Not faith in Jesus. The faith of Jesus.

Did Jesus have faith? Did He need faith? How does the Spirit describe faith?

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

That’s one of those types of statements that to me is like describing grace as “unmerited favor”. It sort of makes sense, but it’s hard to understand what that really means without seeing some examples.

First, let’s look at how faith is used in the New Testament…

There are two New Testament Greek words for faith — one a noun (pistis) and the other a verb (pisteuo). The verb form is generally translated believe.

Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment. (Matthew 9:22)

“The time has come,” [Jesus] said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

The word translated believe here is the verb form of faith (pisteuo) for which there is no English equivalent.

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
(John 6:29)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

The word translated faithfulness here is the Greek pistis.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Several things are clear from these examples:

1. To have faith in someone means to put your confidence in him.
2. Faith is an action word, regardless of whether it’s used as a verb or a noun. In other words, there is no such thing as faith without action (James 2:14-26).
3. Jesus expected His followers to have faith.
4. In order to be pleasing to the Father, we must have faith.

Reading Hebrews 11:1 without context, one could easily draw the conclusion that Jesus did not have faith in the Father because he didn’t need faith in the Father.

• “substance of things hoped for”. Jesus didn’t hope for eternal life with the Father, for “who hopes for what he already has?” (Romans 8:22-25)
• “evidence of things not seen”. Jesus had already seen the Father. He didn’t need any further evidence.

Therefore, one might conclude Jesus didn’t need faith. Now I’d agree that Jesus didn’t need to hope for what he already had, and he didn’t need any evidence of God’s existence, but I also believe that drawing the conclusion from Hebrews 11:1 that Jesus had no faith is as faulty a conclusion as one could possibly draw. Jesus had confidence in His Father; He knew God would fulfill His promises — every one of them. Everything Jesus did glorified the Father, and such action was living testimony of His own faith.

Hebrews 11:1 is not intended to be a complete, final, last-word definition on faith. Like many sections of scripture, it is given to us, written in words that we can understand, to help guide our understanding of the concept of faith. Like the rest of scripture, it would also be a mistake to consider this verse in isolation. It only makes sense in the context of the whole scope of God’s revealed Word.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject.