1. How the Spirit Unites Us to Christ
1. The Spirit Makes Christ’s Benefits Ours
We must now consider how we obtain the blessings God bestowed on his only-begotten Son, to enrich the poor and needy rather than for his private use. First, while we remain apart from Christ, nothing he suffered or did for humanity’s salvation benefits us in the least. To share his Father’s blessings with us, he must become ours and dwell within us.
He is therefore called our Head and firstborn among many brothers. Conversely, we are said to be grafted into him and clothed with him (Eph 4:15; Rom 6:5; Rom 11:17; Rom 8:29; Gal 3:27). Everything he possesses is nothing to us until we become one with him. We obtain this through faith. Yet everyone does not indiscriminately accept the Gospel’s offer of Christ. The matter’s very nature therefore directs us higher, to investigate the Spirit’s hidden power through which we enjoy Christ and all his blessings.
I discussed the Spirit’s eternal essence and divinity in Book 1, chapter 13, sections 14 and 15. Here we should consider particularly that Christ came through water and blood, with the Spirit testifying about him, so that we might not lose his purchased salvation’s benefits. As three witnesses are named in heaven, the Father, Word, and Spirit, three also exist on earth: water, blood, and Spirit. The Spirit’s testimony is mentioned twice for good reason. Engraved on our hearts as a seal, it seals Christ’s cleansing and sacrifice.
Peter therefore calls believers “elect” “through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:2). For Christ’s sacred shed blood not to be in vain, the Holy Spirit’s secret cleansing must wash our souls in it. Discussing cleansing and purification, Paul likewise says “but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). In substance, the Holy Spirit is the bond through which Christ effectively binds us to himself. What the previous book said about his anointing also applies here.
2. The Spirit of Christ Gives Heavenly Life
To understand this vital subject more clearly, remember that Christ received the Holy Spirit in a special manner: to separate us from the world and unite us in hope of an eternal inheritance. The Spirit is therefore called the Spirit of sanctification. He enlivens and nurtures us through more than the general power displayed in humanity and other animals. He is heavenly life’s seed and root within us.
Among the prophets’ highest praises of Christ’s kingdom is the Spirit’s richer outpouring under it. Joel gives a remarkable passage: “It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28). Though seemingly limiting the gifts to prophecy, he figuratively indicates that the Spirit’s illumination would provide God with disciples previously entirely ignorant of heavenly teaching.
God gives us the Holy Spirit for his Son’s sake, depositing him in all fullness with the Son to administer and distribute his generosity. He is therefore called both the Father’s Spirit and the Son’s Spirit: “Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom 8:9). Paul then encourages hope of complete renewal: “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom 8:11). We can consistently give the Father glory as the gifts’ author and Christ glory as their holder and giver to his people. Christ therefore invites everyone thirsty to come and drink (John 7:37). Paul teaches “unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Eph 4:7).
The Spirit is Christ’s Spirit both because God’s eternal Word is united with the Father and Spirit and because of his office as Mediator. Without the Spirit’s power, he would have come to us in vain. He is accordingly called the “last Adam,” sent from heaven as “a quickening Spirit” (1 Cor 15:45). Paul contrasts the particular life Christ breathes into his people, uniting them to himself, with the creaturely life shared even by the rejected.
Likewise, praying that believers possess “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,” Paul adds “the communion of the Holy Ghost.” Without this, no one ever tastes God’s fatherly favor or Christ’s benefits. Elsewhere he says “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us” (Rom 5:5).
3. His Titles Describe Our Renewal and Union
Consider Scripture’s titles for the Spirit when describing salvation’s beginning and complete renewal. First, he is the “Spirit of adoption.” He testifies to the free favor through which the Father embraced us in his beloved, only-begotten Son, becoming our Father and granting bold access. He even supplies our words so we boldly cry “Abba, Father.”
He is also said to have “sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” Pilgrims in the world, in a sense dead, we receive life from above, assuring us that a faithful God safely keeps our salvation. Hence the Spirit is “life because of righteousness.” His hidden watering makes us blossom and bear righteousness’s fruit, so he is repeatedly called water. Isaiah says “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters” and “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” Our Savior similarly says “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.”
Sometimes water describes his cleansing power, as when God promises through Ezekiel “Then will I sprinkle you with clean water, and ye shall be clean.” Those sprinkled by the Spirit regain life’s full strength, giving him the names Oil and Anointing. His continual subduing and destruction of our sinful desires, and kindling our hearts with love for God and godliness, give him the name Fire.
