Skip to main content

Salvation - Faith


Cairns defines faith “as the work of the Holy Spirit, His gift to God’s elect, enabling them to believe as true whatever God has revealed in His Word and to accept, receive, and rest upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. It is never alone, being always accompanied by repentance and producing good works.”[1]
Charles Ryrie states, “Faith means ‘confidence, trust, holding something as true.’ Certainly, faith must have some content. There must be confidence about something or in someone. To believe in Christ for salvation means to have confidence that He can remove the guilt of sin and give eternal life. It means to believe that He can solve the problem of sin which is what keeps a person out of heaven.”[2]
When writing about faith in relation to salvation, Charles Hodge states, “That faith, therefore, which is connected with salvation, includes knowledge, that is a perception of the truth and its qualities; assent, or the persuasion of the truth of the object of faith; and trust, or reliance. The exercise, or state of mind expressed by the word faith, as used in the Scriptures, is not mere assent, or mere trust; it is the intelligent perception, reception, and reliance on the truth, as revealed in the Gospel.”[3]

Critical to understanding the biblical definition of faith in connection with salvation is, understanding the three elements that are part of that definition:
(1) Faith is knowledge. By this we mean that faith knows the facts about something or someone, it rests upon evidence rather than it being a blind act taken because of a lack of knowledge (Ps. 9:10; Rom. 10:17).
(2) Faith is assent. In other words, knowledge of the facts results in believing those facts. Knowledge becomes conviction; knowledge goes from being mental to being heartfelt.
(3) Faith is trust. This means we appropriate those convictions and completely surrender and submit to the object of our faith. Trust is giving consent to the will to take action, to move, embrace, and receive (John 1:12) without reservation the Christ it believes. Faith takes us from knowledge about Christ to belief in Christ.

The Bible is very clear in teaching that God is the source of faith, faith is a gift (Rom. 12:3; Phil. 1:29), and it is given to those who do not resist the Holy Spirit who creates it in the hearts of men, leading them to repentance and enabling them to trust. The result of faith is salvation (John 1:12; Rom. 5:1; Gal. 3:26).

[1] Alan Cairns, Dictionary of Theological Terms, expanded third edition (Greenville: Ambassador Emerald International, 2002), p. 175.
[2] Charles C. Ryrie, So Great Salvation (Wheaton: Victor, 1989), pp. 118, 119.
[3] Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967), p. 29.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Inspired, Infallible, and Inerrant Word

  All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16).   Our primary and final safeguard against false teaching is the Word of God. Verses 16 and 17 of 2 Timothy 3 are among the most important and significant in all the New Testament. They clearly declare the Source of Scripture and thus the Scripture’s authority. Second Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:21 for the basis for our conviction that the Bible is the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God. Paul points out three important truths here: First, all Scripture is God-breathed. When Paul writes in that all Scripture is inspired , he is saying that the entire Bible and every word in it originates with God. Tom Constable correctly states that the Bible “does not merely contain the Word of God or become the Word of God under certain conditions. I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Key Figures in the Tribulation (Part 3)

  His Career      The career of the Antichrist can be broken down into four stages. These stages or phases characterize his progression and ultimately his demise. Prior to the Tribulation     According to Daniel 7, the Antichrist ( “ little horn” ) will come out of the revived Roman empire which means that he is coming from the West. At this stage, he will most likely be the political leader of a powerful western country, powerful enough to enter into a covenant with Israel and guarantee her safety. The restored Roman empire will result from the coming together of a western federation of nations, which appears to take place after the beginning of the tribulation. We may very well be witnessing the initial stages of this prophecy as we witness the coming together of many western European countries who have forged a federation or union socially, politically, and economically.      According to Revelation 6:2, early in the...
Post a Comment
Read more

All Things Work Together for Good

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.   (Romans 8:28)   The promise of Romans 8:28 has been a source of deep comfort to Christians for centuries. Our focus today is on the opening phrase of that promise: We know . Scripture provides abundant evidence that this confidence is well‑founded. Through his own experience, Paul affirmed that in every ci rcumstance of life, God is actively at work for the good of those who love Him. The same God who shaped Paul’s life had a clear objective for him—to conform him increasingly to the image of Jesus Christ. Paul learned this truth, and we can learn it as well, through several avenues: Sickness (2 Corinthians 12:7–10) …Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it wou...
Post a Comment
Read more