Recent Article

Here is a short article I just wrote for a Moody Northwest newspaper that my English class will be producing (probably bi-weekly) this semester (of which I am assistant editor):

Saving Faith: a Gracious Gift from God

J. K. Walters

Though we surely all agree that salvation is wholly a gift from God, and is not something that we ourselves produce or effect, some may think that the faith by which we are justified is something that a man himself must produce. They might maintain that a man’s belief in Christ is his own choice and not a thing given by God. This position, I think, is not based on Scripture. In fact, I think that the Scriptures teach just the opposite, namely, that even the faith by which we are justified is a gracious gift from God. I will now attempt to demonstrate that this is the position of the Scriptures.

1 Corinthians 4.7 – “What do you have that you did not receive?” This rhetorical question informs us that all we have was received and does not proceed from ourselves. Though the fact that faith itself is a gift from God may not immediately stand out to us as an implication of this verse, I think that we may rightly deduce such. Indeed, the early church father, Augustine, infers as much in his work entitled A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints (book 1, chapter 8), and notes that even boasting on the grounds of having faith is precluded.

1 Corinthians 3.5 – “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.” Here, the Corinthian Christians’ act of believing is said to have been assigned by God to each of them. A thing assigned or given to one would seem certainly not to have originated in one’s own being.

Philippians 1.29 – “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake …” In this verse, it is stated that believing in Christ is not the only thing God has granted to the Philippians, but also that they may suffer for Christ’s sake. This clearly shows that believing in Christ is a thing granted by God and not a human accomplishment about which one may boast.

2 Peter 1.1 – “Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ …” The support which this verse lends to my argument may not be apparent in the English. However, the Greek verb (lagchanō) rendered “obtained” carries the idea of obtaining by casting lots (cf. Acts 1.17), the outcome of which was controlled by God (cf. Prov. 16.33). The implication to the Greek reader, then, would probably be that the “obtaining” was due to God’s choice to give and not to anything in man.

Ephesians 2.8-9 has also sometimes been used to support the fact that faith is a gift from God (e.g., Westminster Confession of Faith, Scripture proof version, chapter 11, section 1), but this is perhaps untenable on grammatical grounds (cf. Robertson’s Word Pictures on the passage)

In conclusion, I suggest that, rather than being seen as a negative thing (in that is would seem to absolutely minimize the role of man in his salvation), the fact that even our faith in Christ is a gift from God should be viewed as a blessing, since we know, therefore, that it is not based on our own weak selves, but upon the unshakable Rock.