Faith in Jesus or faith of Jesus?

Matthias · Nov 23, 2025

Romans 3:26.

Faith in Jesus

“It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one whi has faith in Jesus.” - ESV

Faith of Jesus

“it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus.” - NRSVUE

Is Paul speaking in the passage about faith in Jesus or about faith of Jesus?

Matthias · Nov 23, 2025

Consider Romans 4:16.

Faith of Abraham

“That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring - not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,” - ESV

“For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who shares the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us,” - NRSVUE

The Greek phrase ek pisteos is translated “faith of” Abraham in both the ESV and NRSVUE.

The same Greek phrase (ek pisteos) occurs in Romans 3:26. This can be seen, and is confirmed, by analyzing the Greek text. Here is a comparison of the two verses using the Greek text analysis found at biblehub.com -

Romans 3:26 Greek Text Analysis

biblehub.com

Romans 4:16 Greek Text Analysis

biblehub.com

ESV translates the Greek phrase as “faith in” when object is Jesus but “faith of” when the object is Abraham.

NRSVUE translates the Greek phrase as “faith of” when the object is Jesus and “faith of” when the object is Abraham.

Matthias · Nov 23, 2025

Consider Revelation 14:12.

Faith in Jesus

“Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.” - ESV

Faith of Jesus

“Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.” - NRSVUE

A brief survey of translations for this verse using biblegateway.com -

Other translations that render the verse as ESV does: AMP, AMPC, CSB, CSBA, CEV, ERV, EHV, ESVUK, EXB, GW, HCSB, ICB, ISV, PHILLIPS, LSB, LEB, TLB, MOUNCE, NOG, NABRE, NASB, NASB1995, NCV, NET, NLT.

Other translations that render the verse as NRSVUE does: KJ21, ASV, BRG, DARBY, DLNT, DRA, GNV, JUB, KJV, AKJV, MEV, NKJV, NMB, NRSVA, NRSVACE, NRSVCE, NTFE, OJB, RGT, RSV, RSVCE, TLV, WEB, WYC, YLT.

Revelation 14:12 - Bible Gateway

www.biblegateway.com

Lambano · Nov 23, 2025

I've read several works on the pistis Christou problem by Richard Hays, Krister Stendahl, J.D.G. Dunn, and N.T. Wright.

Pisteos Iesou is a genitive construction. For those not familiar with Greek: Genitives can be translated into English with the preposition "of" or the possessive apostrophe. They can be interpreted as a subjective genitive ("the faith of Jesus"), an objective genitive ("faith in Jesus") or a genitive of origin ("faith that comes from Jesus"). It is analogous to determining whether the phrase "the love of God" refers to God's love for us or our love for God without any supporting context.

I like Wright's contention that Paul's meaning is "the faithfulness of Jesus" (subjective genitive), both here and in verse 22 (and in Galatians 2:16), used as a shorthand to refer to Christ's willing sacrifice of his own life as referred to in the immediately preceding verse 25. Similarly, pisteos Abraam in 4:16 refers to Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own son and should also be translated "the faithfulness of Abraham".

I'm also intrigued by the possibility (hinted at by Hays) that it's not necessarily either-or; Paul may have BOTH Christ's faithfulness and our faith in Him in view, and may be being deliberately ambiguous. (Everything Paul writes is deliberate.) After all, the theme of this section is, "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, for as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith'" Romans 1:17. Pisteos Iesou provides a good transition from 3:21 (God's righteousness) to 3:26 (Jesus's faithfulness/faith in Jesus) to 3:28 (God declaring Man righteous by faith).

Matthias · Nov 24, 2025

Translation of ek pisteos as “faith of Christ” would attach us to the Christian faith as Jesus and the apostles modeled it.

“The righteous shall live by faith.” Jesus did. The apostles did. Christians do.

JustMe · Nov 24, 2025

Lambano said:
I've read several works on the pistis Christou problem by Richard Hays, Krister Stendahl, J.D.G. Dunn, and N.T. Wright.

Pisteos Iesou is a genitive construction. For those not familiar with Greek: Genitives can be translated into English with the preposition "of" or the possessive apostrophe. They can be interpreted as a subjective genitive ("the faith of Jesus"), an objective genitive ("faith in Jesus") or a genitive of origin ("faith that comes from Jesus"). It is analogous to determining whether the phrase "the love of God" refers to God's love for us or our love for God without any supporting context.

I like Wright's contention that Paul's meaning is "the faithfulness of Jesus" (subjective genitive), both here and in verse 22 (and in Galatians 2:16), used as a shorthand to refer to Christ's willing sacrifice of his own life as referred to in the immediately preceding verse 25. Similarly, pisteos Abraam in 4:16 refers to Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own son and should also be translated "the faithfulness of Abraham".

