The same illustration that shows how our sin can be transferred to Jesus Christ can also show how his righteousness is transferred to us. When Barnhouse did it, he used the Bible–a far better illustration of righteousness than a hymnbook. He said, "The righteousness of Jesus Christ is placed upon us. And now as God looks at us, he sees us as if we were as righteous as Jesus."

This verse also talks about faith. But what exactly is faith? There are a lot of misunderstandings of faith and a lot of bizarre definitions. You’ve heard them–"believing what you know ain’t so." Or positive thinking–"I can because I think I can." That is not what faith is according to the Bible. When people talk with any understanding about faith, they usually stress that it has three parts. Some talk about awareness, assent, and commitment. Others speak of knowledge, belief, and trust. In classic Reformed theology–the theology of the Reformation and the post-Reformation–quite often three Latin words were used for it, and these are probably the best. The Latin words are notitia, assensus, and fiducia.

Now the first, notitia, has to do with content. It is the word that has given us our word notice or note. If you send a note to somebody, you’re sending information on a little slip of paper. Or if you post a notice on a bulletin board, it has content. That’s the first thing we have to understand about faith. Faith has content. Nobody is saved by ignorance.

Let me illustrate. There once was a man who was being taken into membership in a local church. When he was being examined by the elders and they asked him what he believed, he said, "I believe what the church believes." It didn’t quite satisfy them, so they pursued it a bit further. They said, "Well, what does the church believe?" He said, "The church believes what I believe." They were getting a bit frustrated at this time, but they phrased a third question. They asked, "Yes, but what do you and the church believe?" That puzzled him for a little bit. He got a frown on his face, and then suddenly he brightened up. And he said, "We believe the same thing." You see, true faith must rest on right knowledge. If it doesn’t, it’s only pious ignorance.

The first task of ministers and teachers in the church is to make sure that people understand the Gospel content. But even that is not saving faith. The second element is that which they describe by the Latin word assensus. That means "assent," personal agreement with the information you hear. Assent is necessary because from a human point of view, you can understand the doctrines of Christianity very well. You can understand them well enough to teach them, but it doesn’t mean you agree with them. And in order to be saved by grace through faith, you have to agree with what God teaches us in Scripture.

When I went to Harvard University studying English literature, I sat under a number of professors who were really very brilliant and learned men. In order to teach English literature, one must understand something about Christian theology. And they did. They could tell you what sin was, what the atonement was, how the Holy Spirit operated, the doctrines of the church, and all those things, but they didn’t believe them. You see, they had notitia, but they didn’t have assensus. And assensus comes at the point at which we agree that these things are really true.

And yet there’s even more to it than this. We’re talking about the character of God, our sin, and the fact that God, because of his love for us, sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross that we might be saved–to bear the price of our salvation. You can’t believe that without being moved in some way. And so when we talk about assensus, we’re not talking only about, "All right, I agree; I guess that’s true." But we’re actually talking about the way the Holy Spirit causes that to sink down into our hearts and bring about a response that is far from a cold, intellectual agreement.

Study Questions

• How is the Latin word notitia a part of faith?

• On what must true faith rest?

• Why is agreeing with Scripture necessary for true faith?

Application

Do you know clearly what you believe? Test yourself by defining it to a Christian whose spiritual knowledge you respect.