Many Christians are acquainted with the general concept that there is "one faith." However, most Christians don't speak this way. Most of us speak of "my faith," or we say things like "Her faith is very strong," or "His faith is remarkable." On the one hand we know what we mean here - it's the faith that these people have in Jesus Christ. But the way we use this phraseology is a bit afield of what I believe the Bible is getting at.
In Acts 3:16, Peter says "By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see." Here we gain greater clarity on this one faith concept. There is only one faith and it is faith in the name of Jesus. Further Peter says, "it is the faith that comes through Him" (meaning He's the source of it). If there's only one source, it makes it easier to understand that there's only one faith. Interesting. What Peter is saying is that the man who was healed in this instance was not healed by his own faith, but rather by the faith that Peter and John had. A faith in Jesus. Nothing is mentioned of the faith of the man who was healed. It is the faith that Peter and John had in Jesus that was the matter of this healing. It wasn't even really "Peter's faith" so to speak - it was a man named Peter's faith, faith in Jesus. There it is - faith in Jesus. So it is the trust in the bigness and the power of Jesus that is at issue.
You see, over time, many of us have fallen into a "belief paradigm" (note this is different than 'faith') which most of us would never want to admit. It goes something like this: Many try to find God and believe in Him, many struggle and are not sure that He is real or that He is active. We hear more bad news and we reason, almost subconsciously, "if God were big, He would do something about this mess (or problem, or disease, etc...)." But He doesn't seem to be doing anything. So God, sometimes without our recognition, gets smaller in our minds, in our beliefs. We do believe, so we're not atheists. And we believe God is real and that He does act, so we're not agnostics. But we don't believe in a very big God. We believe, frankly, in a rather small God. We hope for more, but we actually believe in less.
This has led us to think that if we want to see (a small) God work, act, heal, change lives - then we must have a very big faith if this is to happen. So we develop this unfortunate view that goes like this, "We must have a very big faith, because He's a rather small God." Thus, we and our faith are large in the equation, while God is smallish. This of course now turns the matter to our faith, rather than to Jesus. Our religion becomes to be about our faith, not about Christ. Meaning - it's about us. That's wrong of course, and it pushes us to think that Christianity equals a strong faith in a pretty small God. And so, it is the strength of our faith that is the issue that might make a difference. I think this is wrong.
Jesus said on the contrary, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move this mountain." (Mt. 17:20). See, it's not so much the size of the faith, but the size of the one in whom you put your faith. And so, we are back to the "one faith" idea - that there is only one faith, and it's not "my faith" or "your faith" it is faith in Jesus. That's it. That's the one faith. And, you either have it or you don't. (And remember that in the Bible, the word faith is more about "trust" than it is about mental assent the usual sense of it.)
An analogy might be helpful. Let's say you have $100. You have a trust that comes with the security or opportunity that $100 gives you. But let's say you have $1,000,000. You have a trust that comes with the security or opportunity that $1,000,000 gives you. In both cases you have a trust - but the trust is different and more solid in the $1,000,000 than in the $100. The difference in the faith is NOT about the strength of the belief, it is about the size of the thing in which you trust. It is not your faith "that makes the thing big," it is the size of the thing that makes your trust big (or small.) You may have "more faith" in $1,000,000 than you do in $100, but that's not because of you, it's because of it. The bigger money gives you more trust. And here is where I'm going. A big God is one in whom you put big faith. But in reality, you don't HAVE to have a big faith, you can have a small faith (like a mustard seed) because it's a big God. Do you see it? We all have thought we needed to manufacture a big faith because many of us are conceiving of a small God. But this is not who God is. He is so big, that you could have small faith in Him. Mustard seed sized faith. See faith is more a question of "Faith - yes" or "Faith - no" and not so much a question of "faith - big" or "faith - small."
Now things become more exciting, because now we can see that all believers are invited to take hold of this one faith - faith in Jesus. And that's it - that's the one faith. It's the same cord that began when people met Jesus, it's the same cord that was in the early church. It's like a cord or a thread (the "faith in Jesus Christ" cord) that has run all through history. It's this faith that Peter and John apprehended, this faith that Augustine apprehended, it's the faith that George Washington apprehended. Now we begin to see the unity in it too - we are all so deeply united when we are all holding onto the one faith - the "faith in Jesus" faith; not "my faith, your faith, his faith, her faith." Yes, there's only one faith and it's "faith in Jesus and faith that comes through Him." And now it makes it so much more clear and exciting when Paul speaks in Ephesians about "one faith, one hope, and one baptism..." That's for another entry.