He is also a Fountain supplying every heavenly richness, or the Hand exercising God’s power. Divine inspiration breathes divine life into us. We cease acting from ourselves and are governed by his movement and agency. Every good within us is his grace’s fruit. Without him, our own gifts amount to mental darkness and crooked hearts.
Until our minds attend to the Spirit, Christ is in a sense inactive toward us. We view him coldly, outside and distant from ourselves. He benefits only those for whom he is Head and firstborn among brothers, those clothed with him (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13-14; Rom 8:10; Isa 55:1; Isa 44:3; John 7:37; Ezek 36:25; John 2:14; 1 John 2:20,27; Luke 3:16; Acts 11:21).
This union alone means the Savior has not come in vain for us. It includes the sacred marriage through which we become bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, and one with him (Eph 5:30). The Spirit alone unites him to us. The Spirit’s same grace and power make us his members: he keeps us under him, and we in turn possess him.
4. The Spirit Produces Faith and Opens Understanding
Faith is the Spirit’s principal work. Passages describing his power and activity largely refer to it, since only through faith does he bring us into Gospel light. John teaches that believers in Christ receive the privilege “to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12). Contrasting God with flesh and blood, he calls receiving Christ through faith a supernatural gift to those otherwise remaining unbelievers.
Our Savior’s answer to Peter is similar: “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matt 16:17). I mention this briefly, having considered it fully elsewhere. Paul similarly tells the Ephesians “Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph 1:13). The Spirit is the inward teacher, making salvation’s promise penetrate our minds rather than merely strike air or ears.
He tells the Thessalonians “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess 2:13), briefly reminding them that the Spirit alone produces faith. John explains more distinctly: “We know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us”; and “Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:13). To prepare disciples for heavenly wisdom, Christ promised “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive” (John 14:17), assigning him the particular task of recalling Christ’s spoken teaching.
Light is offered to the blind uselessly unless the Spirit of understanding opens their inward eyes. He may therefore be called the key unlocking heaven’s treasures. His illumination is the mind’s eye enabling sight. Paul accordingly praises the Spirit’s ministry, preaching that brings spiritual enlivening with it (2 Cor 3:6). Teachers’ cries accomplish nothing unless Christ, the inward teacher, draws through his Spirit those the Father gives him.
Salvation is perfected in Christ’s person. To make us share it, he baptizes us “with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16), enlightening us into faith in his Gospel and regenerating us as new creatures. Cleansed from all pollution, we are dedicated as holy temples to the Lord.
2. Faith: Its Nature and Properties
1. Faith Knows God through Christ
These matters become clear through a more precise definition of faith, explaining its nature and power. Recall three earlier teachings. First, God’s law prescribes our duty. Failure in any respect exposes us to its dreadful judgment of eternal death. Second, fulfilling its demands exceeds our strength and ability entirely. Looking only at ourselves and what our merits deserve leaves no hope. We lie abandoned by God under eternal death. Third, only one deliverance rescues us: Christ the Redeemer appears, through whom our heavenly Father’s infinite goodness and mercy help us, if we embrace that mercy with true faith and rest on it with firm hope.
We must therefore examine the faith through which those adopted into God’s family possess heaven’s kingdom. Mere opinion or persuasion plainly cannot accomplish so great a purpose. Today’s many harmful delusions demand particular care. Many hear faith and think only of general agreement with the Gospel history. In the Schools, simply naming God as its object leads to empty speculation. As discussed in Book 2, chapter 6, section 4, this diverts miserable souls from their goal instead of directing them toward it.
God dwells in inaccessible light, so Christ must intervene (1 Tim 6:16). He calls himself “the light of the world” (John 8:12) and “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Only through him can anyone reach the Father, life’s fountain, for “no man knoweth who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him” (Luke 10:22). Paul therefore declares “I count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (1 Cor 2:2). In Acts he says he preached “faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Elsewhere Christ addresses him: “I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness”; “delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee”; “that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified through faith which is in me” (Acts 26:17-18).
Paul further declares God’s glory visibly displayed in Christ’s person, expressed as “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). Faith indeed concerns God alone, but recognizes Jesus Christ whom he sent. God would remain distant and hidden unless Christ’s brightness illuminated us. The Father entrusted everything he had to his only-begotten Son, revealing himself in him and displaying his glory’s true image through shared blessings.
