Faith is the first conscience exercise of the renewed soul, and the act of regeneration.

[Carbon]

Faith consists of three elements, knowledge, assent and trust.

Charles Hodge said, Faith, which is required fror salvation, is an act of the whole soul, of the understanding, of the heart, and of the will.
Man in his fallen state of mind does have the capability of faith. Assent to moral truth presupposes a favorable moral disposition towards the truth.

It is silly and nonsense to think that faith can ever be an arbitrary act of the will, that is: that man can ever believe or disbelieve because he chooses to do so.
Whenever a man believes anything, his mental state or act of faith is always determined by reasons which he deens sufficient.
It should be obvious that faith is always the involentary response of the mind to the evidence which has been presented to it. Faith is never the product of choice.

Faith always folows the judgement of the intellect as to whether a thing is true. It is never the product of the will.
Men never believe a thing because they like to believe it or because they resolve to believe it. All men time and time again believe things which they dislike intensly because they are forced to acknowlwdge these unpleasant things to be in accord with reality.


Saving faith is not an ungrounded confidence or leap in the dark. Nor is it a wish.

A true believer entrusts himself to Christ just because he is thoroughly convinced of the trustworthyness of the gospel promises.
And this firm conviction is powerfully applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit.
The man engages in the supreme act of faith and trusts that Jesus will do for him what he cannot do for himselfjust because he finds the evidence in scripture concerning Christ, as the One who is able and willing to save to the uttermost all those who seek refuge with him, to be compelling evidence.

So, through regeneration, the emnity (hostility) is removed, his heart is opened and made susceptable to the gospel meassage.

Edit} Credit for this post is Herman Kuiper and his book By Grace Alone.

 

[Carbon]

Why is the same gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation for some, for others a savor of death unto death? It is because the unregenerate heart is morally evil and decidedly hostile to God and to His Christ.

 

[brightfame52]

Why is the same gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation for some, for others a savor of death unto death? It is because the unregenerate heart is morally evil and decidedly hostile to God and to His Christ.

One must already have life spiritually in order to believe the Gospel as a word of Salvation, hence its called a savor of life unto life to them being saved, and are in a saved state presently. They are the subjects of the sanctifying work of the Spirit.