The Faith of Christ

For several decades one phrase in the Greek New Testament has been especially challenging for translators: pistis Christou. In English it’s usually rendered as “faith in Christ.”

New Testament

Pistis Christou and its variations occur seven times in the New Testament. Since one reference is not relevant (Rom 3:26), here are the six key references. (Quotations taken from the NIV; Greek has been added).

• This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ (διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ) to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile (Rom 3:22)
• know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ (διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ). So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ (ἐκ πίστεως Χριστοῦ) and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Gal 2:16)
• I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God (ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ) who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20)
• But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ (ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ) might be given to those who believe. (Gal 3:22)
• and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ (διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ)—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. (Phil 3:9)

The difficulty is that in Greek the name Christ is in the genitive case, meaning it technically says, “faith of Christ.” Traditionally this has been interpreted as an objective genitive, meaning Christ is the object of the faith—“faith in Christ.” However, it can also be a subjective genitive, meaning Christ is the subject of the faith so “faith of Christ” or “Christ’s faith.”

The Greek word for faith also encompasses faithfulness or loyalty. The NIV mentions this in a footnote for Romans 3:22: “or through the faithfulness of.” The alternate translation, then, is “this righteousness is given through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.”

Translations

Recently this modification has been gaining ground and finding its way beyond the footnotes into the biblical text. For example, while the majority of English versions retain “faith in Jesus Christ” in Romans 3:22, consider the following translations:

• God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. (CEB)
• God’s righteousness through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah— for all who believe. For there is no distinction among people (ISV)
• the righteousness, that is, of God by the faith of Jesus, the Christ, for all and upon all those that believe in him, for there is no difference (JUB)
• namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction (NET)

Redundancy

Why are some scholars convinced of the need to alter the translation? One reason is redundancy. Why would Paul say, “faith in Jesus Christ” immediately followed by “to all who believe?” Does “given through faith . . . to all who believe” make sense? Well, actually, Paul wrote, given “through the faith(fulness) of Jesus Christ.”

Impact

Practically, this change does not remove the need for our response of faith because the New Testament is filled with references to belief and faith. Indeed, even in Romans 3:22, “to all who believe” is not disputed. Rather, this is a specific question about how to translate one Greek phrase in six places.

Theologically, advocates for the new translation argue that it is helpful because it emphasizes the divine side of the equation: Christ’s faithfulness versus our faith in Christ. Ultimately, God’s righteousness comes to us through Christ’s faithfulness not our faith. And Christ’s faithfulness to God and to us was fully expressed in his death on the cross. Consequently, Richard Hays has argued that pistis Christou means “Christ’s faithful death.” (The Faith of Jesus Christ)

Christ’s faith or faithfulness is not a completely novel idea in the New Testament. Douglas Campbell points to two verses in Ephesians:

• in whom we have boldness and confident access to God by way of Christ’s faithfulness (Eph 3:12 NET). The Greek literally reads, “faith of him.”
• until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God—a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature. (Eph 4:13 NET) (Note the phrase, “the faith . . . of the Son of God.”) (Pauline Dogmatics, 323)

Two Main Views

Competent scholars are lined up on both sides of this debate. For example, E. P. Sanders is convinced that in Galatians the Greek phrase should be interpreted as “faith in Christ,” but he acknowledges that “Christ’s fidelity” may fit better in other places (Paul: The Apostle’s Life, Letters, and Thought, 509). Sanders argues that it does not make sense for Paul to switch back and forth from Christ’s faith to our faith in short spans. For instance,

¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in^[d] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. . . . 

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:15-20)

Although the first and third clause literally read, “faith of Christ,” Sanders contends that the second and fourth clause make it clear that Paul is referring to “faith in Christ.” Additionally, he says that “faith in Christ”

is the meaning that the main topic of Galatians requires. . . Paul’s argument was that his gentiles had fulfilled the one and only requirement to be in the right group. Of course the converts relied on Christ’s fidelity, but his fidelity alone did not transfer some people and not others into membership in his body. To enter, they had to make a definite commitment . . . He called this commitment “faith in Christ.” (510)

On the other side, Martinus de Boer believes “faith of Christ” is a better translation in Galatians. Here are five of his seven reasons.

(1) The verses that immediately follow “the faith of Jesus Christ” in Gal 3:22, refer to faith (pistis) in a personified way, as a synonym for Christ.

²³ Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. ²⁴ So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

Since Paul uses “faith” this way on the heels of pistis Christou, “the faith of Christ” cannot simply mean our faith in Christ.

(2) “Galatians 3:22 shows that the phrase pistis Iēsou Christou is probably to be construed as a subjective genitive: ‘that the promise [of the Spirit] be given on the basis of the faith of Jesus Christ [pistis Iēsou Christou] to those who have faith [in him]’ . . . To translate the phrase here as an objective genitive would produce a meaningless tautology: ‘that the promise [of the Spirit] be given on the basis of [their] faith in Jesus Christ to those who have faith [in him].'”

