Saving faith is a gracious instinct or principle, wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God;1 whereby the soul is brought to believe the testimony of God in his Word concerning all that he has spoken;2 to believe the commandments so as to obey, the threatenings so as to tremble, the promises so as to accept and embrace them,3 and especially to believe that we are utterly sinful, lost, and undone, without the Lord Jesus, and that through his propitiation and righteousness alone we are saved;4 inasmuch as it is by this faith we receive and rest upon Christ alone for our salvation.5 This is the faith of God’s elect; it is this faith that God gives, that saves, justifies, works by love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the world. This faith is unfeigned, abides, looks unto the Lord, flees for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before it, takes hold of the Lord’s strength, trusts him, puts on the Lord Jesus, feeds upon him, and lives to him.6 This faith differs in degree in different Christians, and in the same Christian at different times.7 But the least degree of it differs in kind from the faith of hypocrites, and accompanies salvation.8 This faith is never without good works, which spring from it as its necessary and natural fruits.9
1 Eph. 1:19; 2:8. 2 2 Thess. 2:13; Acts 24:14; 1 John 5:10. 3 Gen. 6:22; 12:1-4; Isa. 66:2; Heb. 11:7-8, 13. 4 Rom. 1:16-17; 3:25; 5:19; 7:9; Acts 2:37; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; Phil. 3:9. 5 John 1:12, 3:14-15; 6:47; Acts 4:12; Eph. 3:17; 1 Tim. 1:15; Rom. 8:1; Phil. 3:9. 6 Titus 1:1; Eph. 2:8; Heb. 10:39; Rom. 3:28; 4:13; 5:1; 13:14; Gal. 3:24; 5:6; Acts 15:9; 1 Tim. 1:5; 1 Cor. 13 :13; Luke 22:32; 2 Thess. 1:3: Isa. 27:5: 28:16; 45:22; Matt. 9:22; Psa. 40:4; John 6:54. 7 Heb. 5:12-14; Rom. 4:19-20; Rom. 14:1; Matt. 6:30; Matt. 8:10; 15:28. 8 Eph. 6:16; 1 John 5:4-5. 9 Eph. 2:10; James 2:17-26; Heb. 11:1-39; Titus 2:14.
