In this series on biblical faith, we’ve already considered the questions “What is faith?” And “Is belief the same as faith?” Now that we have considered what faith is, we need to consider where it comes from. Think about it. Do you control the thoughts that originate in your mind? You might take control of them once they appear, but do you will them to appear in the first place? Or how about your interests? You can choose whether or not to pursue your interests, but do you choose what things you are interested in - or do they choose you? In this same manner, do you decide to have faith and believe in God whom you have never seen, or does God decide to give you faith?
Faith comes from hearing the word of God.
Romans 10:14-17 (ESV) How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
The Bible tells us that we are given faith by hearing. This is consistent throughout the Bible. God spoke all of creation into existence (Genesis 1). He spoke to Adam and Eve, and they even feared Him just by hearing Him walking in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8). He spoke to Noah (Genesis 6:13), Abraham (Genesis 12:1), Moses (Exodus 3:4), Samuel (1 Samuel 3:4), and all the prophets. He sent the prophets out to the people to share His word with them. He also sent messengers, His angels, to deliver messages on His behalf - such as the angel that spoke to Mary (Luke 1:26-28). He spoke to the people around Jesus when He said “this is my son in whom I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22, Luke 9:35). And He spoke as Jesus - teaching and performing miracles. And He speaks to us through His written word. One thing is for sure - belief in God is not a random occurrence, it is always the result of a direct interaction with the word of God.
Now think about this. Is writing not a form of speech? It’s a way to communicate something that you would like to say, something that you, in fact, would say if you were talking. Writing is communication just like talking is communication, and hearing is the other side of talking just like reading is the other side of writing. Both accomplish the same thing. The added benefit of writing is that people that are not near to you can hear what you have to say. And that’s exactly what the Bible does for us.
So, if you want people to come to faith in Jesus and be saved, you have to be ready to verbally share God’s word with them. But that’s just the beginning. One person is not going to sit down and tell another person everything that’s in God’s word - at least not without reading from the Bible. For a person to truly come to faith in God, they have to read His word.
Faith is a gift from God.
John 6:63-65 (ESV) It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Faith is not an act of our own will. You can’t get into heaven by following a 10 step plan and exerting your willpower. Faith in God is accompanied by repentance. The meaning of the word repentance in Greek is “change your mind,” and in Hebrew it’s “turn around.” Faith is not something you sit down and plan out and strive to accomplish. The gift of faith is something that happens to you, and it changes you to your core. It’s also something that you would have to try pretty hard to ignore - kind of like Jonah - but even then, if God wants you to do something, He won’t let you off the hook just because you have to go outside your comfort zone. That being said, just because faith is a gift doesn’t mean that we don’t have to take care of it. It’s the most precious gift of all, and we should treasure it and treat it like it’s the most important thing in our life - because it is (Matthew 13:44-46).
God is the source of faith, and the Holy Spirit is our helper to guide us in our faith and supply us with faith daily. But it’s a gift and not a ration. You don’t get the same amount every day, and you don’t get more just because it’s a new day. You have to stay connected to God through reading His word, praying, worshiping, and serving God and others. Most of all you must stay connected by longing for God, and yearning to know Him and please Him.
We cannot boast about our faith because it’s a gift.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Romans 12:3 (ESV) For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (ESV) For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV) For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
Since faith is a gift, and not something that we can “accomplish” of our own will, we have no grounds to boast. We can certainly tell people that we have faith, but to act as if our faith has anything to do with our own efforts is missing the point. And remember that Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, so why would it even matter as to the status of your faith. No, faith is not your accomplishment that you need to boast about, but rather it’s your treasure that you should want to nurture and protect.
Your faith is not a status symbol for the world to admire. You should not be concerned about how others perceive you, or what they think about you. Your faith comes from God, and empowers you to serve Him with humility and dependence. It is a sign that you are joined into the bride of Christ, and that you are part of the reward that Christ earned by His sacrifice. Your faith is not for your glory - it is for God’s glory.
Does God give everyone the gift of faith?
Read Romans 9
We have to remember that God created us to glorify Him. And He didn’t create a utopia, but an ecosystem. With that in mind we also have to know that God does not give everyone the gift of faith. He actually even hardens the hearts of people - such as pharaoh in the story of Moses (Exodus 7:3) - in order to serve His purposes. Just as there is a biological food chain in the natural world, there is a spiritual food chain, so to speak, in the spiritual world. God gives everyone different amounts of faith (Romans 12:3). Some people are objects of His blessings, and others are objects of His wrath.
