Calvin's definition of faith

Throughout the year I've been posting items from A Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes -- a collection of essays on various subjects from John Calvin's magnum opus. Reading it has whetted my appetite to delve into the Institutes themselves (maybe I'll tackle that in 2010). Joel Beeke contributes one of my favorite chapters in which he discusses several large topics from Institutes Book 3 as indicated by the title "Appropriating Salvation: The Spirit, Faith and Assurance, and Repentance". Here's some good stuff on faith and assurance.

Calvin's doctrine of faith affirms the basic tenets of Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli and also discloses emphases of his own. Like Luther and Zwingli, Calvin says faith is never merely assent (assensus), but involves both knowledge (cognitio) and trust (fiducia). He affirms that knowledge and trust are saving dimensions of the life of faith rather than notional matters. Faith is not historical knowledge plus saving assent, but a saving and certain knowledge joined with a saving and assured trust (3.2.14). Calvin held that knowledge is foundational to faith. Knowledge rests upon the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures in general as well as the gospel in particular. Faith originates in response to the Word of God. Faith rests firmly upon God's Word; it always says amen to the Scriptures. Hence assurance must be sought in the Word and flows out of the Word. Assurance is as inseparable from the Word as sunbeams are from the sun. (pp. 277-278)

Consequently, Calvin's formal definition of faith reads like this: "Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (3.2.7). Calvin stresses that faith is assurance of God's promise in Christ and involves the whole man in the use of the mind, the application to the heart, and the surrendering of the will (3.2.8). Assurance is of the essence of faith. (p. 279)

We can be thankful that Calvin's Word and Spirit-driven doctrine of faith recovered for the church the truth that saving faith is more than obedient submission to what the church teaches. Saving faith is personal, cognitive, experiential and as certain as the promises of God upon which it rests.

Quotes from Beeke, A Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes, ed. David W. Hall and Peter A. Lillback (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009)