What is Faith? Is Faith a Gift from God?

Before explaining the order of salvation, it is required to have a proper definition of faith. Faith is not a work. Faith is nothing by itself. It needs something or someone to believe or trust in. In salvation, that person is Jesus. So then, technically speaking, faith doesn’t save but rather Jesus saves who is the object of our faith. Jesus is our salvation. Faith is simply the means or conduit by which we get to Jesus.

All people have faith in something. The atheists have faith in molecules that have existed forever in the universe and then one day they joined together, created a big explosion and out of that progressively came everything that now exists. Islam has faith that Muhammad was a true prophet and in their god, Allah, and in their book, the Quran. There are many other religions out there that have faith in gods or a concept of god. Yet, there is no other way to eternal life except through Jesus (Acts 4:12). Even so, all people have faith in something or someone. Yet, the Calvinists will say that faith can only be a gift from God or else salvation is by works. Are they saying then that it’s possible for a person to believe anything they want, as long as they don’t believe in the One true God? Because, if they did that, it would be a work, right? So then, we find that they have the moral intuition to have faith but according to the Calvinistic system, even if they choose to place their faith in Jesus, they are not actually able to do so unless God allows them to, and God does not allow everyone to do that except for the specific people He chooses. It must be acknowledged here that the doctrine of Total Depravity is a presuppositional doctrine to believing it is necessary for God to grant faith to people to believe in Jesus. But the Calvinists must ask themselves here, why are people totally depraved when it comes to choosing to have faith in Jesus but when it comes to choosing other religions, they have enough morality and intuition to choose faith? Why would God make salvation so difficult to obtain? Doesn’t that contradict Romans 10:8?

Some might point to Ephesians 2:8-9 to say that faith is a gift. But that is an incorrect understanding of that passage because the “it” is a gift, refers back to the grace by which you have been saved, the whole phrase “grace through faith.” Scholars would agree with this. That being the case, since grace is predicated upon the means of faith, the grace of salvation is what is properly the gift here. Since salvation is a gift of God and not obtained by doing any work but by simply receiving, it is all by His grace. Faith is simply the means to receiving the gift. It is saying “yes” to God. But for some reason the Calvinists see that as working or contributing to your salvation as if it’s just really hard work to receive a gift and so God has to enable you to do it so that He can get all the glory. But we must understand that salvation is Jesus Himself to come live within us. Faith is simply opening the door to salvation. But is that work? What about the Old Testament command to not work on the Sabbath? What did God mean by that? Did He mean what many Jews do today by pre-folding toilet paper the day before or having elevators open on every floor so that you don’t have to press the button because that would require “work”? At this level of definition, even putting a fork to your mouth to feed yourself would be “work.” Do you see how ridiculous this argument is to call faith a work? And why does the Apostle Paul always contrast faith with works if he were to be of the belief that faith was actually a work? That doesn’t make any sense.

Faith is about resting in Jesus—not working.

Nonetheless, it still may be argued by some that if faith is not a gift from God to where He causes us to believe, then we would have reason to boast as the next verse says, “not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:9). They would argue that if one person believes and not the other, then they could boast about how smart they were for discovering the truth about Jesus, how they figured it all out, or how they humbled themselves before God to receive salvation by which humility is a virtue. Also, what does that say about those not intellectually intelligent enough to place their faith in Christ?

First, for those with intellectual disabilities and in other situations, God can provide sufficient spiritual insight, revelation, means, or ability to them to believe if He wants to. Though, this still does not override their free-will. Another possibility for those individuals is that the so-called age of accountability rule would apply to them if they die without the knowledge of the truth and were mentally incapable of understanding it, they could potentially still receive eternal life. Or, they may simply cease to exist. Those are the variability of options in that scenario.

Secondly, just because we believe that faith is not a gift from God, that doesn’t mean that zero means of grace or prevenient grace would not be sufficiently provided. They would absolutely be provided and so everyone is on the same playing-field so to speak. If you would like, you could even call faith a means of grace but to keep a proper distinction between Calvinism and Provisionism doctrines, and to emphasize that faith is not forced upon us, I do not think it wise to call faith a gift. To do so, brings in too much theological baggage, presuppositions, and just confuses the conversation and a proper understanding of the distinctions.

