Faith Defined
Thayer's Greek Lexicon defined faith in a few different ways. It is used in believing what a person says, the promises or statements that are made, or authority conferred. It can be used in conjunction with promises from a covenant. The term is dependent upon its object or sphere.
The words around it dictate its scope, since it is a feminine noun. It has a relation to the idea around it.
Evangelicals tend to limit the scope to belief in Jesus as a person or his death, but the scope should be expanded to his authority, word, and promises. It also assumes the person's response has fervour, whether there is excitement towards the belief. It isn't belief only.
I once entertained a faith only preacher that said you are saved when believing in the Cross, believing Jesus died for us; I asked him if you had to believe in the resurrection and he quickly said no, but changed his story in a few seconds after I pointed out justification was also from belief in the resurrection. He had, in his mind, created a short list that denied many parts of the Christian belief system.
That is why using a verse that contains one part of justification, but leaves out others, is a bad idea. Romans 10:1-10 for example mentions belief Christ was raised but does not specifically mention the cross, therefore it isn't the whole of salvation but deals with one category.
Faith in our day is belief in the gospel, not just one facet of it. The evangelical preacher above said to just believe in the cross, yet the following verse doesn't say salvation is just the cross
Rom 4:25
Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
It takes both, Christ's death and our faith in the resurrection, and the list doesn't stop there. Biblical faith includes all of the Gospel, not just one or two points of it.
G4102
πίστις
pistis
Thayer Definition:
1) conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it
1a) relating to God
1a1) the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ
1b) relating to Christ
1b1) a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God
1c) the religious beliefs of Christians
1d) belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same
2) fidelity, faithfulness
2a) the character of one who can be relied on
Part of Speech: noun feminine
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G3982
Citing in TDNT: 6:174, 849.
As Thayer points out, faith can have different contexts depending upon the context of the sentence and paragraph. It can be a reference to anything the paragraph announces.
faith in a person
faith in actions
faith in Christ's teachings
faith in the gospel
faith in authority
Faith can be as broad or narrow as the author dictates by the wording.
Evangelicals will often distort the meaning of entire passages by limiting the scope of statements. An example would be
Act 15:7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
The context here is all things within "the word of the gospel", not a shortened fundamentalist version of what the Gospel includes.
Act 6:7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
The word includes obedience. Faith in this context isn't belief only, but has an under-lying need and promise associated with obedience..
Faith is belief with fervor to comply.
It is also used by Thayer
"to give credence to the words of a prophet."