Faith

Faith in Scripture is not religious feeling or vague spiritual openness. It is trust: a specific trust in a specific God based on what he has said and done. Abraham is the defining example. When God calls him to leave his homeland and promises to make him into a great nation, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” He had no temple, no law, no written Scripture. He had the word of Yahweh, and he trusted it. That trust was counted as righteousness.

Paul’s argument in Romans and Galatians builds on this foundation. Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision, before the Law, before any system of religious observance. This proves that justification has always been by faith, not by works. The Law came after Abraham and could not alter the principle already established. The promise to Abraham was received through faith, and that is how it is received still: not by earning it but by trusting the one who made it.

Faith is not a meritorious act that earns something from God. It is the empty hand that receives what Christ has accomplished. The Reformers were insistent on faith alone (sola fide): not faith plus works, not faith plus sacrament, but faith alone in Christ alone. This is not a Reformation invention; it is what Genesis 15, Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 3-4, and Galatians 3 all teach. The articles below trace the theme of faith through several of its most significant passages.