Faith in Jesus Christ

This week's questions

What is faith in Jesus Christ? 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.

Question 86

Of the three things Question 85 named as the way of escape (last week), faith comes first. Next week we come to the second, repentance.

Receiving and resting

Question 86 first calls faith ‘a saving grace’. Faith is not something we produce but something God gives: "it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him" (Philippians 1:29). The first proof text speaks of "those who have faith and preserve their souls" (Hebrews 10:39).

The answer has two verbs. The first is to receive:

But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God —

John 1:12

Faith welcomes Christ as a guest is welcomed into a house. The English pastor Matthew Henry writes on this passage, "All the children of God are born again," and adds that the new birth comes through the word of God as the means and the Spirit of God as its Author Matthew Henry. Even the faith that receives comes from above.

The second verb is to rest upon. The next proof text speaks of the one whose mind leans on God:

You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, because GOD the LORD is the Rock eternal.

Isaiah 26:3-4

To rest upon Christ is to put our whole weight on him, as on a rock. And faith rests on him ‘alone’. Paul's one hope was to be found in Christ, "not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ" (Philippians 3:9); "there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The Westminster Confession calls ‘accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone’ the principal acts of saving faith WCF 14.2.

‘As he is offered to us in the gospel’ means that Christ is held out to us freely, so no one need wait until they feel worthy of him. "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). The Bible's last chapter calls "the one who desires the water of life" to "drink freely" (Revelation 22:17).

Knowing, assenting, trusting

Reformed teachers have often described faith as knowledge, assent and trust. The Larger Catechism says that justifying faith ‘not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth’ Larger Catechism, Q. 72. John Calvin's definition in the Institutes holds mind and heart together: faith is "a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit" Calvin, Institutes 3.2.7. The Heidelberg Catechism speaks of true faith as both a certain knowledge and a hearty trust Q. 21.

Faith does not justify because it is a fine virtue. The Larger Catechism says it justifies not because of the graces that accompany it or the good works that are its fruits, but ‘only as it is an instrument by which he receiveth and applies Christ and his righteousness’ Q. 73. Martin Luther pictured faith as a marriage: it joins the soul to Christ as a bride to her bridegroom, so that his grace, life and salvation become hers, and her sins, death and damnation become his Luther, The Freedom of a Christian. Faith alone is taught at length in Grace alone, faith alone, in the Reformed Faith course, and Faith and justification, in the Christian Doctrine course.

Weak faith is still true faith. Christ, who did not turn away the father crying "help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24), is gentle with the faint: "A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish" (Matthew 12:20). For those who wrestle with doubt, see Is it okay to doubt? And true faith shows itself in life: "faith without deeds is dead" (James 2:26), and what matters in Christ is "faith expressing itself through love" (Galatians 5:6).

Other traditions also confess faith as God's gift, but place it differently. The Catholic Church, following the Council of Trent (1547), calls faith the beginning of salvation and the foundation and root of all justification, and teaches that unless hope and charity are joined to it, faith does not unite a person perfectly with Christ Council of Trent, Decree on Justification, chs 7–8. The Orthodox speak of faith working through love as the way into union with God. John Wesley taught that salvation begins in the grace that goes before, prevenient grace, and that faith is the one condition of justification Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation; the Wesleyan tradition holds that this grace may be resisted. Lutherans stand with the Reformed in confessing justification by faith alone. On faith, see also What is faith? and What believing the gospel means.

To ponder this week

Where am I resting this week: on Christ alone, or on Christ and something of my own? If you find yourself leaning on your own earnestness, your mood today or your years in the church, set it down, and receive again the Christ who is offered to you in the gospel. Read Isaiah 26:3-4 and pray briefly. Learn Question 86 by heart.

Practice