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Is Faith a Work?
We confess with the Bible that our regeneration or new birth in Christ is monergistic (a work of God alone) and not synergistic (i.e. a cooperation of man and God in regeneration). Thus our faith in Christ arises out of a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to change and soften our natural hostile disposition toward God. We likewise affirm that only by upholding monergistic regeneration do we faithfullly herald the biblical doctrine of 'Sola Gratia', or salvation by grace alone. All other schemes in which unregenerate man either takes the initiative or cooperates to be regenerated (by a faith produced or drawn from their native ability), should be considered synergistic. Some may be unhappy with being called a 'synergist' because it implies that they believe man and God work together toward salvation which clearly is a form of semi-pelagianism. So to defend themselves many synergists may respond as follows:
"Why do you call our belief that faith precedes regeneration synergistic? How can this be, unless faith is understood to be a work? Faith is not a meritorious work, by definition. In essence, the two are mutually exclusive. Accepting a gift is not a work, therefore it can't be considered synergism. If salvation is by faith, then works are nowhere to be found in the process. Again, to argue that faith precedes regeneration is synergistic would only be valid if faith = works."
I might respond to this line of reasoning by saying something like the following:
"You are correct that the Bible teaches that faith is not a work, but we make it into a work as soon as we view it as something we can autonomously come up with, apart from any work of the Holy Spirit. Those who believe we can, from our own resources, change our naturally unregenerate hardened hearts in some way that is independent of God are promoting rank Pelagianism. Ask yourself, in light of Scripture, can you believe the gospel apart from ANY work of the Holy Spirit? (see 1 Thes 1:4,5). God commands us to come to Him but unregenerate man is naturally faithless. The reason for this is that he is by nature unspiritual (i.e. w/o the Holy Spirit). We cannot grasp spiritual truth without the Holy Spirit. To claim we might do so would be a contradiction, for spirituality is a condition of spiritual understanding. In 1 Cor 2:12 Paul affrims this by writing, "We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." ( i.e. the gospel). That is why through the prophet Jeremiah, God makes the promise, "I will heal your faithlessness" (Jer 3:22). With this in mind do you think we can heal our own faithlessness?
The question we need to be asking ourselves is, "what makes us to differ from other men who do not believe?" ... the grace of God or the will of man? If we say "the will of man" it is a boast and therefore not the kind of faith that is contrasted with works in the Bible. For Eph 2:8,9 speaks of faith that is the gift of God, a faith which leaves no room for boasting. True faith is seen as God's merciful gift which then looks away from its own resources and looks unto Christ for all spiritual blessings, including the very ability to believe. This is utterly distasteful to the natural man, not to mention humbling. And as Spurgeon said, "...no one natually submits to the humbling terms of the gospel". Elsewhere to strengthen this point Spurgeon said,
"...did you ever meet a Christian man who said, "I came to Christ without the power of the Spirit?" If you ever did meet such a man, you need have no hesitation in saying, "My dear sir, I quite believe it-and I believe you went away again without the power of the Spirit, and that you know nothing about the matter, and are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity."
In the synergists understanding, what ultimately makes us to differ from unbelievers is the will of man, not the grace of God. For, in that system, God has given all men equal grace ('grace' meaning nothing more than something freely offered to them), so God's blessing hinges upon a condition we meet, our action, our wisdom, our spiritual sensitivity. But it was for this very reason God sent His Son, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, (that is, including providing us with the spiritual resources to meet God's demand of faith and repentance.)
What makes men to differ to the synergist, therefore, is not grace, for, to them, all have grace, so the difference is how one man uses that grace better than another. Grace no longer, therefore, has anything to do with it, for ultimately it depends on a fallen person creating a right thought or affection about Christ thus believing in our ability to believe in Him. That our moral inability to exercise faith, due to a corruption of nature, does not itself need to be redeemed. Why, then, do some believe but not others? In answer to this most synergists say "because some believed" ... but notice that we did not ask what they did, but why they did it.
In John 10 Jesus said some do not believe BECAUSE they are not My sheep, and "My sheep hear my voice". Who they are in essence, therefore, precedes how they respond. Jesus explains this in detail when he says that Spirit gives birth to spirit but flesh gives birth to flesh...for this reason I said that no man can come to me UNLESS God grants it (John 6:63, 65). To believe in Christ God must grant it, and further, the Bible says ALL to whom God grants it, will believe (John 6:37).
