Faith

What it means

Faith is the empty-handed trust that receives Jesus Christ and all His benefits, resting wholly on His finished work rather than on any righteousness of our own. It is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1), a confident reliance on the character and promises of God who cannot lie. Scripture is clear that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law (Romans 3:28), so that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3), and we are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves but as the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Saving faith is not a vague optimism or mere intellectual assent, for even the demons believe and shudder (James 2:19); it is a living trust that lays hold of Christ and necessarily bears fruit in love and obedience (Galatians 5:6; James 2:17). Such faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17), and it is the only instrument by which the gift of salvation is received.