Training · The 1689 Baptist Confession
Saving faith
Where faith comes from, what it does, and how it differs from the kind that does not last.
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What is saving faith?
The grace by which a person is enabled to believe to the saving of their soul - trusting what God has said because he has said it, and taking hold of Christ himself.
Two things are being held together. Faith has a content, so it is not a mood or a general confidence about life; and it comes to rest on a person, so it is not agreement with a list of statements. Both show up in what faith does with Scripture and in what its principal acts are.
But we're not the kind of people who turn back and are lost. We're the ones who keep trusting and are saved.
Hebrews 10:39Confession 14.1
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Where does saving faith come from?
It is the work of the Spirit of Christ in the heart, and it is ordinarily produced by the preaching of the Word.
Both clauses at once. It is not something a person generates, and it does not usually arrive without anyone saying anything. The Spirit works, and he ordinarily works through someone explaining the message.
So, faith comes from hearing the message, and that message is what Christ has spoken.
Romans 10:17Confession 14.1
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How is faith increased once a person has it?
By the same Word, and by baptism, the Lord's supper, prayer, and the other means God has appointed.
The confession treats these as the ordinary equipment rather than as optional extras. If faith is strengthened by particular means, then neglecting them is not a neutral choice.
Confession 14.1
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What does faith do with the different parts of Scripture?
It obeys the commands, trembles at the warnings, and takes hold of the promises.
Three different responses to three different kinds of material, and a faith that only does one of them is doing a third of the job. The list is a quiet test.
Confession 14.2
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What are the principal acts of saving faith?
Accepting, receiving and resting on Christ alone - for justification, sanctification and eternal life.
All three verbs are verbs of taking rather than doing. Resting is the one that catches people, because it is the least like an achievement, and the confession puts it last as the settled state the other two lead into.
But to everyone who did welcome him - who trusted in who he was - he gave the right to become God's children.
John 1:12Confession 14.2
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Is a weak faith a different kind of faith?
No. It differs in degree from a strong faith, and differs in kind from the faith of temporary believers.
This is a precise and pastorally useful distinction. The question is never how much faith a person has, because the least degree of the real thing is the real thing. What matters is which kind it is.
If God takes such good care of the grass in the field - which is here today and gone tomorrow - won't he do even more for you? Why do you have so little trust?
Matthew 6:30Confession 14.3
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What happens to faith under attack?
It may be assailed and weakened in many ways, and it gets the victory - growing up in many people to a full assurance, through Christ, who both begins it and finishes it.
The guarantee is placed on Christ rather than on the believer's grip, which is what makes the sentence bearable. It also explains why the next chapters can be so frank about serious sin in real Christians: the outcome is not being staked on how strong anyone's faith is at any particular moment.
Confession 14.3