowledge of something and having faith in something? Certainly. I know some things that have no relation to my life whatsoever (how far away the Sun is, what year my first car was made, that I like the color blue more than the color green, etc.). And yet, I put zero trust in any of those things.

On the other hand, I know that Jesus died and rose again. I know that God loves me. I know that the Bible is God’s word. I know that if I believe in Jesus I will live forever with him. These things I know for certain—I have confidence and assurance of their reality—yet I cannot see all of them right now.

And, still, I trust—I have faith.

I don’t have faith in what cannot be known. On the contrary, I have faith in that which God has made known to me.

This, according to Scripture, is faith: trusting in what God has made known to you.