THE GIFT OF FAITH

THE GIFT OF FAITH

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that (faith is) not of yourselves: it is the gift of God…”

Are we saved through faith which is given to us by God as a gift?

A quote of a similar nature is John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him”.

We are drawn by God so that we might come to Christ.

In John 12:32 Jesus also said “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” and since it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit “to reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come” (John 16:8) it is the Spirit’s ministry that fulfils Jesus’ statement regarding the drawing of all men…

The Bible commands all mankind to ”believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved”; it is a prerequisite to salvation; one must believe the gospel before saving faith can be bestowed.

But most of mankind do not believe in Christ, they are not obedient to the gospel therefore will not receive the gift of faith.

In Romans 10:9-21 Paul uses the word obedience and cites Israel’s disobedience as his example. God offers his ‘gospel’ to all men to draw them to Christ; some take heed to the Spirit’s conviction and are given the faith to believe and are ‘born again’; born again by the Holy Spirit as he indwells them. Others turn from the gospel in disobedience and remain unconvinced and unsaved.

In this same passage we see both confession AND inner conviction; we confess to what we believe but it is the Spirit of God that gives substance to what we confess, it is the Spirit that engenders faith in us. The ‘gospel’ is only words until the Holy Spirit adds his conviction to the mix.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that (faith is) not of yourselves: it is the gift of God…” We cannot be saved unless we have the Spirit of God indwelling us. If we do not have the gift of faith (the convicting ministry of the Spirit within us) we are not saved.

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you” (Romans 8:9-11).

It is the Spirit of God who engenders faith in us, and it is that faith that ‘quickens’ our mortal bodies. The part we play is in heeding the convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

It is obvious we have the ability to reject the Holy Spirit's conviction for many do..., but can our heeding his conviction be counted as 'faith'?  I believe it can for in life we exercise such faith constantly it is innate to the human psyche, but saving faith is of the Spirit of God.  

And is a conscious belief in God an underpinning element . A desire for the existence of God causes a person to take heed to the Spirit's conviction?  And conversely, a desire for the non existence of God causes another to reject the Spirit's conviction?

Saving faith is a gift from God but it is evident from scripture that mankind MUST believe therefore it is a responsibility placed upon man.

A question Lewis Sperry Chafer once asked a Calvinist..."In the oft repeated statement in Scripture, 'believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou wilt be saved', whose responsibility is it to believe?"

Faith and saving faith... the difference is God the Holy Spirit.