The
word of God is made effectual in the heart
The
gospel is preached and people hear the message of Christ dying for
sinners. They listen to the command to repent and trust Christ alone
for the forgiveness of sins and salvation, but not everyone that
hears will obey and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? God must
work in the sinner’s heart. The Holy Spirit makes the word
effectual. A conversion has to take place, and then, the sinner sees
his need and the sufficiency of Christ to meet that need. The Spirit
convicts of sin and convinces one of the veracity of the gospel. He
calls sinners; he draws them and they come.
“And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he
called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also
glorified” (Rom. 8:30). “But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you
may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). “He called you through
our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ (2 Thess. 2:14).
The Westminster Confession of Faith reads:
All those whom God
hath predestined unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His
appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by His Word and
Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by
nature to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their
minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God,
taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of
flesh; renewing their wills, and, by His almighty power, determining
them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus
Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His
grace.4
The
effectual call results in saving faith in Christ
Those whom God has called know, rest in, accept, believe on, and
treasure Christ alone for salvation. The gospel was heard, made
effective by the Holy Spirit, and the sinner repents and trusts in
Christ for deliverance. The renewed sinner can do nothing less; he
must run to Christ, cling to Christ, beg Christ for mercy.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not
your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so
that no one may boast (Eph. 2:8). “How then will they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him
of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without
someone preaching?... So faith comes from hearing, and
hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:14, 17). “But now
the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who
believe” (Rom. 3:21:22). “Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ” (Rom. 5:1). “ Yet we know that a person is
not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,
so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified
by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of
the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2:16). “But as for
you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed,
knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood
you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to
make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim.
3:14-15).
Again, the Westminster Confession of Faith is helpful in defining
saving faith:
The
grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the
saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their
hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word, by
which also, and by the administration of the sacraments, and prayer,
it is increased and strengthened.
By
this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed
in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and
acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof
containeth; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the
threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and
that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are
accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for
justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the
covenant of grace.5
John Calvin defined faith as:
A firm and certain
knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth
of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds
and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.6
Michael Horton has
written:
Evangelical faith—
that is, faith as defined by the gospel— is the specific
conviction of the heart, mind, and will that God is gracious to us
in Jesus Christ on the basis of God’s word. Faith is clinging to
Christ.7
This is how
Jonathan Edwards expressed it:
It is this sight of
the divine beauty of Christ, that bows the wills, and draws the
hearts of men. A sight of the greatness of God in his attributes,
may overwhelm men, and be more than they can endure; but the enmity
and opposition of the heart may remain in its full strength, and the
will remain inflexible. Whereas one glimpse of the moral and
spiritual glory of God, and the supreme amiableness of Jesus Christ
shining into the heart, overcomes and abolishes this opposition, and
inclines the soul to Christ, as it were, by an omnipotent power. So
that now, not only the understanding, but the will and the whole
soul, receives and embraces the Saviour.8
John Owen wrote:
He who hath been
convinced of sin, who hath been weaned with the burden of it, who
hath really designed to fly from the wrath to come, and hath heard
the voice of Christ in the gospel inviting him to come unto him for
help and relief, will tell you that this coming unto Christ
consisteth in a man’s going out of himself, in a complete
renunciation of all his own duties and righteousness, and betaking
himself with all his trust and confidence unto Christ alone, and his
righteousness, for pardon of sin, acceptation with God, and a right
unto the heavenly inheritance.9
Faith must go beyond mere knowledge. Many, including demons, know
about God, Christ, and salvation, yet they are unconverted. These
truths must be known and assented to, but Christ must be trusted.
Trusting Christ by faith for salvation is the dividing factor. The
gospel has to be known and accepted, but it cannot end there.
Christ, who is the good news of the gospel, needs to be believed
upon. Without Christ, a person is doomed. He may be educated and
have a vast knowledge of the Bible, but apart from Christ, there is
no salvation. All of the wisdom and intelligence in the world
cannot save a person. Christ saves.
L. Berkhof discusses these three aspects of faith. He refers to
them as the intellectual, emotional, and volitional elements of
faith:
The knowledge of
faith [intellectual element] consists in a positive recognition of
the truth, in which man accepts as true whatsoever God says in His
word, and especially what He says respecting the deep depravity of
man and the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
The emotional
element... a deep conviction of the truth and reality of the object
of faith, feels that it meets an important need in his life, and is
conscious of an absorbing interest in it.
The volitional
element... Faith is not merely a matter of the intellect, nor of the
intellect and the emotions combined; it is also a matter of the
will... This third element consists in a personal trust in Christ as
Saviour and Lord, including a surrender of the soul as guilty and
defiled to Christ, and a reception and appropriation of Christ as
the source of pardon and of spiritual life.10
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (Jn. 17:3). “And we know that
the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we
may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son
Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:20).
A stunning example of the contrast of knowledge and true saving
faith is given by Paul. He knew much about religion and the law,
but he was lost. His knowledge and supposed righteousness could not
deliver him from the penalty of sin. Oh, but Christ can. Here is
Paul’s testimony:
For we are the
circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ
Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I
myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else
thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as
to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the
law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as
loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything
as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count
them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be
found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from
the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I
may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any
means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Phil.
3:3-11).
4Chapter
X.I.
5Chapter
XIV. I,II.
6John
Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion,
ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 3.2.7.
7Michael
Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic
Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Zondervan,
2011), 585.
8Jonathan
Edwards, “True Grace Distinguished From The Experience Of Devils”
in The Works of
Jonathan Edwards, 2 vols. (Hendrickson,
2004), 2:48.
9John
Owen, “The Doctrine of Justification By Faith” in The
Works of John Owen, 16 vols. (Banner of
Truth, 2000), 5:293.