２０２５年６月１日～約１年間かけ、キリスト教入門・神学コースで学んでいきたいと思います。只毎回集いたいのに集えない学びたいけど１年間を通すとなれば～？？？と思う方朗報です！この度HPから見る・学ぶことが可能になりました。数年後あ！こんな話してたよねって振り返えり誰かの力になることもあると思います。
第9回 Faith
（第9回の Faithは英語・日本語に分けてがあります。ですのでダウンロード無しで印刷可能です）
9. Faith
We believe that living faith is the gift of God and without it, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Faith becomes effective as it is exercised by man with the aid of the Spirit, which aid is assured when the heart has met the divine condition (Hebrews 5:9).
Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written,
The just shall live by faith.
Faith is what connects man to God. Without faith, God and man are separated by an awful wall called UNBELIEF. Unbelief ties the hands of God. Faith is what allows God to work out His wonderful plan for our lives. Faith opens the door and allows Christ to enter our life and heart. Faith is how we are saved, faith is necessary for sanctification and faith is necessary in the daily walk of the Christian. As we believe God, He is able to reveal more and more of Himself to us. As we trust and believe Him, we walk closer to Him and go farther with Him and accomplish more together with Him and our faith and trust are further strengthened.
So what are some definitions of faith?
• Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
• Christian faith is a strong conviction that God does exist though we cannot see Him, the assurance that there is life after death though we have not yet experienced it, and a worldview that the spiritual world is far greater than the physical world which we can see, hear and feel.
That said, our faith is not a blind faith. The Holy Spirit is faithful to reveal God to us through the wonders of the natural world, through the loving and holy example of Christians and through our conscience. We can be thoroughly convinced by a vast array of proof that God and the Bible are as real and as solid as any other entity in this world.
• The Hebrew word translated “faith” means “to support, to sustain, to uphold.” In its passive form it means “to be firm, stable and faithful.”
• The Greek word for faith means “to trust” or “to be persuaded that its object whether person or thing is trustworthy.”
• The primary element of faith is that of trust. Not in self, but in God Almighty.
Faith has many expressions and elements as it is the catalyst for every interaction with God.
Let's look at some of these different aspects of faith.
Saving faith Luke 7:50 And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.
By saving faith we mean “faith as the condition and instrument of salvation”
Since the primary meaning of faith is trust, saving faith is a personal trust in the Savior.
It is not merely the assent of the mind to the truth, nor a feeling arising out of the emotions; nor is it alone the consent of the will to moral obligations. Saving faith includes all of these and more. It is a firm reliance upon the merits of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Saving faith is the act of man's entire being under the influence of the Holy Spirit. True faith is the act of the whole man. (Wiley)
Saving faith is a daring leap from the false safety of our own righteousness and knowledge into the Savior's arms. By the leading of the Holy Spirit, saving faith is a confident trust in a God who cannot and will not fail us. It is trust that the atoning work of the cross applies to my personal sin and will give me complete forgiveness and eternal life. This faith makes all of the promises of God personal.
Sanctifying faith “they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” Acts 26:18
Faith is just as necessary for sanctification as for justification. It takes faith to acknowledge you are sinner and it takes faith to agree with God that as a Christian you still have a sin problem in the heart. Faith agrees with God's Word and with the faithful, convicting dealing of the Spirit to our heart. Sanctifying faith turns to the Sanctifier and cries out like Paul did in Romans 7:24-25, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. “
Paul in faith cried out to God for deliverance from the carnal, sinful nature and then seems to thank God in advance for being able to deliver him from all sin. As we continue to read into Romans 8, we see that Paul has been set free from the law of sin and death through the power of the Holy Spirit. If we see the awfulness of our sin nature and cry out desperately to the Holy Spirit for deliverance, He will without doubt sanctify and purify us. “Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it.”
I Thes 5:24
A living and active faith James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Some people say they have faith because they believe that Jesus is God. They have an intellectual assent to the fact that Jesus is God but it does not seem to be a strong enough belief to move them to follow Jesus, or obey Jesus or want to know Jesus. This kind of faith is a dead faith. Its old and stale and cannot be called true faith. True faith is a living and active faith. Its a faith that says, “I believe Jesus is the Savior of the world and I believe He washed my sins away and that He has the power to keep me from sin. I believe He is God and everything He says is true so I will follow Him as my Lord and my Guide. 'Jesus what would you have me to do today? Jesus, I will do whatever you tell me to do.' ” How is our faith? Is it a dead intellectual consent to the truth or a full-hearted embrace of all that Jesus says and does and desires for us to do.
Healing faith
Acts 14:8-10 And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked: The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.
Of the accounts I've heard concerning divine healing, its evident that the sick person must believe that God can and will heal him and the person praying for his healing must also believe in God for healing. God will work according to our faith, whether that be small or great.
Faith and Prayer
Matthew 21:21-22 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
Do we believe God? Not only for our salvation but for other things as well?
Do we believe Him to always do good? Do we believe He has our best interest in mind?
Do we trust Him implicitly? Do we believe He can heal? Do we believe He can really save our family?
Faith in God always brings victory!