Third, humility is an oddly peculiar thing. Though it is a virtue, it is also not a virtue. There are acts of humility which are selfless and sacrificial deeds done in love, putting others before ourselves. This is properly a virtue. But there is also the mindset of humility which is not to think less of ourselves but to think of ourselves less, and in so doing, we avoid pride. That could be called a virtue as well. But then there is the mindset and attitude of the heart which comes before God as a Begger pleading for Him to have mercy. It is the inward self, prostrate before God, not because his posture is virtuous and thereby acceptable to God, but because he is empty and broken and needful for only what God has to offer him, satisfy him, and fill him with. His humility is him simply offering to God his nothing so that he might receive everything. In this way, humility is not a virtue because its position is to be empty and nothing before God. But because it is nothing, it is not full of virtue because virtue is something. Jesus tells us that this is what is needed to enter the kingdom of God before anything else. He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). Also, after David had gravely sinned, he wrote, “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Ps 51:16-17). So then, to offer to God ourselves in our emptiness is nothing one can be proud or boastful over. As someone once said, “‎No matter how high God takes you, you are no higher than the lowest. Remember, the ground is level at the foot of the cross” (Jeffrey E. Ramey). The only way into the kingdom of heaven is through simply receiving the grace of God through faith, believing His love for us, and trusting that He will be good to us. That is all grace and all the strength is in Him and not of ourselves.

Humility is dynamic, not static. That is, it is not a constant immovable state of being. Rather, it can move and fluctuate in varying degrees based upon an individual’s choice. Each person is responsible before God to make a choice and it is in their libertarian free-will to respond positively to God rather than negatively. But no one was born incapable of making such a choice.

It would not be boastful or haughty to accept a wedding invitation and go to the banquet. If all are invited and if every person’s name is on the registry, there is nothing to brag about or to hold over someone else by saying, “I was invited and let in to the banquet but you weren’t.” But on the contrary, if you were invited to the banquet and others were not, that may be something to boast about since you are more privileged, favored, and distinguished. But this doesn’t make too much of a difference if the selection was random or if it was personal. For even if it were a lottery winning, you would have a favor upon you that others could not get no matter how much they sought it. That would certainly be more to boast about than for everyone to have equal access to receive a lottery winning at their own choice by walking into the store or bank and being given access to all the money there is. As you can see from these illustrations, if there is anyone who would have more reason to boast, it would honestly be the Calvinists. But for those of us who are not, why would we boast in something anyone is able to do? (to receive the gospel)?

Did the prodigal son merit anything by walking or running up to his father to receive forgiveness and all the riches of his father’s house? After all, he had to move himself to get there to receive reconciliation. Man, talk about hard work... He couldn’t just sit there moping around in his miserable condition of having no money and eating the pig slops. He actually had to move his feet to walk. What an impossible task. I’m sure he bragged about that to his father’s servants at some later time that he used his free-will to come back to his father. But besides his free-will, the hardest task of all was to humble himself—to own up to his failures and face his fears. He had to get right with his father no matter the cost because he couldn’t stand the way he was living anymore. He needed help and he needed to ask for forgiveness. But the greatest fear must have been rejection—that he would be turned away, completely disowned, and hated. But he faced that fear and came anyway. He came because he held onto just a little faith. He had enough faith to believe that his father was a good man because he even treated his servants so well. And so he reasoned, “if my father is that good to even the servants, how much more might I receive at least a small portion of his kindness and grace?” But that little faith was enough to restore his relationship with his father. He didn’t do anything to merit this. It was just a change in his mindset he had to make first and then he was received back to his father. Instead of working hard as one of the servants or working hard off in some land far away like he was before in trying to get by, he didn’t have to work like that anymore. Typically, when people have their own job or career, they worked hard to get there and to stay there and they could tell of all their accomplishments and qualifications to other employers. But when the prodigal was received by his father, he received a position that he never could have merited because he lost those privileges by squandering his wealth and sinning against his father. For him to be transferred from living and being in one way of life to another by this free gift, it’s all just the humility of receiving his father’s grace. His new responsibilities that he was given from his father are nothing to brag about at the dinner table. He didn’t enter into his father’s favor through any qualifications or conditions. He was simply forgiven and given everything. What is there to boast about in that?

Arguments from Scripture to the natural. Can someone turn to God in saving faith in their current condition apart from God choosing them?

“A man cannot come before God in faith and humility to be saved because he is unable,” the Calvinists would say, “because he was born unable. Only God can make him or push him to do it.” But if God desires all to be saved and does not delight in the death of the wicked, why does He make salvation so impossible and so far out of reach? Did Jesus come for the purpose of saving the world, or not? Why then would He close off salvation to anyone by withholding any necessary grace for them to believe? Why limit the opportunity if His grace is sufficient and richly abundant to be given on behalf of all? But how much of that extra grace is even necessary for the purpose of humbly coming before God and believing? If an unbeliever can ask another person to forgive them, why would they be incapable of asking and receiving God’s forgiveness? And if an unbeliever is capable of trusting others, why is he incapable of trusting God? Moreover, if an unbeliever can admit that He is wrong before others and in so doing, humble himself, why can’t he admit that he is wrong before God so as to receive mercy and grace?

