7.17.2010

Faith - 4.30.09 0955 (Part 2)


Faith does not come from us. It doesn't originate from us. It's not initiated by us. The bible seems to make this clear. Does this mean we can't have faith without God flipping a switch in us? Kind of, but not really.

See, if God had no part in our faith then we could boast in ourselves and our faith in God. We could say, "I believed in God without any help at all!" This isn't biblical. But I also don't believe this means that God directly causes some to have faith and some not to have faith. What would be the point of Paul's argument in Romans that no one has an excuse not to have faith in God when, in fact, they do have an excuse. God never gave them the faith to have! Simply doesn't make sense, and I think this is because we've misunderstood something about faith.

Faith is always the second step from something else.

Faith is always the response to something or the reaction to something. Faith isn't initiated because "initiation" or "starting out" or "the first step" isn't what faith is. It's not even a part of faith! Saying you've initiated faith in God is as nonsensical as saying the color green tastes like wood. But if it's a response, a reaction to something, then things become clearer once you figure out what it's a response to, a reaction to.

God's revelation.

Revelation can be initiated, and in fact is when it comes to God revealing himself. Now no man can have an excuse, because God has revealed himself to all, either through nature, the Law, Christ, etc. Your response to that revelation is the all determining factor. That is why God can hold everyone accountable, because we're all responsible for the way we respond to God's revelation. This is why we can't brag about our faith in God, because without God's revelation, we wouldn't be able to have the appropriate, faithful response! God doesn't choose your response for you. He determined whether or not you had the option to respond. And everyone before, during, and after the Christ event had the option, has the option, will have the option.

People before the Christ event had proper/effective/real faithful responses. If you read Hebrews 11, the hall of fame for the faithful, you will see that every one of them is a response. And some of them are even said to have been justified or made righteous by their response! So this concept of justification by faith is not new to the Christ event.

What, then, did Jesus bring that wasn't there before? Forgiveness? Nope. people could be forgiven before Christ. Righteousness for the believers? Nope. That happened before. Justification, Holy Spirit, recognition of God's supremacy, mercy or love? Nope nope nope, all there before the Christ event. People were able to be justified, people got the Holy Spirit, and people fully recognized God's attributes. What new thing did Christ bring?

Salvation.

Eternal Life.

Being able to spend infinity with God.

Before Christ, righteousness or justification or forgiveness didn't mean salvation or fully restored relationship with God, allowing eternal life. These were brand new concepts that Christ brought!

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