Faith vs. belief-what is the difference?

If I talk of faith, I may mean belief of a testimony - a person tells me a thing, and I believe him. But there is another sense in which I may have faith in that man; that is, I may put my trust in him We often confound these things. There is the testimony of God which I have to believe, and a trusting in God which is the power of my walk.

There are these two things in faith: as it regards, first, peace of soul; second, power for walk. If I talk of faith, I may mean belief of a testimony - a person tells me a thing, and I believe him. But there is another sense in which I may have faith in that man; that is, I may put my trust in him. We often confound these things. There is the testimony of God, which I have to believe, and a trusting in God, which is the power of my walk. That which gives me peace is, receiving the testimony of God: I do want confidence in God for power of walk, but I must not confound this confidence in God with His testimony.

Mr. Trench leans on Dr. O'Brien for his definition of faith. I can heartily desire that the book in its main objects may be abundantly blessed, and have no desire to weaken, in any way, its effect on the minds of those it may address itself to; but Dr O'Brien was defining, and I take up his definition. Had I heard a mere sermon on faith, urging to trust in Christ, I should have hailed it, and made no comment on the word. Simple minds take the good, and do not define. But all souls are not simple; and many an earnest one may anxiously enquire, "Do I really trust; for I fear it is not for me?" I am sure deliverance is with God; still we must not make difficulties for souls. I do not believe faith means trust, though I believe trust will infallibly be there if faith is. As surely as I am burnt, being a man, pain is there; but burning is not pain. I am sure that the right rev. prelate, as he now is, is humble enough to allow me to speak freely of his writings without thinking it any want of deference.

Faith is the divinely-given perception of things not seen, wrought through the word of God by the Spirit. Hence it is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen. The examples in Hebrews 11 are not given to shew all that faith is, but how it works in man in active life or patient endurance, because God's word is believed. If the word reveals a divine person in grace, He becomes the object of trust; if a work, its efficacy becomes the ground of confidence. But the trust and the confidence is not the faith. Indeed, though there will always be attraction, and so far trust in Him as a person worthy of it, and drawing it, in the revelation of God in love, it does not at first always produce confidence, properly speaking, and, speaking of Christ, "a full reliance upon Him and upon His work;" because that revelation, if it attracts the confidence of the heart, awakens the conscience; and, till this is purged by a clear knowledge of redemption, we cannot trust. The element of it is there, but we cannot do so. When Peter preached to the Jews, the effect of the power of the word, convincing them that Jesus was the Messiah — making them believe — was to make them say, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" They had crucified Him. This was not trust; but faith was wrought in their hearts as to who Jesus was. Not that scripture was true — that they believed before; not assent to a proposition — but true faith that Jesus was the Christ. The answer to the need of soul this produced was Peter's shewing them the path of peace. They were to have remission of sins, and receive the Holy Ghost.

127 As regards the words πιστεύω, used simply with a dative, it is to believe a person. There are at the utmost two exceptions, in the Acts. I leave out the cases of both accusative and dative, as not to our purpose. To believe εις τό ὄνομα may be — yet no genuine faith or trust at all. (John 2:23.) It is recognizing the person to be what he comes as. The divine or human character of this faith is a subsequent question. Nor does ἐν convey trust: "Repent, and believe (ἐν) the gospel." (Mark 1:15.) I cannot doubt that, as a general rule, believing εἰς Χρίστον means a divinely given recognition of Christ. But it does not necessarily follow that it is divine. It was sincere recognition of Christ as such. But I am not aware of any case where πιστεύω εἰς, is used of dead faith. Πιστεύω εἰς points out more the object faith looks at; ἐπὶ rare, I believe only in the Acts, and with an accusative, that which man has come to as the basis of the faith; ἐπὶ with dative only in quotation from LXX, and once in 1 Timothy 1:16. These shades of meaning depend on the prepositions and cases. But I do not see any one passage which leads to the conclusion, that πιστεύω is employed for trust or confidence, save where it is trusting another with something, which is another thing. As to πιστις, it is almost always used absolutely — faith; a few cases with a genitive, faith τοῦ Θεοῦ recognizing Him — the faith of Jesus Christ. But I find nothing to build upon to make it trust. Faith, if real, is a divinely-wrought recognition of the object of faith, through the power of the word of God; and, in a few cases, the actual revelation of the object. In connection with this, it is life.

