All things are possible for him that believes. - Mark 9:23
As Jesus was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” - Luke 17:11-19
Fides Miraculosa
There is a faith that is capable of being the vehicle by which miracles are performed yet insufficient for salvation. Reformed theologians (Johann Heidegger, for instance) called this fides miraculosa, or miraculous faith, which is a faith directed specifically toward divine promises of supernatural or superhuman capacities - see Luke 17:11-19 (above) and 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 for an illustration of this faith. “It is certain, the faith which is here spoken of does not always imply saving faith. Many have had it who thereby cast out devils, and yet will at last have their portion with them. It is only a supernatural persuasion given a man, that God will work thus by him at that hour. Now, though I have all this faith so as to remove mountains, yet if I have not the faith which worketh by love, I am nothing.”
Despite not being sufficient for saving faith, Christians should strive for fides miraculosa. (1) If we lack fides miraculosa, we restrict our usefulness. (2) We hinder our spiritual perception. (Matthew 16:8) (3) We can make ourselves timid amid perils. (Matthew 8:26) (4) And we leave ourselves consumed with temporal anxieties. (Matthew 6:30)
What should our proper response be to fides miraculosa? We must find a balance between “‘We must always pray in faith and God will always do what we want’ and ‘Well, it’s probably not going to happen, so let’s just pray ‘Thy will be done.’’ We can collapse into one of those two directions, and it seems to me that the path of wisdom is to hold on in the middle even though it’s uncomfortable. It teaches us patience and humility—and the Gospel is really all about learning patience and humility in the presence of God.”
The balance, then, is between: "You ought to say, 'If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.'" (James 4:15), and, “Ask, and it shall be given you.” The balance is most aptly achieved by the apostle John, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
When faith confronts a problem in life, God's omnipotence is its sole assurance, and God's sovereignty is its only restriction. This is the faith which experiences the miracle of deliverance, and by it God has given us a vehicle for action.
Though this dynamic of faith is important and God’s people are impoverished when we neglect it, fides miraculosa should not come to overshadow saving faith.
Saving faith is contrasted to fides miraculosa in the gospel of John:
Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal. (. . .) This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ (. . .) Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’
Fides miraculosa concerns merely temporary affairs. The Jews were pursuing Jesus in the above passage so that they could receive merely temporal benefit, the feeding of their stomachs. Jesus contrasts this sort of desire with the faith that saves, the faith that feeds on the eternal bread. While fides miraculosa is gift that should be exercised by the Church, its importance pales in comparison to the faith that receives the Son of God.
What is saving faith? “Faith is a function of understanding that has been moved to acknowledge the truth of the gospel by the will. The whole man is therefore involved in believing—with his reason, with his will, with his heart, in the core of his being, in the deepest part of his existence. Knowing himself to be guilty and lost, man, in faith, surrenders himself wholly to God's grace in Christ. The Christian religion teaches us that the highest good for man is found in God alone, in fellowship with Him, in heavenly salvation. Faith is a thoroughly personal matter, a retying of the bonds that tie the soul to God, a renunciation of all creaturely things to place all one's trust in God, whether in life or death. Faith is an inattention to the things one sees and a grasping of the invisible but perfect God. It rests upon Christ alone for provision and believes that by the work of Christ God has justified the ungodly.”
Paul’s explication of saving faith: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Saving faith is clearly something over and above fides miraculosa.
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? ’Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
