5/4/12- Justifying Faith

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”^[d] that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: ⁹ That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. ¹¹ As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”(Romans 10:8-10). 

LC Q. 72- What is Justifying Faith?
A: Justifying faith is a saving grace, worked in the heart of a sinner, by the Spirit and the Word of God; whereby being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assents to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.

(Barth says faith is finding yourself asleep on your mother's lap).

Thoughts: Faith is knowledge and trust.  Faith is knowing God and putting our confidence in Him.  Calvin talked of faith as "Knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise of Christ."  Faith has to have an object.  God is the object of our faith.  Christians put their confidence and trust in a benevolent and just God.  In that faith is knowledge, it involves assent.  In that faith is trust, it involves receiving and resting in Christ's work for our salvation. Karl Barth described the trust part of faith as "the simple discovery of the child which finds itself in the father's house and on the mother's lap."
It is one thing to have faith without an object.  But "Just Believe" is meaningless and baseless optimism without God. But faith is not just believing that there is a God out there somewhere.  James says even the demons believe in God.  But the demons do not trust in God (rather they rebel against Him).  Faith involves trusting in God.  Relying, falling- back-on God; believing He will catch us when we fall.

Prayer: Lord, help me to see my need to rely on you.  Give me grace to trust you more.