What Is Christian Faith? Henri Blocher Explains

Introduction

To launch the podcast of Église du Tabernacle (Paris 18th), pastor Benjamin Short welcomes Henri Blocher, an internationally renowned evangelical theologian and member of the congregation. Together they return to the fundamentals: what is Christian faith? Blocher answers by distinguishing belief and trust, going back to the meaning of the word "Christ," summarizing the faith through the Reformation's five solas, explaining why Jesus had to die, and pointing to where to begin reading the Bible. A clear, pastoral, and demanding conversation about what makes up authentic Christian faith.

Sermon Outline

1. Faith is not just believing: it is belief and trust

• Henri Blocher is wary of the expression "having faith": faith is not an object one possesses, it is the act of believing.
• This act has two major components: belief, which affirms that a message is true, and trust, which engages one's whole being in the direction of what one believes to be true.
• Trust adds an existential and personal dimension: faith is not simply an intellectual matter.

2. Christian faith: the promised Messiah is Jesus

• The word "Christian" comes from "Christ," the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew term "Messiah": the king God had promised to Israel to deliver his people, deliver humanity, establish a reign of peace and justice, and recreate the world.
• Christian faith consists in confessing that this Messiah is the man Jesus, whose name was likely pronounced Yeshua in Hebrew 2,000 years ago.
• He lived in the land of Israel, carried out a brief ministry marked by preaching and miracles, and was put to death by a coalition formed by the jealousy of his people's leaders and the Roman authorities, who feared any disturbance.

3. Summarizing Christian faith in a few sentences

• First point: Jesus is the Messiah sent by God, who fulfills the prophecies.
• Second point: this only makes sense within the framework of the revelation God had already given in previous centuries, a revelation that notably affirms the oneness of God. There is only one God; the claims of polytheism are illusory.
• Third point: mankind, man and woman, needs salvation. Humanity is alienated, without true communion with the God who created it. Only God can provide the solution, and he does so through his envoy Jesus Christ.
• Fourth point: those who are thus saved, by placing their trust in him and receiving the gift he offers, form a community united by a supernatural bond: the Church.

4. The Reformation's five affirmations (the five solas)

• Sola scriptura, "by Scripture alone." The Bible, holy Scripture, is a collection of writings inspired by the Spirit of God through messengers, prophets and prophetesses in the broad sense. It is this recorded word that we must follow to see clearly amid errors and lies.
• Sola fide, "by faith alone." What was rediscovered in the sixteenth century: we are so incapable of saving ourselves, and God is so generous, that salvation is free; it is enough to receive it, with belief but also with the movement of the heart that gives itself to God.
• Sola gratia, "by grace alone." Grace is not a fluid, nor a thing: it is divine favor, the goodness of God manifested in action to give us true life with him, peace, joy.
• Solus Christus, "Christ alone." Christ is the one through whom this grace reaches us; he is its author, because he resolves the problem of our alienation from God, what the Bible calls sin. It is by placing our trust in him, by uniting ourselves to him through the heart's adherence, that we receive this gift he has made possible.
• Soli Deo gloria, "to God alone be the glory." Since God gives an absolutely free gift and accomplishes everything through his envoy Jesus, no share of honor can come back to us. If we are saved, it is not because we have something more than others, it is simply that we accept the gift he gives us.

5. Why did Jesus have to die?

• Henri Blocher acknowledges that the subject is dark, but that truth requires accepting even its harshest angles.
• The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death. If Jesus saves us through his death, it is because he takes our death upon himself.
• He perfectly satisfies all the demands of the holiness of the one God, so that we can now walk freely in faith.

6. Believing without practicing: an inconsistency, not an option

• To the question of being "a believer but not a practicing one," Blocher answers that remaining at mere belief is still very superficial.
• John Calvin, the Reformer, spoke of this as "ideas fluttering about in the brain."
• True faith is immediately a practice. Blocher recalls a lecture by the Protestant philosopher Paul Ricoeur, who cited as a joke the idea of a "non-practicing" fetishist: the absurdity is obvious, since fetishism is by definition a practice. The same is true of faith.