The Spirit must lead and stir us to seek Christ. Remember also that the invisible Father must be sought nowhere except this image. Discussing faith’s object, Augustine aptly says “The thing to be known is, where we are to go, and by what way,” then concludes “the surest way to avoid all errors is to know him who is both God and man. It is to God we tend, and it is by man we go, and both of these are found only in Christ.” We tend toward God and are conducted to him through Christ’s humanity. Paul’s preaching of faith toward God surely does not overturn his repeated teaching that faith finds all its stability in Christ. Peter fittingly joins both, saying that through Christ “we believe in God” (1 Pet 1:21).
2. Faith Requires Knowledge, Not Blind Submission
This evil, like countless others, comes from the Schoolmen, the theologians of the Sorbonne. They have effectively veiled Christ. Unless our eyes turn directly to him, we wander endlessly through labyrinths. Their obscure definition damages faith almost to extinction. They also invented implicit faith, decorating gross ignorance with this name and fatally deceiving the miserable populace. More plainly, their invention entirely destroys true faith rather than merely burying it.
Is understanding nothing and blindly submitting convictions to the Church faith? Faith consists in knowledge, rather than ignorance: knowledge of God’s will as well as God himself. Salvation comes neither from readiness to accept every church pronouncement as true nor from leaving inquiry and decision to the Church. It comes when we recognize God as a favorable Father through Christ’s reconciliation, and Christ as given for righteousness, sanctification, and life. This knowledge, rather than surrendering understanding, opens heaven’s kingdom.
The apostle says “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom 10:10). Believing implicitly without understanding or inquiry is insufficient. We need explicit recognition of divine goodness, in which our righteousness consists.
3. Ignorance Cannot Become Faith through a Condition
Our ignorance leaves many things entirely obscure now and until we lay aside flesh’s burden and draw closer to God. In such matters, suspending judgment and resolving to maintain church unity is best. Yet calling ignorance mixed with humility faith on this pretext is absurd. Faith knows God and Christ rather than merely reverencing the Church (John 17:3).
Their implicit faith creates a labyrinth. Ignorant people accept everything without distinction as divine declarations, even monstrous errors, if prescribed under the Church’s name. This thoughtless readiness provides destruction’s surest precipice. Yet they excuse it as believing nothing definitely, only conditionally if the Church believes it. They pretend to discover truth in error, light in darkness, and knowledge in ignorance.
Further refutation is unnecessary: compare their views with ours, and truth’s clarity supplies the answer. They are not asking whether implicit faith can coexist with much remaining ignorance. They claim that people living in, even indulging, stupid ignorance rightly believe if they accept church authority and judgment about the unknown. Yet Scripture uniformly joins understanding to faith.
4. True Faith Can Remain Incompletely Understood
We grant that faith remains implicit during our earthly pilgrimage. Much remains hidden, and error’s mists prevent full attainment. Even the most mature person’s highest wisdom is to move forward calmly and teachably. Paul urges believers differing on any matter to await further illumination (Phil 3:15).
The source edition adds an observation attributed to Augustine, without identifying the note’s contributor: “If Christ died for those only who are able to discern these things with true understanding, our labor in the Church is almost in vain.”
Experience shows our attainments falling short while we remain in flesh. Daily reading presents obscure passages exposing our ignorance. God restrains our pride this way, assigning each a measure of faith so even an excellent teacher remains willing to learn.
Christ’s disciples before fuller illumination offer striking examples. They struggled with elementary teaching, hesitated over tiny matters, and made little progress despite hanging on their Master’s lips. Even after the women’s report sent them running to the grave, his resurrection seemed a dream. Christ had already testified to their faith, so they did not lack it entirely. Without confidence that he would rise, all their zeal would have vanished.
Nor did superstition lead the women to prepare spices for a body they never expected to revive. They believed one they knew was truthful. Yet remaining ignorance darkened faith and left them astonished. They are said to believe when events show his words’ truth, because faith’s hidden seed, seemingly dead in their hearts, burst into vigor rather than beginning then.
Their faith was true but implicit. They reverently accepted Christ as sole teacher. His instruction assured them he was salvation’s author. They believed he came from heaven to gather disciples and take them there through the Father’s grace. Nothing demonstrates this more familiarly than faith’s mingling with unbelief in everyone.
