Faith (2)

(From devotionals at work)

"For without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." -Hebrews 11:6

Q: "How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? A: "...by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling." -Westminster Shorter Catechism

In the last devotional we looked at the process that leads us to faith: calling, regeneration, and repentance. In this one we will briefly look at faith itself. Remember that faith is the first virtue that the Apostle Peter lists in 2 Peter 1:5. Faith has three sequential parts:

The first is Knowledge. The means that faith rests in certain doctrinal propositions that we believe to be true. On one hand, this does not mean that the believer has to have an intricate knowledge of theology. But it does require an understanding of sin, of Christ's Person as God and man, as God's perfect sacrifice for sin, and His requirements of us as Lord of creation. Faith is not merely a good feeling around the campfire or a spooky belief in some kind of cosmic goodness. It is rooted in a historic reality with real facts. Simply put, faith begins with hearing the Word of God.

But knowledge alone is not saving faith. It must lead to, secondly, Approval. That means that the facts of the gospel move from the brain to the will, and a man says "I really believe that for myself." This is the point when faith becomes a commitment, not just a knowledge of doctrine. It is the realization that what I recognize as general doctrine applies to me specifically.

Knowledge and Approval, though, remain mental concepts that fall short of a committed reliance on a Person. Faith is not full until it becomes Trust. In fact, I sometimes think that is a better translation than "faith." It is one thing to think you can drive me home on a snowy highway; it is another thing to get in the car with you! We are all familiar with the phrase in John 3:16: "...that whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life...." The word translated "in" actually means "into." It means more than believing that Jesus is the Son of God who saves; it means that I personally trust Him to cover all my sin, to order everything in my life according to His plan, to place me when and where He wills, to be the light that makes sense of what appears to me to be darkness, and to carry me through death and into the next life in spite of my own helplessness. That kind of faith is entirely and intensely personal.

One last word about faith: evangelicals tend to see faith as the beginning of the Christian life, to be followed by a "deeper life." Actually, the deeper life is nothing more than pressing further and further into faith, or more precisely, into trusting Jesus to complete all His work in us.