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a total submission to God, as Paul states that we may believe on
him, and also suffer for Him. (Phil.1: 29)
The rest of this paper will dedicate itself to the explication of
faith in the sense of fiducia, which Christian theology further
explicates its meaning in terms of apprehensive faith, apprehensio
fiducialis; core faith or believing heart, fiducia cordis, and the
virtue of faith, or act of faith, actus fidei.
Apprehensive Aspects of Faith
What we meant by apprehensive faith is the result of the
gracious act and operation of the Holy Spirit, making man capable
to observe and apprehend the gift, the work, and the perfect will of
God in his deed. In other words, in apprehensive faith, man‘s mind
is captured by the word of God. As such, he will then be
completely absorbed in the knowledge and submission to God and
his revealed word, and willingly accept his judgment and mercy.
Like Abraham, he believes what God has promised, and God
counted this as his righteousness. This is the foundation for
Christian faith, the prime challenge and trial Christians are facing
now a day. The Psalmist once said, if the foundation was
destroyed, what could a righteous man do? (Psalm 11:2). This is
exactly where the ills of modern Church and modern theology are
generated. Lately, many efforts are dedicated to the discussion and
reconstruction of Christian theology, disregard to the fact that we
doubt our foundation of faith and replacing God with the names of
others (Psalm 16:4). This is an apparent sign of the lack of
apprehensive faith. Such an endeavor is deemed to fail, because
the seed of decay is implanted at the time it begins the
reconstruction.
True faith apprehends God‘s presence and God‘s greatness
everywhere and anywhere. Such an apprehension will bring us to
the experience of the youthful Joseph who once said, How can I do
such a great sin against the Lord! Even when no one is around!