Dynamic Faith

Most Christian fundamentalists would claim to believe in the principle of "faith alone" i.e Grace + faith = Salvation + works.

But what do mainstream believers think faith looks like? First, are fallen natural people able to seek God and trust in Christ, or must they be "given" faith via irresistible grace? Since God bestows blessings "through faith" such as salvation, our faith exists to be utilized before receiving the grace of salvation.

What criteria does God use, according to scripture, to choose to credit a person's faith in Christ as righteous faith. See Romans 4:23-25.

Could faith be lip service faith, i.e. dead faith, or demonic faith even when the believer is emotionally attached to their beliefs. Or, the opposite, dynamic faith, i.e. a faith from which flows works? (I borrowed the alliterative descriptives (dead, demonic and dynamic) from one of my favorites, Warren Wiersbe.)

When we find the Greek noun, translated faith, in the dative case, the grammar indicates the faith is used to accomplish something, thus live or dynamic faith. See Hebrews 11.

 

One word used to describe ineffective faith is often translated "of little faith." However, faith is so potent that if we have faith as a mustard seed grain, we can accomplish much. Here I think the idea is that effective, dynamic live faith has replicating power like the DNA of even a small seed. If we have dynamic faith, we become Christ-like.

 

The word "faith" in the noun-accusative case is used as the direct object of the associated verb. In almost all of the 55 or so cases where this form of the word appears, the idea is a person has (verb) faith. Again providing 50 or so examples of a person having faith. However a few verses are translated in a way that could be misconstrued. Let us look at one of them.

Act 17:31 (NASB)
because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

Here the Greek verb translated having furnished is "parechō" (G3930) and would be better translated as providing evidence for something. The next word (proof) is a mistranslation, the Greek reads "faith!" So the actual idea is "having provided evidence for faith to all people by raising Him from the dead.​

 

Pistis is the transliteration of the Greek term translated in the KJV as "faith" Pistis is formed from two roots, "Piq" meaning bind, and "tis" having the same function as "er" in English. So fundamentally, the Greek term means "binder" or that which binds.

Now lets look at how the Bible defines the term contextually. Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The word translated "substance" comes from the Greek hupostatis, which means "under" "stand" having nothing to do with comprehension, but rather with what undergirds what we stand for. So "faith" is what undergirds our hope for the realization of the promises of God. The next word of interest, "evidence" comes from the Greek elegchos, which means that which brings to light what is not easily seen. For example, in 2 Timothy 3:16, the AV translates it "reproof" indicating scripture is profitable because it brings to light our sins.

In summary, Faith (Pistis) refers our heart-felt conviction that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah sent from God, and this conviction binds us such that our subsequent attitudes, hopes and deeds are tied to the reality of Jesus as our Savior.

As Paul liked to say, referring to Habakkuk, the righteous man lives by faith. Do we live like someone indebted to the one who saved us, a bondservant of Christ, or like some ungrateful twit?

Dynamic live faith results in faithfulness, thus what binds us to walking the talk.