Is Faith Really Enough???

People in the world of Christianity throw around the words faith and believe quite a lot. “Believe in Jesus and you’ll be saved,” you’ll hear. Or, “All you need is faith in Christ, and everything will be alright.” Is faith really enough?

Emphatically, “Yes”...and…”Absolutely Not.”

To use the word faith without explaining how it is being used is sure to invite confusion. So, let’s first consider the ‘context’ of faith.

Have you ever heard someone ask, “Do you believe in dinosaurs”? More accurately, the question should be worded, “Do you believe that dinosaurs existed?” That is quite different from asking, “Do you believe in Jesus?” 

On the surface belief in Jesus addresses whether a person believes that Jesus of Nazareth was truly the Son of God, a divine being who was born in the flesh and lived a brief time on this earth. But it goes much deeper than the mere belief of the presence of deity in the flesh; it has everything to do with His purpose and whether He accomplished it.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotton Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 
—John 3:16

The purpose of Jesus was not to start an organization or propose a new philosophy of living. Rather, Jesus said that He had “come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:8)

The references to perishing and being lost describe mankind's severed relationship with God. Since God is pure and holy he cannot embrace sinful man; there is no fellowship with man. The Apostle Paul was very blunt:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. 
—Romans 1:18

Faith is a response to the claims of Jesus about salvation, or more specifically, salvation from the wrath of God. Faith is a genuine conviction that Jesus accomplished His purpose; that sinful man does not have to perish; that there is a remedy for sin so that man does not have to experience God’s wrath.

So, faith is first a belief that man exists in a broken relationship with God and is destined to experience God’s wrath, but that Jesus Christ came to mend that broken relationship, and that he succeeded. Faith is about accepting the reality of one’s sin and the need to be saved from the wrath of God. Faith is about the sinner making a faith response to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

A sinner’s initial faith response mends the broken relationship between the him and God. The Apostle Paul reduces all this to one statement:

Having now been justified by His (Jesus) blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. —Romans 5:9

The text following that statement explains that once a sinner’s relationship with God has been mended, he must adopt a lifestyle in harmony with the character of God. After all, the sinner died to sin when baptized into Christ. At the same time the sinner was raised to “walk in newness of life.” (6:3-4)

So, in reality a sinner is cleansed of sin by grace through faith. Then, having been cleansed of sin he must maintain a relationship with God by faith, that is, by ’walking in newness of life.’ A person begins his walk with Christ in faith, and he continues to walk with Christ in faith through holy living and humble obedience to the word of God. Without continued faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). From beginning to end, it is all about faith.

So, 'Yes,' faith is enough. Faith is all there is.

Yet, faith without humble obedience to God's word is really no faith at all.

Mark Stinnett