5. Readiness to Learn Is Faith’s Beginning
We can also call their faith implicit as preparation for faith. The Evangelists describe many as believers although miracles merely roused their admiration. They believed Christ the promised Messiah without learning Gospel doctrine. The reverence subduing them and producing willing submission is honored as faith, though only its beginning.
The nobleman believing his son’s promised cure is said to believe again on returning home (John 4:53). First he accepted Christ’s words as a divine answer; afterward he submitted to Christ’s authority and received his teaching. He was already teachable and willing to learn. Yet the first believed denotes particular faith, while the later occurrence places him among disciples devoted to Christ.
John’s Samaritans similarly believed the woman and hurried eagerly to Christ, then said after hearing him “Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). Even those lacking the first principles are called believers if willing to obey. Strictly this name is premature, but God kindly grants their godly disposition such honor.
This teachability and desire for progress differ greatly from the gross ignorance indulged by those content with Papist implicit faith. Paul severely condemns people “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” How much more sharply should those openly choosing to know nothing be rebuked!
6. Faith Is Inseparable from God’s Word
Truly knowing Christ means receiving him as the Father offers him, clothed with his Gospel. As faith’s appointed goal, he can be approached directly only under Gospel guidance. It unfolds grace’s treasures; left closed, they would make Christ benefit us little. Paul therefore joins faith inseparably to teaching: “Ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph 4:20-21).
I do not restrict faith to the Gospel so as to deny that Moses and the prophets supplied a sufficient foundation. But the Gospel reveals Christ more fully, and Paul rightly calls it faith’s teaching (1 Tim 4:6). Elsewhere he says faith’s arrival abolished the law (Rom 10:4), referring to a new, unfamiliar manner of teaching. Appearing as the great Teacher, Christ illustrated his Father’s mercy more fully and testified more certainly to salvation.
Moving from the general to the particular makes this clearer. Faith and the word relate inseparably, like sunlight’s rays and the sun. God says through Isaiah “Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa 55:3). John identifies the same fountain: “These are written that ye might believe” (John 20:31). Urging faith, the Psalmist says “To-day, if ye will hear his voice” (Ps 95:7), hearing consistently standing for believing. Isaiah distinguishes the Church’s members from outsiders: “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord” (Isa 54:13). Why address only a few if the benefit were indiscriminate?
The Evangelists likewise use believers and disciples interchangeably, particularly Luke in Acts. He even calls a woman a disciple (Acts 9:36). Faith departing even slightly from its proper goal loses its character, becoming uncertain credulity and aimless thought. The word supports and sustains it. Departing from the word, it falls; remove the word, and no faith remains.
We are not deciding here whether spreading God’s faith-producing word requires human ministry. That comes elsewhere. However conveyed, the word is a mirror in which faith sees God. Whether using human agents or working directly, God always reveals himself by his word to those he intends to draw to himself.
Paul calls faith the obedience given to the Gospel (Rom 1:5) and praises the Philippians’ obedience of faith (Phil 2:17). Faith knows that God exists, but also, principally, perceives his will toward us. We need to know both what he is in himself and how he chooses to reveal himself to us.
Faith therefore knows God’s will toward us from his word, resting on prior conviction of his truthfulness. Doubting the word’s certainty leaves its authority weak and uncertain, indeed nonexistent. Knowing God truthful and incapable of deception is insufficient unless we firmly believe every word from him sacred, inviolable truth.
7. Faith Rests on the Free Promise of Mercy
Every divine word does not produce faith in human hearts, so what does faith particularly regard in the word? God told Adam “Thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17) and Cain “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” (Gen 4:10). These shake faith rather than establish it. We grant that faith must acknowledge God’s truth whenever, whatever, and however he speaks. We ask only what in his word provides faith’s resting place.
Seeing nothing but anger, conscience necessarily trembles and fears. It shrinks from the God it dreads. Yet faith should seek God rather than avoid him. Our definition is therefore incomplete: not every knowledge of divine will deserves faith’s name. Should we replace will, often announcing disaster and terror, with God’s kindness or mercy? This certainly approaches faith’s character more closely.
Learning that God holds our safety attracts us to seek him. His declared care for our welfare confirms us. We need the gracious promise testifying that he is a favorable Father. This alone enables approach and supports the heart. Psalms consequently join mercy and truth as mutually connected. Knowing his truthfulness would accomplish nothing unless his mercy attracted us. We could not embrace mercy ourselves unless he expressly offered it.
