We know that the much-misunderstood word ‘faith’ basically means to trust in or rely upon someone or something. And many of us have heard (and used) the ‘chair illustration’ as a neat way of explaining this; that you demonstrate your faith (or ‘trust’) in a chair when you sit on it. Likewise, you only really have faith in Jesus (‘trust in Jesus’) when you rest your weight upon him.
However, trusting in a person involves more than simply resting upon him, or depending upon him to support you or help you or even save you. Placing your trust in a person also unavoidably means listening to and trusting and acting upon that person’s words, especially when that person is a lord or a king. In this sense, ‘faith’ or ‘belief’ or ‘trust’ in Jesus, who is the Christ and Lord of all, is very close to ‘faithfulness’ and ‘loyalty’ and ‘obedience’ to him.
I was reminded of this while reading John 3 this morning: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (Jn 3:36).
The opposite of faith in this verse is not doubt or even unbelief, but disobedience.
