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Faith is a marvelous attribute to have, for it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). Like other attributes of the Christian, however, it is often faked purposely and often misused unintentionally.
Two weeks ago, we talked about Satan counterfeiting the things of God. Faith is one of the things he counterfeits, usually by substituting something for the proper object of faith. The “object of faith” is the thing a person believes in. Faith must have an object, or it is not faith at all. If a person says “I have faith,” but cannot tell what he has faith in, he is not telling the truth. He may have some good feeling, but he doesn’t have faith.
People become Christians (are saved) at the moment they first have faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible. It is not possible to be saved by a faith that has substituted any other object of faith.
It is not enough just to believe that Jesus was a historical person, or even that God sent him, or even that he was a prophet. It is necessary to believe him to be God the Son. (This is another way of saying “the Son of God” but it emphasizes the fact that he is God, and not some lesser being.) He himself emphasized this fact in
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