What Faith Is Not

Scripture : Hebrews 11:1

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

The Christian life is a journey of faith with God. It begins and ends with faith in the Lord Jesus (Heb 12:2). Along thiis journey, the righteousness of God will be revealed from faith to faith because those are justified by God shall live by faith (Rom 1:17). Faith is the key in our relationship with God because without it we will never be able to please God (Heb 11:6). Therefore, it is very important for us to have an accurate understanding of faith. Now, in order to really understand what faith is, it is helpful for us to know what faith is not.

One of the most common misunderstandings about faith is we must deny the reality to be in faith. We close our eyes from the reality before us because we think that if we acknowledge it, we do not have faith. Therefore, when we are sick, we say we are healed; when we are weak, we say we are strong; when we do not have a certain thing, we say we already have it, etc. But then we become disappointed because the reality that we deny is still there before us. What is wrong here? It is our understanding of faith that is not accurate. Faith is not denying the reality at all. On the contrary, it acknowledges the reality. But, it refuses that reality to continue to exist because of the existence of another reality. This reality, although it is invisible, nonetheless, is more powerful.

Faith does not deny the visible reality, but refuses that visible reality to continue to exist because of another reality which is more powerful than that. This more powerful reality is the invisible reality. Therefore, if we truly have faith, we will not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen because we know that the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor 5:7; 4:18). So, when we are sick, instead of saying we are healed, we say we are sick, but by His stripes we were healed (1 Pet 2:24); when are weak, instead of saying we are strong, we say we are weak, but the strength of Christ is made perfect in weakness, and when we are weak, then we are strong (2 Cor 12:9-10).

Another most common misunderstanding about faith is believing what we want to believe. What does it mean? It means we choose to believe something because we want it to be true. This usually happens when we have a very strong desire about something. For example, we are in a certain situation and we desire a certain outcome from that situation. We also know that God is able to give the outcome we desire. Then, it is very natural that we will choose to believe what we want to believe. Now, in this case, we may or may not get what we believe. We cannot be sure.

If we have a very strong desire in our heart about a certain thing or situation, it will greatly influence what we believe about it. We will tend to believe what we want to believe. But believing what we want to believe is not faith. To help us understand more clearly we will take look at one hypotetical case. Let’s say that we are in the process of securing a business deal in another city. We want that deal so much and we know that God is able to give it to us. But, the problem is to secure that deal we have to leave our present highly paid job because we have to spend so much time away. After giving some time to think about it seriously, we finally resign from our job and spend much time securing that deal, believing that God is going to give us that deal. Now, will the deal finally be secured? May be, but we cannot be sure. Why? Because what we believe is not actually based on God’s specific will, but on our own will.  Therefore, in such situation, it is better for us to say, “If the Lord wills.”

Yet another most common understanding about faith is confusing it with hope. We say that we have faith, but many times what we actually have is hope. It is true that hope is included in faith (Heb 11:1), but hope is not the same as faith. What is hope? Hope gives us a positive outlook towards the future. Hope enables us to say that something good can or may happen to us. When we say that God is going to heal us, or that God is going to give us what we ask of Him, often what we actually say is not a confession of faith, but a confession of hope, which is important to hold fast (Heb 10:23) as an anchor of our soul (Heb 6:19). They are confessions of hope because they only point to the future possibilities.

What is the difference between hope and faith? Hope is an expectation that a certain thing will happen one day whereas faith is an assurance that a certain thing will happen at any time. When we have hope, we still cannot be sure. But when we have faith, we will be sure. Why? Because faith brings the things we hope for to the present by having them as a substance in us (Heb 11:1). We are assured now that what we hope for is bound to happen because we already have it as a present invisible reality.

Faith is not denying the visible reality, but replacing the visible reality with the invisible reality. The apostle Paul wrote, “while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor 4:18). Faith is not believing what we want to believe but believing what God wants us to believe because faith actually comes from God’s word. The apostle Paul wrote, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom 10:17) Faith is not hoping that something will happen to us one day but knowing that something is bound to happen to us at any time because we already have the substance of that thing now. The writer of the book of Hebrews wrote, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)