Like all spiritual topics, faith is not an easy concept to explain, being abstract. There are accounts in the Bible, however, of people who believed in Christ. These accounts give us valuable insights into the nature of true saving faith.

One of my favorite accounts of faith is recorded in the Gospel of Mark, when a sick woman encountered Christ:

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. (Mark 5:25–29, NIV)

To appreciate this woman’s faith, we need to examine this passage in detail.

She had suffered for a long time: The text says that she “had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.” Twelve years! Can any of us imagine what it would be like to suffer with a continuous ailment for twelve whole years?

She had tried all human means to get healed: This account also tells us that not only had she “suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors” but also that she “had spent all she had.” In spite of various medical treatments—apparently painful ones—and exhausting all her money to find relief from her affliction, she only grew worse.

Given these facts, it is not hard to see that this was a woman at the end of her rope. She had tried the available means within her power to get healed, including money and medicine, and they had all failed her miserably. She now realized that there was nothing left for her to do but merely trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is no wonder that she thought to herself these words: “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Perhaps some time ago she might have scoffed at the thought of going to Jesus for healing, thinking, “I have enough money and more doctors to try; I don’t need this Jesus to heal me.” Now, however, she had no choice. She had nowhere to go but to the Lord.

It is important to note that the woman wanted merely to “touch” Christ’s garment. The thought to exert great effort to bring about her own cure did not occur to her. Why would it? She had already been through all that. Consequently, hers was not a hand that labored to create the solution, but a hand that simply reached out to take hold of the Savior.

In the spiritual realm, this is just what saving faith is like: to cease relying on our own efforts to be good and to simply cling to Christ alone, realizing that he is the only one who can make payment to God for our sins. All of our own attempts to be acceptable to God, relying on our own “righteousness,” are doomed to failure, as Isaiah pointed out:

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (NIV, emphasis added)

Have you come to the end of yourself after having tried countless times to be good, only to fail every time? If so, then I urge you to trust in Christ alone, as the sick woman did. All it takes is a “touch” to bring salvation. Or are you standing aloof from Christ, the only Savior that God has offered, still trusting in your own efforts to be righteous?

Reach out to Jesus and trust only in him, who alone can forgive us and cleanse us.