What Is True Faith?
What is faith?
In our time, faith is often described as something uncertain or irrational—a kind of belief we hold when the evidence is not enough. But biblical faith is very different. Faith is not simply wishing that something will be true, nor is it refusing to think about the evidence. Faith is trusting God and trusting what God has said.
The Heidelberg Catechism gives us a helpful definition in Question and Answer 21. True faith has two important aspects: a sure knowledge and a firm confidence.
First, faith has content.
We cannot simply believe whatever we want and call it faith. The strength of faith does not come from how strongly we believe something. If I believe that my car's brakes are working when they have actually failed, my strong belief will not stop the car.
In the same way, religious faith cannot be separated from truth. True faith is not merely a feeling that helps us get through the day. It rests upon what God has revealed in His Word.
The Catechism says that true faith accepts as true what God has revealed in His Word. But at the heart of that revelation is the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ and the salvation He brings. God has made a promise, and faith rests upon that promise.
This means that Christianity is not ultimately about having enough faith in faith itself. The object of our faith is God and His trustworthy Word, and especially His promise of mercy in Christ.
But there is a second part.
It is possible to know something without personally trusting it. Even the demons know who Jesus is. James reminds us that they believe that God is one—and they shudder. Their knowledge is real, but it is not saving faith.
So true faith is more than knowing the gospel is true. True faith says, “This promise is for me.”
That is what the Catechism means by a “firm confidence.”
The sermon gives the helpful picture of a cheque. Imagine that Christ has written a cheque for the full amount of salvation. You can know that the cheque exists. You can understand what it says. But faith personally takes hold of it and says, “This is for me.”
And here we come to one of the most comforting truths of the gospel.
How can I have confidence that salvation is really for me?
Not because I have lived well enough.
Not because my faith is strong enough.
Not because I have earned God's favour.
The Catechism points us to God's grace and Christ's merits. Our assurance rests not on our merit, but on Christ's merit. The reason we can come to Christ is not because we deserve salvation, but because we desperately need it.
This is difficult for us because we naturally want to contribute something. We want to pay our own way. We want to prove that we deserve what we receive.
But the gospel tells us that salvation is a gift.
We come to Christ with empty hands.
And that is precisely why we can have hope.
Yet what about those times when our faith does not feel firm?
Many Christians know what that feels like. Faith can tremble. Confidence can rise and fall. David himself prayed, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?”
A trembling faith does not mean that Christ has stopped being trustworthy.
When our faith becomes weak, we do not strengthen it by looking more deeply at ourselves. We strengthen it by looking again at God's promises.
John Calvin describes God's promises as the support that keeps faith from wavering. When faith feels shaky, we return to God's Word. We read again what God has promised. We remind ourselves that Christ's salvation is not dependent upon the strength of our faith, but upon the faithfulness of the One in whom we trust.
This is why we need the gospel again and again.
We do not outgrow the gospel.
We do not graduate from our need for God's promises.
The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through the gospel, and He strengthens that faith as we hear and receive God's Word.
So what is true faith?
It is not clutching at straws.
It is not believing something simply because we desperately want it to be true.
It is not shutting our minds off.
True faith is knowing what God has said, believing that His Word is true, and personally trusting His promise of salvation in Jesus Christ.
And when our faith is weak, we do not need to manufacture stronger faith by looking within ourselves. We return to the same place where faith began: the promise of God in the gospel.
God has spoken.
Christ has died and risen.
The promise of salvation is held out to sinners.
And faith says, “I trust Him. This promise is for me.”
That is true faith.
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