2. Faith is a Saving Grace

WSC 86. What is faith in Jesus Christ? A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.

Defining Faith

Saving faith is a gift (Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 1:29; Acts 18:27), bestowed by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3; 2 Cor. 4:13), and the product of God’s power (1 Cor. 2:4-5; Eph. 1:19; 1 Th. 2:13).¹ Faith enables us to receive and rest upon Jesus Christ alone. With faith, we take; there is no component of giving or working on our part. True saving faith in Jesus Christ is one that looks to Him as our Savior and the only way of salvation, and not merely as a good example for our imitation. Saving faith looks to the real Jesus Christ, as he is revealed to us in the Scriptures, and not one of our own imaginations. As we learned last time, God appoints faith as a condition (or instrumental cause) of our salvation.²

Components of True Saving Faith

Saving faith has three components: knowledge (notitia), assent (assensus), and trust (fiducia).³

Knowledge: Knowledge is part of true faith (Jn. 6:69; 17:3; Col. 2:2; Heb. 11:3). A person cannot be saved without understanding the facts of the gospel. For example, you need to know that you are a sinner and under God’s wrath and curse, that you are helpless to save yourself, and that salvation is only found in God through Jesus Christ. But knowledge of facts alone is not the same as faith.
Assent: Having come to a knowledge of the facts of the gospel, a person must then be convinced of (or acknowledge the truth of) these truth claims (Jn. 4:42; Acts 24:14; 1 Th. 2:13; 1 Jn. 5:9-10). You need to believe the gospel is true and carries the authority of God. People who have knowledge, but lack assent are those that have heard the gospel but are not convinced about its claims.⁴
Trust: An individual must also personally trust what they have knowledge of and assented to (Heb. 11:1; Mt. 15:28; Jn. 6:68-69; Gal. 2:20). More specifically, a person needs to place his or her full weight on Jesus Christ alone for salvation. While it is impossible to trust without assent, one can assent without trusting. That is, some may be convinced of the truth concerning Jesus Christ, but never trust Him.

This is why faith can be properly described as embracing, receiving, and resting on Jesus as He is freely offered to us in the gospel. In other words, faith is trusting Jesus; to have trust, assent must be present; and in order to have assent, knowledge is required. Looking at the illustration of the three circles, the outer rings are built upon the inner ones (like layers of an onion), so it is impossible to have true faith without all three components being present. Therefore, saving faith is simultaneously and inseparably rooted in the operations of the intellect (i.e., knowledge and assent) and the will (i.e., trusting).⁵

Different Kinds of Faith

There are four kinds of faith. So far, we have addressed the first, saving faith (which includes knowledge, assent, and trust). Second, there is historical faith, which is an intellectual and bare assent of truth (but lacks trust). Demons possess this type of faith (Ja. 2:19). There is an acknowledgement of God’s revealed truth, but it only goes that far. Just as we would believe that Abraham Lincoln was a true historical figure, historical faith affirms that Jesus Christ lived, said, and did certain things, but it does not place any personal trust in Him. Third, there is temporary faith, which refers to a momentary faith that is based on delight and joy, but never perseveres (Mt. 13:20-21; Heb. 6:4-5; 1 Jn. 2:19). This kind of faith resembles saving faith at first, but eventually fades away because it does not take root in a new heart. Temporary faith often springs up during “revivals” or following certain tragedies (e.g., personal adversity) when powerful emotions are stirred up and people commit themselves to God, but as soon as the excitement is over, the same people regress back to their former ways of sin and return to the world. Lastly, there is a faith of miracles. This is a spurious or fickle type of faith that is invested in a particular promise or miraculous event (Jn. 2:23; 4:48; Mk. 8:11-13).⁶ This type of faith is more often interested in material gain, physical healing, or political advantage than spiritual benefits (Mt. 12:38-41; cf. Jn. 6:1-15, especially v. 15; Lk. 11-19, especially v. 17; Lk. 23:8).

Incorrectly Separating the Components of Faith

Some people erroneously separate the intellect and the will when defining saving faith. A pertinent example is the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholics use the term “faith” very differently than us. Notably, they expressly reject the distinction between historical faith and saving faith.⁷ For them, faith is entirely an act of the intellect.⁸ Faith is simple; it is merely assenting to (agreeing to) what the Roman Catholic Church teaches and supplementing it with good works. But their definition of faith is deficient because Scripture presents faith not merely as an intellectual act, but as a personal trust whereby we receive Christ with all his benefits as well.

Arminians fall into a similar error because they deny the distinction between temporary faith and saving faith.⁹ Common to both Roman Catholics and Arminians, trust is dissected from the essence of saving faith. If a person merely assents to certain truths about the gospel without actually placing a complete reliance and personal trust upon the person and work of Jesus Christ, it is doubtful the person is truly saved. Some people may say that they have become convinced that Jesus was real, he was the Son of God, that he died for sinners, etc. but they nevertheless do not turn to him as their personal Savior. Even though they are convinced of the facts laid out by the gospel, they nevertheless trust in their own works rather than in Jesus Christ. Yes, assent is needed, but the principal act of faith is to trust in Christ alone.

Finally, there are many today that try to isolate faith to mere trust (without placing any importance on having knowledge and assent of the true gospel). Consider, for example, a poll that was conducted in 2020 in the United States of around three thousand evangelical Christians: 30% rejected the deity of Christ, 46% said that people are good by nature, 48% stated that the Bible is not literally true, and 42% believed that God accepts worship from all religions!¹⁰ By defining faith as a sincere trust in anything or anyone, objective truth is no longer possible and Christianity is entirely gutted of everything that is important.

