Faith? Is it intellectual assent? Or a fruit of Salvation?

[1689Dave]

Luther? Every time I'd mention his name people would impulsively reply "justified by faith", not really knowing what He taught. It became a "buzzword" that would make you a member of the club.

But only one faith exists. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” Ephesians 4:5 (KJV 1900)

Believing with the flesh? Saving faith is a fruit of the Holy Spirit one must first have before faith can exist in the heart. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,” Galatians 5:22 (KJV 1900)

“For it has been granted to you not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him,” (Philippians 1:29)

But what about Mental Assent? It is based on free will. It is "a decision to believe with the flesh", or a decision "not to resist" with the flesh. But the nature of Biblical Faith provides both the substance and evidence of salvation in the heart. It's an experience! If you must choose to believe, it is because you don't believe. And in this case, "faith" is nothing more than a work of the flesh that cannot save.

 

[1689Dave]

Luther on why the will is not free.

Paul teaches, Rom. vii. and Gal. v., that there is in the saints, and in the godly, so powerful a warfare between the spirit and the flesh, that they cannot do what they would. From this warfare I argue thus:

If the nature of man be so evil, even in those who are born again of the Spirit, that it does not only not endeavour after good, but is even averse to, and militates against good, how should it endeavour after good in those who are not born again of the Spirit, and who are still in the "old man," and serve under Satan?

Nor does Paul there speak of the ’grosser affections’ only, but he enumerates among the works of the flesh heresy, idolatry, contentions, and divisions, which he describes as reigning in those most exalted faculties; that is, in the reason and the will.

If therefore, flesh with these affections war against the Spirit in the saints, much more will it war against God in the ungodly, and in "Free-will." Hence, in Rom. viii. 7, he calls it "enmity against God." I should like, I say, to see this argument of mine overturned, and "Free-will" defended against it.



Martin Luther The Bondage of the Will.