At the heart of the gospel is something humbling: receiving a gift you did not and cannot earn.
Saving faith means resting—really resting—on the finished work of Christ and not on myself. That’s hard for us. There are days we don’t feel it. There are seasons where sin still clings, shame still whispers, doubts still rise. And yet Scripture is stubbornly clear:
our only answer, only hope, and only assurance is the work of Christ—
not the stability of our emotions,
not the strength of our will,
and not the brilliance of our reason.
Feelings come and go. Faith is more than mere intellectual assent. Saving faith is a gift from God, and Christmas is a beautiful time to receive that gift—by faith—in Christ alone.
DON’T FEAR THE QUESTION! WALK THE PATH!
Christmas is a great time to search out one of the MANY gifts God has given. I want to thank Him specifically for the gift of saving faith—a gift I would never possess apart from His grace.
So here’s the starter question:
How do I know I have saving faith?
The answer is strange, and honestly, a little unsettling at first:
one of the initial evidences of saving faith is that you dare to ask that question.
A true believer wrestles with whether or not he has true faith. If you’re unwilling to put your faith on the table for honest inspection, it may be because deep down you suspect there is nothing real to examine.
So ask God to give you Holy Spirit eyes. Take what faith you think you have—weak, small, and trembling as it may feel—and lay it out before Him. Then do some comparison and investigation.
Don’t fear that process. Let’s walk into it together.
PRE-ANALYSIS AGREEMENT
Before we enter this exercise, we need to make a declaration:
“I am going to use God’s inspired Word as my only rule of faith.”
If any part of this analysis is merely conjecture based on my feelings or my flawed logic, may God help me to put that away. This is not about what I think or how I feel. The question is: What does God’s Word say?
I won’t quote every passage that could be referenced (though I probably should), but my hope is that this reflects the broad counsel of Scripture.
ANALYSIS A: COMPARISON TO FALSE FAITH
One way to test saving faith is by contrast. I need to walk through some common counterfeits and ask honestly if my “faith” fits any of these molds.
As I do this, I have to be willing to look at my heart, mind, will, emotions, memories, words, and deeds.
1. COMPARTMENTALIZED FAITH
This is a big one.
We live in a “post-everything” culture where we skewer our lives like shish-kabobs—little compartments and compartments inside compartments. Work here. Home there. Faith over in its own tidy corner.
A multi-cultural, relativistic American society, seasoned with rugged individualism and fierce autonomy, can easily corrupt our understanding of saving faith. We end up as people who are “holding to a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).
Saving faith, by contrast, is whole and integrated.
Paul Helseth, in Right Reason and the Princeton Mind, points out that the old Princeton theologians understood that the intellect involves the whole soul—mind, will, and emotions—rather than the rational faculty alone. As a result, they insisted that the ability to reason “rightly” (to see revealed truth as objectively glorious) presupposes the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit on the whole person.
How do we compartmentalize faith?
For me, it’s easy to make faith primarily a mental exercise—AN EDUCATIONAL FAITH. If I can just learn more facts or read more theology, I feel like my faith is stronger.
Others drift toward EMOTIONAL FAITH—getting revved up for Jesus in a conference, retreat, or worship set, confusing intensity of feeling with depth of belief.
Still others fall into DO-GOOD FAITH—mission trips, service projects, and “helping people” become the main place they feel spiritual.
None of those things are bad. In fact, they can be wonderful. But if they remain detached from a living, ongoing, whole-life trust and submission to Christ, they can mask the absence of true faith.
Saving faith engages all of me:
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5).
2. LOGO FAITH
We live in a world of brands, slogans, and merch. Causes become hashtags. Movements become logos. Faith gets turned into a vibe.
One of the icons of our 'post-everything' culture is the sloganeering of causes. Sometimes called the "Disneyfication of America" sociologists have written in mass about how mass communication technology has created a 'world of simulation' where high culture and low culture are combined and any sort of grand narrative is lost. I have always thought that Grant Lyon's book, Jesus in Disneyland: Religion in Postmodern Times, captured this idea very poignantly.The overarching image that Lyon's attaches to is a Harvest Day Crusade day that was hosted by Disneyland in Anaheim, CA in 2000. This Christian festival seemed innocuous enough. One of the event organizers had a great quote: "We saw Disneyland as an opportunity to bring God's kingdom to the Magic Kingdom. We felt that, as they opened the door to us to share Christ, we wouldn't turn down the opportunity just because other things take place there. Jesus is the example for this."
