DOCTRINES OF FAITH
Doctrine 6 / 36: Faith
Faith is the means used by God to apply His saving grace to man. Salvation is by grace alone through faith and is not dependent upon any work of man. No flesh will be justified by the works of the law (Romans 3:20). What is this saving faith? It is more than a simple mental assent to the facts of God and of Jesus. It is not enough to simply believe that there truly was a man that lived in Israel during the Roman Empire, and that this man was crucified. It is even not enough to accept as truth that this same Man rose from the dead. Believing in these facts is not saving faith. While it is necessary to believe them as true, saving faith is when the belief of the facts plays an active role in the person's life. This idea could be related to a man that is in an airplane that has major engine failure and appears inevitable that it will crash. This man has a parachute, and he believes the parachute is able to save him. However, if that person gets to the door of the airplane and is too afraid to actually jump, that shows that the belief is only in the head, and is not a true trust in the parachute.
The Bible defines faith as being the substance of things that are not seen and the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). While faith in God is not a totally blind faith, there are things that are necessary to accept just because God says so. For example, it is foolish to believe that this world came into existence from nothing by random chance. It does not require faith to believe that there is a Being of some sort that created the universe. Faith in the existence of God is not a blind faith. Faith in God is not an unreasonable thing, yet at the same time reason does not supersede faith; that is, if a truth in God's word goes against man's reason or experience, God's word is to be believed because of faith. Faith is higher than reason. At the same time, as reason becomes more close to the truth, and as understanding draws closer to God's wisdom, then reason will be in complete agreement with faith. It is because of man's sin that his reason is flawed and it does not always agree.
Faith is contrasted from works throughout the Scripture. Romans 4 contains a very clear declaration of this truth when it says, "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5). He that believes is he who receives justification, not he that works. God's grace is given through faith and not through works (Ephesians 2:8-9). If a man could do something to earn God's favor, then it would not be grace. In that case, God would owe man something, and God does not owe anybody anything. Faith is the means by which God's grace is given because faith recognizes that man is totally incapable of meeting God's standards and relies completely on God's mercy. That is faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). The moment a man believes in Christ is the first moment in his life that he did something to please God. Salvation is the beginning, not the end of man's purpose on earth.
Faith does not end at salvation, but it just begins there. Those that are saved are supposed to live their lives in the faith of the Son of God, walking by faith and not by sight. How is this faith increased? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The more time the Christian spends hearing from God, the more that man's faith will increase. Saving faith comes when man believes with the heart, and he will not believe in Christ until he has heard of Christ which necessitates God's word to be preached.
"The just shall live by faith."
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