Faith
FAITH
Repentance tends to focus upon that from which man turns as he departs from the realm of his sin and rebellion. The counterpart to repentance is faith. It pictures man turning toward God and relying upon Him.
Repentance|Faith|
Focus on the negative.|Focus on the Positive.|
Turning away from sin and rebellion.|Turns to God and trusts in Him.|
1. What is Faith?
Faith is made up of four necessary elements. All of them must be present for it to be that kind of faith that saves.
Cognition. The element of cognition means that faith involves a certain amount of knowledge. The Scriptures speak of repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25). It is popular today for people in our Postmodern culture to say, “It is not important in what you believe, as long as you have faith.” It is a foolish statement. You would not think much of a surgeon who said, “It is not important where you cut, as long as you cut.” When one makes such a statement, he is really saying there is nothing in which we can believe. Belief is seen merely as an escape to keep from going insane. It is hoping when there is no hope. Real faith is not like that. The apostle John speaks of the evidence of an eye witness testimony to the cross experience of Jesus.
Convincing. This is the element of assent. There are many people who know the facts of the Bible, but who do not necessarily believe that they are true. The first element deals with the enlightenment of the truth. The second element deals with convincing men of that truth. Yet this is not the full scope of faith. Herod Agrippa was convinced of the truthfulness of the prophets without believing in the one whom they foretold (Acts 26:27).
Confidence.
Real faith is more than a mere knowledge and a mental assent. James reminds us that the demons have that kind of faith (James 2:19). The Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah believed that He really existed and that He was a miracle worker. They even made the effort to come and to see Him. Yet they were not real believers. They only wanted Him to set up a welfare state where they could get free bread and fish. Saving faith is rooted in a person. It is the belief that sees Jesus as the only hope of life and then relies upon Him and submits to Him.
Commitment. When we trust in Christ, we also entrust our entire future to Him, committing ourselves into His hands. This is the issue of Lordship. There are some who would claim that trusting in Jesus without any commitment to Him as Lord of our lives and One to be obeyed is sufficient for salvation. What they are saying is that you can hate Jesus, declare yourself His mortal enemy, yet pray to Him and order Him to save you quite apart from any desire to have your life changed by Him and He will be obligated to do so. Jesus made no such claim. He called men to follow Him without reservation.
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. 25 For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:23-26). Does this mean we obtain salvation through our own efforts? Not at all. It does mean that the process of salvation changes the life of the believer.
2. Roman Catholic Versus Reformed Views of Faith.
Roman Catholic View|Reformed View|
Faith consists of a mere assent to the doctrines of the church.|Faith involves a commitment to Christ and a reliance upon Him.|
Fides Informis—Assent to the doctrines of the church.|Fides Formata—it includes love as a formative principle.|
Faith does not require knowledge. One is a believer if he is ready to accept the doctrines of the church, regardless of whether he knows what they are.|Knowledge of certain key propositional truths is an essential part of faith.|
3. From where does Faith come?
We must begin by understanding that our experience is not in itself adequate to tell us from where faith comes. This is because we do not have the total picture. We cannot see our lives and our experiences and our decisions from God's point of view except as we read the Scriptures.
• The condition of unsaved man. The apostle Paul presents a vivid picture of man as he exists without God. It shows the way in which man naturally uses his free will.
10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;
11 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good, There is not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12). The unsaved man has no desire for God. He has turned his back on God and has run away from God. He cannot understand God and he does not want to understand God. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. (1 Corinthians 2:14). The unbeliever is described as a “natural man.” The phrase in the Greek text is literally, “the soulish man.” When the natural man is confronted with the things of the Spirit of God, he does not accept them. He does not believe the gospel. The gospel makes no sense to him. It seems nonsensical. He cannot understand how the death of a man on a cross in a little country in the Middle East could affect the destiny of all men.
It is impossible for the natural man—the unsaved man—to understand the things of God. Just as the physically blind man cannot see the sun, so also the spiritually blind man cannot see the Son.
• The need for an effectual call. When we speak of an “effectual call,” we must distinguish this from a general call. The general call of God is that call for all men to repent. Matthew 22:14 says that “many are called, but few are chosen.” An effectual call is a call that necessarily produces an effect. It is an inward call that answers the outward call. In a context where He was facing the rejection at both the hands of the Jews as well as from some of His own disciples, Jesus spoke of the need for an effectual calling.
“No one can come to Me, unless the Father who send Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” (John 6:44-45). With these words, Jesus is explaining the phenomenon of unbelief. The reason some men do not believe is because it is impossible for any man to believe unless the Lord draws him to Christ. Why is this? Why is it that men will not come to God. on their own initiative? Why will they not come unless God draws them? It is because man's will has ben corrupted by sin. It has been said that the man who chokes on the doctrine of election has not yet swallowed his own total depravity. As a sinner, man is helpless to even turn to God for help. Water cannot flow uphill. Neither is it possible for the natural man to act contrary to his nature. It is God who must turn man so that he will seek a cure. Therefore, it is only when a man is drawn by God that he will come to Jesus to be saved.
• Explicit statements of faith as a gift.
There are not a lot of passages that explicitly teach that faith is a gift of God and I'm not sure that any do clearly, but here are some to consider:
Lydia... was listening... and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16:14).
...as God has allotted to each, a measure of faith (Romans 12:3 b). For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit... to another faith by the same Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8-9). For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, (Php_1:29).
Simon Peter... to those who HAVE RECEIVED a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:1). The words “have received” in this last passage are translated from the Greek lacou/sin (lachousin), the aorist participle of lagcanw (lagchano) and carries the idea of receiving an allotted portion (indeed, it usually has the idea that lots were cast in order for the privilege to be granted; Luke 1:9; John 19:24; Acts 1:17). In the same vein, Jesus said...
All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me... (John 6:37). The reason that there is response to Jesus is because the Father gives those people to Jesus. No one can come to Me, unless the Father who send Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught of God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. (John 6:44-45). The reason that men come to Christ (and that is just another way of saying that this is the reason they believe in Him) is because the Father draws those men and teaches them. It is only those who have been given this internal teaching who come (See also John 6:64-65 where Jesus uses this to explain why Judas did not believe). Does this happen apart from the offer of the gospel and faith? By no means! The invitation to come and believe is seen in the same passage and sometimes in the same verse.
• Faith and Salvation: For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
Salvation comes through faith. Faith is never looked upon as a cause of your salvation. Rather, it is the instrument through which you receive your salvation. Faith is an instrument. In the same way a fork is utilized to bring food to my mouth, so the Lord uses faith to bring salvation.