Theological term
Fiducia
2 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 14 - Of Saving Faith
Saving faith is the gracious gift of the Holy Spirit, worked in the hearts of the elect through the ministry of the Word, enabling them to trust in Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. This study of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 14 distinguishes true saving faith from temporary or false faith, establishes that faith is built on knowledge rather than religious emotion or experience, and traces the three classical elements of faith — notitia, assensus, and fiducia — while guarding against both the mysticism that smuggles emotion into the essence of faith and the rationalism that mistakes bare intellectual assent for it. The practical burden throughout is that the proper object of saving faith is Christ and his work alone, and that assurance, while distinct from faith itself, grows through the appointed means of grace.
Justification by Faith Alone
Hebrews 11:1–3 defines faith not as wishful thinking but as an absolute, rock-solid certainty in the promises of God — the present essence of a future reality. Beginning with the historical crisis of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521, this exposition traces the Reformation recovery of sola fide through the three classical components of saving faith drawn from the Reformers: notitia (knowledge of the gospel facts), assensus (intellectual assent to those facts), and fiducia (personal trust placed in Christ alone). The sermon argues that justification by faith alone has been God's singular means of saving his people across all of redemptive history, from Abraham through the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. Hearers are urged to examine whether they have moved beyond mere knowledge and agreement to genuine trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ.