Truth reference in faith

One of the sticking points for an evangelical is the truth-telling in the faith. By this I do not mean that one should not care about truth, but rather that one should ask whether “faith” and “truth” are the same? Related to this, of course, is the observation that “truth” is often nothing more than the teachings of one’s community. No wonder that with such an entanglement of concepts it becomes extraordinarily difficult to rethink living faith independently. Is our faith merely an assertion of certain dogmas, or does the verb “believe” point to the essence of faith, namely to an activity? Is faith about something we “have” or something we “do”?

If a verb, an activity, stands central, then faith fulfills an active function in our lives. If faith is a function, then it could relate to the truth, to the core of life. Again formulated in another way: How does the connection of you and me to the recognized truth run, so to speak? I imagine that “faith” fulfills this function. Not truth I want to question here, nor the thoughts and conceptions already formulated to it. What I am concerned with here is faith’s relation to truth . Therein lies the task of faith.

Faith is the active attitude of a trusting heart that recognizes something as “true”. Faith is not a picture of the truth, but outlines the living relation to it.

In the first part, the link between faith and trust was laid. He who believes trusts. In many a community, however, faith and truth are equated. Then the concept of faith is hijacked and misappropriated. An activity then becomes a confession. The function is replaced by a thing. Faith becomes unrelated. This is where the alienation begins.

I can rethink faith when I realize that faith is not a thing, but an activity that fulfills a function for me. Faith is triggered by God’s work in me and has been fulfilling a function in me ever since. This understanding is not dogmatic or culturally charged, but is much more neutral, human, and thus much closer to the reality of faith.

I can rethink faith when I realize that faith is not a thing but an activity that can serve a function for me.

This question is especially important because many are familiar with the idea that faith “embodies truth.” Belief and truth are put on the same level. One possible consequence of this is that believers not only bring their values into the world when needed, but also declare them binding for the world without being asked. One thinks, for example, of discussions about the abortion of unborn life. There are extreme differences in interpretation here. I am expressly not interested in formulating and evaluating this as an issue now. At this point, I just want to see and record that things that are “believed” are proclaimed as “truth” for a society. In this, faith is not seen as a function, but as a binding truth. In doing so, this interpretation transcends the task of faith.

Of course, you can have different opinions and you should represent your understanding. That is not up for discussion here. However, if one becomes aware of how undifferentiated faith is confused with truth, then one may have to ask oneself whether one understands faith as “relative”, namely “personal”, or interprets it as “absolute”, namely “timelessly valid”. On the intersection of these things runs the subject of this paper.

What we believe, we do not have

If we examine the essential characteristics of faith as the Bible writes about it, we get a very different picture. It’s amazing, but as believers we don’t “have” anything tangible.

In the proclamation or in the reading of the Bible we are addressed. God testifies by His Spirit with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom 8:16). We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the midst of the heavenly ones in Christ (Eph. 1:3). We were also sealed with the Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13-14). These things are all non-palpable. While we have all the spiritual wealth, we do not have any physical, tangible benefits in this world. Our God is invisible (Col 1:15), Christ is no longer here but has ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9). So what are we left with here? Do we dare to take a sober inventory?

If we examine the essential characteristics of faith as the Bible writes about it, we get a very different picture.

What remains is spirit. Jesus promises His disciples a succorer, helper and comforter, the Spirit of truth (Jn 14:15-17; Jn 14:26; Jn 15:26; Jn 16:13). The truth reference now follows through this spirit of truth.

“I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. But when that one comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but everything he hears he will speak; he will also proclaim to you what is coming. The same shall glorify me; for of mine he shall take and declare it unto you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I have told you that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.“
John 16:12-15

The function of this spirit of truth is to guide into the whole truth. It is a spirit of proclamation that will proclaim what Jesus could not say at that time. So this Spirit of Truth comes and teaches the first believers. Paul says – I can imagine in this sense – that apostles and prophets laid the foundation (Eph 2:20). Paul had completed the word, he writes in Colossians (Col 1:25).

Let us read these things carefully so that we understand them: This spirit continues not to be the fulfillment. We do not have it until now. The reality that the Bible gives us as an outlook is still intangible. The fulfillment of faith is yet to come. The Spirit of Truth does not change our reality today, but tells of God’s reality, which is not visible. It tells about this reality of God coming one day, that is, in the future. In the Annunciation, a bow is drawn because there is a difference between the two. We don’t have the fulfillment yet, but are waiting for it.

“For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers travail with us until now. But not only they alone, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we ourselves also groan within ourselves, awaiting the Sonship, the release of our bodies. For it is upon this expectation that we were saved. But expectation that is glimpsed is not expectation; for that which someone glimpses – does he still expect that? But if we expect what we do not see, we wait for it with perseverance.”
Rom 8:22-25

We have expectation today. At the same time, this means that fulfillment is still pending. Let’s let that sink in. He who believes stands in this world with an expectation. What happens, happens in the spirit, spiritually, and thus gives a view. This view is formed, but not our body (“immortality”), not our society (“God’s kingdom”), not our world (“new heavens and new earth”). All these things are still ahead of us and are not now. While this outlook can also shape the here and now, more on that in a moment.

