I may have a problem expressing myself correctly but I am not sure if you really looked and examined all those Scriptures I posted. If you did you would see the answer to your questions.

I will post this again in hope that it clears things up.

It all depends on Christ's faithfulness to you.

When I look at at my "Christian" experience, I see a whole lot of my wasted time, efforts and struggle to somehow try to work up faith or to make my self really believe.

I experienced failure after failure and defeat after defeat. All my efforts to repent, believe, surrender, trust, obey and really be in union with Christ only made maters WORSE.

Why did I fail? Did I REALLY mean and want to obey? YES!!!

This was NOT the problem. The bottom line was that I still was in unbelief. I knew If I could only truly believe the problem would be SOLVED.

So the question was how to get the required faith. I confess scriptures over and over thinking that this would bring me the faith I needed.

Nothing I DID worked! Why? because I was still attempting to get faith using my own efforts and human reasoning's. I was done - I quit all my efforts. I knew I was not accomplishing anything at all and the fact was I was only matters worse.

Now God had mercy on me and I started to see that “MY FAITH" was not even demanded or even required. I saw that the necessary faith was SUPPLIED to me by Christ's faithfulness to me. So I no longer had to somehow work up faith up or even try to believe because my UNION WITH CHRIST did and could not depend on ANY EFFORT I could ever make. It only depended on Christ's faithfulness to me!!

Look at what Hudson Taylor wrote to his sister when he had a similar experience.

"As gradually the light dawned on me, I saw that faith was the only prerequisite to laying hold of His fullness and making it my own. But I had not this faith . . . I strove for it, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior - my helplessness and guilt seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world - yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith but it did not come. What was I to do?

When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never seen it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote (I quote from memory): "But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One."

As I read I saw it all! "If we believe not, He remains faithful." I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed) that He had said, "I will never leave you." "Ah, here is rest!" I thought. "I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me - never to leave me, never to fail me?" And Dearie, He never will"

He saw the victory, the holiness, the power and all the fullness in Christ. He knew that the solution was in Christ so he kept on trying to somehow acquire it. He did everything he knew to make it his own but again he only found more failure and disappointment. He saw that it was his sin of unbelief that was the root cause of all his other sins. Then, he found out that he could not even believe. He tried and prayed to believe but no faith came. He was utterly, and completely hopeless.

When he saw Christ's Faithfulness, his eyes were opened to the truth that had already existed. "But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One. If we believe not, He remains faithful". This was the secret of what he saw that he had never realized before. He saw that God in Christ had already given him the faith and the belief that was required. God had placed Him in Christ and now he could just rest in God's faithfulness to keep him there.

So stop trying to work up faith or to make efforts to somehow believe.

All the Love, faith, obedience, trust, that you thought was required by YOU to somehow do, is freely supplied to you by what God in Christ has already accomplished for you and in you.

Can you justify yourself?
Can you make yourself Holy?
Can you crucify yourself?
Can you make your self one with God and Christ?
Can you ever generate the Love the law demands?
Can you ever generate any true faith?

You can not do any of these things in your own efforts, or abilities.

The truth is that God does NOT demand you to do any of these things.

God in Christ has Justified you, Made you holy, Made you righteous, and you are a new creation in Him.

What was your part in this? NONE!!!

God in Christ did what the law and you could have never done!

Under the old Covenant God DEMANDED man to be faithful – man failed.

Under the new Covenant, It no longer depends on our faithfulness to Him. but only on Christ‘s FAITHFULNESS TO US!

Do you see His faithfulness to you?

The gospel does not demand faith ... it supplies faith.
The gospel does not demand love ... it supplies love.
The gospel does not demand repentance ... it supplies repentance.
The gospel does not demand surrender ... it supplies surrender.
The gospel does not demand obedience ... it supplies obedience.

See His love and faithfulness to you it and embrace it.

Hi Tuc-

You are expressing yourself fine-- however what you arr expressing seems very questionable.

All throughout scripture we are commanded to have faith and those with faith are commended. This does not square with what you are saying.

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Todd

I found these old SermonIndex threads which I thought was illuminating on the topic of faith:

(discussion on Galatians 2:20)
https://img.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic_pdf.php?topic_id=14639&forum=36

Word Study: The Faith of God (or Christ)
https://img.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic_pdf.php?topic_id=4250&forum=36

Philologos summarizes it well - "Faith and repentance are only possible because God enables but each requires our personal engagement."

"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." John 6:44

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL men unto me." John 12:32

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9

ALL :the whole, entire, total amount, quantity, or extent of
:every member or part of :the whole number or sum of.- Merriam Webster's Dictionary

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Nigel Holland

Look at these scriptural examples to understand what I am saying.

