In our first two building blocks, we talked about how sin is the resulting separation from God by a choice that man had made, and we then furthered our discussion on how the act of repentance is an individual person making the choice to turn back towards God. But, as I stated in that prior post, repentance alone falls to futility if we do not have faith. So, what is faith? In this post, we will discuss where the term faith comes from and why it is being used inside of the religious framework of Christianity. We will also discuss how this element plays into the overall structure of the other building blocks of this series.

Today, the word faith has been divided into two definitions. The primary definition is defined as “complete trust or confidence in someone or something” and this is the oldest and most correct definition for that word. It is also a decent translation choice for the Greek word that we will get to in a little bit, but it does fall short in its ability to express all that is going on with it. The second definition of faith that you will find is “strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof”. This second definition, that was develop a century after the first, is the misappropriation of the word faith and was developed due to an incorrect ideology of faith developed within the religion of Christianity and the works of Tertullian. We will address this proofless conviction concept another time outside these building block posts, but for now we will stick with “Complete Trust” and work our way backwards.

We have at least three words in English that essentially mean to “put trust in” (at least three that we will look at, there may be more due to the nature of its origin). Those three words are Faith, Belief (believe), and Credence (credit). We still use all three of these words today in various applications, but they all come back to a construct that suggests there is an item, person, process, or other thing that has “proven true” through some means, and we can “rely” on the truth of that thing or person. I just want to mention credence because that word is derived from the Latin word “credatis” which is used in the Latin Vulgate to translate the Greek word we are going to focus on. The other two English words are what we will more commonly see used in our English translations. In fact, the two words are often interchanged throughout and within the English translations of the New Testament for one single Greek word, and that is “Pistis”. There are a few variation of this, but they all have the Pistis as their root. For example, the primary translation choice for believe is Pisteuo which is the state of being/possessing Pistis.

When we see words like faith used in such a prolific way throughout the New Testament, they start to develop a strong religious context in how we use them. Because of this, we often forget that the original users of those words were borrowing them from something that they were familiar with, and we must bring that context over when we look at how it is used. In this case, Pistis is borrowed from a set of terms used to describe the elements of a socioeconomic system called a “Patronage”, or a Patron and Client system. At this time in history, the majority of ownership belonged to a very small percentage. This means that for day to day living, the common person could rely on commerce systems that we are familiar with like buying, selling, and trading in the market. But when it came to non-ordinary things like land use or loaning of money, the common person had to “know a guy”. In this system, the person in the position of holding possession or power is called the Patron and the person in need of support is called the client. Now the role that the client played towards the patron is to speak well of their patron, be dedicated to them and to trust in who they are and what they can provide. The term used to describe this position is “Pistis”. In other words, as a client, you have “faith” in your patron, and you bring honor to their name. To be in the patron role, you had to be in control of something that had limited access like land or political positions. When you gave anything to a client, the action was called “charis”, which we commonly translate as “Grace”, “Favor”, or “Gift”.

So, when we pull this construct into the context of the New Testament, we are looking for someone to be a patron who has access to something that the client needs. Throughout the verses of the New Testament, we consistently see that it is stated to the people the text is addressing that they are to have faith in Jesus. In this context, Jesus is positioned as the patron and those whom the text is written to become the client. But what is the Grace that Jesus is offering? There are many versus that state what this, but one of the clearest, and most widely used, is put forward by John in his gospel. According to John 3:16, God brought forth his son (Jesus) so that those in the world may have Pistis in him. And, when they have Pistis in him, they would not see total destruction but would be given eternal life. So, the Grace that is received from the patron of Jesus is eternal life.

This gives use our patron, our client, and the grace that is given, but why Jesus as the patron and why is “eternal life” the grace given? For this, we have to look at what Jesus was teaching while he was on this earth and we will start with Mark’s record, specifically Mark 1:14b-15. “… Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.’” This makes it seem odd in our new framework to be talking about having Pistis towards the gospel, so let’s unpack that.

I have written a prior post about gospel and how that word has evolved over time. In that post, I let Paul give his definition of gospel to root it. The definition that Paul gave from First Corinthians 15 was that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. So, Paul’s definition is an actualized definition that defines the events after they have occurred.  But, we have here a proclamation that says to believe in the gospel prior to those events.

The solution actually lies in the title of Christ (no, it is not Jesus’ last name). The word Christ is the transliteration of the Greek “Christos”, which means anointed. This is the first century term that was used for the Jewish term Messiah. To the Jews though, Messiah was more then a term, it was a position held by the person (a kingship role) who was to bring restoration to them. So, when Jesus says to believe (have Pistis) in the gospel, he is saying that the time of the Messiah (anointed king) has come. He is saying that the Patron role of the Messiah is now here and the Grace/Gift that he is presenting is restoration if they would assume the role of Client and receive that gift.

When dealing with the Patronage system, it is not a system of single transaction like we are used to in a more capitalistic structure but rather it is a system of reciprocity. This means that as long as the Christ plays the role of the patron, the relationship established with the client is a continual exchange of grace and faith. As the local events unfold, you see this grace move from announcement to fulfilment (how Paul defines it).

So how does all this line up with our foundational building blocks? So far, we have established that mankind has been separated from God (sin) and each person can make an individual decision to turn back toward God (repent). But that is not the end of the path. There is a bigger picture going on here. When Sin was established, all of creation fell out of perfection, including mankind. At some point God will finish the destruction of creation that was started when it was moved from perfection; this includes mankind. Through the destruction of his creation, he will bring forth a reestablished creation; one made to perfection once again. But, since mankind is currently in the state of a fallen body, that body will be destroyed at the same time, even if the person was repentant toward God.

God establish it as a “time” for man to continue to live separate from him. That is the “time” that Jesus was claiming to be fulfilled. The “time” going forward is now split into two paths; one that is slated for destruction with the rest of creation and one that aligns itself with the Christ’s kingship and will be preserved. The only way to receive a new perfected body at the point of restoration of everything is to have Pistis in Jesus for the Grace of eternal life; a life that is in a new “time” of perfect creation.

• Building Block 1: We Overcomplicate Sin
• Building Block 2: Repentance, It’s Not About Feeling Bad
• Building Block 3: The Realignment of Faith
• Building Block 4: How Then Shall We Live
• Building Block 5: In The End, We Begin