Landon posted this tweet a while ago today:
Thought on Jn 3:16 – Belief follows a behavior born of belonging. Belief is the evidence of recieving (sic) eternal life, not the cause of it.
The form of belief follows from both belonging to a community, but this can be a form of a habit. "I believe because my family does, my friends do, etc." It is what sociologist Peter Berger calls a plausibility structure. With the relaxing of those structures due to pluralism and rooted in traditions, belief takes on an individualized form. "I believe because there has to be more to this world", "I believe because I experienced God", etc.
Belief is an epistemological claim: I believe that something is true because I trust someone who has made a claim like it before, I have had an experience of it, etc. Belief is founded on the legitimacy of the source of the claim. It is therefore quite passive.
Faith, on the other hand is the action one takes to live out a given belief. I believe that gravity exists. See it work every day. I also believe that I will fall to the ground if I jump out my office window. No good reason not to believe this is true. However, I do not believe that life ends when the body wears out and dies so I do not fear death. Why? My experience with the risen Christ combined with my traditional understanding that founds my belief in resurrection. I have not experienced resurrection as I have experienced gravity, but I trust that the sources of my belief are quite legitimate and so, I have faith in this claim and that I can reasonably act on it accordingly.
I do not believe "in" or "on" Jesus. I believe Jesus is quite alive. Moreover, I have no reason I can think of not to believe it. Such would force me to admit I am delusional which seems totally irrational since I would have to selectively de-legitimate and forget the experiences that have shaped my belief thus far.
So I believe that Jesus is alive and hence, that the the idea one can partake in the resurrection is most likely true. The possibility for this belief is from Gods grace to allow us that access. Faith is acting on the possibility that grace provides. But its also reflexive: Faith is what then informs and transforms the initial belief to lead you to the initial belief that warranted action. This is Pauls transformation of the mind, the new creation, etc. So it is a progressive transformation, not a one shot deal. Faith is thus not just acting on belief, it is the essence of embracing change in oneself for eternity and remaining open to the possibility that grace will direct that transformation.
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