What is belief?

What does it actually mean to belief in Jesus? Does it just mean to acknowledge historically, that Jesus once was alive?

The Bible has a definition for Belief:

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1)

So Belief means to be certain about something that you can not prove, that you can not see, something that revokes itself from a natural scientific proof ("We live by faith, not by sight" 2 Cor. 5:7)

The word "Implementation" in Hebrew 11:1 can also be named "Foundation". Belief is the foundation for our hope. Belief makes it possible for us to actually hope for something. It takes faith to believe in something that you can not see. This belief acutally means faith. Without faith we will never be able to please God.

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" (Hebrews 11:6)

Now God gives us examples in His Word:

In faith Noah was building the Ark , without seeing what would happen. He just believed God, that there was a big flood coming. And Abraham trusted God and he went into a new land to colonize. His faith had no boundary from God's improbably sounding proclamation, that he in his high age would beget a child with his unfruitful wife Sarah - but it came to pass!

Even Abraham was willing to give his son Isaac as a living sacrifice to God as he instructed him to do so. But it didn't came to pass because it was a test of his faith from God. Not for nothing Abraham is called "Father of Believe".

Believe is to trust in something that can not easily be proven.

Even today, we as convertet Christians believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. We haven't been there back than, but we still believe it. Even if we would have been there, it wouldn't necessarily have led us to the Believe in the big meaning of the cross. But we trust in what God says in the Bible:

"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name". (John 20:31)

It's important to know that this Belief is not our earning, its a gift of grace from God:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselfes, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8)

Christians can count themselfes lucky, if they recieved a big portion of faith from God. Because faith can not be earned or enlarged by yourself. And although we shall not forget that there is one thing that is greater than faith:

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all myseries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2)