Becoming a Christian
What is faith?
Faith is trust. For a Christian it means relying on Jesus and on what he has done, rather than on yourself. It is not blind belief, and it is more than agreeing that certain things are true.
Three parts of faith
- Knowing: you have to know something about Jesus, who he is and what he did.
- Agreeing: you come to think that it is true.
- Trusting: you rely on him personally. This is the step that makes it faith.
Think of a footbridge over a river. You can know it is there and believe it would hold your weight, but you only trust it when you step on to it. Christian faith is stepping on: resting your whole weight on Jesus for forgiveness and for life.
Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.
Faith is not blind
People sometimes define faith as believing without evidence. The Bible never asks for that. The first Christians pointed to things that had happened in public: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, seen by witnesses who were still alive and could be questioned. Faith goes beyond what we can see, but it has reasons.
What matters is who you trust
On that footbridge, a nervous walker and a confident one both get across, because it is the bridge that holds them and not the strength of their feelings. In the same way, you are not saved by having strong faith. You are saved by a strong Saviour. A man once said to Jesus:
Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”
Jesus helped him. Weak faith in Jesus is still faith in Jesus.
Faith and good deeds
The Bible is clear that we are put right with God through faith and not by anything we do.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.
It is equally clear that real faith changes how a person lives. If someone says they trust Jesus and nothing about their life is ever affected, the Bible questions whether the faith is real.
Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
How faith begins and grows
So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith comes from hearing about Jesus. If you want to believe but find you can’t, the best thing to do is to keep looking at him. Read one of the Gospels, ask God to help you, and talk to Christians about what they have found.