What Is Saving Faith in Jesus Christ?

January 7, 2026/BCL/
Photo Credit: Fadyukhin / iStock.com

Photo Credit: Fadyukhin / iStock.com

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Every Christian should have a robust understanding of the meaning of saving faith in Jesus Christ. Here are seven helpful quotes on faith from trusted theologians along with related Scripture passages:

1. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is God’s gift from beginning to end.

“I need not torment myself with the fear that my faith may fail; as grace led me to faith in the first place, so grace will keep me believing to the end. Faith, both in its origin and continuance, is a gift of grace (see Phil 1:29).” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God [InterVarsity Press, 2023], 136)

Related Bible Verses:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake. (Philippians 1:29)

2. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is grounded in historical events, not subjective experience.

“The apostle Paul did not say that the most important stuff in religion is true regardless of whether Christ was raised; on the contrary, he insisted that if Christ was not raised, then our faith is futile, we are still in our sins, we have lied about God, and “we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:12–19). There is nothing left of Christianity if Christ has not been raised and, consequently, no reason at all to be religious. The Christian faith is based not on faith—that is, on the subjective religiosity and sincerity of pious individuals—but on historical events of saving significance.” (Michael Horton, “Is Faith What We Do to Be Saved?“)

Related Bible Verses:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us… that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4)

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

3. Spirit-wrought saving faith trusts in God’s promises in Jesus Christ.

“When the Bible speaks of faith, it generally refers to faith as an activity of man, though born of the work of the Holy Spirit. Saving faith may be defined as a certain conviction, wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, as to the truth of the gospel, and a hearty reliance (trust) on the promises of God in Christ.” (Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology [Eerdmans, 1996], 503)

Related Bible Verses:

No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

4. Faith saves only as it unites us to Jesus Christ, in whom all saving power resides.

“It is to be remembered that the efficacy of faith does not reside in itself. Faith is not something that merits the favor of God. All the efficacy unto salvation resides in the Savior. As one has aptly and truly stated the case, it is not faith that saves but faith in Jesus Christ; strictly speaking, it is not even faith in Christ that saves but Christ that saves through faith. Faith unites us to Christ in the bonds of abiding attachment and entrustment and it is this union which insures that the saving power, grace, and virtue of the Savior become operative in the believer. The specific character of faith is that it looks away from itself and finds its whole interest and object in Christ. He is the absorbing preoccupation of faith.” (John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied [Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2015], 117-118)

Related Bible Verses:

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:5)

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7)

5. Saving faith in Jesus Christ never exists apart from repentance.

“Repentance does not precede faith in an individual’s coming to Christ. At the end of the day we cannot divide faith and repentance chronologically. The true Christian believes penitently, and he repents believingly.” (Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ [Crossway, 2016], 104)

Related Bible Verses:

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

“…how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:20-21)

6. Repentance flows from faith’s sight of Jesus Christ.

“If repentance be the emptying of the soul by the dropping of the tears of godly sorrow, it is faith that generates them in the heart. It is faith that melts the hard heart, which droppeth in repentance. The eye of faith fixes on God in Christ, and then the soul turns to him by repentance, Jer. iii. 22.” (Thomas Boston, Repentance [Titus Books, 2014])

Related Bible Verses:

“Return, O faithless children; I will heal your faithlessness.” (Jeremiah 3:22)

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:37-38)

7. The smallest spark of faith in Jesus Christ truly beholds God’s grace and grows in clarity and assurance.

“The whole, then, comes to this: As soon as the minutest particle of faith is instilled into our minds, we begin to behold the face of God placid, serene, and propitious; far off, indeed, but still so distinctly as to assure us that there is no delusion in it. In proportion to the progress we afterwards make (and the progress ought to be uninterrupted), we obtain a nearer and surer view, the very continuance making it more familiar to us.” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.2.19)

Related Bible Verses:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13)