“I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth. Withhold not thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me” (Ps 40:10-11). “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds” (Ps 36:5). “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies” (Ps 25:10). “His merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever” (Ps 117:2). “I will praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and thy truth” (Ps 138:2). Quoting the prophets’ testimony to his merciful, faithful promises is unnecessary. Presuming God favorable without his own testimony and preceding invitation would be arrogant. That invitation leaves no doubt about his will.
Christ alone pledges love. Apart from him, everything above and below speaks of hatred and anger. Knowing divine goodness matters little unless it produces trust, so we exclude wavering, doubtful knowledge. Yet the blinded, darkened mind cannot attain proper knowledge of divine will, and the perpetually doubtful heart cannot rest securely. The mind needs enlightenment and the heart confirmation from another source to trust God’s word fully.
We can now define faith completely: firm, certain knowledge of God’s favor toward us, founded on a free promise’s truth in Christ, revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This definition is explained in this chapter’s sections 14, 15, 28, 29, 32, 33, and 31.
8. Faith Cannot Be Separated from Godly Affection
Before continuing, we must remove possible obstacles. First comes the Schoolmen’s worthless distinction between formed and unformed faith. Its refutation appears in the middle of sections 41, 42, and 43, showing that faith produces hope and love and cannot be separated from them.
They imagine people without fear of God or godliness believing everything necessary for salvation, as though the Holy Spirit did not testify to adoption by enlightening our hearts to faith. Despite Scripture’s unanimous opposition, they dogmatically call persuasion without fear of God faith. Simply stating its scriptural nature shows how foolishly they babble on the subject. I have partly done so and will add the remainder in its place.
Nothing could be more absurd than their invention. They call faith an assent by which any despiser of God receives Scripture’s teaching. First ask whether anyone acquires faith through personal strength, or whether the Spirit uses it to witness adoption. Childishly, they ask whether faith formed by an added quality of love remains the same or becomes new and different. They plainly have never considered the Spirit’s special gift. Faith’s first elements include reconciliation through approaching God.
Paul says “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Rom 10:10). Proper reflection would end their dream of this cold quality. One point settles the dispute: assent concerns heart and affection more than head and intellect. It is therefore called “the obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5), preferred by the Lord to every other service. Nothing is more precious to him than his truth, which believers, as John the Baptist declares, effectively sign and seal (John 3:33).
They absurdly make godly affection an addition forming faith, when scriptural assent itself consists in godly affection. An even clearer argument is available. Faith embraces Christ as the Father offers him. He offers him for sanctification as living waters’ fountain, as well as justification, forgiveness, and peace. No one truly knows Christ without receiving the Spirit’s sanctification. Faith knows Christ; knowing him requires sanctification by his Spirit; therefore faith cannot be separated from godly affection.
9. Miraculous Faith Is Distinct from Saving Faith
To strip faith of love, they cite Paul: “Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing” (1 Cor 13:2). They overlook what faith means there. Discussing varied spiritual gifts, including languages, miracles, and prophecy (1 Cor 12:10), Paul urged better gifts benefiting the whole Church. Then he added “Yet show I unto you a more excellent way” (1 Cor 12:30).
However excellent, other gifts are worthless unless serving love. Given to build the Church, they fail their purpose otherwise. Paul demonstrates this by listing the earlier gifts under different names. Miracles and faith both denote miraculous power. This particular divine gift, like languages, prophecy, and other gifts, can belong to and be abused by wicked people. Separating it from love is unsurprising.
Their error treats faith as invariably meaning one thing despite its varied meanings. James’s passage, which they also use, will be discussed in chapter 17, section 11. We acknowledge faith’s varied forms, but when defining wicked people’s knowledge of God, we maintain scripturally that only the godly possess faith.
Many believe God exists and accept the Gospel history and other Scripture as they accept historical records or events personally witnessed. Others go further, treating God’s word as infallible, partly attending to its commands and responding somewhat to threats and promises. They are called faithful only in an extended sense. Rather than openly rejecting or despising the word with impiety, they display some appearance of obedience.
10. Apparent Faith Can Deceive Its Possessor
This shadow or image of faith is worthless and does not deserve the name. We will explain its difference from true faith more fully shortly. For now, consider Simon Magus, said to believe though soon demonstrating unbelief (Acts 8:13-18). Contrary to some interpretations, we do not think he merely pretended belief absent from his heart. Overcome by the Gospel’s majesty, he gave some assent, acknowledging Christ as life’s and salvation’s author enough to adopt his name willingly.