Phip. 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

1 Thes. 5:23-24, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

Eph. 1:3-5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,”

Look at what Paul was saying here. His CONFIDENCE was not in his own ability to believe but in what God had already accomplished and would continue to accomplish.

You may make this verse personal to you by saying “I am confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in ME will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

Now Paul had NO confidence in his own efforts to produce the necessary faith. He knew that Jesus Christ is the ONLY true source of faith possible. He did not have any faith in his own faith!

The Holy Spirit was showing Paul what God in Christ had already accomplished through Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Then he saw and realized THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD TOWARD HIM!!!

Now this Gospel contains and supplies us with all the necessary faith, love, obedience, surrender and repentance. Do not forget that salvation is IMPOSSIBLE by anything a person can do. Salvation is the work of God.

Mark 10:26-27, “And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.”

It was God in Christ who has reconciled us to Him, made us one with Him, justified us, made us holy, sanctified us, forgiven all of our sins, crucified us with Him, and then raised us from the dead in Him. He has given us HIS divine nature and HE is our LIFE. He has made us a NEW CREATION.

Heb. 8:12, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”

Heb. 10:16-18, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”

Christ, the LAST ADAM came to rescue us from sin and totally undo ALL the consequences of what the 1st Adam did.

God in Christ has now made us ONE with Him and we have been fully justified and born again BY CHRIST"S RESURRECTION from the dead. NOT by our OWN EFFORTS!!

Romans 4:3-5, "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."

Gal, 3:8, “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.”

Now look at this part closely - GOD JUSTIFIETH THE UNGODLY AND THE HEATHENS!

Are you shocked and surprised that God justifies the ungodly and the heathens? It is by the Cross that God has saved wicked men and received to Himself the vilest of the sinners. See how this Scripture plainly states it. God makes those just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished, and favors those who deserve no favor.

God did all this in Christ BEFORE you where even born, before you could repent and before you could believe. He did this without your permission or consent. You had NO PART in what God did in Christ.

Have you ever tried to Love and Obey God and totally failed? Look at and examine all you failures that you have made.

Have you been defeated over and over again? Are you hopeless? Have you found it impossible to ever Love and Obey God correctly?

I hope that when you look back on all your defeats and failures that you now know the reason why you failed. It was that you were trusting in your own abilities to believe. Your faith was in your faith and your confidence was in your efforts.

Do you now realize the fact that you have been on the throne attempting to use your own will power and desires to get archive freedom but self can never dethrone self? Self can NEVER dethrone self - IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

If you do not realize this fact you will continue to keep trying and failing over and over again.

Now you have a choice to make to make if you want to enjoy His VICTORY and be an active participant in what God has already accomplished for you in Christ. Will you put your confidence in HIS FAITHFULNESS TOWARD YOU or in your faithfulness toward Him?

If Paul had no confidence in his own faith, was it necessary for him to have faith in Christ's ability to grant faith to him?

It appears you are saying we must not attempt to have faith on our own, but instead must have faith in Christ's faith for us? Is that what you are saying

Is there any faith on our part? Do we receive? Is it necessary to have faith to receive Christ's faith? How do we have faith in Christ' faith for us?

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Alan and Dina Martin

It seems like you are using many words to state a very simple truth that every true Christian understands... Namely "trust the Lord."

Every true Christian knows that it is not his own efforts that saves him. Every true Christian does not have "faith in himself" to live a victorious Christian life. And every true Christian knows that they must trust and obey Jesus Christ (I.e. be His disciple). But this does not happen automatically. We must really trust, and we must really obey.

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Todd

Makruthumia wrote:

"It appears you are saying we must not attempt to have faith on our own, but instead must have faith in Christ's faith for us? Is that what you are saying

Is there any faith on our part? Do we receive? Is it necessary to have faith to receive Christ's faith? How do we have faith in Christ' faith for us?"

Exactly- this is where my confusion is coming from.

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Todd

Every true Christian knows that it is not his own efforts that saves him. Every true Christian does not have "faith in himself" to live a victorious Christian life. And every true Christian knows that they must trust and obey Jesus Christ (I.e. be His disciple). But this does not happen automatically. We must really trust, and we must really obey.
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yes i agree, God does require that we respond. He does not force us, there is choice. as you said we must obey and trust. rdg

I am not certain that I agree with this statement. Look at all the people who believe in God and Christ but do not really experience His Victory. If this statement is true why did Paul take the time and effort to warn the Galatians of their self efforts? They where TRUE Christians.

I believed in God and Christ but thought it was up to me and my efforts to live the victorious Christian life.