Saving faith consists in that entire trust, reliance, or dependence on Jesus Christ, [on] His satisfaction and merits. The opposite to justifying faith is a self-righteous spirit and temper, whereby a man, from a conceit of and reliance upon his own goodness, is emboldened and encouraged to trust and hope in the mercy of God, (Heb. 10:19, 23; Luke 13:9, 14).
Faith emboldens the heart. In a legal humiliation, which is antecedent to spiritual light, the sinner is brought to a kind of despair. The things which used to embolden him do now entirely fail: he finds no good in himself; yea, he feels himself dead in sin and, upon this, his heart dies within him. “I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” But now faith emboldens the heart, begets new courage, lays the foundation for a new kind of hope—a hope springing entirely from a new foundation. “Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” By faith, the heart is emboldened to return to God, in hopes of acceptance.
Now, the believer, understanding the way of acceptance by Christ, and seeing the safety of it, ventures his all upon this sure foundation, and thereby is emboldened to return. “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” That is, first, he must see what God is [and] behold him in his glory, or he cannot, in a genuine desire, desire to come to him. And secondly, he must see that He is ready to be reconciled unto and to save those who from a genuine desire to be his do heartily return to him. But when both these are seen and believed, now the soul will return, and come and give up itself to God to be the Lord’s forever.
Faith in Christ emboldens the heart to look to and trust in the free grace of God through Him, for all things that just such a poor creature wants; even for all things offered in the gospel to poor sinners. “Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace.” Pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace are the two great benefits of the new covenant; and these are the two great things which an enlightened soul feels the want of, and for which [faith] emboldens him to come to God by Jesus Christ. “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people,” saith the Lord in the new covenant.” “And this is all my salvation, and all my desire,” saith the believer.
Excerpted and edited from True Religion Delineated.
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