Topical Study
Faith is one of the most used and least defined words in Christian vocabulary. In Scripture it is closer to trust and loyalty than to optimism, and the passages that describe it are more concrete than the word suggests. This page gathers the key texts, explains what each one is doing, and points to the pages that go further. Where Christians have read these passages differently, the notes say so rather than settling the question.
Faith in Scripture is trust in God's character that shows itself in action — not a feeling, and not the absence of questions.
Scripture
Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.
The chapter opens by describing faith rather than defining it: assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen. What follows is a long list of people who acted on that conviction, which is why the chapter is often called the Bible's gallery of faith.
Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Paul traces faith back to hearing, and hearing back to the word of Christ. The point is that faith is not manufactured by an effort of will; it is a response to something said. The surrounding argument is about Israel and the preaching of the gospel.
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
The sentence sits inside Paul's discussion of present suffering and future hope: 'we walk by faith, not by sight.' Walking is the operative image. Faith here is a way of proceeding, not a settled certainty about outcomes.
So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead.
James argues that a faith which produces nothing is not the faith he is describing. His example is a hungry person told to be warm and filled without being given food. The passage is about whether faith is real, not about earning anything by it.
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
Paul grounds salvation in grace, describes faith as the means by which it is received, and rules out boasting. Read alongside James, this is the passage behind centuries of discussion about how faith and works relate to one another.
“Because you have so little faith,” He answered. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Jesus says faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain. The comparison is deliberately about smallness, which shifts the emphasis from how much faith a person has to what that faith rests on.
“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to them. “Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Jesus tells the disciples to have faith in God while speaking about prayer and a mountain cast into the sea. Interpreters differ over how literally to take the promise and over how it relates to praying according to God's will, so the passage is best read with the rest of the New Testament's teaching on prayer.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus is called the author and perfecter of faith. The image follows the athletics metaphor of the previous verse — laying aside weight and running with patience — and it makes him both the source and the goal of the trust being described.
Have questions about these verses? Ask for context, a prayer, or to compare this passage in the translation versions we serve, such as BSB or KJV.
Scripture Cards
The words translated 'faith' in the New Testament carry the sense of trust, confidence and fidelity. They describe reliance on a person rather than assent to a proposition, which is why Scripture can speak of faith as something a person walks in rather than something they hold.
That distinction matters in practice. If faith is trust in God's character, then it can survive unanswered questions, because the thing trusted is not a predicted outcome. If faith is confidence that a particular result will happen, it collapses the moment the result does not.
Romans 10:17 grounds faith in something outside the believer: hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Faith is presented as a response, which means it is not generated by trying harder to believe.
The practical consequence is that faith grows by exposure to what God has said — reading, hearing, and being taught — rather than by an act of will. That is why the passages below connect faith to Scripture rather than to feelings.
2 Corinthians 5:7 says believers walk by faith and not by sight. The verse does not say that evidence is irrelevant; it says that the deciding factor is not what is currently visible.
Paul writes this while describing a present existence that is burdensome, so the contrast is between two ways of proceeding under the same difficult circumstances, not between credulity and reason.
Paul writes that salvation is by grace through faith and not of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). James writes that faith without works is dead, and illustrates it with a hungry person given words instead of food (James 2:17).
The two are addressing different questions. Paul is answering what a person is saved by; James is answering what a living faith looks like. Christian traditions have described the relationship in different ways — some stressing that works are the fruit and evidence of faith, others that they are a separate gift of grace — and this page does not settle the disagreement.
Matthew 17:20 puts the emphasis on smallness. Jesus does not say that great faith moves mountains; he says faith like a grain of mustard seed does, which makes the object of faith rather than its quantity the point.
Read that way, the verse is a rebuke to the idea that the problem is insufficient belief. The disciples had already been given what they needed; what they lacked was not volume.
Mark 11:22-24 joins faith to prayer in language that sounds unlimited: whatever you ask, believing that you have received it. The verse has been read very differently across Christian traditions, and it sits inside a Gospel that also records Jesus praying that a cup might pass from him and accepting that it did not.
The rest of the New Testament qualifies the promise by tying prayer to God's will (1 John 5:14) and by describing prayers that are not answered as requested (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). The passages on this page are best read together rather than in isolation.
Doubt is not presented in Scripture as the opposite of faith. A father in Mark 9:24 says 'I do believe; help my unbelief' and receives what he asked for. Thomas doubts and is invited to examine Jesus' wounds and believe (John 20:27). The disciples are described as having little faith, not no faith.
The psalms include complaint, accusation and confusion addressed directly to God. What is discouraged in Scripture is not the presence of questions but the decision to stop bringing them to God.
Hebrews 12:2 calls Jesus the author and perfecter of faith, which places both the beginning and the completion of trust outside the believer's own effort. The verse is set inside a passage about endurance, so growth is pictured as continuing rather than as a single decision.
In practice, the New Testament connects growth to hearing Scripture, to prayer, to obedience in small matters, and to the company of other believers. None of those is a technique for producing faith; they are the ordinary conditions in which trust deepens.
Lord, I do believe; help my unbelief. Grow in me the trust that acts on what you have said, and keep my confidence fixed on your character rather than on my circumstances. Amen.
Pray this in ChatIt is trust in God's character and word that shows itself in how a person lives. Hebrews 11:1 describes it as assurance of things hoped for and conviction of things not seen, and the chapter's examples are all people who acted on that trust.
Yes — James 2:17. James is arguing that a faith which never produces anything is not the faith he is describing. Paul, in Ephesians 2:8-9, rules out works as the basis of salvation. The two are answering different questions, and traditions hold them together differently.
Scripture does not present it that way. Mark 9:24 gives the words 'I do believe; help my unbelief' to a man who is not turned away, and the disciples are said to have little faith rather than none. Doubt becomes serious when it stops being brought to God.
Romans 10:17 ties faith to hearing the word of Christ, so the ordinary means are reading and hearing Scripture, praying honestly, obeying in small things, and staying among other believers. Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus is both the author and the perfecter of faith.
The New Testament ties prayer to God's will (1 John 5:14) and records prayers that were refused as asked (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). Verses such as Mark 11:24 have been read very differently across traditions, and reading them alongside the rest of Scripture is more reliable than reading them alone.
Start with Hebrews 11, read in one sitting. The page on what it means to have faith in God takes one of these questions further, and the topical study index gathers related passages by subject.
A closer look at what trusting God involves, and what it does not.
The chapter often called the Bible's gallery of faith, verse by verse.
The expectation that Scripture attaches to what God has promised.
A step-by-step method for reading a passage in its context.
Passage lists grouped by subject.
Bring a passage or a question and work through it.
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