I am not being critical of this at all. Christ needs to be going EVERYWHERE. But the symbolic image of Christian marketing in the Mecca of consumer marketing could not be ignored by Lyons.
"A bizarre sounding collaboration...an ancient, premodern religion is found... interacting with the epitome of post modern culture- the artificial, simulated, virtual, fantasy world of Disney."
I need to be careful here- there were huge parts of Lyon's book that were instructive and thought provoking. I do think the biggest flaw of Lyon's approach is confusing the visible and invisible Church.
The bigger point here is what the Disney culture influence has done to 'virtualize and simulate' faith by transforming it into slogans and fancy logos. Spy magazine defined it this way: "Disneyfication is the act of assuming, through the process of assimilation, the traits and characteristics more familiarly associated with a theme park....than with real life."
In that world, Christianity can quickly become a logo:
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a clever slogan,
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a bracelet,
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a playlist,
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a social media identity,
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a “look.”
None of that is automatically evil, but it can gently push faith from the realm of living trust into the realm of performed identity.
How does “logo faith” show up?
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Theming – Everything in my Christian life has a neat, sanitized theme. My life becomes a Christian “brand” where I appear put-together. Real mess, real questions, and real repentance are edited out.
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Merchandizing and consumption – I consume Christian things: music, books, conferences, products. I can be surrounded by Christian content without ever truly surrendering to Christ Himself.
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Prescriptive empathy – I know all the right phrases: “I’ll be praying,” “Bless you,” “God is good all the time.” But often I’m performing empathy instead of living it. The words are there; the heart isn’t.
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Self-adulation – I treat church and ministry as a product designed primarily for my experience: my preferences, my comfort, my affirmation.
So I have to ask:
Do I just recite the Jesus answers?
Have I learned the themes, the tone, the language, so I look like I’m growing—but inwardly there is little or no connection to the Holy God of the universe?
Do I measure worship mainly by what I get out of it?
If so, my “faith” may be more logo than life.
3. INSTITUTIONAL FAITH
This one is especially dangerous for those of us who live and work in Christian environments. (Like Me)
An INSTITUTIONAL FAITH is when my proximity to ministry or church life substitutes for personal, saving faith.
Do I read my Bible?
Yes—because I’m prepping a lesson, writing a blog, or leading a devotion.
Do I pray?
Yes—at staff meetings, in public prayers, at church events.
Do I worship?
Yes—chapel, services, conferences.
All good things. But a haunting question remains:
When I step away from the institution—on weekends, vacations, or in private—does my faith follow me?
Do I have a personal prayer life, beyond my roles?
Do I open the Word when no one is grading, listening, or watching?
Do I share my faith as a person, not just as a professional?
If my “faith” lives only where my job or routine demands it, I might be operating more out of institutional momentum than personal trust in Christ.
4. BIBLE BELT FAITH
Here’s another tough impostor—especially in church-saturated cultures. Aren't we just "BORN" Christian?
BIBLE BELT FAITH looks like this:
We’re good people. We acknowledge “the good Lord.” We go to church, don’t rob banks, give some money, and sing “Amazing Grace.”
But there is little to no sense of:
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the depth of our sin,
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desperation over our guilt,
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horror at the reality of hell,
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amazement at costly grace.
God becomes a sentimental figure—like a cosmic Santa or a benevolent grandpa—rather than a holy, righteous King whom we have offended and who calls us to repent and believe.
Bible Belt faith nods politely at God. Saving faith bows low before Him.
And of course, there are many other forms of false faith:
religious pride, mere moralism, status, political identity, self-help spirituality. At the core of every idol is a kind of “faith” that trusts in something other than Christ.
ANALYSIS B: PRACTICES TO EXPLORE SAVING FAITH
So how do we explore whether we have saving faith?
We don’t do it by dissecting our feelings endlessly—that becomes spiritual navel-gazing.