It’s not our place to judge God. Remember, we acquired the knowledge of good and evil (a.k.a. morality) against God’s command. It got us kicked out of Eden, and put us in the world of sin, work, and death. If you think that God is unfair not to give everyone the same amount of faith then you are putting yourself in the place of God and trying to judge Him. That is the very sin that the knowledge of good and evil leads to. We cannot judge what God does as good or evil, we can only surrender to Him in humility with prayer and thanksgiving. Do not let your ego cloud your thinking about this - even the Stoics and the Buddhists know that ego is the enemy. And Christians know that the enemy, Satan, is the deceiver who got us to bite into the knowledge of good and evil in the first place.
What happens if you refuse the gift of faith?
Psalm 95:7-11 (ESV)For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
Hebrews 3:12 (ESV) Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
Faith comes from hearing the word of God, which I already mentioned above is akin to reading the word of God. And one of the most common stumbling blocks to people’s faith that I see all around me is the lack of time and effort put into reading the Bible. Our mainstream society has managed to downplay the Bible as boring and hard to understand to the point where even most Christians buy into that concept on a sub-conscious level.
If your pastor was to ask the entire congregation sitting in the church on Sunday morning to raise their hand if they have ever read the Bible from cover to cover within a year, what percentage of the people would be able to honestly raise their hand? I’m not trying to pick on you if you haven’t read the Bible before, but I am pleading with you to take it more seriously!
To be sure, when you open the Bible for the first time there are many stories that will give you pause, confuse you, or even offend your intellect - particularly if you have attended a modern university. You can’t read the Bible like a novel or a self-help book. Understanding the Bible can take some practice, which is why it’s so easy to think that “it’s hard to understand.” You could even say that learning to read the Bible is similar to learning to play a music instrument. You have to start with the basics and keep at it. Even the greatest musicians need to practice in order to keep up their skills, and being a disciple is no different.
Reading the Bible is not completely unlike reading a textbook, where the first time you read it you learn a lot, and every time you read it after that you pick up a few more details. With a text book, though, you will eventually know everything that it has to teach you, and there may even be a new version of the textbook with additions and retractions by the time you get done reading it. But the Bible is unique because it never changes, and you will never stop learning new things from it.
There are many other ways to reject the gift of faith, and refusing to repent is also a big one among them, but failing to read the Bible is probably the most critical, and most common, mistake that is plaguing the church today.
What happens if you accept the gift of faith?
Romans 5:1 (ESV) Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:28 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Mark 16:16 (ESV) Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
1 John 5:4-5 (ESV) For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Through faith God gives us peace in our hearts. Through faith God gives us the Holy Spirit as a helper to strengthen our hearts and give us wisdom. Through faith God grants us the salvation that Jesus earned for us on the cross. Through faith our prayers are answered. Through faith we glorify God.
When you pray with faith, you are speaking to the Most High God. When you speak with faith, you speak the truth with power. When you act with faith, your actions have strength and purpose. When you live with faith your life glorifies God.
What can you do if you feel your faith getting weak?
Luke 17:5 (ESV) The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
1 Timothy 6:11-12 (ESV) But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Romans 5:1-10 (ESV)Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
The first thing you need to remember about faith is that you must put God first in your life. If you are focused on comfort, happiness, prosperity, or pursuing some other interest or desire without giving glory to God then you are likely to stray away from Him. Once that happens you get disconnected from the source of faith.
Imagine camping in the middle of a forest at night. You have a camp with a fire and everything you need, and you have a vast amount of wilderness around you. If, for whatever reason, you decide to wander out into the forest, you will immediately notice the light and warmth of the fire are replaced by the cold darkness of the night. If you want the light and warmth of the fire, you have to return to camp - otherwise it’s going to be a rough night.
Faith is like that. God is our camp, and the world is the wilderness - and it’s a cold dark place most of the time. If we wander away from God we can’t help but notice that His light and warmth are replaced by anxiety and selfishness. If you want to rest in the warmth and security of God’s love, you have to stay close to him - and make sure to keep the fire fed by reading His word.
And even when you do put God first, you might still want your faith to be strengthened. Well, you can pray for God to increase your faith Luke 17:5. He is the source of faith after all, so why not just ask Him for more. It’s not like there’s a limited supply. He will give you as much as you truly desire, but praying for increased faith must be accompanied by the need for that faith. You can’t expect God to give you the ability to lift 120 pounds if you don’t regularly lift 100. If you want more faith then you have to step out in faith more. Give that which you want to receive because you reap what you sow.
με αγαπη,
BJ