It is true that the Bible contrasts faith and works, but biblical faith is never seen as something we, in our unregenerate condition, had to autonomously (apart form the Holy Spirit) contribute. Can the synergist thank God for his faith? How? Consider this prayer, "God I thank you for your salvation, except for my faith, the one thing I exercised on my own." Or consider this prayer, "Thank you Lord I am not like other men who do not have faith. While you extended grace to all men, some did not make use of it, BUT I DID." Such boasting, whether unconsciously or not is the result of believing that what makes you to differ from others is not God's grace but your faith. But the work of Christ redeems us unto faith, not on the condition of faith.
In the synergists' system, all men have grace, but only some have faith, yet because that faith does not comes from God's gift (since not all men have faith), is therefore, something we produce naturally on our own, apart from the Holy Spirit. That is why, after the Rich Young Ruler when away sad when called to repent and follow Jesus, the Lord answered his disciples' question "who then can be saved" with "what is impossible with man [i.e. faith and repentance] is possible with God."
Most of you who visit this site are convinced that the Bible teaches that salvation is by the grace of Jesus Christ alone, that is, that man and God do not cooperate in salvation. Most would further affirm that faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature but comes about as the result of a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who turns our heart of stone to a heart of flesh, opens our spiritually blind eyes and unplugs our deaf ears to the gospel. We believe the gospel can only be heard by those God has spiritually granted to hear it (John 6:63, 65). This is not only what the Bible teaches from beginning to end, but this safeguards the reality that all glory goes to God for our salvation.
We affirm that our blindness and deafness to the gospel cannot be changed by mere human persuasion, (just as light itself does not make a blind man see) but rather it is by God doing a work of grace in our heart to change our naturally hostile disposition to one of love for Christ. We believe the Bible teaches this because, without the Holy Spirit, the natural man does not understand spiritual things (1 Cor 2:14) but thinks of them as foolish. He naturally loves darkness and hates the light and will not come into the light (John 3:19, 20) The human will as a 'slave to sin' does not, therefore, by liberty obtain saving grace, but by saving grace obtains liberty.
I would like to leave you with the following bit of the Hebrew Scripture: Sometimes in the Old Testament and the New, God reveals behind the scenes how He enabled particular persons to obey his Word when they were called to repent: In 2 Chronicles chapter 30 when couriers with a message of repentance passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, those who heard laughed them to scorn and mocked them when they were called to repent,
"Nevertheless [the Bible says] some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD." (2 Chronicles 30:11-12)
The text says some resisted the call, but all those tribes which the hand of God gave a heart to obey the Word, repented.
- J.W. Hendryx
Comments
John,
It was reasoning such as this that began my journey toward acceptance of the Doctrines of Grace.
Dan
Posted by: Dan Martin | March 24, 2006 07:41 AM
In Thessalonians Chapter 1 Verse 3 Paul thanks the Thessalonians for their "work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope".
For what is he thanking them and why?
Context suggests that faith begets work, love begets labor, and hope begets endurance. Faith, hope, and love - the spiritual gifts.
In Paul's 1st Letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes the spiritual gifts and defines love as the greatest of the three.
If faith alone is the prerequisite for salvation, then where falls hope and love and how do you reconcile Paul's ordering of the gifts in Corinthians with the concept of faith alone?
Are we to assume that the gifts of hope and love also resultant of grace, or are they borne of faith or are they given independently?
As spiritual gifts, are hope and love also to be differentiated as recieved involuntarily by the faithful and therefore not available to all?
Finally, is it possible to have these gifts bestowed upon you and yet to refrain unintentionally from acting upon them?
Thank you,
Mike
Posted by: Mike | November 20, 2007 03:48 PM
Mike thanks for your post.
You may wish to take a closer look at the passage in 1 thess you cited
I Thess. 1:2-4, Paul states "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God."
He thanks God for their work of faith. Why doesn't he thank them for it? Beacuse Paul is not looking to secondary sources but to the fountain, the source, which is God.
