According to the American Heritage Dictionary faith is “1. a. Belief in God or in a set of religious doctrines. b. A set of religious doctrines; a body of dogma...”

As far as the English language is concerned, these definitions are correct and probably accord with our own personal understandings of the word faith. Most English speakers recognize a subjective aspect of faith—believing in something—and an objective aspect—the something believed. The problem is, according to the New Testament, faith in its subjective aspect is not simply belief, and in its objective aspect, not at all doctrines or dogma. So much for English-language dictionaries as far as Christian truth is concerned. We should let the Bible define what faith means, and in this issue of A&C we will do that.

Faith characterizes not only God’s New Testament believers (those who have faith) but also what God does in His New Testament economy (“which is in faith”—1 Tim. 1:4). We devote one article to what subjective faith is and is not, and another to what objective faith (“the faith”) is and is not. In the third article we unpack the crucial expression “God’s economy, which is in faith” (1 Tim. 1:4) and show the principle of faith operating in the carrying out of God’s eternal purpose. Then, we follow with an article on what living by faith means practically in our Christian experience and church life. In the next two articles we present that great benefit of faith, that is, the victory of our faith, and that great responsibility to faith, that is, our properly contending for it. In the last article, we consider the unique sin of unbelief, which not only condemns the unbelievers but also easily besets even us as believers and must be attended to soberly. At the end of the issue we consider historically that strange but unique phrase in the New Testament believe into, and we review two significant books regarding faith. Our sincere hope is that this issue will be a great service to the faith of all our readers (Phil. 2:17). May it be so by the Lord’s mercy.