08 - Two Nice Points

Although I have stressed that historical faith is not saving, this must not be taken to mean that historical faith is unimportant, completely wrong, or not needed. Certainly not! As I have said, historical faith is in itself excellent; indeed, it is essential. The facts of the gospel must be preached and must be believed. Yes, of course. ‘The holy Scriptures... are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus’ (2 Tim. 3:15). We have a historical Christ and a historical gospel. But, I repeat, this historical believing, in itself, is not saving. The nice point I want to make here, however, is this: It is impossible to have saving faith without historical faith, since saving faith includes historical faith; historical faith is a vital part of saving faith. But it is only a part of it.