Belief vs faith

What's the difference?

Over and over the apostle Paul preaches to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those that do are called "believers".

Once a person has believed the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are commanded to live out the faith through obedience of Scripture. The life of obedience will be judged at the JSOC. There will be some believers who suffer loss of rewards for lack of obedience. There will be some believers who receive rewards based on a life of obedience.

Belief is more in the past- believing events happened they way we are told and that they mean what we are told- it is the belief that forms basis for our faith. Faith is hope for things to come based on what we believe.
Applying it Christian lives- We believe every word that of things that happened; creation/how man fell/ how God worked with the nation Israel/ His promises and prophesies/the messiah and His atoning works and all these forms the basis of our faith now because we believe that Messiah died for us, now we hope to live forever with God.

We are not told to have faith in the gospel. We are commanded to believe the gospel. Believing in the gospel is the work. The faith of Jesus Christ then justifies the believer!

This is a KJV-only view based on a KJV wording.

You could say the same about "faith in Christ" view...

The evidence is in the Scripture. Are you trusting your faith or the faith of Jesus Christ for justification? I choose the faith of Jesus Christ. My faith is pathetic and waivers. Christ's faith never wavered!

'Faith' is a noun. It's the ability to know the truth about Jesus that you can not see and find out is true on your own (Hebrews 11:1). This ability to know the truth about Jesus, this conviction, is a gift from God. It's an enabling that God gives freely to the world through the testimony of the Holy Spirit that Jesus really is the Christ (1 John 5:6,10).

'Believing' implies trusting. It's a verb. It's what you do in response to what God has shown you to be true about Jesus through his free gift of knowing--his free gift of faith.


Some accept the faith given through the testimony of the Spirit to know the gospel is true and retain it in their hearts in believing/trusting and are saved. We call that 'having faith'. That person does not reject the faith God gives them to know the gospel is true and they believe/trust in Jesus and are saved.

Most others reject the faith given through the testimony of the Holy Spirit to know the gospel is true and do not retain it in their hearts and so do not trust and believe in it and they are lost. We call that 'not having faith'. That person rejects the faith God gives to know the gospel is true and do not believe/trust in Jesus to be saved.



Faith: The power that God gives you to know the gospel is true.

Believing: What you do in response to what God has shown you to be true.

Trusting faith? That's a bizarre contradiction.

The power of faith to then trust.

Sorry, in other words, do you believe that you individual faith justifies or the faith of Jesus Christ?

Neither. My faith in his death is what justifies me.

Do you have any confidence in the faith of Jesus Christ?

I am justified through my trust in Christ, made possible by the gracious gift of faith God has given me, which is why I can not boast.

Bad Semantic Argument

If you're going to argue semantics, then you pretty much by definition need to do that with care and precision.



The words "faith" and "belief" can BOTH be used in different ways.

We can use definitions of the words which are virtually identical, or we can use definitions of the words which are a bit different. By bouncing back and forth between definitions of very similar words, we can create all kinds of needless confusion.



Root of the Confusion:
The OP wants to show a difference between "belief" and "faith", but the OP does NOT first establish particular definitions for each word!

The OP wants to make a distinction between 2 things without ever explaining precisely WHAT these 2 things are!
There IS NO WAY to find a distinction between 2 things if you don't first define those two things.

The OP gives no precise definition of each word before starting this process.
If we can't give precise definitions of words, we cannot possibly find any precise distinction between them.
If we don't know what they ARE, how can we possibly know if they are DIFFERENT?

(Not to mention the fact that each of these 2 words has different meanings: sometimes in scripture they mean the exact same thing, and sometimes they use slightly differently meanings to show slightly different things.)


This post actually starts off in absurdity.
It can't possibly start in absurdity and somehow end in clarity.



Conclusion:
1. To assume a distinction between 2 words which we have never even been defined... is just absurd.
2. Without first defining the words precisely, you cannot logically know a distinction even if you see it.
3. We have inherent confusion with these 2 particular words, because each word has different definitions, and sometimes they actually do mean the same thing.

A consistent view of the use of "faith has (x) results" in Scripture leads to the conclusion that "the faith of Christ" wording is an anomaly, not consistent. Jesus said more than once, "Your faith has healed you". Not His faith, but rather that of the recipient of the healing.

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith: in the KJV it is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In what sense has Christ not seen, since He is God and knows the end from the beginning? In what sense does He yet hope?

Rather, faith makes sense when applied as an attribute or action of a person, not of Jesus (post-resurrection at least). Abraham didn't offer up Isaac by the faith of Christ; he did it by his own faith.

If you think that the "faith of Christ" view is more consistent with the rest of Scripture than the "faith in Christ" view, I encourage you to support it... without using circular reasoning.

I might even challenge your assertion that Christ's faith never wavered, because He did say, "Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani?" but that's an aside.

Or you get off this notion that it is faith in Christ which must be demonstrated by works...

Believing is equated with trusting. No works. Zero. To get salvation or to prove one's salvation.

Ephesians 1
12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

The Greek from which the English is translated is the phrase ‘Pistis Christou’, which is a genitive, and in the context, a subjective genitive, meaning that the faith spoken of is that belonging to the subject, even Jesus Christ. It is His faith which is in view here.

The evidence for the wording being a subjective genitive, referring to faith belonging to, and personal to, Jesus Christ, is backed up by similar grammar used elsewhere in the New Testament. There are many other verses referring to things which are personal to Christ or to God (eg. The ‘hand of God’, the ‘face of Jesus Christ’, etc.) which are worded in identical grammar in the Greek as with ‘Pistis Christou’ (the Greek construction used in Romans 3:22 and Galatians 2:16, meaning “faith of Christ”).