Faith is a noun, isn’t it? It is a gift from God, not something we earn. That is a certainty. Who would affirm that their faith was in a man that the authorities of both the state and the temple said was guilty of sedition? Wouldn’t you believe the state or the temple? But because of God’s unusual gift, we have faith in this unusual fact. Over 2000 years later, we are still affirming our faith in our salvation accomplished by the crucifixion of Jesus. We have been given our faith. What does that mean for us? Well, it turns out that faith is not exactly a noun in the New Testament it is more like a verb, especially for Paul. For Paul, it meant both obedience and message or gospel. He received the gospel as a revelation from God and, as his faith required of him, he is sharing it with us. What constitutes faith is living, hearing, sharing the gospel, and obedience (see Galatians 3:1-5; Romans 1:5 and 10:14-15). I think part of this obedience is formation today. We need to have someone teach us, contrary to Paul, but the understanding of faith as living, hearing, and obedience might be important for our time.