“In Him [in Christus] you also are [die Glaubenden aus den Nationen], who hear the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation – in Him also you who believe are sealed with the Spirit of promise, the holy one (which is a deposit of our lot until the redemption of the one assigned to us) to the praise of His glory.”
Eph 1:13-14

Paul writes here that we have been “sealed with the Spirit of promise.” Through this seal, the future is kept for us. It is “a deposit of our lot” until we receive the fulfillment. In other words, our faith makes us understand this, that we have a future that can only be grasped spiritually today. Of course, the message does something to us, but the effect is from our mind. We trust God, but realize that the most important thing, the fulfillment of faith, is still ahead of us and that fulfillment is not here and now.

This is incredibly sobering.

Is faith relative?

By the fact that the fulfillment of faith, of the promises, is still ahead of us, faith is not relative. “Relative”, in fact, is not a property of faith, any more than “absolute” is. Faith is trust in a promise or proclamation. Faith shapes our thinking, directs it toward things of significance, and can thus transform us. This faith has a transformative effect on our view of this world and on our lives. Faith is not truth, but at best establishes a response to proclamation.

Faith, for the time being, is a gift from God (Eph 2:8). It is not a performance. Through faith, you can see the world with different eyes.

“Faith is the confident acceptance of what one expects, a conviction of facts that one does not behold.”
Heb 1:1

Faith is a “confident assumption”. This is not unworldly, but faith, or trust, is a tool and characteristic of our humanity. Blessed is he who can handle it! We can even be completely convinced that certain things will be like this and not otherwise. Fulfillment, however, lies in the future. It is true for the believer, but it is not thereby a reality today. Here it is necessary to differentiate. Today, these things are understood only spiritually. We can see something that is not tangible. Faith can do that. Here is the differentiation: faith shapes our understanding of this world, but not the world itself.

“By faith we understand that the eons were prepared by a saying of God, so that what is glimpsed did not come from something manifest.”
Heb 1:2

The writer of Hebrews does not see the power of faith only in the fulfillment of a future reality. Faith can do more and also looks back. In other words, through faith we can even have a bird’s eye view of the entire history of the world. Faith gives not only a view, but also an overview. Faith can understand, interpret, interpret that the times (“eons”, ages) came into being by a saying of God, as it is written in the Letter to the Hebrews.

Faith can: understand, interpret, interpret.

By faith and trust, one can see all of time from origin to destination in God’s hands (for example, Paul in Romans 11:36). Faith sees that, but that does not make it possible to experience it today. Faith is interpretation. Interpretation is something different from actual reality. Faith conveys a view of this world.

Faith transformed

He who believes trusts. This is an important function in this world. Everyone interprets the world. Faith also interprets them. I can let the Bible fertilize my faith (cf. 2Tim 3:16-17). If I define faith as trust, it means that my trust is nourished from Scripture. That says nothing about the content of my faith.

Truth does not become relative, but my understanding, belief and hope is personal. Faith can never go beyond this personal recognition. It is irrelevant whether it is right or wrong. The function of faith is not the representation of truth, but it is the relation to truth expressed through trust. “Believe” is therefore something different from “what I believe”. Function and content should not be confused.

But faith has a transformative effect. As seen earlier, faith in the Bible has to do with the action of the Spirit. We have nothing tangible yet, but are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blesses us with every spiritual blessing in the midst of those who are above in Christ.”
Eph 1:3

Spiritual blessing it is. We do not have this blessing in ourselves, but this blessing is “in Christ”. That is outside of myself. The greatest wealth is not in me, but in Him. Once again, it is intangible. Faith, however, can accept it that way, and we can respond to it with our lives.

“I now speak to you – I, the one bound in the Lord [Paulus], to walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, bearing with one another in love with patience.”
Eph 4:1-2

This is how Paul describes the impact of faith on our lives. It is a spiritual impact expressed in a changed life. A little further on in the letter he writes:

“That you … may be rejuvenated in the spirit of your thinking, and put on the new humanity, which according to God is created in righteousness and gracious holiness of truth.”
Eph 4:23-24

To the church in Rome the apostle wrote similarly:

“I now pronounce upon you, brethren (in view of God’s compassion instructions), to provide your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (as your consequent [logischen] worship) and not to adjust yourselves to this aeon, but to be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may be able to test what is the will of God – the good, pleasing and perfect one.”
Rom 12:1-2

Here, therefore, lies the power and task of faith: it enables us to reorient our thinking. If we allow ourselves to become involved in this, we can learn to look at the world in the light of God’s activity. This is great, liberating, encouraging and much more. Faith has a task to fulfill in our lives. We express confidence and can be inspired by what we learn. However, we have to get involved in this. If we do that, transformation can take place. Paul works for it. This is nothing new, but something quite old. This is how we can learn to examine what God wants. The apostle describes it here as a process. Faith is an active attitude, something we do.

Faith is thus not dogmatically charged, but fulfills a task. It is the lived reference to God, to the recognized truth, and this reference may and should give direction to our life, establish our confidence, motivate our outlook.