First, let’s look at the significance of faith. That’s a good place to start. Alexander Campbell, who was, of course, one of the pioneers of the last century, says, “Faith is the link between man and God.” And in the Scripture itself, we see the significance of faith in several places.

First, we see the significance of faith in Peter’s listing of Christian virtues, in 2 Peter, the first chapter, and verse 5. It’s no accident there that Peter lists faith as first on the list. And I believe that the reason he listed faith first is because faith starts it all off. Faith is the basis—faith is the foundation of everything that will follow. First comes faith, then goodness, then knowledge, then self-control, then perseverance, then godliness, then brotherly kindness and, finally, love. But faith starts it all off. Everything else listed here is built upon that foundation of faith.

Also, faith is necessary for us to be, and continue to be, a child of God. Galatians 3:26 says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Faith is essential to salvation. In Ephesians 2, verse 8, Paul writes, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith.”

Faith is vital to everything! In the Roman letter, Paul writes in Romans 14, verse 23, that “everything that does not come from faith is sin.” And in the Hebrew letter, Hebrews 11, verse 6, we see that “Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.”

And so, I know you agree with me that “faith” is a vital and very important subject—one which we need to understand as much about as we possibly can.

Well, in answering the question, “What is faith?”, perhaps the best place to start is with a definition. And I didn’t go to a Webster dictionary or to a Bible dictionary of some sort for the definition of this word. Rather, we can go to the Word of God, and we can find the very best definition, I believe, that can be found for what “faith” is—or how to define the word “faith.” And that’s found, once again, in the great “Faith Chapter” of the Bible, Hebrews 11, and verse 1. And the writer starts out there and says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.” So, there’s our definition for the word “faith”.

Understanding the definition—or seeing the definition, then, let us delve a little deeper. How does faith function? How does faith operate? What are the characteristics of faith?

And the first thing I’d like to point out to us is that faith is seeing the unseen. Faith is SEEING the unseen. I believe there’s a tendency for us, as human beings, NOT to do that. Our tendency, rather, is to have things as visible for us as we possibly can. Hebrews—the entire book of Hebrews—seems to have been written to answer this very kind of problem that the first century Jewish converts to Christianity may have been having. It seems that the thrust of the book of Hebrews is to turn the Jews back away from a return to Judaism—a return back to the visible services that they had, and the visible shrine that they had—the Temple. Many people today seek a religion that is pleasing to the eye. We can think, and we don’t have to think very hard, of religious groups that have so many visible signs that are central to their worship. Crucifixes, icons of all sorts, pictures, stained glass, statues—all of these kinds of things appeal to the eye. They feed the visual sense that we as human beings have.

True faith has always looked to what is NOT SEEN and been able to SEE it. We accept creation on this basis. Hebrews 1, verse 3, says, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what was seen was not made out of what is visible.”

Faith believes that GOD IS—without seeing Him. Again, Hebrews 11, verse 6 this time: “Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Moses persevered by seeing the invisible God. Verse 27 of Hebrews 11: “By faith he [Moses] left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He persevered because he saw Him Who is invisible.” The Patriarchs saw their reward by faith only. Verse 13 of Hebrews 11 says, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.” Seeing the unseen. Can we do that? Is your faith such that you are able to see what is unseen? This IS a characteristic of our faith.

Also, a characteristic of our faith is acting on divine knowledge. Having seen by faith, then we must be compelled by that same faith to act upon our knowledge. James says, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is DEAD,” James 2:17. And James goes on to say, “You believe that there is one God? Good! Even the demons believe that and shutter,” James, chapter 2, verse 19. The implication here, of course, is that demons have faith…but so what! Their faith is not accompanied by righteous works. Biblical faith has always been obedient faith. It has never been faith separate from works. From the very outset of man’s relationship with His Creator, this has been so. Abel worshipped God and offered sacrifices. Hebrews 11, verse 4 says, “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did.” [This shows that Abel’s faith produced an action.] Noah was moved to build an ark at God’s command. Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 7, says, “By faith Noah, when he was warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to save his family.” And by the way, those things that were “not yet seen” were rain and floods! Noah had no idea, no concept of what God was requiring of him because he had never seen rain—he had never seen a flood! Yet his faith COMPELLED him to ACT.