Then Paul adds additional information in I Thess. 2:13: "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." Notice that it is this man's reception of the Gospel that is the explicit "cause" for which Paul is thanking God! Paul puts in God's account man's initial reception of the Gospel, and subsequently thanks God for it continually.
Still more information is added in II Thess. 1:3: "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth." Here Paul expands his previous statements. He declares that he is "bound" (i.e. obligated or constrained) to thank God,Not only is God to be thanked for the fact that a man possesses faith and love in the first place, He is also to be praised and thanked when that faith and love grows and abounds in the lives of Christians. God, then, must be responsible, not only for the initial presence of faith and love, but also for it's maintenance, continuance and fruitfulness in the face of various trials and afflictions (see II Thess. 1:4).
II Thess. 2:13-14: "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Consider this question. Can you sincerely look to God and say, thank you Lord for all that you have done for me, except for my faith, which I came up with on my own. Such a statement would be blasphemous, yet it is the result of believing that we are the authors and finisher of our own faith.
Posted by: John H | November 21, 2007 10:44 AM
if there is nothing that I on my own can do to be saved and recieve eternal life then how can I become saved?
Posted by: caleb | March 25, 2008 01:26 AM
Caleb:
He that calls upon the name of the Lord, says God, shall be saved.
Posted by: Allan | September 25, 2008 04:08 PM
PAULS FAITH & WORKS: Unlike with James, when Paul puts faith & works in opposition to each other, he is dealing with the AGENCIES involved in salvation, with the corollary of who should get the credit. Paul always takes the utmost pains to REMOVE from man any idea that regeneration/salvation is initiated by the agency of himself. He knows that if any man is of the opinion that HE initiated his salvation, and what’s more, maintains it by his own actions, that man’s soul, as he warned the Galatians, is lost. For that man has dreamed to usurp for himself the place of, and imagined himself to be the foremost agency of, his salvation, and so has been bold enough to clamber onto the throne, and accept the glory directed there.
Notice how Paul deals with the issue of agencies in salvation in the verses below, continually taking away any cause for man’s self-appropriation of the credit and for boasting, continually accentuating the fact that GOD is the one efficient cause of it all, and so all the credit goes to HIM alone.
Eph. 2:1. “He has made you alive, who were once dead..”
2:4. “But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us 5 even when we were dead in sins, (God) has made us alive..”
2:8. “Not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
2:10. “For we are His workmanship, created..”
Rom. 4:2 “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has a boast; but not before God.”
Rom. 9:11. “Not of (our)works, but of Him who called..”
2 Tim. 1:9 “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us..”
Paul has made it quite clear, as to what part the agencies of GOD & MAN have played in regeneration and justification, making it further plain by ascribing to God ALL the glory.
SO MAN MAY NOT BOAST:
Rom. 3:27. “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” (Notice that the faith Paul talks about removes man’s right to boast. Why, if it makes all the difference in salvation? - BECAUSE that faith itself, is a grace gift from God!!!
1 Cor. 1:29. “That no flesh should glory in his presence. 31 That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
2 Cor. 10:17. “But he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Eph. 2:9. “Not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Rom 4:2. “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has a boast; but not before God.”
But the God who has, on the cross, (it is claimed) done ALL that He can do, for the salvation of any soul, and now can only wait for the human responses to occur, - THIS God CANNOT righteously receive ALL the glory!!! - He MUST admit that each person HAS, by his or her positive response, ‘activated’ the work of the cross in his/her case, and so that person clearly DOES deserve some of the credit for the occurrence of it in their life, and so DOES HAVE SOMETHING OF WHICH TO BOAST, - something which God’s word absolutely denies!
When Paul talks about justifying ‘faith’, he is taking AWAY man’s initiating agency in justification and its consequent glory, and giving it all to God. When he talks about ‘works’, he is talking about ANYTHING which men & women put forward as the initiating agency of their salvation that is not GOD Himself. To many, that THING, is their own self-generated faith, and thus the initiating agency of their justification that they put forward, is NOT God, but THEMSELVES.
Posted by: Allan | September 25, 2008 06:30 PM
beautiful defense of the biblical view and explaination on the relation of saving faith to works.
Posted by: apollos | October 23, 2008 10:17 PM
Ephesians 2:8–9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not from yourself or anything you've done, but the gift of God."