Luke similarly describes temporary believers whose word-seed is choked before fruiting or withers for lack of soil’s depth. They eagerly receive the word with some enjoyment and sense its divine power. Their false appearance of faith deceives themselves as well as others. They mistake reverence for genuine godliness, recognizing impiety only in open, declared contempt.
Whatever this assent is, it never penetrates to find a lasting seat in the heart. Sometimes it seems rooted, but those roots lack life. Human hearts contain so many hiding places for vanity and falsehood, covered by deceit and hypocrisy, that they frequently deceive themselves.
Those boasting in such appearances are no better than devils. Some are worse: they hear and understand without emotion what makes devils tremble (James 2:19). Others equal them: whatever impression is made produces only terror and alarm.
11. Temporary Belief Differs from Adoption’s Assurance
Some cannot understand attributing faith to the rejected when Paul calls it election’s fruit (1 Thess 1:3-4; 2 Thess 2:13; Tit 1). The difficulty is easily resolved. Only those appointed beforehand to salvation are enlightened into faith and truly experience the Gospel’s power. Yet rejected people sometimes feel something so like the elect’s experience that they themselves see no difference.
The apostle therefore attributes a taste of heavenly gifts to them, and Christ temporary faith. They do not truly perceive spiritual grace’s power or faith’s sure light. To convict them more fully and leave no excuse, the Lord gives them a sense of goodness possible without adoption’s Spirit.
Does this leave believers without stronger testimony to adoption? Despite close resemblance to temporary, fading faith, only God’s elect possess Paul’s praised full assurance, enabling their cry, Abba, Father. God regenerates only the elect forever by imperishable seed. Once sown, life’s seed never dies in their hearts. He effectively seals adoption’s grace within them, making it certain and steadfast. This does not exclude an inferior work of the Spirit in the rejected.
Meanwhile, believers must examine themselves carefully and humbly, preventing fleshly complacency from replacing faith’s assurance. The rejected have only a confused sense of grace, grasping its shadow rather than substance. The Spirit properly seals forgiveness only in the elect, applying it personally through particular faith.
The rejected may correctly be said to believe God favorable, accepting reconciliation’s gift confusedly and without proper discernment. They do not share God’s children’s faith or regeneration. Under hypocrisy’s covering, they seem to share faith’s foundation. God even enlightens their minds to recognize grace. Yet unlike his elect’s particular testimony, this conviction never reaches full result or enjoyment.
Appearing favorable does not mean God actually rescued them from death and protected them. He merely shows present mercy, in fits and starts. Only the elect receive faith’s living root and persevere to the end. The objection that true displays of grace must last forever is thus answered. God can enlighten some with a present sense of grace that later disappears.
12. The Elect’s Seal Endures through Weakness and Fear
Faith knows God’s favor and fully trusts its truth. Yet a similar but very different sense of divine love can vanish in temporarily affected people. God’s will is immutable and his truth consistent. Nevertheless, the rejected never penetrate the hidden revelation Scripture reserves for the elect. They neither understand his will as immutable nor steadily embrace truth, remaining satisfied with a fleeting impression.
A shallowly planted tree may take root and produce leaves, flowers, even fruit for years before withering. Adam’s revolt erased God’s image from his mind and soul. God can likewise shed rays of grace on the rejected and later let them fade. He may give some slight Gospel knowledge and thoroughly imbue others.
However weak the elect’s faith, God’s Spirit securely pledges and seals adoption. Its engraved impression can never leave their hearts. The rejected’s glimmering light is extinguished. Section 13 explains that calling this latter impression faith is improper. The Spirit does not deceive by failing to enliven their seed so it remains imperishable like the elect’s.
Scripture and daily experience show the rejected sometimes sensing grace. Some desire to return God’s love must follow. For a time, Saul’s godly feeling inclined him to love God. Perceiving fatherly kindness attracted him somewhat. Yet the rejected lack rooted conviction of this love. They respond with self-interested affection rather than children’s love.
The Spirit of love was given to Christ alone expressly to share with his members. Paul’s words undoubtedly apply only to the elect: “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom 5:5). This love produces the prayerful confidence already discussed.
Conversely, God is mysteriously displeased with his children while still loving them. He does not hate them. He alarms them with his anger to humble fleshly pride, awaken them, and urge repentance. They simultaneously feel his anger toward themselves or their sins and his favor toward their persons. Their fear when asking him to avert anger is real, yet they approach with peaceful confidence.
