Faith in Jesus’ Person and Work

Overview

Faith in Jesus’ person and work is the New Testament summons to trust, confess, and rely upon Jesus as Messiah, Son of God, Lord, crucified Savior, and risen giver of life. It is not merely intellectual assent to a doctrine but a personal entrusting to the one whom God sent, vindicated, and exalted. New Testament witness portrays faith as both confession (naming who Jesus is) and trust (receiving what he accomplishes in death, resurrection, and ongoing lordship).

Biblical shape

The New Testament unfolds faith in Jesus along several interlocking lines. Old Testament faith language and Israel’s reliance on YHWH provide the background vocabulary for trust and covenantal fidelity. The Synoptic Gospels often present faith concretely — people who trust Jesus for healing, forgiveness, and authority. John emphasizes believing in the Son sent by the Father so that believers may have life in his name. Paul centers faith on the gospel summary — Christ’s death for sins and his resurrection — and insists that faith detached from the resurrection is ineffectual. Acts frames faith as the appropriate response to apostolic proclamation of the crucified and risen Lord, joined in practice with repentance, baptism, and the Spirit. The later epistles (1 Peter, 1 John) link faith with public confession, love, testimony, and perseverance, so that faith becomes both a transacted trust in Christ and a communal identity embodied in the church.

Key passages

• Mark 2:5–12 — faith shown in trust that leads to forgiveness and healing
• Mark 5:34 — faith as personal trust praised by Jesus in a healing narrative
• Matthew 16:16 — the confession of Jesus as Messiah
• John 20:31 — the evangelistic purpose of John’s signs: that readers may believe
• Acts 2:36–41 — apostolic proclamation of the risen Lord and the call to repent and believe
• Acts 16:31 — “Believe in the Lord Jesus” as the response to the gospel
• Romans 10:9–13 — confession of Jesus as Lord and belief in the resurrection as the basis of salvation
• 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 — Paul’s summary of the gospel centered on death and resurrection
• 1 Peter 3:18 — faith connected to Christ’s suffering and being made alive in the Spirit
• 1 John 5:1–13 — faith, testimony, and life in the Son

Theological significance

Faith in Jesus is both christological and soteriological: it rests on who Jesus is (Messiah, Son, Lord) and on what God has done in him (atoning death, resurrection, exaltation). The resurrection functions as a decisive validation of Jesus’ identity and saving work; Paul argues that without it Christian faith loses its foundation (1 Corinthians 15). Apostolic testimony and scriptural witness serve as the grounds for faith: believers respond to the preaching that presents Jesus as sent, crucified, and raised.

The New Testament vocabulary for believing (Hebrew ʾāman, bāṭaḥ; Greek pistis, pisteuō) brings together cognitive assent, relational trust, and loyal allegiance. Different texts stress different aspects, but the corpus does not sharply separate them: confession and trust cohere in baptism, public witness, and the life of the church. The relation of faith to works is dialectical in the canon: Paul locates justification in the grace of God received by faith, while James warns against a merely verbal faith that lacks transforming works. Traditions differ about sacramental and forensic details, but the shared center is trust in the crucified and risen Christ as the means of forgiveness and new life.

Faith in Jesus does not replace faith in God; rather, New Testament writers present belief in Jesus as faith in the God who sent, raised, and exalts him (e.g., John, Paul, and 1 John). The life shaped by faith includes confession, baptism, love of neighbor, perseverance under trial, and readiness to give an account of hope (1 Peter 3:15).

Pastorally and liturgically, this theme has been used to console consciences, call for public confession, and form communal identity. Hymns and imagery that center on the cross and resurrection embody the conviction that Christian confidence is to be placed in Christ’s person and work.

Related Atlas concepts

• faith
• christology
• soteriology
• faith-in-the-resurrection
• confession-of-jesus-as-lord
• saving-faith
• apostolic-proclamation
• messiah
• son-of-god
• lordship-of-christ
• atonement
• resurrection
• justification
• baptism
• witness