Then the Calvinist might say, “because he does it from wrong motives.” But what does that mean? Can only a pure motive receive salvation, a selfless motive for only the love of God and not for any benefit of our own? If that’s the case, we’re all screwed. John says that we love Him because He first loved us and so our love is conditioned upon Him first loving us (1 Jn 4:19). In this way, none of us are the most noble for loving God first despite anything He has done for us, given us, or has offered to us. We are primarily recipients of His grace and because of this, we do not offer to Him our virtue to be saved. Therefore, I do not agree with the premise that offering to God our pure, selfless, and virtuous motives to God for salvation and for the love of Him has anything to do with being granted salvation. We offer to God our nothing and our needfulness for Him and He saves us. Then comes the love of the Holy Spirit into our hearts to love Him back in a way that is more worthy of Him (Ro 5:5). We are even told by the Scriptures that the kind of faith that pleases God is one that believes and seeks after the promise of His rewards (Heb 11:6). From here, we are shown that it is actually a good thing to seek after the rewards and we are encouraged to do so. But of course, these rewards are not mutually exclusive from God Himself. Nonetheless, it is not biblically wrong to seek something for our own benefit. However, even if we set aside this biblical argument and took a more natural one, we would find ourselves rejecting the same premise.

First, the action of receiving a gift is by simply receiving it, opening up the hands to grab hold of it. Receiving has nothing to do with motives since it is just about accepting a gift. Now, if that person is not thankful for that gift to respond in gratitude, the problem is not with the response being ineffective or because of some lack of an external source of power but rather, the knowledge and understanding about the inestimable worth and value of such a gift. That has to do with belief, which can be remedied with greater understanding of its value and the person’s understanding of how needful it is for them. Then the gift can be truly received not just with the hands but with the heart.

Second, even if we were to uphold this faulty premise for the sake of argument about the virtue of wholly pure motives to receive salvation from God which denies anything to our own benefit, the argument still doesn’t work if we see this in a natural sense because unbelievers are capable of pure motives. Take for example the soldier who sacrifices his life for his comrades by putting his body over a grenade. Without hesitation, he was completely selfless in that action. There was nothing for him to gain but everything to lose. Or what about the mother who would do anything for the life, health, and protection of her own children? Or take the example of a homeless man who has nothing except twenty-five dollars but decides to give all his money to another homeless person who he felt compassion for though this action could result in his own suffering. In such cases, the natural man is capable of pure motives of love, compassion, and sacrifice.

But here the Calvinists would argue that it was still not a pure motive or any kind of deed that was pleasing in the sight of God because it was done to other people and not ultimately to God and in this way, a violation of the first commandment and so their deeds are as filthy garments to God and unacceptable. But at this point the Calvinists discontinue thinking regarding this matter and think that it is a settled case. But hold on a minute. Let us not stop here. If the unbeliever has just demonstrated capability to offer pure motives to other unbelievers and in this way, being able to render their obedience unto the second greatest commandment in the Bible, what prevents them from bringing those same motives in faith to God? Many people in other religions have faith in their deity or higher power and they render service to them with much wealth, time invested, sacrifices, and many prayers. They may even die for what they believe in. But it is false religion and false faith. But let’s just say that there was a first commandment for their own religion, could they in any way have pure motives to their god? Could they not just transfer that selfless mindset in how they treated people to then treat their god that way too? Or is it wholly impossible for there to be any true selflessness, compassion, and true loyalty to the god they worship?

You see, the argument just doesn’t hold up to say that pure selfless motives are needed to bring to God in order to be found acceptable by Him and that only such motives can only be supernaturally given by God by His selective choice and decree to then cause someone’s salvation. Nevertheless, the true and correct motive to have to come to God in salvific faith is a humble and contrite heart, a broken spirit, a needful soul, a hunger and thirst for God, and a faith that believes God will reward him. Jesus Himself said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink…” (Jn 7:37).

God calls everyone to humility and repentance—a change of mind/heart—and God looks upon these with favor: Mt 5:3; 23:12; Lk 1:52; 14:11; 18:10-14, 17; James 4:8, 10; 1 Pet 5:5-6; Isa 66:2; 2 Kings 22:19; 2 Chron 12:7, 12; Ps 18:27; 25:9; 147:6; Prov 3:34; Zeph 2:3. Turning to God in this way, is within everyone’s reach and capability of doing.

For those who believe that one must first turn from their sin as a prerequisite and condition to receive God’s forgiveness and a transformed heart, that is where I disagree. You’ll have to see my critique on Lordship Salvation for more information on that.

For more information on the subject of faith:
Faith is a gift of God, just not one that is effectually applied