(3) If Paul wanted to simply say “faith in Christ,” he could have written pistis eis Christon as he did in Colossians 2:5.

(4) “The formulation pistis Iēsou Christou has an exact parallel in pistis Abraam in Rom 4:16; the latter undoubtedly means ‘the faith of Abraham,’ not ‘faith in Abraham’ . . .”

(5) Gal 2:16a is parallel with Gal 2:21. Since the latter explicitly refers to Christ’s death, the former must refer to Christ’s death.

• know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. (2:16)
• if righteousness (justification) could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (2:21)

Quoting Richard Hays, de Boer concludes,

It seems highly probable that for Paul and for other believers who are Jews by birth, “pistis (Iésou) Christou is a summary description of Christ’s faithful death” . . . It is “Christ’s faithfulness as embodied in his death on the cross.” (Galatians: A Commentary, 148-150)

Additional Views

Unsurprisingly, there are variations on the two main views along with additional views. While essentially affirming the traditional “faith in Christ,” John Barclay argues for a slight modification:

I take the Greek phrase pistis Christou to mean “trust in Christ.” “Trust” is a better word than “faith” since it evokes a relationship, and what Paul is talking about is not belief in a set of impersonal truths but personal dependence on what God has effected in the death and resurrection of Jesus. In recent years, many Pauline scholars have interpreted this phrase as referring to the faith or faithfulness of Christ, either his faithfulness to God’s purposes or his expression of God’s faithfulness. But Paul seems to spell out what he means by this ambiguous shorthand when, in the middle of 2:16, he uses the phrase “we have trusted in Christ Jesus” (cf. Abraham’s trust in God in 3:6). Trust is not some kind of achievement, since the act of God in Christ remains the event on which all else depends. By trusting in Christ, believers know themselves to live only as Christ lives in them (2:20), and they find their only worth in him. (Paul and the Power of Grace, 65)

Barclay’s argument for the traditional view is similar to Sanders’ argument previously mentioned—Paul wouldn’t switch back and forth from faith in Christ to the faith of Christ.

One compromise between the two main views is to say both are right:

we think it possible that Paul deliberately chose the express pistis Christou because, at least in some places, he may have intended both connotations. In other words, he seems to insist that believers are saved by the “faithfulness of Christ,” which is the source of their own faith(fulness), which remains available only ‘in Christ.’ (Paul, a New Covenant Jew, 257)

Nijay Gupta mentions a third view, known as the eschatological view. Citing Benjamin Schliesser who reflects on Galatians 3:23-25, pistis “refers to more than human faith or Christ’s faithfulness per se; rather it points to ‘the event of salvation, God’s redemptive eschatological act’” (Paul and the Language of Faith, 214). Gupta agrees and concludes,

It is right to associate Pauline πιστις with the gospel and with participation in Christ. For Paul πιστις χριστοú refers to the fact and experience of the Christ-relation. This involves Christ’s connection with God, of course, and it involves human faith, but it also involves Christ’s outstretched hand toward believers.” (215)

Since neither “faith in Christ” nor “the faithfulness of Christ” does justice to this complex concept, Gupta suggests the inelegant, “Christ-relation(ship)” (215).

Summary

Can you believe that two Greek words written two thousand years ago can set off these scholarly fireworks? Here are the possible ways of translating and interpreting pistis Christou:

• Faith in Christ (or trust in Christ)
• Faith of Christ
• Faithfulness of Christ (toward God)
• Faithfulness of Christ (toward humans)
• Christ’s faithful death
• Salvation accomplished by Christ’s death
• Christ-relation(ship) – Christ’s relation to God, our faith in Christ, the arrival of salvation in Christ, and Christ’s rescue of sinners

Conclusion

I think it’s safe to conclude that in some places it is probable that pistis Christou means more than simply “faith in Christ.” If Paul had wanted to say “faith in Christ” he had other ways of doing so. Also, while the redundancy argument is not convincing to everyone, I find it compelling for at least Romans 3:22 and Galatians 3:22. Hence,

• This righteousness is given through the faith(fulness) of Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile (Rom 3:22)
• But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through the faith(fulness) of Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. (Gal 3:22)

Regarding Sanders’ objections, I don’t think alternating between the two concepts would cause a major comprehension problem for Paul’s audience:

¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Gal 2:15-16)

Putting our faith in Christ so that we can be justified by his faithfulness is not difficult to grasp. Moreover, even with the new translation, the idea of putting our faith in Christ is still clearly expressed.

It’s probably best for translators to stick to the literal “faith of Christ” or “Christ-faith” and leave it to interpreters to explain the meaning based on the specific context.

Les Bridgeman

After graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I served as a high school Bible teacher in Asia. I enjoy traveling, writing, and playing the drums. For a deep dive into church history and the character of God, see my book Surprised by Hell.