Bible Study Lesson 3
What is Faith?
from www.ocfellowship.org
If a father takes his three year old son to a park that has a structure to climb, and his son climbs seven feet above the ground, the father might say, “Jump into my arms!” The boy will very likely feel safe and secure in jumping, showing a strong belief that his father will catch him. If the boy has faith that his father will catch him, he should be willing to act upon that faith by making the jump. Synonyms for faith are belief, confidence, trust, and conviction. If you have faith in something, it should motivate you to alter your behavior in some way. If you have faith that your dollar bill is genuine, you will act by giving it to a cashier to pay for something. We need to compare these thoughts about faith with what the Bible says to see that they agree.
1. Is “faith toward God” a foundational teaching of the Bible? Heb 6:1.
2. Should a person having faith toward God expect God to protect him? Ps 18:30; 37:40; 115:9-11; Prov 3:26; Jer 39:15-18; Dan 6:23, 1-22.
3. If a person does not have faith toward God, can that person please God? Heb 11:6.
4. Does faith toward God include both a belief that God exists and that God rewards those who diligently seek Him? Heb 11:6; Ps 31:19-20, 23; 32:10.
5. Does faith toward God include a conviction that God is able to fulfill the promises He has made to people who have faith? Rom 4:20-21.
Comment: One way that God rewards those who diligently seek Him (see Heb 11:6) is that He fulfills His promises to them as declared in the Bible.
6. Do people with faith toward God feel motivated to obey God? Heb 11:4, 7, 8, 23-27; II Cor 5:7.
7. Is faith toward God the basis for being declared innocent from sin (justified)? Ps 34:22; Rom 3:28-31.
Comment: Review lesson 2 on the meaning of justified. In Rom 3:30 “circumcised” refers to Jews and “uncircumcised” refers to Gentiles (non-Jews). In Ps 34:22 the Old Testament taught that the Jews are justified by faith, and the same is true about the Gentiles. We cannot earn forgiveness by obeying God. Instead God gives us his gift of forgiveness because we have faith in Him. Question 6 showed that faith toward God motivates us to desire to obey God. Faith is not the action of obedience, yet it is like a magnet within us that stirs us to want to obey. We obey God because we love God (review lesson 1).
8. Is faith toward God the basis for salvation to eternal life? John 3:15-16, 36; 6:40; 11:25-26; I Pet 1:6-9.
9. Were Moses and David men of faith? Num 12:7; Heb 3:5; Ps 31:1-5.
10. How did God plant the fire of faith in Moses and David? Ex 3:1-6; I Sam 17:33-37.
11. Is a person’s faith toward God considered a gift from God? Rom 12:3; I Cor 12:7-9; Gal 5:22; Eph 6:23.
The rest of this lesson shows how a person’s faith increases.
12. Does God use your prayer and your fasting to grow faith in you? Mat 17:14-21.
13. Does God use your study of the Bible to grow faith in you? Acts 17:10-12; Rom 10:14-17; Acts 8:26-39.
14. Does God use miracles including healing to grow faith in you? Luke 10:1-3, 9, 17; Acts 13:6-12; Mark 9:24-27; John 4:46-53; 20:30-31.
15. Does God use fulfilled biblical prophecies to grow faith in you? Luke 24:44-48; Num 23:19; Isa 42:9; 46:9-11.
Comment: The greatest fulfilled prophecies are those that show Jesus is the Messiah.
16. Does God use His own creation of life to grow faith in you? Rom 1:18-20.
17. When you are motivated by faith to do good works, do those works help to grow faith in you? Gen 22:1-14; Heb 11:17-19; James 2:14-22 (especially verse 22).
Comment: Abraham could only begin to sacrifice his son Isaac because he was motivated to obey God by faith, as stated in Heb 11:17. When James 2:21 uses the phrase “justified by works”, he is intending to show that it was not an abstract mental faith that had a beneficial effect, but instead, that the works were the evidence of the faith that motivated the works. James is showing that the works themselves are evidence of faith, and in verse 22, that the works of obedience help the faith to become perfected or completed. In other words, works of obedience help to increase faith.