jonwoodyard

Saving faith is classically conceived as knowledge (notitia), assent (assensus), and trust (fiducia). The mind apprehends the knowledge of the facts of the Gospel. We cannot believe in Him whom we have not heard (Rom 10:17). Faith recognizes and understands the truths of the Gospel: man’s sinfulness and inability to save Himself; the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, as God and Man, perfectly suited to be the Mediator between God and men; and His life, death, and resurrection in the place of sinners who trust in Him alone for forgiveness and righteousness. The heart then gives glad assent to these facts. It’s one thing to understand them; it’s another to wholeheartedly and warmly embrace them, as if receiving them into your very soul. “With the heart a person believes” (Rom 10:10). The will then casts the entire soul upon Jesus, trusting Him and entrusting oneself to Him, relying utterly upon Him alone for the forgiveness of sins and a record of righteousness, which will satisfy the justice of God and will righteously admit the sinner into the presence of the Holy God. The will removes any confidence in one’s own flesh (Phil 3:3), and puts all its trust for salvation in Christ alone (Phil 3:7-8). All this is to say, saving faith requires the proper working of the human soul with all its faculties: the mind, heart, and will. But what is the state of the human soul in its natural state as a result of the fall? The mind has become futile and the understanding darkened, so that man is completely characterized by spiritual ignorance (Eph 4:17-18). Saving faith requires the understanding of the truth, but “there is none who understands” (Rom 3:11). In fact, the natural man.. “cannot understand...the things of the Spirit of God,” because “they are foolishness to him” (1 Cor 2:14). The heart is a heart of stone (Ezek 11:19; 36:26), cold and unresponsive to divine truth. It is more deceitful and all else and desperately sick (Jer 17:9). The heart of the natural man produces every evil thing (Mark 7:21-23). And though the light shines ever so brightly in the eyes of the natural man’s heart, he will always and ever refuse it, because he loves darkness rather than the light (John 3:19-21). The will of the natural man is enslaved to sin (John 8:34; Rom 6:16-20; 2 Pet 2:19)—not in the sense that man is coerced to sin against his will; our slavery is worse than that. The will is so enslaved to sin that it loves its chains. It delights in the manure pile of sin and turns in disgust from the pure streams of righteousness. Man is free is to do as he likes, but he is not free to like as he ought. He is enslaved to sin. Now, if (a) saving faith requires the proper working of the the mind, heart, and will, and if (b) the mind, heart, and will of the natural man is darkened, hardened, and enslaved, so that it is truly morally incapable of working properly, then (c) it is impossible for the natural man to exercise saving faith. He must first become a supernatural man, or a spiritual man. He must be born of the Spirit (John 3:6). His mind must be enlightened (2 Cor 4:6), his heart of stone must be replaced with a heart of flesh (Ezek 36:26), and his will must be freed (Rom 6:17-18)—all by a force outside of himself. This is the work of God alone, who causes man to be born again (1 Pet 1:3) in the exercise of His will (Jas 1:18). Saving faith is the gift of God, the immediate fruit of the regeneration of the human mind, heart, and will, which He bestows sovereignly upon whom He wills (John 3:8).

Fun question: what John Piper book most shaped you? For me, "Desiring God" was big. But "Future Grace" left the deepest mark on me. I think about its message weekly, sometimes daily. God has promised to show grace to his people, so I can trust that he will. He is so very good.

My new book is titled "Mere Complementarianism." @SBTS already has copies for sale in the bookstore, even though the release date isn't until July 14. You can pre-order a copy now through Amazon or wherever you buy books. See Amazon link in thread below.

John Piper last week to writers (6/22): “If you’re a writer, you write. Period. You don’t publish. That’s neither here nor there. You might. Or you might not. If you’re a writer, you write. And one reason you write is that you cannot *not* write. And one of the reasons for that is because you find it so *something*. For me, it is so *illumining*. It’s discovery. There are eyes in your pencil. There are eyes in your keyboard. I don’t *see* until I try to *say*.”