Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
9 10 2025
The Ultimate Test of Saving Faith
What would you say the ultimate test of saving faith is…for you?
I heard that question in a short video recently, and it struck me deeply.
Here’s the truth: if you have no personal affection for God’s Son, Jesus, you do not have saving faith.
Let that sink in. Do you have a genuine love for Him? Are you sure of your standing before God?
What does affection for Christ look like?
Do you desire His presence?
Do you spend time with Him—not just as a duty, but as with a friend you cherish?
Do you find yourself longing for Him, thinking about Him, yearning to be near Him?
Please stay with me. I know these are piercing questions. But they are the very questions that reveal whether our faith is real or merely routine.
It is easy to give the correct answers. To respond correctly in Bible studies. To attend church, take communion, and even feel secure. But when pressed to describe our affection for Jesus—the burning of our hearts for Him—many of us stumble. I had to stop and think hard about this myself.
So I went back to Scripture. The Bible speaks often of affections—sometimes in warning: “vile affections” (Romans 1:26), “inordinate affection” (Colossians 3:5). It even distinguishes between natural affections and spiritual, gracious affections (Ezekiel 33:32). But when it speaks of saving faith, it always points upward: “Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2).
This is the heart of saving faith: holy affections. A yearning, a delight, a joy in Christ Himself—not just in His gifts, but in His glory. Jonathan Edwards called these the response of our whole being to the beauty and worth of Christ. John Piper says they are what make obedience more than bare duty: they are the overflow of treasuring Christ above all things.
Saving faith is not cold. It burns. It does not merely acknowledge Christ; it loves Him. It longs for Him. And that longing—imperfect though it may be—is the unmistakable mark of those who have been born again.
Jonathan Edwards on Holy Affections
Jonathan Edwards stated that the human soul has two primary faculties: the understanding and the will. True religion, he argued, does not rest in bare ideas or cold reasoning. Nor is it found in mere outward motions of the body—like trembling, sweating, twitching, fainting, or shallow breaths. Those, Edwards said, are only bodily effects of deeper realities.
The real question is this: What kind of affections rule your soul?
Edwards distinguished between natural affections—the impulses, desires, and emotions every human being experiences—and spiritual affections, which are awakened only by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Every person has affections, but unless they are spiritual—unless they are set on God Himself—
they have no saving worth.
Spiritual affections are inclinations of the heart toward God, His Word, His ways, and His works. They are affections for God as God—for His beauty, His holiness, His majesty, and His all-satisfying glory. This is what marks the new birth: we are awakened to love God, delight in God, and praise God, not simply to use Him or fear Him.
The affections of the world are strong. But they are not spiritual. They are not born of the Spirit, not rooted in the new birth, not directed toward the worth of Christ Himself. And that is why Edwards insists: the ultimate test of saving faith is not only obedience,
but obedience flowing from holy affections.
Scripture confirms this:
- We are called not just to obey, but to obey with zeal (Romans 12:11).
- Not just to give, but to give cheerfully (Romans 12:8).
- Not just to forgive, but to forgive from the heart (Matthew 18:35).
This is the essence of saving faith: a heart aflame with holy affections, born of the Spirit, treasuring Christ above all things.
A Call to Examine Ourselves
So, what does this mean for us?
It means we cannot measure saving faith merely by correct doctrine, religious duties, or even visible morality. Those are essential, but they are not the root. The true test is whether Christ Himself has become our treasure.
Ask yourself:
- Do I delight in Christ more than the world?
- Do I long for His presence in prayer and His voice in Scripture?
- Do I grieve when my heart grows cold toward Him?
- Do I find joy in obeying Him, even when it costs me?
These are not questions meant to condemn but to awaken. They are invitations to examine whether your faith is living or dead, Spirit-born or man-made.
Jonathan Edwards said, “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” And John Piper echoes it: saving faith is not mere decision or agreement—it is the soul’s satisfaction in all that God is for us in Christ.
So I ask you: Do you only know about Him, or do you love Him? Do you only acknowledge Him, or do you treasure Him?
The grace of God is such that even the faintest spark of true affection for Christ is evidence of the Spirit’s work. But grace is also too precious to let us remain lukewarm. God fans that spark into flame.
Therefore, let us not settle for a faith that is all form and no fire. Let us ask the Spirit to awaken in us holy affections—to love Christ, to yearn for Christ, to find Him more precious than life itself.
This is the ultimate test of saving faith: not that we say, “I believe,” but that our hearts cry,
“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You” (Psalm 73:25).
Father,
Search my heart today. Strip away every false assurance, every cold habit, every affection that is not from You. By Your Spirit, awaken in me a holy love for Christ—real, burning, joyful. Teach me to treasure Him above all things, to delight in His presence, to obey with zeal, to give with joy, to forgive from the heart. Let my life not be a shell of religion, but a flame of holy affection that proves I belong to You. For Jesus’ sake, Amen
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I have loved you Matt Henry
