Faith is not just an important thing for Christians; it is THE important thing. Faith alone in Christ alone, as the Reformers would say. But as we emphasize the necessity of faith, let’s make sure we understand that it is more than intellectual agreement. That it is not passive. And that it is transformational.

The word “faith” appears approximately 250 times in the New Testament. But that word is a noun, and when you include the verb expressions of that word, there are far more. These would be words like “trust” and “believe.” Based on the number of mentions alone you’d have to include that “faith” is an important concept in the Bible.

And of course that’s true. As Christians, we are people of faith. Faith is not an ancillary part of our lives but rather the driving force behind everything we do. Our faith is what forms the grid by which we understand and process reality. It is our main operating system; the means by which we approach everything else. Not to mention the fact that faith is what God desires from us more than anything else:

Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).

Given its important, we should have a firm idea of what faith is. By that I don’t mean only what the object of faith is, but what faith is in and of itself. So to get at that understanding, it might be helpful to approach the issue from the other direction.

That is, what are some misunderstandings we might about the nature of faith? Here are three of them:

1. Faith is ONLY an intellectual acknowledgment.

Faith must have an object, and that object is very important. So important you might say that the amount of faith is irrelevant if the object is not trustworthy. Fortunately, we have an object that is the most trustworthy and the most proven. But here we must be careful because yes, faith does involve an intellectual acknowledgment of what is true. But it is more than that.

Faith, in the Christian sense, is active. It is not merely acknowledging the truthfulness of something but instead is an active trust. It is not only agreeing but leaning.

Put another way, it is a very different thing to agree that Jesus was an actual historical figure and placing the weight of your eternity upon Him.

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