Faith Is A Gift

Two ideas seem to contradict.  They don’t though. One, faith is a gift.  Faith is not a work.  Man is not saved by works.  God gives man the faith that saves him.  He doesn’t work for it.

Two, even though faith is a gift, most people do not get it.  God gives the gift in a particular fashion and people then receive it a God ordained way.  Everyone needs to know this.

Seeming Contradiction

The seeming contradiction between the two thoughts are first how someone will get saving faith and others will not, even though it’s a gift.  Scripture though deals with that.  God gives a suitable explanation.  We should accept the sufficiency of what God says.  It’s enough to know and understand.

When someone says that faith is a gift, people will also see that as removing human responsibility.  As you read this essay, which will report what scripture says, you will see that this biblical view does not eliminate human responsibility.  Salvation is by grace.  The truth that faith is a gift is crucial to that.  But how is faith a gift?  Let me explain.

The Path to Saving Faith

Everything that results in saving faith leads back to God.  It starts with, one, general revelation.  By general, revelation is general in its audience, not in its content.  Everyone knows God through conscience, creation, history, and providence.  Romans 1:18-32 say that all men know God.  How does it say they know Him?

The true things about God to know Him are manifest “in them” (verse 19) — the law of God written in the heart and the conscience (2:15).  Then “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (verse 20)  — creation.  This is “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).  Providence and history are a little more technical to explain, but you can see enough how all people know God, so that Romans 1 verses 18 and 20 indicate they are without excuse as to God’s judgment upon them.

Explaining the Gift of Faith

Now let me explain this aspect of the gift of faith.  Let’s say that saving faith is a 50, like 50 dollars.  Someone arrives at saving faith at 50, starting with zero.  General revelation does not get someone to 50.  However, to get to 50 someone must accept something less than 50.

You want to borrow 50 dollars from me.  You need 50.  I have only 10, so I offer you 10.  You reject the 10.  When someone rejects the 10, this is a means of rejecting the gift of saving faith.

First, upon someone rejecting the most rudimentary knowledge of God, that everyone can know, God allows them to take a path of total apostasy.  They become proud, professing themselves to be wise, when they’re fools, and it gets worse from there.

Second, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).  The gift of saving faith originates from scripture.  I’ll speak to this further, but the Word of God is also revelation.  It has the power to give rise to saving faith.

Step Toward Saving Faith

A step toward God giving the gift of saving faith is general revelation.  Everyone receives this, so everyone has the opportunity to receive saving faith for salvation.  Everyone.  That’s what Romans 1 says.  What I’m explaining isn’t Calvinism.

By the way, just from general revelation someone might believe in God still in a way short of saving faith.  However, he believes in a non-saving way.  This is not faith enough to save and in that way, it still could be short-termed, point action kind of belief exercised by people who still are never saved.

I like also to view general revelation as bread crumbs that start down the path to salvation.  This is a Hansel and Gretel metaphor.  Crumbs led Hansel and Gretel to the famous Ginger Bread House in that story.  Everyone who receives Jesus Christ unto salvation experiences general revelation toward the beginning of that path.  He takes his 10 dollars on his way to 50 dollars.

More to Come