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The Just Shall Live By Faith

How many times does it need to be said?

The just shall live by faith.

Enough?

The just shall live by faith.

FAITH. FAITH. FAITH. FAITH. FAITH. FAITH. FAITH.

But, what's this FAITH thing anyway?

It is NOT simply belief. Anyone can believe. So what.

Faith is grabbing on to what God has said and HOLDING ON for dear life, no matter what comes,

no matter if we don't understand,

no matter if we don't particularly like it,

no matter if we think the whole world is against us,

no matter what someone else is doing, to us or for us or just general human insanity.

I mean, what does it matter to MY faith if someone else is doing something stupid? Should I let my life be controlled by what someone else believes, or is doing or not doing?

NO WAY, DUDE.

Faith is what Jesus had. He is the "author and finisher of faith."

So, just live by faith.

Period.

I have been studying this word "faith" intently for 20+ years. I forget that others were never given this understanding. My apologies... J

This is the calling I have, to teach on: Faith. I leave the prophecy and evangelism and other stuff to those called to do those things.

Here is some more...

Faith is borrowed from Latin where the word is "fide" (pronounced fee-day) and was originally in English, feid or (feith) and fey or fay. We lost the verb form "fay" a long time ago, but you will find it in some Shakespeare plays. Fide is the root of words like fidelity, confide and confidence.

Here are some extracted from the 1828 Webster dictionary:

Fidelity

FIDEL'ITY, n. [L. fidelitas, from fides, faith, fido, to trust. See Faith.] 2. Firm adherence to a person or party with which one is united, or to which one is bound; loyalty; as the fidelity of subjects to their king or government; the fidelity of a tenant or liege to his lord. 3. Observance of the marriage covenant; as the fidelity of a husband or wife. 4. Honesty; veracity; adherence to truth; as the fidelity of a witness.

Confide

CONFI'DE, v.t. [L., to trust. See Faith.] To trust; to rely on, with a persuasion of faithfulness or veracity in the person trusted or of the reality of a fact; to give credit to ; to believe in, with assurance; followed by in. The prince confides in his ministers. The minister confides in the strength and resources of the nation. we confide in the veracity of the sacred historians. We confide in the truth of a report.

FAITH, n. [L. fides, fido, to trust; Gr. to persuade, to draw towards any thing, to conciliate; to believe, to obey. In the Greek Lexicon of Hederic it is said, the primitive signification of the verb is to bind and draw or lead, as signifies a rope or cable. But this remark is a little incorrect. The sense of the verb, from which that of rope and binding is derived, is to strain, to draw, and thus to bind or make fast. A rope or cable is that which makes fast. Heb.]

1. Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority and veracity, without other evidence; the judgment that what another states or testifies is the truth. I have strong faith or no faith in the testimony of a witness, or in what a historian narrates.

2. The assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition advanced by another; belief, or probable evidence of any kind.

3. In theology, the assent of the mind or understanding to the truth of what God has revealed. Simple belief of the scriptures, of the being and perfections of God, and of the existence, character and doctrines of Christ, founded on the testimony of the sacred writers, is called historical or speculative faith; a faith little distinguished from the belief of the existence and achievements of Alexander or of Cesar.

4. Evangelical, justifying, or saving faith, is the assent of the mind to the truth of divine revelation, on the authority of God's testimony, accompanied with a cordial assent of the will or approbation of the heart; an entire confidence or trust in God's character and declarations, and in the character and doctrines of Christ, with an unreserved surrender of the will to his guidance, and dependence on his merits for salvation. In other words, that firm belief of God's testimony, and of the truth of the gospel, which influences the will, and leads to an entire reliance on Christ for salvation.

Being justified by faith. Rom 5.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. Heb 11.

For we walk by faith, and not by sight. 2 Cor 5.

With the heart man believeth to righteousness. Rom 10.

The faith of the gospel is that emotion of the mind, which is called trust or confidence, exercised towards the moral character of God, and particularly of the Savior. Faith is an affectionate practical confidence in the testimony of God. Faith is a firm, cordial belief in the veracity of God, in all the declarations of his word; or a full and affectionate confidence in the certainty of those things which God has declared, and because he has declared them.

