What is faith, exactly?

¹Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.

²For by this, the elders obtained testimony.

³By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.

⁴By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.

⁵By faith, Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God.

⁶Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

⁷By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

⁸By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.

⁹By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

¹⁰For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

¹¹By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.

¹²Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead.

¹⁴How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?

¹⁵And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

¹⁶But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”

¹⁷So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

²⁸They said therefore to him, “What must we do, that we may work the works of God?”

²⁹Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

¹⁸Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your seed be.”

¹⁹Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

²⁰Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,

²¹and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

²²Therefore it also was “reckoned to him for righteousness.”

²³Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,

²⁴but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,

²⁵who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.