We’re in a blog series entitled “faith and works.” We’ve covered a lot of ground, and we shall very soon be in a position to address the key New Testament texts which specifically address faith and works in the same context.
Many Christians believe that our salvation comes about solely through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. By placing our faith in Jesus, we receive forgiveness and reconciliation with God.
Most evangelicals believe that such faith must be separated from any effort or behavior on our part. In fact, within this perspective, good behavior on our part may strangely become a hindrance. Our actions might tempt us to believe that we are able to make ourselves “good enough for God.” We must always remember that all our efforts towards obedience or goodness or charity are simply an expression of thanks to the God who has rescued us through the death of Jesus.
I have argued throughout this series that this viewpoint is seriously flawed and requires radical adjustment. True, biblical salvation requires the rehabilitation of the entire human person; and, for that matter, the human race. Such salvation involves every part of us: our thoughts and beliefs, words and actions, minds and bodies, souls and spirits. All these must be renewed and restored according the pattern of Jesus himself.
I have laid out the case that this salvation comes about not just through the forgiveness we receive on account of Jesus’ death, but through the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit. If the way you think about salvation (your soteriology) does not involve the Spirit bringing about changes in your behavior, then you have misunderstood the scriptures. Specifically, you’ve failed to understand God’s purposes to restore the human race so that they might become the creatures he intended. For humans are meant to bear God’s image – to exercise his authority so that the whole creation might function and flourish in the way God intends.
In this blog series, I’ve already suggested that both the terms “faith” and “works” are misunderstood. We’ve already explored the term “works” and here will briefly review: most evangelicals use the terms “works” as a comprehensive way of referring to all human conduct or behavior.
Hopefully readers of this blog will have learned that Paul’s use of the term is much more focused. Remember, Paul was a first century Pharisaic Jew. He had spent his entire life immersed in the study of the Torah. The long story of God and Israel flowed through his bloodstream. So when Paul is writing about “works,” he is often referring to “works of the law.” And when Paul talks about “the law,” he never uses this term to mean some universal moral code or general ethical standard. For Paul, “the law” always and everywhere means “the Torah” – the law given by God to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai.
Moreover, when Paul reflected upon the story of Israel, he recognized the bitter truth that Israel was “fleshly” – they were stiff-necked, rebellious, and sinful – just like the rest of humanity. Once again, this does not mean that the Torah is a bad thing! Paul never stopped believing that “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” He simply saw that the law could only point towards life and blessing. But fleshly Israel could not achieve this life and blessing without being cleansed through and through. They needed to be given new power so that they could finally love and serve God with all their hearts.
What about the word “faith”? The majority of evangelical Christians have been taught that faith has a very specific content: it means simple belief or trust in Jesus. Again, such faith is understood to be wholly antithetical to any action or behavior on our part.
But the fact is that the Greek word often translated as faith (pistis and related words) is very often used more broadly. So while there are many circumstances when translating pistis as “faith” or “belief” is perfectly appropriate, there are many other circumstances when this narrow definition of faith simply fails to convey the appropriate meaning. In such cases, you either need to choose a different word to interpret pistis, or you need to think of faith more broadly.
So what are these additional meanings of pistis? Well, often times pistis is used in situations indicating a much more active posture than simply the passive notion of faith so prevalent in many churches. The word pistis also includes the notions of faithfulness, loyalty, commitment or allegiance.
Now certainly these concepts are closely related to faith, trust, or belief; yet they are not the same either. If I were to speak of having “faith” in my wife, you would conclude that I have confidence she will continue to be the wonderful person I’ve known and loved all these years.
But if I spoke of my “faithfulness” to my wife, the perspective changes pretty dramatically. This is a much more active idea. My faithfulness to my wife involves a huge commitment to fulfill my marriage vows. She is the only woman for me to the exclusion of all others. I’ve promised to be loyal to her come thick or thin. I’m fully committed to provide and protect our family.
So in going from “faith” to “faithfulness”, we’ve changed our outlook in some important ways while still remaining in the same world of thought. Let’s really up the ante now and try the same exercise with Jesus. As we’ve said above, we often speak of having faith in Jesus in the sense that we believe certain things about him. In other words, we’re giving mental assent that certain propositions about Jesus are indeed trustworthy and true. For instance, we believe that Jesus is God’s Messiah, or that he loves us, or that he has provided for our forgiveness through his death on the cross, or that he rose from the dead on the third day. Very well.
But what if we now spoke of our faithfulness to Jesus? Or about our loyalty or allegiance to Jesus? This puts us in quite a different neighborhood! These terms indicate that we’re committing our entire selves to Jesus. Someone who has given their full allegiance to Jesus will strive to obey his commands. They will honor him with all of their words and actions, even when such commitment is difficult or unpopular.
The loyalty of many Christians around the world is tested each and every day as they face persecution and even death. So in moving from faith to faithfulness, we’ve moved beyond the limited realm of just mental agreement into a more holistic realm whereby we’ve completely surrendered ourselves to Jesus – not simply our beliefs but our words, actions and behavior.
So to summarize, the Greek word pistis can indeed be used to denote belief, trust, or faith. But we must be aware that pistis can also refer to broader concepts like faithfulness, commitment, loyalty, or allegiance. Please keep this firmly in mind, dear reader, as this blog series moves forward. We shall soon be addressing some of the famous New Testament passages in which the Apostle Paul writes about “faith” and “works.”
Undoubtedly your minds will have a strong tendency to snap back into thinking “faith” means simple belief/trust as opposed to “works” which are “the things we do.” Hopefully, I shall be able to demonstrate that the broader meaning of faith – including loyalty or allegiance – makes far better sense of these scriptures.
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I would like to repeat one final point which I made over and over again during our earlier “gospel” series. There I stated that many Christians think about the gospel as a message about individual salvation and how that comes about through their “faith” in the death of Jesus. This shrunken and distorted version of the gospel falls far short of the glorious story of the scriptures which speaks of how God is working to redeem and restore all of creation. The gospel is above all else a kingdom message – a declaration that God is at last acting to reclaim his beloved creation from all the dark forces which are bent on destroying it. And the central feature of this kingdom message is that the one true king has been revealed at last.
Therefore, when the first Christians proclaimed the gospel, the most central claim they made was that Jesus was the Messiah – God’s anointed king – the one who would establish God’s sovereignty over all the earth. Having reached this conclusion, we must now ask ourselves a key question: if the most vital content of the gospel involves a proclamation that “Jesus is the Messiah” or “Jesus is Lord,” then what would be the most appropriate response to this gospel?
In the ancient world, when a new Caesar came to the throne, heralds would be sent throughout the Roman empire to proclaim the “good news.” The subjects of the empire would be called to believe that a new Caesar had donned the purple robe of majesty. But you can be quite sure that the new Caesar demanded far more from his subjects that just belief! There would be the full expectation that the new emperor would garner their full loyalty and allegiance.
In the same way, it’s certainly a good start to respond to the Christian gospel by professing our belief in Jesus the Messiah. But such a royal announcement commands much more than simply belief. If Jesus is truly the world’s rightful king, this reality demands that we give him our full loyalty and allegiance. And that is the true, Biblical meaning of faith.