What is "through faith" - even if God is doing it - what is the outward or inward sign that you have "faith"? your holy life? your thoughts? your desires? your mental ascent to some doctrine? something else? how do you know this "faith" is being exhibited?
at what age does faith start?; what intellectual/mental/emotional/relational "abilities" are pre-requisties for this God-given gracious gift of faith to be manifest?
Posted by: s.g | October 31, 2008 11:07 PM
I'm not sure you quite addressed the hypothetical challenge. It was rightfully pointed out that, since faith is not a work, man can claim credit for his own belief, without taking credit for his salvation. IOW, one can be a synergist in regard to faith, while a monergist in regard to salvation. You responded:
"You are correct that the Bible teaches that faith is not a work, but we make it into a work as soon as we view it as something we can autonomously come up with, apart from any work of the Holy Spirit."
2 points: 1) even arminians (at least classical arminians) don't believe that men believe apart from the Holy Spirit. Just a minor point. 2) Where in scripture does is say that faith becomes a work IF it's developed autonomously? This second point seems to be a philosophical view of yours, but not one derived directly from scripture.
Scripture makes a clear case that faith earns nothing (Rom. 4:2-8), but not for the reasons you claim, i.e. the absence of autonomy. Pauls says God RECKONS faith as righteousness (Rom. 4:3,5,9-10, 22). This implies faith, in and of itself, falls short of earning salvation. This is why it must be reckoned by God as righteousness. The term is actually an accounting term which conveys the idea of placing something in someone's account.
If faith in men is 100% a product of God, then why does it fall short? Why would God do something insufficient that then needs to be reckoned as righteous?
But this is not what Paul says. He says, the faith of men earns nothing, and therefore it requires God's special reckoning. On its own it falls short. And, if it falls short, why would you be concerned about men taking part in it or partial credit for it? If it has no meritorious value, what is there to boast about?
This notion that that autonomous faith is a work, has no scriptural foundation. Until you can make that case, biblically, I'll have to just take Paul's word for it.
I think I can sum things up concisely in this one statement.
The fact that faith is good FOR us, does not imply that it is good OF us. Yet this seems to be the inference you're drawing.
Hope that helps as you think this through.
Calminian
Posted by: Calminian | September 27, 2009 08:10 PM
Calminian, you're inconsistent. If Arminians say that faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, it logically follows that the Holy Spirit is NOT giving "faith" to everyone! Everyone who believes is "born again" or "born from above", which in fact precedes faith. A child cannot exist without first being conceived and born of his mother. In the same way every Christian cannot exist or even believe unless they are first regenerated, born again by the Holy Spirit. If everyone has the Holy Spirit, then it follows that no one is lost and everyone is on the way to heaven. Obviously, that is not the case. Only the elect are regenerated, given faith, converted, justified, adopted, sanctified, and glorified. Everyone else is "free" to continue to sin in accordance with their own evil desires.
Posted by: Charlie J. Ray | February 18, 2010 08:59 AM
The Holy Spirit doesn't have to reside in a person to move upon them. He gives a person the ability to place their faith in Christ. So it is a gift, but that person still has the choice to resist the Spirit as Stephen's hearers did when they stoned him. Without the Spirit moving upon a person (not meaning to reside in) a person cannot exercise faith. Nobody CAN believe without being drawn.
Also works have to do with actions performed to make one righteous apart from faith. That is what the Pharisees had become. It is the reason that James could say that works are a part of or an outflowing of faith.
Even with faith, it is not the faith that saves, but Christ's work on the cross. So where would the boasting be? Faith just accepts it. God could save without faith if He chose to, but faith could never save without God. Therefore it is still all of God.
Posted by: Scott Hescht | May 29, 2010 04:12 PM
Acts 2 - Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart,and said unto Peter,what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent,and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
1. They were pricked in the heart, not given a new heart. The Holy Spirit brings conviction to all men when the gospel is preached.
2. Peter said to repent and be baptized and then you will receive the Holy Spirit so clearly they did not have it at point.
Then in Acts 7 - When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart,and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
1. They were cut to the heart just like in Acts 2.
2. They responded by stoning Stephen.
Posted by: jpc | June 26, 2010 01:24 PM