The role of faith and grace in human life is significant. Everyone has one’s own believes and moral principles according to one’s religion. In Christian conception, faith and grace are the main issues; however, at the same time, according to Healey, there is no a word for faith in the Hebrew Bible (744).
Besides, although faith is one of the peculiarities of different religions, in fact, none of them gives an explanation what is faith and what are the differences between faith and fidelity. Analyzing the opinions of different researchers, it is possible to consider faith as a set of the moral principles caused by the personal experience of God, while grace is a gift given by God in return of people’s faith.
Healey cites words of St. Thomas Aquinas that “faith is the act of the intellect when it assents to divine truth under the influence of the will moved by God through grace” (744). Therefore, one can see faith as psychological conditions when a person acts according to the high moral principles and regarding to the divine and absolute truth.
In this case, faith can be considered as the result of the personal experience of God. Analyzing works of Buber, Healey says that in Christianity act of faith is closely concerned with God, as God is a source of faith as well as the source of the other good issues. Thus, in religion, the term of faith cannot be considered separately of God and the divine essence.
People turn to God, following their will to show faith and wanting to get grace from God. At the same time, Johnstone sees faith as “a common ingredient in relationships between individuals” (30). For the author, most of the relations and interactions between people are based on faith.
Therefore, faith as an essence exists not only in the context of human-God relations, but in all relations present in the society. Thus, it is possible to conclude that one treats people according to one’s believes and faith. Danker also considers faith as the basement of human relations.
He supposes that “since religion is related to at its base primarily to the spiritual, the sacred, and often supernatural beings and forces – that is, to forces that are usually unseen – and involves matters of faith and feelings as well” (6).
Faith given by the supreme forces helps people to comprehend how to behave in the society. Thus, one can consider faith as a set of the moral principles caused by the personal experience of God.
According to Healey, the brightest examples of faith in religion are prophets whose messages should be treated as an absolute truth without any doubts.
However, it is still complicated to comprehend what faith is deepest and more correct: the one when every message from Bible is taken for granted without thinking, analysis or arguments or faith that comes after a long way of analysis and doubts. In this situation, the opposite of faith in prophets is apostasy, because faith requires the commitment of traditions (Healey 747).
The prophetic faith is described in clear and precise way and must be followed by everyone. If one does not accept the prophetic faith, one does not accept the whole religion. Therefore, many people who follow the visual traditions of Christianity may think that they follow the real faith.
However, true faith is inside everyone, not in the visual elements and demonstrations. Besides, when every message have to be accepted as the supreme truth, is it possible to consider such position as a real faith when every message is received and taken for granted without an analytical process? In this case, there is a high possibility of being confused, misunderstood or even being deceived.
As people want to get grace and forgiveness of their bad affairs, they are ready to follow any rules and states. It is a kind of deal when, in return of their faith, people want to get love and forgiveness. Thus, faith is the main issue of salvation.
However, on the other hand, only deep and real faith is true and helpful. Grace cannot be given in return of simple and emotionless following of the rules, as the essential meaning of every religion lies in its moral domination in one’s life.
It becomes evident that faith and grace are the most important issues of religion. Faith is considered as a set of moral principles that help people to interact with God and each other.
Demonstrating their faith to God, people hope to get love and grace in return. One of the most significant elements of faith is its confrontations with fairs.
One who has faith inside does not have the fairs which limit the human life such as fair of death, of self and of the universe. People take for granted the messages given by prophets and, thus, believe in grace of God who gives the salvation and eternal life as in return of people’s faith.
Works Cited
Danker, Frederick William and Kathryn Krug. The Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. US: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Print.
Healey, Joseph P. “Faith.” The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 Vol. Set. Ed. Freedman, David Noel. NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.,1992. Print.
Johnstone, Ronald L. Religion in Society: A Sociology of Religion. US: Prentice Hall, 2006. Print.