Warfield: Faith

It's difficult to imagine a more satisfying description of biblical faith than Warfield's in his very helpful essay 'Faith' in the third volume of his collected writings, Biblical and Theological Studies (P&R 1952). Of OT faith he says:

It is a reverential and loving faith, which rests on the strong basis of firm and unshaken conviction of the might and grace of the covenant God and of the trustworthiness of all His words, and exhibits itself in confident trust in Jehovah and unwavering expectation of the fulfillment of, no doubt, all his promises, but more especially of His promise of salvation, and in consequent faithful and exclusive adherence to Him. In one word, it consists in an utter commitment of oneself to Jehovah, with confident trust in Him as guide and saviour, and assured expectation of His promised salvation. It therefore stands in contrast, on the one hand, with trust in self or other human help, and on the other with doubt and unbelief, despondency and unfaithfulness. From Jehovah alone is salvation to be looked for, and it comes from His free grace alone. (410)

Later he synthesizes the OT and NT teaching; just before emphasizing that the specific object of faith is Jesus Christ, he defines faith synthetically as

the going out of the heart from itself and its resting on God in confident trust for all good. But the scriptural revelation has do to with, and is directed to the needs of, not man in the abstract, but sinful man; and for sinful man this hearty reliance on God necessarily becomes humble trust in Him for the fundamental need of the sinner--forgiveness of sins and reception into favour. In response to the revelations of His grace and the provisions of His mercy, it commits itself without reserve and with abnegation of all self-dependence, to Him as its sole and sufficient Saviour, and thus, in one act, empties itself of all claim on God and casts itself upon His grace alone for salvation. (423)