Faith is relationship
God was never alone. He has existed since eternity as perfect communion: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Joh 1,1)The early Church referred to this divine unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as "perichoresis." It is a mutual indwelling in perfect unity and self-giving. True love always requires a counterpart, as Paul vividly describes: "For in him (Jesus) he chose us before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." (Eph 1,4).
God's purpose in creation from the very beginning was to welcome humanity into his family and to share with us the intimate relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He did not create us to glorify himself, but so that we might experience and share his love: "We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." (1. Joh 4,16)When we recognize God's love, God causes his faith to arise and grow within us.
Problem of sin
Through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, sin entered the world. In biblical terms, sin means transgressing a commandment given by God. God gives life—but whoever turns away from Him and sins separates themselves from the source of life, falls under the dominion of evil, and loses their connection to the divine source: “Behold, the Lord’s arm is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear; but your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that you are not heard.” (Jes 59,1-2).
Separation from God is the true illness, while individual sins and moral transgressions are merely symptoms of this underlying disorder. Is faith, then, a prerequisite for restoring fellowship with God? Absolutely not. The Father's love extends to murderers, criminals, dictators, and all other sinners just as much as to believers. He loves every person as perfectly as he loves Jesus. Did Jesus give his life for us because we were his friends or because we impressed God with our good works? No! "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Röm 5,8).
God loves the people he created in his image – but not sin itself. The incarnation of God was not necessary for him to finally love us again, but it happened because he loved us from the beginning: “For God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2. Kor 5,19)In his son Jesus, the Father reconciled humanity, which was hostile to him, to himself.
Definition of faith
The term "faith" is used exclusively from a human perspective. We use terms like love, mercy, goodness, justice, and faithfulness to describe God's attitude toward the world. The first Christians called themselves "the believers," and they called the path to becoming a Christian "coming to faith." We will examine the precise meaning of the term "faith" in three aspects.
Believe to be true
A key component of our faith is that we "hold" the tenets of our beliefs to be true. For example, Christians believe that Jesus died and rose again: "What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and afterward to the twelve." (1. Kor 15,3-5)Paul conveyed this fundamental truth to the believers in Corinth, and they accepted the truth by faith.
Believing means knowing
The second point concerns the relationship between faith and knowledge. In everyday language, the term "believe" is used to emphasize that something can only be assumed or surmised, as in the saying: "Believing is not knowing." The Epistle to the Hebrews describes what should be understood by faith: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (Hebr 11,1).
Our sense of sight is the sensory organ that provides us with proof of the existence of the material world. Its spiritual counterpart is unlimited faith in God and in the existence of the future, invisible, and spiritual world. Faith means clinging to what is unseen as if we were seeing the unseen.
Faith is trust
Faith is not just about convictions and facts, but above all and first and foremost about people. As believers, we speak of the faith grounded in Christ: “And great is the mystery of faith, as everyone must confess: He was revealed in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” (1. Tim 3,16).
Jesus Christ is the mystery of faith! Jesus repeatedly urged people to trust him. If we want to do God's work, it begins with trusting Jesus. To those who entrust themselves to God unconditionally, he will pardon and set them free: "But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith will be credited as righteousness." (Röm 4,5)Faith is therefore a relational concept – like love, it presupposes a counterpart.
Origin of faith
Before we consider the origin of faith, let us first clarify what it is not. Faith is not a prerequisite or precondition that man must or can fulfill through his own strength in order to attain communion with God.
Faith comes from God's grace
Faith is rooted in God's grace and love. Without a prior divine act, we could not believe because our hearts are veiled: "But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when people read from the old covenant, this veil remains and is not lifted, because in Christ it is taken away." (2. Kor 3,14).
Before our conversion, we were all veiled, like the Jews in Jesus' time. Only the Father can remove this veil: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day." (Joh 6,44).
No one can repent on their own. When we express repentance for our sins or faith, it is a sign that God's Spirit has already worked in us.
Faith is a gift
Faith itself is life in relationship with God and at the same time a gift: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast." (Eph 2,8-9)This Bible passage does not refer solely to grace. The entire preceding statement about salvation includes faith as an essential component. When people are called to believe, even that faith is part of God's saving gift and cannot be produced by their own strength.
Faith comes from preaching
Biblical faith always originates directly in God's Word. Anything not based on the Word of God is not biblical faith: "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Röm 10,17).
Faith comes from hearing: “How then can they call on him in whom they do not believe? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news!’” (Röm 10,14-15).
The prerequisite for proclaiming the Gospel is that the messenger of joy preaches the Good News, God's grace, love, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After his resurrection, Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (Joh 20,21-22).
Everyone who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and believes in their heart that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, recognizes, acknowledges, and confesses this Jesus as the Lord appointed by God: “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Röm 10,9).
Are we Christians ready to leave our own circle and go to those who don't yet know Jesus? Most of us—myself included—can be bolder in telling others about Jesus. We have been born again through the imperishable seed of God's Word: "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God." (1. Petr 1,23)God's word brings about an inner transformation and leads to a new spiritual birth.
The Parable of the Sower
Our task is to sow, preach, and bear witness to this word. How do we do this? The parable of the sower provides the answer: “Listen! Look, a sower went out to sow.” (Mk 4,3).
The sower – Jesus – sowed the word (verse 14). The problem of unfruitful fruit is not the seed or the method of preaching, but the nature of the soil.
The path – The Word of God is heard, but immediately taken away by Satan. No chance to take root.
The rocky ground – Enthusiasm when listening, but lacking depth. When faced with difficulties, faith quickly fades.
The thorn-covered ground – God's Word is stifled by worries, wealth, and desires. It remains fruitless.
The good soil – The word is received, understood and brings forth thirty, sixty or one hundred times the yield of what was sown.
We should sow the Word freely, without prejudging our listeners—only God knows the soil of their hearts. Whether the sowing bears fruit does not depend on the seed, for the quality of the seed is always good, and the Word of God has power. In good soil, the seed bears fruit because the Holy Spirit has prepared the heart. Like the seed in good soil, faith only lives in relationship. Ultimately, salvation comes entirely from God's hand, from beginning to end.
by Pablo Nauer
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