I'm also intrigued by the possibility (hinted at by Hays) that it's not necessarily either-or; Paul may have BOTH Christ's faithfulness and our faith in Him in view, and may be being deliberately ambiguous. (Everything Paul writes is deliberate.) After all, the theme of this section is, "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, for as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith'" Romans 1:17. Pisteos Iesou provides a good transition from 3:21 (God's righteousness) to 3:26 (Jesus's faithfulness/faith in Jesus) to 3:28 (God declaring Man righteous by faith).

The source is sound. Thanks for sharing. More Christians really need to pay attention to this important subject/thread, and to think more critically about their faith and not just Christ's faith. Know the diff...

Soyeong · Nov 24, 2025

Matthias said:
Romans 3:26.

Faith in Jesus

“It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one whi has faith in Jesus.” - ESV

Faith of Jesus

“it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus.” - NRSVUE

Is Paul speaking in the passage about faith in Jesus or about faith of Jesus?

We embody what we believe about God's character traits through our works such as with James 2:18 saying that he would show his faith through is works, so everyone who is a doer of the same works as James has faith in and of Jesus. In other words, the way to believe in God is by being in His likeness through embodying His character traits. For example, by being a doer of good works in obedience to God's law we are embodying God's goodness, which is why our good works bring glory to Him (Matthew 5:16), and by embodying God's goodness we are also expressing the belief that God is good. Likewise, the way to believe that God is compassionate is by being compassionate (Luke 6:46), the way to believe that God is holy is by being a doer of His instructions for how to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16), and so forth. This is exactly the same as the way to have faith in and of the Son, who is the radiance of God's glory and the exact likeness of His character (Hebrews 1:3), which he embodied through is works by setting a sinless example for us to follow of how to walk in obedience to God's law. Jesus expressed his faith through his works and we have faith in Jesus by following his example, so it is the same thing either way.

Matthias · Nov 24, 2025

Soyeong said:
We embody what we believe about God's character traits through our works such as with James 2:18 saying that he would show his faith through is works, so everyone who is a doer of the same works as James has faith in and of Jesus. In other words, the way to believe in God is by being in His likeness through embodying His character traits. For example, by being a doer of good works in obedience to God's law we are embodying God's goodness, which is why our good works bring glory to Him (Matthew 5:16), and by embodying God's goodness we are also expressing the belief that God is good. Likewise, the way to believe that God is compassionate is by being compassionate (Luke 6:46), the way to believe that God is holy is by being a doer of His instructions for how to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16), and so forth. This is exactly the same as the way to have faith in and of the Son, who is the radiance of God's glory and the exact likeness of His character (Hebrews 1:3), which he embodied through is works by setting a sinless example for us to follow of how to walk in obedience to God's law. Jesus expressed his faith through his works and we have faith in Jesus by following his example, so it is the same thing either way.

So then we might say that they are complementary phrases.

A person who has the faith of Abraham, of the prophets, of the Messiah, of the apostles is someone who has faith in Abraham, in the prophets, in the Messiah, in the apostles.

Conversely, someone who doesn’t have the faith of Abraham, of the prophets, of the Messiah, of the apostles is someone who doesn’t have faith in Abraham, in the prophets, in the Messiah, in the apostles.

Soyeong · Nov 25, 2025

Matthias said:
So then we might say that they are complementary phrases.

A person who has the faith of Abraham, of the prophets, of the Messiah, of the apostles is someone who has faith in Abraham, in the prophets, in the Messiah, in the apostles.

Conversely, someone who doesn’t have the faith of Abraham, of the prophets, of the Messiah, of the apostles is someone who doesn’t have faith in Abraham, in the prophets, in the Messiah, in the apostles.

Indeed, if a teacher teaches their student to believe something and the believe it, then they have faith in their teacher and the faith of their teacher. In Genesis 18:19, God knew Abraham that he would teach his children and those of his household to walk in His way by being doers of righteousness and justice that the Lord might bring to him all that He has promised, so he taught how to believe the promise by waking in God’s way and all who walk in God’s way have faith in Abraham and the faith of Abraham.

Matthias · Apr 29, 2026

My X / Twitter “For you” feed is fire this afternoon -

“Your faith is no better than its object.”

(Adrian Rogers)

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Faith in Jesus or faith of Jesus?

Matthias

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Romans 3:26 Greek Text Analysis

Romans 4:16 Greek Text Analysis

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Revelation 14:12 - Bible Gateway

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