Answers to Objections to Faith Being a Gift of God

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John Hendryx

September 10, 2001 | Portland, OR

I want to respond to two comments from good friends of mine recently which were objections to the biblical concept that faith is a gift of God. One of the questions was in response to the recent article I sent by John Piper on the topic. They opposed the idea and had some great questions that I hope to be able to answer in a way that clearly sets down what I believe the Bible teaches on this subject.

Question #1 -- Both of these distinguished brothers objected to Ephesians 2:8 to be teaching that the "gift of God" was speaking of "faith" in the beginning of the verse. One of these men went further by saying that there wasn't even a "shred of evidence" from anywhere else in the Bible that faith is a gift from God.

Question #2 --- The other brother also asked a great question -- Why, in Mark 16:14, did Christ rebuke them for their lack of faith, when they, apparently, had nothing to do with their lack of faith if God was the one who withheld the faith from them? Why the commands to have faith in God? (Can they do otherwise?)
I thought these were excellent questions, but ones, I believe, that have clear answers in the Scripture.

To start with I would like to try to answer, by God's grace, the claim that there is not even a "shred of evidence" anywhere in the Bible outside of Eph 2:8 that faith is a gift of God. For the sake of argument, lets assume that Eph 2:8 does not teach this ---

Several other verses in Scripture immediately come to mind which also teach this crucial doctrine, so this idea certainly does not just hang on this one verse. For example, I will point out a few, which I hope the reader will carefully consider, including 2 Tim 2:25:

"with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth..."

Phil 1:29 "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,"

Acts 18:27 "...the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace."

Heb 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith"

Matt 16:16,17 "Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'' And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."

Acts 13:48 "When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."

John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out."

Rom 3:24 "...being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus."

I would say that these verses are a bit MORE than a "shred of evidence" and establish the claim that faith is, in fact, an undeserved, unconditional gift from our Lord.

To those who conclude that faith is not a gift of God then I ask, is it something that we produce as merit for God to choose us? The obvious conclusion from this viewpoint is that God, then, does not unconditionally elect, but rather, forsees who has faith and "chooses" them upon a condition. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't see any other conclusion one could come to if this is the case [1] . It leans toward a man-centered theology by leaving salvation entirely in man's hands.

IN this senario do you see man's sinful condition as something more than spiritual death? Are we merely sick and have the ability to incline toward holiness on our own? Which brings us to question #2 -- Just because God gives faith as well as commands us to have faith, this does not alleviate man of the responsibility to repent. (we) mankind is/are judged because we are sinners. However, we have no ability to turn to God on our own. Left to ourselves we would choose against God every time AND are responsible for that - we put ourselves there. We require grace to believe -- God grants repentance and we are justified as a gift (Rom 3:24), not because of something we muster up, lest we boast. You may say "I am a Christain because I have faith and someone else doesn't" rather than what we should say -- "I am a Christian by God's grace... my faith is His merciful gift to me ..." > this gives glory to God, not because of anything meritorious in me. Ask yourself "why do I have faith and someone else does not?" Is it because you are better or smarter? Without being a gift of God, ultimately you must say that something in you was able to incline toward holiness while another did not have this ability.

For your convenience I will restate the second question >>>>Why, in Mark 16:14, did Christ rebuke them for their lack of faith, when they, apparently, had nothing to do with their lack of faith if God was the one who withheld the faith from them? Why the commands to have faith in God? (Can they do otherwise?)

GREAT QUESTION! -- To that you could also add then why does God command us to love Him with all our heart, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourself when He knows we don't have the capability? Why does God demand absolute holiness from us when we can't do other than sin?

The answer to these questions is the heart of the gospel, as I see it. That is, "...God has shut up all in disobedience that He might show mercy to all." (Rom 11:32) We have nothing to contribute to our salvation and can only come empty handed (with our sin) to the foot of the cross. And only He can draw us there (John 6:44). He demands all of these things we cannot do so we will be compelled to call out for His mercy. Like the lame man sitting by the pool for 30+ years who had no one to take him down when the pool was stirred. When my friend asked "Can they do otherwise?" he hit it on the nose - this is the VERY thing God wants to teach us - that, in fact, we cannot do otherwise and are in desperate need for His mercy. As sinners we have NO inclination toward holiness or God and will not place our faith in Him unless God regenerates our souls and wills. In other words, we must be "born again."

