These words capture what sola fide is all about. “And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: for she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole” (Matt. 9:20­ 21). This is not only an illustration of faith, but of faith in deed, of faith in action. Jesus Himself says so in His response to the woman in verse 22: “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.”

We are saved or “made whole” through faith, Scrip­ture makes plain. We are not saved by a faith that is our own work. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). Rather, faith is God’s gracious gift; it is His work, not ours, as we see in verse 9, “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Note that faith is not con­trasted with grace but with works. We are saved “by grace through faith.” The woman’s faith made her whole indeed, but this does not mean she saved herself; she was saved by Christ. She believed He could save her: “If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.”

“Sola Fide: by Faith Alone” is one of the five watchwords of the Reformation. These watchwords were used in response to the Roman Catholic Church’s subtle mixture of salvation by faith and works, which attempted to mask and conceal the outright heresy of salvation by works. This is exactly why the Apostle Paul sharply rebukes the Galatians, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” (Gal. 3:1). Their foolishness and sin was their desire to add some of their own works to God’s work, and by doing so, they were denying the sufficiency of Christ’s sac­rifice. To be accepted by God is only possible because of Christ’s blood once shed on Golgotha, never because of anything else being mixed with it. “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:2, 3).

This is not to deny the place of works as a fruit of faith in a believer, but in regard to being justified before God, our works are excluded. This important truth was recovered at the time of the Reformation and served as the heartbeat of the Reformation movement. It is very sad and troubling that this heresy is resurfacing today, even in the Reformed community, as if thousands in former ages died a martyr’s death in vain. We are justified by faith before God; before each other, that faith is evidenced by our works. We are saved by faith alone, but indeed, as it has been well said, not by faith that stays alone.

The words “by faith alone” take us away from who we are and what we have done or not done, to what Christ has done and is still doing. Faith lays hold on Christ for all things. It flows from a lively awareness of being totally unable to live without the Lord Jesus Christ. So it was with the woman who had the issue of blood. We read in Mark 5:26 that she “had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.” It came to a point in her life where she could no longer make ends meet with her own resources. She ran to Jesus. She “came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.”

She was not focused on her faith or on herself in any way at all, but on Christ, the great object of her faith. So she “came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment.” She would have walked away quietly, in great joy of being healed, but Jesus wanted her to acknowledge Him and His work in her. When He said that someone touched Him and “I perceive that virtue is gone out of me ... she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately” (Luke 8:46, 47).

This history is a beautiful window into the power of faith at work in the heart of a sinner. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that faith is God’s gracious gift; Romans 9:15 tells us it also is His sovereign gift, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compas­sion on whom I will have compassion.” Faith is God’s free gift, planted in the heart by His Holy Spirit, but how does it become active? Romans 10:17 tells us, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

That is what happened with the woman. In Mark 5:27 we read, “When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.” She had been convicted of her need for healing, but it was not until she heard of Jesus that she went to Him. So it is with those who are not only convicted of their sins, but who also flee to Christ as He is revealed in the Scrip­tures. God works faith in the heart of elect sinners by His Holy Spirit, using “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). He works in us, “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). “Faith is the gift of God ... because He who works in man both to will and to do, and indeed all things in all, produces both the will to believe, and the act of believ­ing also” (Can. of Dort, Head III/IV, Art. 14). Our forefathers beautifully safeguarded God’s sovereignty, a “work that God works in us without our aid” (ibid., Art. 12). Yet they did not deny the scriptural truth of man’s responsibility, the Spirit-worked response in man, so that “all in whose heart God works in this marvelous manner, are certainly, infallibly, and effectually regenerated, and do actually believe. Whereupon the will thus renewed, is not only actuated and influ­enced by God, but in consequence of this influence, becomes itself active. Wherefore also, man is himself rightly said to believe and repent, by virtue of that grace received” (ibid.).

This confirms in Habakkuk 2:4 that “the just shall live by his faith.” Note that it not only says the just, or the righteous, shall live by faith, as Paul quotes it in Romans 1:17 and as Martin Luther wrote of, but by his faith. It was on that basis that Jesus could say to the woman, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” Though her faith was God’s sovereign and gracious gift to her, it was indeed hers. As the Holy Spirit worked this faith in her, she, know­ing her need and hearing of Jesus, determined to go to Him. “For she said within herself, if I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.” This is the beauty and the wonder of the gospel, as God fulfills Psalm 110:3, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” He makes us willing and able to will and to do “by grace through faith” what no man can do by nature­ namely, to lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ and on His righteousness.

This woman came to Jesus believing and trusting that He would help her. She had that “certain knowl­edge” and “assured confidence” which the Heidelberg Catechism calls “true faith” in Lord’s Day 7, question 21. She acted like Abraham, the father of all the faith­ful, not knowing how it all would work out, but with her eyes fixed on Jesus. She was satisfied with what she knew of Him. “We believe that, to attain the true knowledge of this great mystery, the Holy Ghost kindleth in our hearts an upright faith, which embraces Jesus Christ, with all his merits, appropriates him, and seeks nothing more besides him” (Belgic Confession of Faith, Art. 22).

In John 8:56, Jesus said to the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” Is this your gladness? For so it is with all in whose hearts the Lord works this faith, using the external hearing of the Word and the internal drawing of the Spirit. Faith is imputed or reckoned to our account; this is set plainly before us in Romans 4:3, “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” God treats His gift of faith to me “as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart” (Heid. Cat., Lord’s Day 23, Qu. 60).

Faith is sometimes referred to as a hand by which a sinner receives Christ and all His benefits. If we receive a gift presented to us by a friend, the hand receiving this gift does nothing of merit. So it is spiri­tually. Faith does not earn Christ; we are not saved because of our faith, but by means of it. Even faith as small as “a grain of mustard seed” lays hold on the same Christ, and therefore can remove mountains of impossibilities with His power (Matt. 17:20). The smallest faith receives the whole Christ at the very moment a sinner lays hold of Him. We see this in the woman who touched Jesus’ garments, “And the woman was made whole” (Matt. 9:22). This does not mean that each sinner who so flees to Christ and lays hold on Him with Sprit-worked faith immediately has the same measure of joy, peace, or assurance. It is directly in proportion to the measure of faith sovereignly granted by Him.

This truth leaves the unrepentant and unbelieving sinner without excuse and leaves the repentant and believing sinner standing in awe before God. Though only the elect will come to the Lord Jesus, we know that all who hear are commanded and encouraged to come to Him and be received in God’s favor. So this woman, by God’s fatherly providence and prompted by the Holy Spirit, came to Jesus. She was convicted of both her need and of what she heard of Jesus. She may have known nothing about being elected, but her very coming to Jesus was the most sure evidence of her election. So it is still today; Jesus testifies to us in John 6:37,

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.