5. The object of belief; a doctrine or system of doctrines believed; a system of revealed truths received by christians.

They heard only, that he who persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. Gal 1.

6. The promises of God, or his truth and faithfulness.

shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? Rom 3.

7. An open profession of gospel truth.

Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Rom 1.

8. A persuasion or belief of the lawfulness of things indifferent.

Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. Rom 14.

9. Faithfulness; fidelity; a strict adherence to duty and fulfillment of promises.

Her failing, while her faith to me remains, I would conceal.

Children in whom is no faith. Deu 32.

10. Word or honor pledged; promise given; fidelity. He violated his plighted faith.

For you alone I broke my faith with injured Palamon.

11. Sincerity; honesty; veracity; faithfulness. We ought in good faith, to fulfill all our engagements.

12. Credibility or truth. [Unusual.]

The faith of the foregoing narrative.

Going back farther, faith, and "fide" are from an Indo-European root: *bheidh. We get our English words bide, abide and abode from this same root.

Faith, faithful, fidelity, confidence, abide, etc...

All these words together form a "semantic domain" clustered around the idea of two things standing in a relationship where they are "bound up" together. So, "to believe" is part of this domain since it represents having a mental agreement with something. But the way Bible uses the words faith and belief goes beyond this to an active principle.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. (Heb 11:1)

Substance is a translation of "hupostasis" meaning the essence, or foundation of something real. "Faith produces the substance of what was expected" is a better way of understanding Hebrews 11:1.

Faith in God means relying solely on Him, not on your self. That puts you into a relationship with God wherein you have bound your survival to His Word. It also means to continue to act on God's word even if the situation seems to be in conflict with what God has said, assured that God's word will win out in the end. Thus, faith requires courage to go against what seems obvious, tenacity to see it through, and patience to wait for God's word to manifest (James 1:3).

More later...

(yes, there is more; much more... we have to come to understand why faith, obedience, righteousness, and love of God are all one and the same thing)

The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. (Psa 111:7)

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. (Psa 19:7)

In these two verses, the Hebrew word translated "sure" is "aman" which means "to confirm, support, uphold (Qal); to be established, be faithful (Niphal); to be certain, i.e. to believe in (Hiphil)."

(The word Amen is derived from "aman.")

When the Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew into the Greek LXX (Septuagint) they translated "aman" by various forms of the Greek word "pistis" - i.e. faith. So, "pistis" is not something uncertain, but something that is sure. That is because:

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isa 55:11)

We don't normally think of God having "faith" but perhaps we should.

And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. (Mar 11:22-23)

Now, here's the thing - "Have faith in God" is not a literal translation of the Greek. The translators have inserted the word "in". The literal Greek says simply, "have faith God's." The word for God is "Theon" and is in the genitive case. In the Greek, the genitive case is like our English possessive case. It can mean either ownership or source. For example, you could say, "That is Dan's book" and mean either 1) the book belongs to Dan, or 2) Dan wrote that book. So, when Jesus says, "Have faith God's" it could mean either that we have to have the same faith God possesses, or, the faith God produces. But most people can't grasp the idea expressed that way. So the translators say that "Theon" is a "genitive object" rather than the normal genitive and change it around into us having faith in God, even though that isn't really what Mark wrote.

The phrase "Have faith in God" is an interpretation not a translation. I think they should have just translated it, "Have God's faith" and then let the Holy Spirit teach us what Jesus intended. As it is, the following statement about moving mountains won't make any sense. How can you connect "Have faith in God" with having faith that if I speak something it will come to pass?

But consider that if we had the same "faith" in our words that God has in His word, we could move the mountain into the sea simply by saying it. Right? But we can't have that same power of speaking that God has unless God places it into us. The point of the hyperbole about the mountain is to get us to understand faith. The only way to have "God's faith" is to have God's spirit dwelling within you. Once again, faith is best understood as a binding together of two things, namely, our soul with God's Spirit.

We need to understand that "faith in God" means that we become the speaker of God's word. When the power of God dwells within us as the Holy Spirit, and we speak that power into the world, God's power flows through us. That's what this "faith" thing is about.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Rom 8:11)

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