And this is the testimony:
that God has given us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son.
He who has the Son has life;
he who does not have
the Son of God
does not have life.
These things I have written to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you
have eternal life,
and that you may continue
to believe
in the name of the Son of God.
1 John 5:11-13
Saving knowledge does include assent, and truth, and is not just assent, it is sustained by abundant proofs. That fact is what separates many people who claim to be Christian yet their point of contact is not Jesus Christ as they expound, too often it in practices that seem holy, or at least make them feel and seem holy, those things are the object of their faith and their assent in their practices. So what exactly am I saying?
Saving faith is proved from the nature of the object, that is the object of saving faith. This faith is not to be found in the general knowledge or truth of Scripture or upon the fact that God reveals His plan of saving sinners: it is only upon Christ Himself, His person and work, and upon the offer of salvation to us personally and individually. Now when the Holy Spirit reveals His glory and His love we cannot believe on the inward testimony of Christ without having feelings of reverence, love and trust, comingled with our acts and constituting our character. When our soul that has been or is oppressed with sin has been delivered from our sins; should we not feel gratitude and confidence? This act of faith is appropriated with confidence in its nature and our act.
In the Bible often the word trust is used in place of faith. Yet, we that the act produced is expressed in one as in the other. It is the same promises that are made to trust as to faith. The same effects are attributed to the one, that are attributed to the other
Other words are used in Scripture in forms of expression as explanatory of the act of faith and includes within them the essential element of its nature; trust. We are commanded to look to Christ. this looking involves trusting and looking is declared as believing. An example would be when the Israelites looked upon the brazen serpent for healing or the manslayer that fled to a city of refuge. We are told to flee to Christ to look upon Him and rest upon Him, to lay hold of Him. All this we are told to do when we are told to believe, and this shows trust is an essential element of saving faith.
Scriptural proof: the Greek word πιστεύώ, which means believe and is usually followed by one of these words; είς; έπί; έν; that mean, into, upon, or in; so together έν πιστεύώ, or one of the other two words, should be translated to believe in, or upon, or into, other words to confide in, to trust. Our faith in a promise made to ourselves, from the nature of the case, is an act of confidence in Him who makes the promise.
Unbelief is, therefore, expressed by doubt, fear, distrust, and despair. A believer knows from his own experience that when he believes he receives Christ, rests upon or in Christ for salvation and the offer by Christ of the free gift of faith offered to us in the Gospel. We, Protestants, in opposition to the Roman Catholic theology of salvation, holds that every man, women, and child, in order to be saved, must receive God's revelation as recorded in the Bible, a record that God has given His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, therefore, it must be admitted that faith involves trust in Christ who is the source of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, Our faith is not appertained by the Sacrament that are supposed to be effective for salvation, if one does then all he has done is is attempt to find salvation by means of works.
The object of faith is more than assent to the truth in the revelation of Scripture or in the Church as the Romanist believe and teach. If one believes in this manner then a sinner comes to Christ merely through the administrations of the sacraments and that through the church. This theology is entirely different from what the Bible actually teaches, different from of the Protestant theory of the Gospel.
The object of Protestant and Biblical faith is simply: Jesus Christ, upon His authority as God incarnate in the flesh, the propitiation for our sins and that is what is revealed in the Scriptures. This begs us to be in the Scripture, read, pray, meditate, assimilate and act upon His Word and the leading of the Holy Sprit.
Take heed to yourself'
and to the doctrine.
Continue in them,
for in doing this you will
save both yourself and
those who hear you.
1 Timothy 4:16
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