John Bunyan on Faith in Christ

Heart's Ease in Heart Trouble

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What is it to believe in Christ? For, saith he in John 14:1, “believe also in me.”

It is to believe all that which is revealed in the Holy Scriptures concerning Christ, to believe the record that God hath given of him in his word. To believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God (John 1:18). That he came out from the Father; was made flesh; took upon him our nature; was born of a virgin; lived on earth in the form of a servant, a poor despicable life; preached the gospel, working miracles, &c. That he suffered upon the cross, with all the sins of his people upon his soul and body; that he bore the cross of the law, the wrath of God, which was due to man for sin. That he died a most painful, shameful, and cruel death, dying as a sacrifice, to satisfy God's justice, to atone and pacify his wrath; to make our peace, and to reconcile us to God; that he rose again from the dead, ascended into own, to prepare a place there for his people; that he sitteth at the right hand of God everlasting, to make continual intercession for us; and that he shall come to judge the world at the last day; and while he is absent from us in person here on earth, he promised to send his Spirit the comforter into the world, to convince and convert all those which his Father hath given him, to call them by his word, to quicken, strengthen, establish, comfort, and confirm them, until he come again “to take them to himself, that where he is they may be also” (John 14:1,2).

This is the record that God hath given of his Son, “that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16,36; 20:31). To believe in Christ is to believe all this testimony of him. And also, out of a deep sense of our sin and misery, and sight of Christ's infinite excellency, all-sufficiency, and willingness to save sinners; and upon his call to us in the gospel, to come unto him weary and heavy laden with our sins, heartily willing to accept of the Lord Jesus upon his own terms, to take him for our only Lord, to give up our whole selves, souls and bodies, to his blessed government, by his word and Spirit in all things, and unfeignedly and unreservedly to enter into covenant with him, to become his, and his alone, and his forever; and to rely upon him for life, for grace, and salvation.

As God offers, so faith receives; God offers himself in Christ, and so faith receives him. God doth, as it were, say in the gospel, “O poor lost sinner, come to my Son Jesus, take him for thy only Lord and Saviour; and by him come to me, and take me for thy God and Father”; and by faith the poor believer echoeth back, “My Lord and my God, I humbly and heartily come to thee, accept of thee, close with thee”. So by faith the believing soul becomes one with God and Christ; and hereupon the soul by faith cleaves to God and Christ, and unfeignedly and unreservedly resigns and gives up its whole self to God in Christ, taking God in Christ for his, and entirely surrenders up itself to be the Lord's.

If we give him the throne in our hearts, subjecting our whole selves to his government, making God in Christ all our love, our trust, joy, desire, delight, fear, our all, cleaving to him alone and above all, depending upon him as our chief good; contenting ourselves with him as all-sufficient for us, resigning up ourselves to his good will, to be, to do, and suffer what he will; if we can and do engage ourselves to sincere obedience, that none of his commandments be grievous to us: if in all things we give Christ the pre-eminence; if we have received the spirit of Christ, as Romans 8:9, Galatians 4:6, which joins us to him, and makes us one spirit with him, and which is a spirit of adoption, whereby the soul, seeing his interests in God as his Father, can freely go to God in all his straits. If we have the graces of the Spirit, as “love, meekness, patience, humility,” &c. If we have a resemblance of our Father in us, a likeness of disposition to God and Christ, the image of God, the life of Christ manifest in us, if we do side with God and his cause in evil times, so that we are willing to part with all things for Christ's sake, and at his call ; if it be thus with us in the main bent and constant frame of our hearts, and in the sincerity and integrity of our souls, our consciences in the sight of God bearing us witness that thus it is with us, then may we upon good grounds conclude that God, the all sufficient God, is ours, and Christ Jesus, who is all fulness, is ours.

Let us take a little pains in trying and searching ourselves. Put this question seriously to our hearts, in the sight of God; whose am I? Whose image do I bear? By whose spirit am I actuated; who hath my heart, my chief love and delight? Have we unfeignedly given up ourselves to Christ? Have we actually entered into covenant with him, taken him for our head and husband; have we passed over and surrendered up our whole selves to Christ, our souls, bodies, all our concerns; have we given up our hearts, heads, tongues, time, talents, estates, liberties, relations, and all to Christ? Have we done sincerely?

Then we have received Christ upon his terms. If we be Christ's and not our own, and live unto Christ and not to ourselves, (Romans 14:9, 1 Corinthians 6:20, Galatians 2:20), and are content that Christ should dispose of us and ours as he pleaseth; and are always labouring to be more and more like him, and still longing for more and more communion with him, &c. Then may we upon good grounds conclude that Christ is ours.

If we have been made sensible of our lost condition by nature, of our misery by sin, of our unbelief; if we have found it an hard work to believe; if we have been made weary and heavy laden with sin, so as to be truly willing to part with all sin; if we have been convinced of our absolute need of Christ, and of his incomparable excellency, of his self-sufficiency and willingness to save us; if Christ be most precious to us, if these convictions have been powerful in us, to drive us from ourselves, and the creature, and sin; if we have hereupon been persuaded and enabled sincerely to come unto Christ upon his call in the gospel, to accept of him upon his terms, and to receive him as he is offered to us in the gospel; if our whole hearts have opened to him, and closed with him, and we have given our whole selves entirely to him, and taken him for our only Lord and Saviour, as the only way to God, and do most sincerely resign up ourselves to his government, trusting in him alone, and relying upon him for life and righteousness, for grace and glory; then we do believe in him, then have we this true faith.

Would we have faith? Let us engage our whole souls in the deep and serious consideration of the infinite, unspeakable, inconceivable love of God the Father, in this, the highest and fullest demonstration of it, in giving his Son, his only begotten Son, to be a sin-offering, a sacrifice, a ransom for poor sinners, and that for this very end and purpose, that we poor sinners might believe in him, and by believing, might not perish, but might have eternal life.

Let us also consider of, and deeply meditate upon, the transcendant love of the Son of God himself; who, though he were the delight of his Father, and lay in the bosom of his Father, even then his delights were with the sons of men, then was his heart full of love to poor sinners ; and his love brought him down from heaven to earth, to assume human nature, to take upon him all the sins of his people, to bear them on his soul and body in the garden, there sweating great drops of blood, and on the cross, there pouring out his heart blood, made a curse, endured the full measure of the wrath of God due for sin, and become the ransom of souls. (Philippians 2:6-8)

"Saving Faith" from the introduction to A Holy Life, The Beauty of Christianity

https://graceonlinelibrary.org/salvation/saving-faith-by-john-bunyan/