Hello
@setst777, just FYI, the member who you just quoted hasn't been here (much less posted here) since June 5th, 2020 (so hearing back from him/her will probably not happen).
That said, your 3 questions are EXCELLENT ones, and worthy of their own thread, IMHO
Perhaps you would consider creating a new thread for them on the Soteriology Board (or on the General Theology board)?
If you do, please let me know, as I'd like to join in
God bless you!
--David
p.s. - for now however, and in answer to your first question, here is something for you to consider. This is how the Reformers defined faith/saving faith.
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). Everyone’s a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (pp. 238–239). Reformation Trust.
Blessings to you as well, and thank you for your response.
The questions I asked are directly related to the topic of
Hebrews 6.
Hebrews 6 surely does plainly define and teach us what a true faith in Lord Jesus represents. And that is the faith I desire those who use the word "faith" to recognize.
1) Yes to
Assensus. We learn about Lord Jesus and the Gospel revelation about Christ and his redeeming work through the Word about Christ. So, faith about Christ is the first part of the acceptable faith.
2) Yes to
Fiducia. After learning the Gospel, we are to commit ourselves in complete faith and trust in Christ to save us.
3) Yes to
Affection and
Love. If our faith in Christ is genuine, then we come to know Christ, following Him. In this way we love Lord Jesus. This is the faith by which we receive the Spirit of Christ.
John 14:15-17. 23 (WEB) 15
If you love me, keep my commandments. 16 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: 17
the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him.
You know him, for he lives with you, and
will be in you… 23 Jesus answered him, “
If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and
we will come to him, and
make our home with him.
Faith includes repentance (
Acts 20:18-21), which is a change of mind and heart after learning the Gospel by which we convert - a commitment to die to (
Romans 6), renounce (
Luke 14:33-35), put off (
Ephesians 4:22-24;
Colossians 3:8-11), and crucify (
Galatians 5:24-25) the old master of selfish ambitions and then submitting ourselves to God in sanctification to God (
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8;
1 Peter 1:13-25), following Lord Jesus into a life of righteousness and love (
Galatians 5:13-25).
1 John 2:4-6 (WEB) 4 One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him. 5 But God’s love has most certainly been perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know that we are in him: 6 he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.
Galatians 5:24-25 (WEB)
24 Those who
belong to Christ have
crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. 25
If we live by the Spirit,
let us also walk by the Spirit.
John 10:26-28 (WEB) 26 But you don’t
believe because you are not of my sheep, as I told you. 27
My sheep hear (
listen) my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me. 28 I give eternal life to
them (
the believing sheep who listen to and follow Lord Jesus).
They will never perish, and no one will snatch
them out of my hand.
Therefore, those who claim to believe in Jesus but then are tempted and then continue deliberately living in sin show by their actions that they have rejected Christ as Lord, to follow the sin or sins they now serve as lord.
Matthew 10:38 (WEB) 38 He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Luke 9:62 (WEB) “No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”
Revelation 3:16 (WEB) So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.
Hebrews 10:24-30 (WEB) 24
Let us consider how to provoke one another
to love and good works, 25 not forsaking
our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. 26
For, [a conjunction that connects the previous thought to that which follows] if WE deliberately keep on sinning after
we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. 28 A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. 29
How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing
the blood of the covenant
that sanctified them, and who has
insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For
we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge
{{His}} people.”
Hebrews 12:25 (WEB) 25 See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth,
how much more will
we not escape who
turn away from him who warns from heaven
Hebrews 3:13-15 (WEB) 13 but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be
hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For
WE have become
partakers of Christ,
IF WE hold the beginning of OUR confidence firm to the end, 15 while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as in
the rebellion.” [
Psalm 95:7-8]
Hebrews 4:11 (WEB) 11 Let
us therefore give diligence to enter into that
Rest, lest anyone
fall after the
same example of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:1 (WEB) Let
us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have
come short of a
promise of
entering into his Rest.
Blessings