To drive the concept that no one will come to God in faith without God's grace I feel it important to further back up the concept of man's inability with some passages Scripture:

Romans 3:11 "There is none who seeks for God;..."

1 Corinthians 2:14 " But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."

Romans 8:7 "...because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;..."

Again, we have everything to do with our lack of faith. Man is wholly responsible for his sin. He is a rebel against God's sovereignty and holiness. From creation itself man has enough knowledge to be guilty against God for refusing to believe. Only God can save him however ... and there are some He chooses to pass over who will justly pay the penalty of their sin, and yet they are still responsible. God would be just if he wiped everyone out on earth in judgement but He has mercy on many (according to His good pleasure Eph 1:5). The willingness to believe comes by His grace yet those who do not believe are nonetheless entirely responsible for their sin and unbelief. God is not obligated in any way to save anyone. The other senario makes it appear that He is obligated. However, God can do as He pleases. Aside from being Biblical, faith has to be a gift, or being dead in sin we would never choose God on our own. It is both biblical and logical.

Hope this clarifies the issue which I feel is critical for the revival of the Church. It gives glory to God, not to man. Much of current evangelicalism has become so man-centered & user friendly/seeker sensitive and I believe a misunderstanding of this issue (monergism vs, synergism) is one of the main culprits.

As W. G. T. Shedd observed:

The position of partial ability or synergism comes to the same result with that of full ability [i.e., Pelagianism] so far as divine independence and sovereignty are concerned. For it is this decision of the sinner to contribute his quota, to do his part in the transaction, which conditions the result. It is indeed true, upon this theory, that if God does not assent, the act of faith is impossible. But it is equally true that if the sinner does not assist, the act of faith is impossible. Neither party alone and by himself can originate faith in Christ's atonement. God is as dependent in this respect as man.

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ENDNOTE:

Finally, I would like to add John Piper's own comments on these two questions which I found in his book, Desiring God, one of the only contemporary books I recommend all Christians should read.

Re: Eph 2:5-8
"The words for "grace" and "faith" are feminine in the original Greek. The word for "this" is neuter. Some have used this lack of agreement to say that the gift here is not faith. But this ignores the implication of verse 5: "Even when you were dead!" Grace is grace because it saved us even when we were dead. But it saves "through faith." how does it save the dead through faith? By awakening the dead into the life of faith. That is why faith is a gift in Eph 2:5-8. "This" refers to the whole event of salvation by grace through faith, and therefore does include faith as a gift. (Cf. Acts 18:27, "When he arrived he greatly helped those who through grace had believed.)"

Re: 1 John 5:1
In the New Testament God is clearly active, creating a people for himself by calling them out of darkness and enabling them to believe the gospel and walk in the light. John teaches most clearly that regeneration preceeds and enables faith. "everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God" ...The verb tense make's john's intention unmistakable: Every one who goes on beliveing [present, continuous action] that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God [perfect, completed action with abiding effects]. " Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it. This is consistent with john's whole book (cf. 1 John 2:29, 3:9, 4:2-3, 4:7).

Responsibility
"This is a great stumbling block for many people -- to assert we are responsible to do what we cannot do. The primary reason for asserting it is not that it springs obviously from our normal use of reason, but that the Bible so plainly teaches it. It may help, however, to consider that the innability we speak of is not owing to a physical handicap, but to a moral corruption. Our innability to believe is not the result of a physically damaged brain but of a morally perverted will. Physical inability would remove accountability. Moral innability does not. we cannot come to the light because our corrupt and arrogant nature hates the light. So when someone does come into the light "it is clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought by God." John 3:21. The best treatment of this difficult subject I know of is Jonathan Edward's Freedom of the Will."


Above quotes from John Piper's Book Desiring God .