The primary error among most churches today regarding “The Doctrine of Grace" is that Christians attempt to credit themselves for having the ability to receive salvation by an act of their own faith. We should humbly accept the fact that the faith we possess is given to us by the Divine Will of God. No one has faith of their own free will. Scripture is clear that God has given every man the measure of faith necessary for those that He has chosen and it is by the “faith of Christ” not by our “faith in Christ” that we are justified and kept saved. The Heavenly Father grants us repentance and reveals the truth. God the Father and Jesus are not responders but initiators and givers of grace and the faith of Jesus to all who believe.
Matthew 16:17 “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father who is in the Heavens."
Romans 8:16 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
It is clear that it is because of Christ’s Spirit within us, that we have assurance (same word, translated faith) that we are indeed true children of God. To say anything less is absurd. Accordingly, we understand that our faith is a gift of God.
Acts 17:31 “Because He hath appointed a day, in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”
This word assurance is the exact same Greek word faith or [pistis]. Here again, we see very clearly that God gave all of us (His chosen) this faith or gift to believe that Christ has been resurrected from the dead. It’s not the faith we conjured up of ourselves, it is the faith of Christ in us. It is an act of convincing us we have Salvation. This act of assurance or faith is of Christ, not our faith in Christ.
Romans 12:3 “God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Given for and at the time of conversion)
Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the Gift of God.”
God, by His grace, gives us faith to believe even though we are dead in trespasses and sin and couldn’t have faith any more than the next sinner.
Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, …….”
These are the fruits or ‘works’ or manifestations of the Spirit. They are the results of God working in us and among them is listed faith. Faith is the fruit that will show up in our lives because of the Spirit. Just as we can read in (Galatians 2:16) of our justification by faith, here also God reveals from a different perspective that ‘His work” results in faith.
Natural man doesn’t like the truth, but before we were drawn of God, we were by nature spiritually dead. We were unable to have saving faith. But when we come to understand true Grace, it is then that we discern that every aspect of our calling, drawing and Salvation, has to be what God has done. Man hates giving up his pride because he wants some kind of control or desires in himself some credit for his doing. Man often doesn’t recognize the real motivations for many of his beliefs. We don’t want to ‘surrender’ our will to God’s will and bow to His sovereignty. But we have to be at the point where we totally trust Him alone, rather than Him, ‘plus’ ourselves (what we do). Most men have the idea that they can use their own faith. That kind of faith to believe is the faith of many false religions but that is not saving faith or faith to believe. In true Christianity, the only work which produces saving faith is the work of Christ. It is not our faith and works, lest we could boast, but is the faith of Christ and His works which saves us.
Professing Christians can believe whatever they want, including that their efforts or faith have something to do with their Salvation. That just shows they haven’t the slightest idea of the ‘true’ nature of Salvation, the definition of Grace, or whose work of faith was required in order to make us righteous.
Romans 3:22 “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.”
Can we gain the righteousness of Christ by our own faith in Him? The answer, of course, is no. For it is not man, but God who supplies what is needed in our lives that we do His will.
Philippians 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
What part of this sound like Christians having their own faith in Christ that they will work? And this Greek word translated do, is the exact same word translated work. Our work of faith is by God working in us. Likewise, there is no effort on our part which will make our works righteous. The effort is on Christ’s part. When we understand the pure nature of Salvation, and we read phrases like, ‘the work of faith’ or ‘by the faith of Christ’ (Christ’s faith), it all begins to fit and harmonize beautifully. It is all of God, so that to Him alone be the Glory. It is nothing we do but what Jesus has done. His finished work brought salvation by grace alone. We cannot reverse Gods finished work of salvation. Jesus will complete what he began by his faith in us.
Hebrews 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
If Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, how is it by our own faith? It makes no sense. We are saved by the faith of Christ. He is the author and finisher of faith in us. It was by His obedience, it was by His work and it was by His choosing. Can man’s own faith cause belief in Christ? God says there is none that seeks after God, so how can we have faith in Christ that we would be justified? Only by the work of Christ, which is the faith of Christ in us, are we made just.
