For faith in the Christian sense presupposes self-denial, the crucifixion of one’s own ideas and will, distrust of self, and confidence in the grace of God in Christ instead. Therefore, just as saving faith has God himself as its object and grounds itself on his testimony, so it has him as its author as well. It is he himself who, by the Holy Spirit, moves human beings to faith and takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. As a result, Christian faith is religiously qualified through and through. Its object, ground, and origins are exclusively located in God. In consequence of this religious character, saving faith is essentially distinct from the immediate certainty that is sometimes labeled “faith,” as well as from the πιστις of which the Greeks sometimes spoke in a religious sense. The Christian faith is sheer religion, subjective religion. Those persons are truly religious who believe thus: they are the image, the children, and heirs of God.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 570-571.
The Old Guys 