Faith is not Belief

By Brad Henderson

“Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation. ”-- Unknown author

I am very thankful for the thoughts we discussed yesterday regarding upcoming worship themes and study topics. There is no doubt in my mind that these will help us as we continue to grow in and toward our union with the Triune God. But as we begin a series on saying what we believe in worship this Sunday, I want to emphasize the distinction between faith and belief.

What we believe proceeds from our faith, and faith, ultimately, is about a relationship in which we can trust. This is why the Christian perspective is so important: it is based on the human/divine relationship in which the God of the universe is not an impersonal force or energy, but an Other who loves us enough to be one of/with us.

Beliefs are simply the ways in which we express what we have experienced in this relationship. To put these experiences into words helps us to understand our relationship with God better, but words ultimately fail in describing the fullness of God. This is why doctrines are so very dangerous: they are an attempt to express the inexpressible, and because they do give us some minimal grasp of God, they become seductive. Churches and individual “believers” come to think that this is the totality of their relationship with god: an intellectual grasp of traits of the divine.

Notice that Jesus never asked the woman with the 12-year bleed to recite a creed; he never asked a recitation of the beliefs of the church of the 5,000 who received the gift of loaves and fishes; he never required catechism of the blind, lame, or deaf. Over and over again, he says the same thing: “Your faith has made you well. ” Not beliefs, not creeds, not doctrines, but trust in a relationship he offered/offers to human beings like them and like us in need of hope, encouragement, and love.