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In theology, volitional commitment is called fiducia, or trust.
Trusting faith is a total different kind of faith. The trusting faith is
not only concerned with volition, choice, decision, commitment
and action. Trusting faith is in fact judged by the object of faith to
which trust is aimed. It is the trusted one, not the trusting one, who
determines the certainty, the meaning, and the value of that trust. In
other words, in trusting faith, the focus is not only on the decision
and the action of the trust itself; instead, it should be on what one
trusts and whom one trusts. In Christian doctrine, Christians have
two objects of their trust, namely, the Truth or the Word of God
and God himself. The former is called prepositional or doctrinal
faith, whereas the latter is called relational or lively faith, the truth
content and the life content of the faith. Simply speaking, it means
knowing what you believe and whom you believe in; and willing to
die for your faith, as well as willing to live for it (or him) as
situation so demanded. Though the faithful ones fear no death; yet
they prefer to live for their faith.
It was reported, when the former Soviet Union disintegrated,
many high ranking officer comrades committed suicides. The
reason, among others, is that they believe in Communism that there
are something worth dying for, but nothing to live for. While
deaths do witness to something one believes, but when one
discovers that life does not proclaim the truth, what good is it to
live on? As far as the Truth is concerned, when one committed
himself to an untrue ideology, there may be many reasons worth
dying for it, because death irreversibly concludes all things, but
there is no single reason to live for it, as to live on is too long a
wasteful wait.
Christian faith does stand out differently. It has the Truth as
its prepositional faith; it also has the living Christ, the Savior, as its
relational and life base for its faith. In such a context, trusting
faiths make a believer not only willing to die for what he believes
in, but make him also able to live on what he believes in. Because
He lives, so shall we live, and shall we serve cheerfully (John
14:19, 12:24-26). Having this trusting faith, we can exclaim as Paul
once did, ―For me, to live is Christ . . .‖ and ―the life I live in the