I was talking with the kids about faith the other day. One of them said, “Sometimes Christian pastors and teachers make faith so hard to understand. What is it really?” Someone said in response, “Faith is simply trusting and depending on the Lord. After all he sent Jesus didn’t he?”
Calvin wrote about faith as trust years ago. Here is the gist of his discussion.
1. Faith is repose upon God's promises. The promises of God are the foundation of our faith. "Faith properly begins with the promise, rests in it, and ends in it" (Pg., 575).
2. Calvin says Christians do have faith in God's commands, threatenings, and prohibitions but true faith does not find its nourishment here. Why? "For in God faith seeks life: a life that is not found in commandments or declarations of penalties, but in the promise of mercy, and only in a freely given promise" (Pg., 575).
3. "Therefore, if we would not have our faith tremble and waver, we must buttress it with the promise of salvation, which is willingly and freely offered to us by the Lord in consideration of our misery rather than our deserts" (Pg., 575).
4. These promises of God are found in Jesus Christ, and Scripture witnesses to him. We are again reminded of the necessary connection between faith and Scripture. The Scriptures direct us to the verity that these promises are found in Jesus Christ. (Rom. 1:17; 2 Cor. 1:20) "The reason for this fact is at hand; for if God promises anything, by it he witnesses his benevolence, so that there is no promise of his which is not a testimony of his love" (Pg., 579).
5. It must be understood; even the wicked receive gifts from the goodness of God's providing hand. However, they reject these gifts of common grace as coming from God's hand and therefore hate and spurn the promise contained in Christ. Rather than the goodness of God leading them to repentance, it leads them to rebellion.
6. "Nothing prevents them, in habitually rejecting the promises intended for them, from thereby bringing upon themselves a greater vengeance" (Pg., 579).
7. Those promises which manifest God's love to man, wicked men are commanded to believe and obey. But if they are not elect in Christ, they will themselves disregard those promises, and not be loved by the Father. "It is indisputable that no one is loved by God apart from Christ" (Pg., 579). [Eph. 1:6; Eph. 2:14; Rom. 8:3 ff]
8. The elect of God have great and exceeding and precious promise, upon which to rest and practise faith.
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