Galatians 3:22 “But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”
Was the promise given by our work of faith, or by the faithfulness of Christ? Was it given by the will of God or by our own will because we had faith in Him? You see it always gets back to our action, versus the action of God in us. Our own faith versus Christ’s faith. And Christ’s faith is the only faith of assurance or faith in which we are secure.
2 Timothy 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 4:30 “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
1 Peter 1:5 “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
What part of these things is ambiguous? What part has a man in starting, possessing or maintaining his own faith? It is totally the work of Christ in us. And it is only man’s pride and vanity which prevents him from receiving this truth. We are not saved or kept saved by our faith but by the faith of Christ given to us as a permanent free gift at the time of salvation. Our human faith will fail but the faith of Christ given to us at our receipt of the Holy Spirit will enable us to overcome and endure to the end.
Hebrews 13:21 “Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
If it is God working in us to make us perfect in every good work, what part are we doing that we can take credit for? All power of faith ‘in us’, is the power of God. Christ in us, the hope of glory.
2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.”
Why must man in his carnal thinking believe that he deserves some credit for having ‘faith in Christ’? When in truth it was all by the Lord’s work? We live the life of faith only because Christ and his faith live in us.
Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Our work is by His work of faith and not our own works. How then can anyone boast that they had faith in Christ of themselves when we were all spiritually as dead as Lazarus was dead in the tomb? It was only by the will of God that we were moved to new life.
Why are we making such a big fuss over this controversy between ’faith in Christ’ and ‘faith of Christ’? The answer is because it is essential that we understand the most basic truths of God’s sovereignty. We are ‘not’ Saved (in any way) by our own faith in Christ that we conjure up but by Christ putting His kind of faith in us. There is a big difference between our being Saved by our own faith in Christ and our being Saved by Christ’s faith. In other words, the very ‘character’ of Saving faith is at stake. Christians with the faith of Christ should not fight these truths that it is not our faith in Christ but the faith of Christ. Because these are important issues, revealed by the Spirit. The faith of Christ indicates that Christ Himself is the originator and the ‘source’ of this faith in us. It illustrates His faithful work in persuading us, because He is the substance or essence of our belief. The term faith in Christ illustrates ‘our own’ faith in Him. It is no small difference. So when modern man translates this phrase as ‘faith in Christ’, it becomes an issue of our being Saved because we did something, rather than by His faith living in us that makes us a new creation.
How To Receive The Promise Of Eternal Life
Because you are living in a spiritually fallen state you are unable to keep Gods law. The penalty for not keeping Gods law is eternal death. In order to be saved from this eternal death penalty and receive the promise of eternal life, you must receive God’s Holy Spirit.
In order to receive God’s holy spirit with the promise of eternal life, you must, by the faith of Christ, believe that God sent His Son Jesus to suffer and die as the only acceptable sacrifice which took away all of your past, present and future sins.
John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
And believe that after Jesus was in the grave 3 days and 3 nights, God raised Jesus from death and made Him alive forevermore! And now you also have the same opportunity to become alive forevermore at the time of your resurrection by making a sincere decision now, in this present life, to trust and receive Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life.
1 Cor. 15: 1-4 “Moreover, brethern, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”
When you are begotten from above by the Holy Spirit, you are spiritually a new creation and are assured of being resurrected (born again) to life eternal. As a new creation, you are now a Holy Spirit-begotten child of God and a permanent member of the family of God and are now able by the power of Holy Spirit to renew your mind by the hearing of God’s word.
As a begotten child of God, your nature will be changed and you will desire and be able, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to progressively turn from your sins and follow and serve Jesus as your Lord. God gives you His holy spirit as a down payment and guarantee of your soon coming resurrection from death to eternal life as a free gift when you repent (turn) from your sin of unbelief to belief in what God and Jesus did for you and confess Jesus as Lord and receive Jesus as Savior of your life.