Faith Embraces the Favor - Institutes of Christian Religion Part 10

John Calvin:

"We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favour toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit." The Institutes of Christian Religion, 475.

Faith sees and receives God's favor for sinners in Christ. Faith is not simply understanding that the doctrines of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus happened. Demons understand that cognitively. It is embracing that what God has done in Christ is for you--for me. This kind of faith, in Calvin's words, "cannot possibly be disjoined from pious affection" (476). Faith informs the mind of the truth of what God has done in Jesus and affects the heart with the reality of God's undeserved favor and love.