There are people who have knowledge of Christianity and can explain Christian truth perfectly well, but they do not believe that it is true. You go to many colleges and they will describe the virgin birth. They will put the doctrine up there on the chalkboard perfectly well. They will talk about penal substitutionary atonement, of salvation by grace alone, the resurrection of Christ—they know it all; they can explain it, but they do not believe that it is true. Faith requires assent; it requires belief.
Saving faith requires a personal commitment. We must know and assent to it and then we must lay hold of it for ourselves. I think our friend Balaam is a good example. His knowledge is remarkable and he believes that it is true. But he will not soften his heart, he will not yield his rebellion. He will not bow as a sinner in need of that saving grace. He did not have faith. We must not merely believe in sin; we must confess that we are sinners. We must not merely assent that Christ is a Saviour; we must raise our hearts to him and make him our Saviour. That is why John Wesley’s ultimate conversion was so credible. You may have noticed that he spoke of my sin, my Saviour, my salvation and so must we. We must not merely assent to truth; we must embrace Jesus Christ and we must trust him. We must rely on God’s promises in him. We must commit our hope of salvation into his pierced hands and under his shed blood.
Saving faith requires the heart as well as the head, as we put it. It involves personal commitment. We give ourselves to Jesus, we take him as our own. I remember very well the night of my conversion, that blessed night. I was thirty years old; I heard the gospel and I was given the grace to believe. I got back to my apartment and knelt on the floor and surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. However that works out in your experience, that surrendering, that yielding of self to Christ, the receiving of Christ as he gives himself to you, is at the ultimate essence of saving faith. Let me ask you: Are you looking for something to believe in? Are you longing for someone to trust? You know, that is really, in many respects, the great issue of our time.1
Dr Richard D. Phillips
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: