“The Faith”

“The Faith”

We are preparing to host the “Think Again” worldview conference next month. This blog post connects to why we are doing the conference. When we think of faith, we usually think of it (correctly, by the way) as a verb that refers to believing in something or someone. However, the New Testament also uses faith as a noun by using the phrase, “the faith.” It is used like this in two ways. The phrase is used to refer to someone who is a genuine believer, as in they are in “the faith.” The second usage (and the one I am focusing on in this blog) uses “the faith” in reference to the body of revealed Christian doctrine in the New Testament. So, there is a sense in which we are to have faith in Jesus and faith in “the faith,” of which Jesus stands at the center. Here is what Jude 3-4 says about this, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

According to Jude 3-4, the nature of the faith is:
1. It is clearly defined. It is “the faith.” The faith is the basic core of Christian doctrine that is clearly revealed in the New Testament. We are not called to have faith in faith (as in we can believe whatever as long as we believe something) but faith in “the faith.” It is not what we choose to believe but what God tells us to believe through the Apostles (Acts 2:42). The basics of the faith are: God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons who are the one God, coequal and co-eternal; Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, born of a virgin, lived a perfect and sinless life, died on the cross as the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins, was bodily raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, and is someday literally coming back to earth; the Bible is the Word of God, inspired, inerrant, and infallible; and salvation is by grace through faith alone. Really, it is the things that are connected to the gospel. Paul told the church at Philippi to “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). 1 Corinthians 15:3 teaches us that the gospel is of first priority. That is what we are to unite around. Jude 4 even strongly implies that false religions pervert the person and work of Jesus Christ and deny the grace of God.
2. It is totally exclusive. That is reflected in the fact that it is “the faith.” In fact, it is the one and only faith that is real and true. This is the faith while all competing belief systems are satanic deceptions.
3. It is permanently settled. It is “once for all” delivered to the saints. It does not change with the times but is the unchanging truth of God.
4. It is divinely revealed. It is “delivered to the saints.” By whom? By God the Holy Spirit. Man did not create or invent it, but it was given to him by God. Therefore, we are stewards who are to guard this treasure that was given to us by God. It is not to be tampered with.
5. It is subtly attacked. This is what verse 4 teaches us, and this is why we must contend for it. There is no need to defend something that is not being attacked.

What happens when people deny the faith?

1. It sometimes leads to legalism (1 Timothy 4:1-5).
2. Or, it leads to licentiousness (where people use a confused notion of love and grace to live however they want to live) [Jude 4, Titus 1:10-16].

What should we do with this teaching?

1. Make sure we know Jesus.
2. Make sure our doctrine is sound.
3. Be willing to die for “the faith,” but know which hills to die on and where to agree to disagree.
4. Separate from those who profess to be Christians and deny the faith (Romans 16:17-18). Share Jesus with those who do not know Him.