Bona Fide

Bona Fide
 
    It seems faith is
ubiquitous in the world today.  "Just have faith!" is the encouragement offered
to those facing serious medical procedures -- and to football teams.  "Keep the
faith" is a fairly common greeting on the street.  Country singers and pop songs
are named "Faith."  Political leaders praise (or decry) faith generically,
promote widely diverse organizations because they are "Faith Based," and as this
is being written people around the world are being assured of "the full faith
and credit" of their respective economies.  Clearly great importance is attached
to the concept of faith, but equally great care is taken to avoid defining too
closely just what that "faith" might be.  The Reformers also held faith in high
esteem, declaring "Faith Alone" -- "Sola Fide" -- one of the foundation stones
of Christianity, but unlike so many today, they were quite willing to define the
term.
 
    The Latin root "fide" (faith) has many offspring in common
language.  In a few weeks we might be listening to a High Fidelity (faithful)
recording of "Adeste Fideles" ("Come all ye Faithful") while confiding
(entrusting) a sense of low confidence (lack of doubt) in some Federal (common
trust or faith) program.  If our confidant (one who is faithful or trustworthy)
has a military background we might find "Semper Fidelis" ("always faithful)
entering the discussion.  But perhaps the most common use of the Latin term in
daily speech is the phrase "Bona Fide."  Translated "Good Faith," this term
refers to many sorts of guarantee, from personal recommendations ("Bona Fides")
to commercial "seals of approval."  To the Reformers, Sola Fide referred not to
faith in general, but to what might be called (somewhat redundantly) "bona fide"
Faith: Good, Genuine or, better still, True Faith.
 
    "I believe what
the Church believes" was a sufficient confession of faith for the Roman church,
and for most it remains so today, frequently "confessed" by those who know very
little of what it is they are claiming.  True Faith must be personal -- we are
little benefitted by a faith, no matter how pure, held by another but not
ourselves.  Yet neither does True Faith demand great theological sophistication
(the excuse of the Roman church) of those who hold it.  And, of course, True
Faith "is the gift of God," [Eph. 2:8] not the product of our own or other
people's labors, though as our Faith is built, through the preaching of the
Word, we will inexorably flex and build theological "muscles."
 
    True
Faith, the genuine, bona fide Faith so central to the Reformation and to
Christianity itself, is conceptually quite simple though only possible by God's
action within us.  True Faith is defined, our Catechism teaches, as "not only a
knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true ..." --
stop there a moment and consider: "not only" means that True Faith BEGINS with a
confession of the inerrancy of Scripture -- but "... it is also a deep-rooted
assurance created in me by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel" of Salvation by
Grace through Christ.  This is a very specific definition, not the faith of (or
in) diversity which society honors, nor the false faith of those who trust in
themselves or government or organizations, but Faith in God's Word and in the
Gospel.
 
    In 491 years this Faith has not changed; nor in two
millennia nor indeed since man was created.  Our knowledge of this Faith has
grown; examples have been granted, and demonstrations both wonderful and
terrible presented to us; but in its essence this Faith is no different now than
ever -- believe God, and trust Him.  Sola Fide; this is our guarantee, our Bona
Fide.
 
"Faith of our fathers, holy faith!  We will be true to thee till
death." [Psalter Hymnal 443]

 

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Gary Fisher