Faith vs. Trust: The Question
Okay, faith versus trust. Are they the same? So, if you have fear, does that mean you don't have faith or trust in God? In Matthew, it talks about Jesus and the disciples crossing the lake.
When a storm comes up, they were fearful and woke Jesus up. He said, do you not trust? So yeah, difference between faith and trust. Biblically, I don't see much difference between faith and trust.
The Threefold Schema of Faith
I think a lot of people are operating according to kind of that threefold notion of faith. So you've got assent, which means to believe. propositional revelation, and then there's a belief, sort of, I guess a little more, and then trust, rest your soul upon that. I don't have a problem with that. I'm not convinced that that's, you know, essentially what the Greek New Testament is teaching.
My only concern when it comes to some sort of a difference between belief and trust is throwing a works-oriented nuance on trust. As long as somebody doesn't, you know, well, now I've got to do this to seal the deal. I've got belief. I believe that Jesus lived, died, and was raised again, but now I've really got to hold on to that.
Well, what then has become the saving instrument? Is it you really holding on to it, or is it the truth that Jesus lived, died, and was raised again? So, no problem with that traditional approach. No problem as well with believing the propositions written in the Scripture.
You know, the Scripture tells us, he who believes is saved. And, you know, to load that term belief up with more than what Jesus or the apostles do seems to go astray in my understanding. And it's not healthy for Christians to say, if I have doubt and if I have fear, therefore I must not be truly a believer. Absolutely.
As you see in the New Testament, and even with that example, These disciples, having saving faith, nevertheless feared and doubted. You know, you look at Luke chapter 24 and the account of the resurrected Christ coming to his disciples and teaching them, we see even in that narrative, for joy, some doubted and feared. And so, someone who has faith, someone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, We'll be marked by doubt. We'll be marked by fear.
We're all at different stages in our lives as Christians. Until Christ comes again or we enter into glory, we're going to be marked by different measures of doubt and fear. And that's why God calls us to lean on Him. as our rock. That's why Christ, you know, bids us to constantly come and to avail of His aid, His intercession, and that sort of a thing.
Doubt and Fear in the Believer
So, to be a Christian, to say, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but I have these doubts and these fears. Am I truly a believer? Saying that, acknowledging that, and, you know, engaging in that self-assessment and observation is a good thing. because you recognize your need for Christ, your need for God, and your need for growth in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But yeah, I think we've got to get past this whole idea of, man, I'm struggling with my faith, therefore I'm hellbound.
Again, if it's my grasp on Christ that is the final deal, We're all damned. It's Christ's grasp on us. And of course, there's going to be struggles from time to time. And of course, there's going to be some challenges from time to time.
Weak Faith and Salvation
But, you know, a chiding by our Lord, O you of little faith, It doesn't mean no faith. It doesn't mean depart from me, goat, because you have no interest in me whatsoever. I love what Machen said. Weak faith may not move mountains, but there's one thing weak faith will do.
It'll bring a soul into salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. So by all means, if you've got struggles with faith or you've got weak faith, you know how you deal with that?
Strengthening Weak Faith
You read your Bible more. You learn more scripture, you learn more doctrine, you hide God's Word in your heart. If you're given to worry, you memorize Matthew 6. If you're given to sexual sin, you memorize 1 Peter chapter 2.
You're given to those sorts of things, flood your mind and heart with the scripture that's going to help buoy you and stabilize you so that you can deal with those things.
Perseverance Grounded in God
Amen. And to sing the same song as Jim here, to read from our confession, chapter 17, paragraph 2, our perseverance, the perseverance of the Christian doesn't depend upon the strength of their faith. It doesn't depend upon whether they trust or they have the absence of fear. The paragraph reads,
Confession Study
This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ and union with Him, the oath of God, the abiding of His Spirit, and the seed of God within them. It goes on to speak about the infallibility also of the covenant of grace. So, if someone's doubting and if someone's fearing, they shouldn't be saying, oh man, as Jim said, my grip upon Christ isn't strong enough to keep me in the faith. That's not what perseverance is built upon.
It's built upon the fact that the triune God, from first to last, midst and throughout, has us. And when we doubt and when we fear, we go to Him in prayer. We go to Him, as Jim said, in the reading of the Scriptures. We go to church and we avail of the means of grace.
And by the power of the triune God, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we grow in the grace and in the knowledge of that God. And we'll still have fears, we'll still have doubts, but by God's grace, we grow until we enter into glory.