There’s no doubt trust is at the centre of Jesus’s own teaching and the Apostles teaching about Jesus. I mean the Gospel of John ends with the words, “these things are written that you may trust that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that by trusting you may have life in his name.” [John 20:31]
The Greek word here is pisteuō, often translated ‘to believe,’ but it’s just the normal Greek verb ‘to trust.’ It doesn’t refer just to thinking something is true, it means trusting in the personal sense. In the sense of relying on your friend’s word because you hold them to be trustworthy. You find the same thing on the lips of Jesus.
This is that Greek word again, pisteuō, though here it’s in the noun pistis. It means trust or faith. When Jesus saw their trust or faith, he said, your sins are forgiven. Not when he saw their commitment, he said this. Their friendship, their love, their ingenuity. But when he saw their trust.
This idea of trust or faith I know has a very bad reputation today. As I said earlier in the episode, some people think of it as the opposite of knowing stuff on the basis of evidence, but that’s a caricature. Actually, it’s more like a piece of modern propaganda. It’s not even what the original English word faith meant. Look up the full Oxford English Dictionary and you’ll find that faith derives from the notions of quote, “trust, guarantee, assurance, proof, confirmation.” Indeed, one of the definitions of faith you’ll find in the OED, a much older definition than the contemporary sceptical one, goes like this, “faith is belief based on evidence, testimony or authority.”
The paralysed man and his friends weren’t just taking a wild stab in the dark, contrary to evidence, when they made their way to Jesus. They had heard the reports and maybe they’d even met one of those who had encountered Jesus previously. Perhaps they’d listened to Jesus the previous day and concluded he was trustworthy. And so they made their way to him, trusted him, and found him to be trustworthy. And so they received the greatest gift of all when he saw their trust, he said, “your sins are forgiven.”
Christian faith isn’t baseless. There is decent evidence. There is good testimony. There is coherent reason. I hope over time the Undeceptions podcast has made that abundantly clear. But thinking Christianity is solid isn’t what trust or faith in the gospels is about. True faith, true trust, might involve that, but it goes a step further than just thinking it’s likely true.
Christian faith involves encountering this Jesus of the Gospels, his words and deeds, especially his death and resurrection. And then in trusting him. Christian faith is personal trust. It’s relying on Jesus as the source of forgiveness, true wisdom, and life. As John’s gospel put it, “by trusting you may have life in his name.”
By John Dickson
Why Trust?
Want to hear the rest of the episode?
Check out episode 133: “Why Trust?”
