Faith comes by hearing God's promises. In this brief clip, W. Robert Godfrey explains what John Calvin taught about faith, knowledge, and gospel preaching.
This Reformation Month, watch a short video every day on the history and insights of the Protestant Reformation. And don't forget that for this month only, you can request your free digital download of R.C. Sproul’s video teaching series Luther and the Reformation plus the ebook edition of The Legacy of Luther, edited by R.C. Sproul and Stephen Nichols at ligm.in/Reformation. Offer ends October 31, 2019.
Transcript
Calvin wanted to say to his people, 'faith is knowledge.' In order to believe, you have to know something. Faith is not just an emotion; faith has content. And for Calvin, the stress of the content was always the promises of God. It's the preaching of the gospel that works faith. The preaching of law is necessary. It's necessary to bring us to repentance. It's necessary to guide us in the Christian life but the preaching of the law does not bring faith. Faith comes from hearing the promises of the gospel. That's very much the spirit of John Calvin. Faith is knowledge, knowledge particularly of the promises of the gospel, knowledge particularly of God's will to save us in Jesus Christ.
