8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you
10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—
12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
13 I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
The words used for faith and belief stem from the same root word in the Greek. There are different types of faith and belief forms, but all describe a kind trust and knowing something to be true. A belief, in our understanding of the word is something that cannot be seen as it is something internal to us. But, the type of faith described above is outward. Notice verse 8 above states, "your faith is proclaimed in all the world," which shows that faith is an observable action. Notice also verse 12, which states, "that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith." In order to be encouraged by some one's faith, it must be outwardly expressed through an action. There are many occurrences of an outward faith in the bible, where Jesus says, go your faith has healed you, when someone had touched his robe, or when they went to great lengths to reach him. If the man who was on the cross had not spoken out to Jesus, would he still have turned to him and said, you will be with me in paradise. I don't think so, because sometimes faith requires action, at least the type of faith that will save you.
Here's something real interesting. The two arguments for faith and works that supposedly contradict one-another utilize the same analogy. In Romans 4, Paul describes Abraham being justified through his faith and not through the law. James 2 also refers to Abraham putting his son on the altar, and shows that he had more than just a belief in God, he had a trust and faith in God that he acted upon, and even in the Old Testament, that type of faith had saved him. Both refer to the same events to prove their point. The points being that we are saved based on our faith and not of fulfilling the requirements of the law, but our faith must show through in our actions or what type of faith would it be. Even demons believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Like I pointed out, Faith is belief with action, the type of faith God expects is a humble faith, a faith where we subject ourselves to the Lord and try to follow the law, without boasting or being proud. Notice verse 17 of Romans 1, "The righteous shall live by faith." We are not made righteous by following the law, but through our faith with action as I pointed out last week in my previous blog. We are all sinners and we will be saved because Jesus died for those sins, but we have to have a humbling faith that others can see. We all mess up, which is why we are not saved by our works, especially not by our own doing, it is completely a gift from God, but we have to accept that gift. Accepting takes action.
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