Hello
@Traze77, the Reformers had quite a bit to say about saving faith (after all, the "battle cry" of the Reformation was
sola fide/
salvation by faith alone). So, this was a topic that they spent quite a bit of time and ink on. Here's a concise summary (of sorts) of what they principally believed and taught in regard to saving faith for you to consider.
When Luther and the Reformers declared that justification is by faith alone, they realized that it was necessary to give a careful definition to saving faith. They defined saving faith as including necessary constituent elements, that it, saving faith, is composed of information, intellectual assent, and personal trust.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF SAVING FAITH
What are the constituent elements of saving faith? The Protestant Reformers recognized that biblical faith has three essential aspects: notitia, assensus, and fiducia.
Notitia refers to the content of faith, the things we believe. There are certain things we are required to believe about Christ, namely, that He is the Son of God, that He is our Savior, that He has provided an atonement, and so on.
Assensus is the conviction that the content of our faith is true. One can know about the Christian faith and yet believe that it is not true. We might have a doubt or two mixed with our faith, but there has to be a certain level of intellectual affirmation and conviction if we are to be saved. Before anyone can really trust in Jesus Christ, he has to believe that Christ indeed is the Savior, that He is who He claimed to be. Genuine faith says that the content, the notitia, is true.
Fiducia refers to personal trust and reliance. Knowing and believing the content of the Christian faith is not enough, for even demons can do that (James 2:19). Faith is effectual only if one personally trusts in Christ alone for salvation. It is one thing to give an intellectual assent to a proposition but quite another to place personal trust in it. We can say that we believe in justification by faith alone and yet still think that we are going to get to heaven by our achievements, our works, or our striving. It is easy to get the doctrine of justification by faith into our heads, but it is hard to get it into the bloodstream such that we cling to Christ alone for salvation.
There is another element to fiducia besides trust, and that is ~affection~. An unregenerate person will never come to Jesus, because he does not want Jesus. In his mind and heart, he is fundamentally at enmity with the things of God. As long as someone is hostile to Christ, he has no affection for Him. Satan is a case in point. Satan knows the truth, but he hates the truth. He is utterly disinclined to worship God because he has no love for God. We are like that by nature. We are dead in our sin. We walk according to the powers of this world and indulge the lusts of the flesh. Until the Holy Spirit changes us, we have hearts of stone. An unregenerate heart is without affection for Christ; it is both lifeless and loveless. The Holy Spirit changes the disposition of our hearts so that we see the sweetness of Christ and embrace Him. None of us loves Christ perfectly, but we cannot love Him at all unless the Holy Spirit changes the heart of stone and makes it a heart of flesh. ~Sproul, R. C. (2014). Essential Truths of the Christian Faith & Everyone’s a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Reformation Trust.
God bless you!!
--David
p.s. - we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from anything that 'we' do.
That said, and as others have already mentioned above, our salvation
RESULTS in our becoming
new creatures/new creations in Christ with a new nature, and this greatly and necessarily effects how we choose to live our lives going forward (how we act, speak, and even how we think). The things/the changes that result from our salvation are
NEVER things that
we are REQUIRED to do to be saved (how could they be?), rather, they are things that we ~
WILL do~
BECAUSE we are
new creatures in Christ (who normally choose to act in accord with our new nature, rather than in opposition to it).
For instance, whenever we sinned when we were still unbelievers/outside of Christ, we did so ~in accord~ with our old, fallen nature, but whenever we sin now, as true believers, we do so ~in opposition to~ our new nature, in Christ. I hope that makes sense. Please let me know if it does not and I'll try again
.