Jonathan Edwards on the nature of saving faith
Essentially trust that grasps Christ
Upon the whole, the best, and clearest, and most perfect definition of justifying faith, and most according to the Scripture, that I can think of, is this, faith is the soul's entirely embracing the revelation of Jesus Christ as our Saviour.
THE POSITION
Faith is one act of the whole soul receiving Christ, not a compound assembled from parts: "the whole soul according and assenting to the truth, and embracing of it ... with the belief, and with the inclination and affection." Assent alone is not it — "there may be a strong belief of divine things in the understanding, and yet no saving faith." Religious Affections is the long form of the same question, and answers it three ways: by the kind of influence at work, by the object it perceives (the moral beauty of divine things, not the natural good in them that self-love can also love), and by the practice it produces.
3 Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
9 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
New England pastor, revival theologian and philosopher of the First Great Awakening, dismissed from his Northampton pulpit in 1750 over who may come to the Lord's Table. This entry rests on Freedom of the Will (1754), Original Sin (1758), Religious Affections (1746), An Humble Inquiry (1749), Distinguishing Marks (1741), Some Thoughts on the Revival (1742), An Humble Attempt (1747) and A History of the Work of Redemption, read in the Hickman edition.
Cite this page
"Jonathan Edwards on the nature of saving faith", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/edwards/saving-faith (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/edwards/saving-faith).