What is faith? And what does it mean to believe? Do these words merely describe religious beliefs, doctrines, and creeds? Many people in the world claim there is no real difference between one who relies on Christ and one who relies on some other religious figure or deity.

In many Christian circles, faith or belief is put forth as something a person does in order to secure God’s favor or even to earn salvation.  However, the Bible tells a very different story. You see, believing in Christ has been presented or described in the Bible (especially by the new testament writers) as something that cannot be called a good work, or anything a person can do, for that matter. It describes not our doing but our dependency on God, and his son, Jesus Christ.

Now, I was taught that all men have faith, and that salvation was a matter of where a person put their trust. While I do agree that the object of one’s confidence is all important, I have come to regard that viewpoint as merely another religious way to make a seemingly difficult Bible teaching easier to understand. Maybe we need to adjust our thinking so that we can see that everything about it is wrapped up in the same miraculous reality that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.