01.06. Chapter 4 Faith
Chapter 4 Faith Accepting an offered gift No matter how much we may wish that all people receive the salvation Jesus has achieved, God as usual treats people as responsible beings. They are not robots. They can either accept or reject what God offers them. And what God offers them is a gift. It costs them nothing, though it cost God much, even the life of Jesus Christ.
What people must do is accept the gift that God offers them, and they do this by faith. They cannot buy salvation. There is nothing they can do to earn salvation as a reward. Some of the early Christians were reassured of this with the words, ‘It is by God’s grace that you have been saved, through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift’ (Ephesians 2:8-9).
What faith is
It is important that we understand what the Bible means when it talks about faith, for the word has a variety of meanings in everyday usage. Faith is not blind acceptance of something which people secretly feel may not be true but which they think they ought to believe nevertheless. Nor is it some sort of unexplained inner strength that helps people through difficulties. The chief characteristic of faith is trust, or reliance, and it is always trust in something or someone.
Often the word ‘belief’ is used instead of the word ‘faith’. To believe the Christian teaching means more than simply to understand it or to acknowledge the story of the Bible as true. To believe in God means more than simply to believe he exists. Certainly, people must understand the teaching and accept that God exists, but to ‘believe in’ God means to put their trust in him, to rely upon him. When travellers buy their airline tickets, they have faith in the airline. They have given it their money in advance because they believe in it; they trust it. They go to the airport on the appointed day, believing an aeroplane will be there to take them to their destination. Likewise to believe in God is to believe his promises and act upon them.
Having arrived at the airport, the travellers further show their faith, this time in the aeroplane. They believe it will fly, and some may even understand how it flies, but they exercise their faith when they walk on to it. They trust it, rely upon it and commit themselves to it, believing it will carry them to their destination. That is what the Bible means by faith. People not only understand facts about God and his salvation for them through Jesus Christ, but they trust in him, rely upon him and commit themselves to him. They trust in what Christ has done for them, not in anything they do themselves. The object of faith
We must not think, however, that faith is in any way a quality within people that God rewards by giving them his salvation. Faith itself does not save. God is the one who saves. Faith is only the means by which sinners receive his salvation. In the illustration it is the aeroplane that has the capability of carrying the travellers to their destination; the travellers can do no more than walk on to it in faith. They have nothing to boast about in doing that, and likewise repentant sinners have nothing to boast about in exercising their faith. The importance lies in the object of their faith, which is Jesus Christ.
Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin, and people are saved from that penalty by trusting in what Jesus has done. They do not achieve salvation by anything they themselves do, but they recognize that Jesus has already achieved it by death.
People must claim the benefits of Jesus’ death for themselves individually if they are to be forgiven and brought back to God. No one else can do it for them. When they have taken that step of faith, each individual can then say, as Paul once said, that this salvation is ‘through faith in Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20). No other way
Some people reject the idea that they must depend on what someone else has done for them. But in ordinary life all have to depend constantly on what they themselves did not do. No one could read this book unless others had first printed it; and they could not have printed it unless others had made the paper; and they could not have made the paper unless there were trees; and so it goes on.
There is another reason why people reject the idea of depending on Jesus for their salvation, and that is the natural pride of the human heart. People find it humbling to admit their helplessness. They find it even more humbling to admit their guilt and ask for forgiveness. But there is nothing else that guilty sinners can do – except bear the punishment.
If people insist that they depend on themselves for salvation, they are only condemning themselves to certain punishment. God does not want this, and that is why he has made a way of salvation available. ‘God does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins’ (2 Peter 3:9). But if they refuse to, there is no way of salvation for them. A change of direction
Since faith means trusting in Jesus Christ’s death for the forgiveness of sin, faith involves turning away from sin. People cannot cling to their sin and love Jesus at the same time, because their sin caused Jesus to die. People must not only be sorry for their sin, but also be willing to turn from it, to change direction. They must have a complete change of mind, attitude and behaviour. The word for this turn-around is ‘repentance’.
Faith and repentance go together. Jesus said, ‘Turn away from your sins and believe the good news’ (that is, the good news of the salvation he brought) (Mark 1:15). Those who spread this good news likewise urged people to ‘turn from their sins to God and believe in the Lord Jesus’ (Acts 20:21). Such repentance is more than merely deciding to be a better person. It is turning from sin to Christ. Faith in Christ means complete dependence on him and total commitment to him. Believers in Christ become true followers of Christ, true Christians.
Sooner or later, those who recognize their need of Christ must come to a point where they personally accept the salvation that God offers. The Bible gives no special procedure to follow and no special prayer to recite. No church ceremony or church official is necessary. God knows the attitude of people’s hearts, even when words cannot properly express it.
Nevertheless, if people are genuine believers, they should naturally want to talk to God. They will want to acknowledge their sin, ask God’s forgiveness, thank Jesus for dying for them, and commit themselves in faith to him as their Saviour and Lord. And they have the assurance of Jesus’ promise, ‘I will never turn away from anyone who comes to me’ (John 6:37).
Those who come to Christ may not experience any immediate great change in their feelings. Salvation, however, does not depend on their feelings; it depends on God’s promises. When God works in people’s lives, it is not usually by spectacular or unnatural happenings. He does not usually strike people dead when they curse him, or give them heavenly visions when they praise him. But when he comes into people’s lives, he works to change those lives, so that there is a constant growth in all the truly good qualities. People are not saved by their good deeds, but once they are saved, their lives will progressively become full of good deeds.