We do it by looking, again and again, at the simplicity and power of the gospel.
I John 5:11–13
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
1. SIMPLE TRUST
Faith always has an object. Faith is not a work we perform; it is an empty hand, reaching.
The power of faith is not in the feeling of faith, but in the object of faith.
In Matthew 17, Jesus says:
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
It’s not the amount of faith that moves mountains; it’s the One in whom that tiny faith rests.
There is great comfort here. On days when I feel battered and frail, saving faith might sound like a quiet whisper:
“’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word.”
That’s not sentimental; that’s warfare.
2. FITFUL FIGHTING?
Think of Jacob wrestling with God until daybreak. He would not let go until he received a blessing.
That story tells me something important:
God is not offended by honest wrestling. In fact, a willingness to wrestle with Him is often evidence of the Spirit’s work.
Saving faith is not a calm, unbroken line of confidence. Often it looks like fitful, tear-stained, stubborn clinging:
“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”
“God, I’m not letting go until You meet me.”
If I’m fighting in prayer, grappling with Scripture, confessing doubts and sins before the Lord—that very struggle may be a sign that the Spirit is alive in me.
3. DEEP-ROOTED DOCTRINE
If I want to discern whether my faith is saving or merely speculative, I have to be willing to dig.
Shallow faith avoids the hard passages. Saving faith learns to love them.
Maybe it’s time to freshen up on Romans.
Maybe I need the diagnostic depth of 1 John.
Maybe I need to let the sharp edges of Jesus’ commands in the gospels wound and heal me.
Helseth again helps us here: the great theologians didn’t approach doctrine as cold rationalists, but as believers whose whole soul had been touched by the Spirit. They sought to hear Scripture with “right reason”—a biblically shaped, Spirit-formed way of seeing reality.
In other words, doctrine is not an abstract hobby; it is part of how saving faith roots itself in who God actually is and what He has actually done.
THE GIFT NOBODY COULD EARN
At the end of the day, saving faith itself is a gift.
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)
Jesus starts it. Jesus sustains it. Jesus completes it.
Christmas puts this on vivid display.
Here you are, once again, standing before the Child in the manger—the eternal Son of God in human flesh. Another year has slipped by. Another Christmas has come around. And the offer is still on the table.
CHRISTMAS: A HUMBLING INVITATION
You and I have messed it up again and again—over and over, falling short of everything God intends.
Maybe you feel the familiar pull of pride pushing you to justify yourself.
Maybe you feel the dead weight of repeated rejection and spiritual numbness.
Either way, Christmas gently but firmly confronts you:
Will you receive the gift?
Not earn it.
Not decorate it.
Not improve it.
Just receive it.
Review the beautiful doctrines of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Let them humble you and melt you.
WHAT TO DO RIGHT NOW
1. Simply trust.
Pray honestly:
“God, I cannot do this. You have to do this. I am a rebel and You have not been my King. Is it too late to come home?”
In Christ, you already know the answer.
2. Fight for it.
There will be voices—external and internal—telling you that you are either too bad or too good.
Don’t let go of Christ.
Fight your way back to the childlike wonder of new birth.
3. Dig deep.
Use this holiday season to search the Scriptures. Don’t rush. Read John. Read Romans. Read 1 John. Read Isaiah 53. Let the Word examine you and comfort you.
4. Thank God for the gift of saving faith.
Let gratitude rise, especially when you see how unworthy and unable you are in yourself. That humility is part of the grace. Jesus has paid your debt.... bank on Him.
5. Tell someone.
Confess Christ to another person—a friend, a spouse, a child. It may be the best gift they get this year.
John 5:39
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me.
This is the bottom line: receiving the gift is humbling.
It means resting, really resting, on the work of Christ and not on yourself.
When your feelings rise and fall, when sin still clings, when doubt still whispers—run again to Christ.
Over time, you will learn about the deep truth that begins before the very foundation of the world, this isn't about WHAT you know... this is WHO you know.
It is not about perfection.... it is about forgiveness. Grace is beautiful and we want MERCY, not what we deserve....
This Christmas, receive the gift by faith.
In Christ alone.
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