Faith: How and why

 How does one get faith?

In Romans 10:17, we are told that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” If we are talking about faith in spiritual things, then the only way to know about spiritual things is through special revelation from God, which would be the “word of God.” Nature has a limited ability to give revelation about God; the more specific things, such as salvation, must come from special revelation, and such revelation came by the messengers of God.

God gave reasons to believe the messengers. Jesus was God's messenger, and God worked miracles through him, so that people would believe in who he was and what he said (see below, John 4:48; 7:31; 20:30-31).  We have not seen the signs, but we have the historic record in Scripture.

 The Apostle Paul, after he became a believer in Jesus as the Christ, the son of God, and savior from sin, would go into the Jewish Synagogues, and when given opportunity, he would demonstrate from the Scriptures (the word of God) that Jesus was the Christ (see below Acts 17:2-4). Many, especially among the Gentile worshipers, were persuaded by what Paul said, but some were not persuaded—typically Jews who saw it as some kind of threat, being envious of the Gentiles who were persuaded.

*⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.” John 4:48

³¹ And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?" John 7:31

³⁰ And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:30-31

Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³ explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." ⁴ And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. ⁵ But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious... Acts 17:2-5

How do you know you believe?

Actually, this seems to be a nonsensical question. You could ask a person as to why they don't believe something, but you wouldn't ask them as to how they know they believe. If a person said that they believe the earth is 4 billion years old, you wouldn't ask “how do you know you believe that?” You would ask them “why do you believe that?”

If a person shows a lack of faith, you can ask them “why do you doubt?” Jesus asked this of the disciples after they demonstrated fear during a storm while at sea, thinking they would perish: The disciples awoke Him [Jesus] and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" ³⁹ Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ But He said to them, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?" ⁴¹ And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!" Mark 4:38-41 The disciples did not have faith that God would protect them. They should have had assurance of this, because Jesus was with them, and they were chosen for a purpose: they could not have prematurely perished in a storm. But their response to the calming of the storm revealed that they had not yet come to a satisfactory understanding of who Jesus was.

People can believe many things in life; the difference is what the object of that belief (faith) is. If someone says they are uncertain about something, then they have not yet come to the point of belief in that something. If someone says they are certain about something, then they have come to a point of belief in that something. The question is not “how do you know you believe in that something?” But you can ask “why do you believe in that something?” Or you could ask “what do you believe, exactly?” If a person says that they believe the earth is 4 billion years old, you can ask them why do you believe that? If they believe in a 4 billion years old earth, it is because they have been persuaded by whatever evidence they have heard and seen.

One can believe if they are persuaded, even though they are actually wrong. Obviously, we want to believe in those things that are true, but people can believe in a lot of things that are not true. We want to believe in those things that are clearly demonstrated from Scripture.