That 'faith in God' and 'belief of the truth' are things commonly united is true, but they are by no means identical, as some suppose. The latter may exist without the former, and does so in numberless examples. The devils believe the truth, but have no faith in God. They knew and confessed the Son of God, and could distinguish between a true and false confession of His name in others;7 but they have no faith in Him. So likewise King Agrippa believed the prophets, but his faith stopped short of God and His salvation. And it is a matter of everyday experience that credence may be given to the declarations of the Gospel, and that men often readily indoctrinate their minds with grace, while their hearts remain unaffected by the faith of God. When therefore an Apostle speaks of 'belief, or faith, of the truth,'8 he puts it immediately after sanctification of the Spirit, and refers both one and the other to the original election of God.

Faith is not mere credence. There is often a danger, when dealing with souls individually of going before the Lord. For example, one quotes a verse of Scripture, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved"; the question is asked, "Do you believe that?" and the reply is "yes, I do." What so often follows is, "Then you are saved." In such cases our anxiety to get people converted may do harm. Man has both mind and heart; the mind takes in the Word, but, if the heart is to be reached, it must pass through the conscience; there must be the "ploughing up." It is "with the heart man believes to righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made to salvation." Here is something to which you entirely commit yourself; this makes all the difference.

The next verses unfold more in detail the character of Abraham's faith, and also of ours, which is very instructive and practical; for many souls are exercised about their faith, wondering whether they have believed rightly, etc. In verse 17, we have not only that Abraham believed God, but that he believed the God of resurrection; "Before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." In verse 3, we find the simple expression of Abraham's faith, "Abraham believed God." It is not said that he believed in God, but that "he believed God;" i.e. believed what God told him. Beautiful and simple expression of what faith is. Many think of faith as a sort of inward feeling or experience, and so, because they do not have these experiences, often wonder whether they have the right faith. But faith is not feeling or experience, but dependence upon what another has said or done. In natural things it is simple enough. If some one that you can trust tells you something, you believe him; you do not question whether you have believed rightly, or whether your faith in what he has said is strong enough, you simply take him at his word. For instance, if you are going to London, you ask one of the railway officials which is the London carriage, and you take your seat, perfectly satisfied that you are right, because you believe the man that told you. You have no feeling that you are in the right train; but because you trust to what the official told you, you are perfectly happy and confident that you are right. That is faith in a man. Faith in God is the same, only in the one case it is believing what a man says, and in the other it is believing what God says and this is what true faith always does. There is such a thing as mere head belief; i.e. the natural intellect acknowledging the truth of God, as we find an instance in John 2:23: "Many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them." There was simple outward recognition of the truth, but no saving faith. Again, in the case of Simon, in Acts 8:12: "When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also." His was only an intellectual assent to the truth, without any saving faith at all; for "he had neither part nor lot in the matter." (v. 21.)

Some have made a difficulty for themselves by the mistaken assumption that we have here a definition of faith. This is clearly not the object, but rather a description of its power, range, and effect. Faith scripturally in itself is simply believing God, accepting His word because He says it, not on visible evidence or on reasoning but on God's authority. Now, under the gospel because of its all-importance, it is receiving the testimony of God which He has testified about His Son (1 John 5:9), believing (not exactly "on," but) Him that sent the Son (John 5:24); or, as in John 3:33 it is expressed, he that receives His testimony sets to his seal that God is true; while he that does not believe God has the awful guilt of making Him a liar (1 John 5:10).

But here lies the whole secret. There is all the difference between believing about a Person and believing on a Person. Christians believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe on Him “to the saving of the soul.” They know Him as a personal Saviour. They are cleansed by His blood. They confess Him as Lord. They are sealed by His Spirit. They are happy in His love.

In order to be saved, we are not told to believe about the Lord Jesus Christ, but to believe on Him; that is, to trust in Him.