7. What true faith produces in us

• A great relief, a liberation: I am free from the burden of guilt that my actions had brought on.
• The possibility of speaking to God as to a friend (infinitely exalted, yet who bends down toward me), and the freedom to address him as a child speaks to a father.
• Peace, joy, and a new, renewed relationship with others (men, women, and children), with whom we live.

8. Where to start discovering Christian faith

• Since everything starts from sola scriptura, Blocher recommends seeking the truth in the Bible itself, probably beginning with one of the Gospels. The word "gospel" means "good news", preserved even in the Arabic "Injil."
• He especially recommends the Gospel of John: its style is simple, it is signed by "the disciple whom Jesus loved", an eyewitness close to Jesus, who took the time to discern the meaning of his master's life, death, and resurrection. It is also the Gospel richest in theological depth.
• Blocher borrows the words of a Church Father: in the Gospel of John, "little children and little lambs can bathe with ease" and "elephants can swim without difficulty." There is something in it for everyone.
• For those who prefer to start elsewhere: Matthew places great emphasis on fulfilled prophecies, Luke is rich in detail, Blocher notes that Luke was a physician and that one finds in his gospel "the physician's eye."

Key Takeaways

• Faith is not merely intellectual belief: it is also a trust that engages one's whole being in the direction of what one believes to be true.
• "Christian" means "of Christ", that is, of the Messiah announced in the Old Testament and identified in Jesus of Nazareth; to believe is to confess that the promised Messiah is he.
• The five solas summarize the evangelical faith: by Scripture alone, by faith alone, by grace alone, by Christ alone, to God alone be the glory.
• Jesus had to die because he takes our death (the wages of sin), upon himself and satisfies the holiness of the one God, so that we may now walk freely.
• Believing without practicing means letting "ideas flutter about in the brain" (Calvin): true faith produces liberation, peace, joy, and a filial prayer to God as to a Father.

Personal Application

1. Is your faith merely an intellectual belief, or does it also engage the trust of your whole being? Where concretely does this show (or not), in your life?
2. Can you explain, in your own words, what "Christ" means and why the fact that Jesus is the Messiah changes everything for you?
3. Among the five solas, which one touches you most today, and which seems hardest to let transform the way you live?
4. What is your inner reaction when you hear that "the wages of sin is death," and that Jesus took that death in your place? Relief, discomfort, indifference, resistance?
5. If a friend asked you tonight where to start discovering Christian faith, would you know to point them to the Gospel of John and explain why?

Verses Cited

• Romans 6:23 · "The wages of sin is death."
• Romans 8:15 · The Spirit of adoption by whom we cry: "Abba, Father!"
• Deuteronomy 6:4 · "The Lord our God, the Lord is one."
• Ephesians 2:8-9 · Saved by grace, through faith; not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
• Gospel of John · The disciple whom Jesus loved recounts the life, death, and resurrection of his master.

Further reading

• What Is Biblical Hermeneutics?
• What Is a Home Group? Definition and Role
• What Is a Ministry in a Church?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between belief and trust in Christian faith?

Henri Blocher distinguishes two components of faith. Belief affirms that a message is true, it is content one holds to be genuine. Trust, on the other hand, engages the whole person in the direction of what they believe to be true: it is an existential step that gives belief its personal dimension. The two go together. A belief without trust remains, as Calvin put it, an idea fluttering about in the brain; a supposed trust without genuine belief lacks foundation.

What do the Reformation's five solas mean?

These five Latin affirmations summarize the evangelical faith: sola scriptura (by Scripture alone), sola fide (by faith alone), sola gratia (by grace alone), solus Christus (by Christ alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). They affirm that the Bible is our standard, that salvation is a free gift received by faith, that it comes from God's favor manifested in Christ, and that all honor belongs to God, not to us. Blocher notes that these Latin terms are not at all intellectual in origin: it was simply the common language of the sixteenth century.

Can one be "a believer but not practicing"?

For Henri Blocher, the phrase is an inconsistency. True faith is immediately a practice: it frees from the burden of guilt, opens the way to filial prayer, and produces peace, joy, and renewed relationships. Remaining at mere belief means letting "ideas flutter about in the brain," in Calvin's phrase. Blocher also cites Paul Ricoeur's quip about the "non-practicing fetishist": the absurdity is immediate, since fetishism is by definition a practice. The same is true of Christian faith: it is lived, or it is not truly received.