Different Ways to Saving Faith

Saving faith is ordinarily produced by the Word according to the blessing of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 10:14, 17; Jn. 6:44-45, 65).¹¹ Still, there is a diversity of ways that God brings about conversion. We should not expect the same experience or testimony from every person. There is no specific formula or algorithm that produces faith. Herman Bavinck states it nicely:

“Experience teaches us a number of different facts: there are many who from their earliest childhood have been deeply receptive to religious truth and have from the beginning received and accepted it with a saving faith, and never merely with a historical faith. There are others who have been raised from childhood in a certain milieu of religious ideas and have adopted them with a historical faith, and who, either never or much later, arrive at a personal and independent religious life. There are also those who in their early lives were never confronted with any specifically religious ideas or never even accepted them with a historical faith, but who at a given time are particularly struck by some kind of message (such as about sin and judgment, about God’s love and grace, and so forth) and on that basis are led to accept other and related truths. Put in more concrete terms, one could say: there are those who are brought to Christ by the Scriptures and also those who are brought to the Scriptures by Christ. No fixed rule can be obtained from these experiences.”¹² Intellectual knowledge of mere facts, while insufficient for salvation, precedes saving faith. This means that early instruction in the Bible, catechism, Sunday school, etc. are useful tools. It is true that by themselves, they cannot produce true saving faith, but nevertheless these means are sometimes employed by the Holy Spirit to bring about true conversion later on. Even if a person does not come to saving faith at the time of his or her youth, the lessons learned are not wasted, because they can be recalled at a later time in that person’s life for their eternal good.¹³

Footnotes

1
Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. Baker Academic, 2008, p. 100.
2
B.B. Warfield says it even more clearly! “The saving power of faith resides thus not in itself, but in the Almighty Saviour on whom it rests… It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ… It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or the nature of faith, but in the object of faith… So little indeed is faith conceived as containing in itself the energy or ground of salvation, that it is consistently represented as, in its origin, itself a gratuity from God in the prosecution of His saving work… Thus, even here all boasting is excluded, and salvation is conceived in all its elements as the pure product of unalloyed grace, issuing not from, but in, good works (Eph. ii.8-12). The place of faith in the process of salvation, as biblically conceived, could scarcely, therefore, be better described than by the use of the scholastic term ‘instrumental cause’” (Warfield, Benjamin Breckinridge. The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, Vol. 2: Biblical Doctrines. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1981. pp. 504-505).
3
WLC, Q72: What is justifying faith? A: Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and word of God, whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.
4
For example, some academics can devote their entire careers to studying the Bible, and know the text in great detail, yet remained unconvinced and unconverted. They have knowledge, but not assent.
5
Consider Heidelberg Catechism 21, which places knowing and trusting side-by-side. “What is true faith? True faith is not only a certain knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in his word, but also an assured confidence, which the Holy Ghost works by the gospel in my heart; that not only to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation, are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits.” Indeed, faith affects our entire being, and touches the faculties of the intellect and the will. Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. Baker Academic, 2008, pp. 112-113, 121-122.
6
Vos, Johannes Geerhardus. The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary. P&R Publishing, 2002, pp. 63-161; and, Turretin, Francis. Institutes of Elenctic Theology: Volume 2. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Pub., 1994. pp. 559-560; XI.7.IV.
7
The Roman Catholic Church denies that trust is an essential component of faith. According to the Roman Catholics, faith is bare assent! Turretin, Francis. Institutes of Elenctic Theology: Volume 2. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Pub., 1994. p. 564; XV.9.I; and Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. Baker Academic, 2008, p. 128, fn. 80.
8
Other major characteristics of faith for the Roman Catholics is that love (i.e., good works) must accompany faith, making it an “informed faith” that justifies and saves; the object of faith is everything that God has revealed (not specifically the person Jesus Christ), but because it is impossible to know everything, Roman Catholics are only expected to hold to a passive affirmation in agreeing to whatever the Roman Catholic Church deems to be true; faith does not consist in the confidence that Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior, and that my sins are forgiven me because trust is not essential to faith; and, for Roman Catholics, assurance of salvation is usually never known, unless communicated by special revelation (i.e., the Pope can be assured that he is saved, but few others can). Therefore, believers almost always live in constant uncertainty with respect to their salvation. Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. Baker Academic, 2008, pp. 109-110.
9
Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. Baker Academic, 2008, p. 128, fn. 80.
10
These findings were from Ligonier Ministries’ State of Theology poll, conducted by Lifeway Research, available here: https://www.ligonier.org/posts/state-theology-survey-2020-results (accessed February 23, 2022).
11
See also the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 14, paragraph 1.
12
Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. Baker Academic, 2008, pp. 126-127.
13
“When someone who was brought up in historical faith later obtains a saving faith, then the knowledge of the truth that one obtained through a historical faith may indeed be very useful to oneself (for truth remains truth), whether it is accepted solely with the intellect or also with the heart. [Following conversion], they [i.e., the lessons learned] do not remain a knowledge and assent that is merely historical, accepted as true like other historical facts, but they become a personal knowledge that is related to the salvation of the soul, a ‘firm and certain knowledge.’ The content of the knowledge remains the same but is now processed differently. The truth does not change but it is viewed by the believer in another light. It is now accepted and embraced as a divine truth that is more or less directly related to a person’s eternal interests.” Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. Baker Academic, 2008, p. 127.

Footnotes

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