Bible Studies

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What is Faith?

Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

What exactly does that mean?

The first recording of the word SUBSTANCE in the Bible is found in Genesis 7:4 –“For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living SUBSTANCE that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth."

SUBSTANCE means, “things that actually exist”. The Greek word is Hupostasis – pronounced hoop-os'-tas-is. God told Noah that He planned to destroy every living creature that EXISTED at the time of the great flood.

“Things hoped for”…what is hoped for?

Paul, the apostle defines what is hoped for when he faced King Agrippa and told him the story of his journey one day on the road to Damascus.

Paul said, Jesus confronted me in the form of a bright light and He said, “I am sending you to them (both Jew and Gentile)to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and A PLACE AMONG THOSE WHO ARE SANCTIFIED (set apart from sin) BY FAITH IN ME.”

One thing HOPED FOR is a PLACE. That PLACE is heaven. Do we believe there is a place called heaven…and a place called hell?

In 1 Timothy 1:1, we discover that HOPE is also Jesus Himself. “Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope.”

We have not seen Jesus. Our HOPE of obtaining heaven lies within our faith that Jesus came to the earth, died on the cross for our sins, and if we are sorry for those sins, and wish to ask Jesus to come into our hearts and save us, we shall inherit heaven.

Jesus and His return to gather His born-again believers is that blessed HOPE for born-again Christians. Titus 2:13 –“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”

The "EVIDENCE of things NOT seen". EVIDENCE means PROOF.

Born-again Christians have not physically seen Jesus, so we are more blessed than the apostles because of this BELIEF that Jesus exists, and that He is who He says He is…the Son of God…the Messiah.

When eleven apostles saw Jesus in the upper room on Resurrection Sunday, all of them believed He was a ghost. Jesus chastised them for their unbelief (See Mark 16:14. When Thomas (aka doubting Thomas) was invited to stick his fingers into the nail holes in Jesus’ hands, and into the spear wound in His side…he and the other ten apostles finally did believe that Jesus was alove…victorious over death, hell and the grave, Jesus said to Thomas, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have NOT seen, and yet have believed.” – John 20:29.

So, we can conclude that Paul taught us, “FAITH IS THE UNDYING BELIEF IN THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS, AND THAT HE CAN SAVE OUR SOULS FROM HELL, FORGIVE US OUR SINS, AND DELIVER THE PROMISE OF HEAVEN – IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT WE HAVE NO PHYSICAL PROOF IN FRONT OF OUR EYES THAT HE OR HEAVEN OR HELL EXISTS."

"FAITH - without works is dead." This means that having faith is nice...but unless you put it into practice...it is of no use to you...it is a DEAD FAITH.

If you have FAITH that Jesus can save you from an eternity in a place of eternal torment and fire, and you believe He can forgive you of all of your sins, and you believe that He died on the cross for your sins, that He died…was buried for two nights and rose from His tomb on the third day after His crucifixion, and that He is the son of God, and now sits at the right-hand of God, the Father…then YOU have FAITH.

All you have to do to exercise that FAITH is to ask Him to forgive your sins that you are sorry for, and ask Him to come into your life and save you from an eternity in hell…and He SHALL do it.

“Whosoever shall call upon the name of Jesus SHALL BE SAVED.” It is a promise found in Romans 10:13.

Please read the article – “The RAPTURE OF 2015” because - “This generation shall not pass away until ALL be fulfilled.”

You need to know what a GENERATION is and that we are in that GENERATION right now.

We have a "Prayer of Salvation" located at www.JohnTyler.com/Salvation.htm

John Tyler, Author of nine books.
FIVE of my books are bible-bases, so those are FREE!

www.RelationshipBooks.com

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