FAITH – “There has to be
literally a supernatural miracle that grants to us a faith that is
supernatural. So that in the midst of your deadness, in the midst of your
darkness, in the midst of your despair, in the midst of your blindness, all of
a sudden, you come alive..”[i]
Faith is a
spiritual act and habit; therefore it [faith] would be impossible in a soul spiritually
dead. But the One who provides salvation provides the means
to enjoy it [salvation]. If “our” fleshly faith is weak, we need only to cry
out, “Lord I believe; you help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). God is the only creator; we have been quicken
from death to life and are nothing short of a new creation, we
are God’s workmanship created in Christ, (Ephesians
2:10), we have nothing at all to do with our salvation which has come by
believing with faith; both of which are a gift from God; Salvation which is by faith
alone and the faith by which to believe. There is nothing that man can do for himself
to be saved and to believe.
Our Lord Jesus
said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws
him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the
prophets, ‘And
they shall all be taught of God.’
Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me” (John
6:44-45). [Emphasis is mine].
What consist in
this “drawing”? It certainly has reference to something more than just the
“invitation” of the Gospel. The word used is very strong, it signifies
putting forth of power and obliging the object, here the
individual being seized, to respond. The
same word is used in John 18:10; 21:6, 11. If you consult the mentioned
passages you will find that it means more than to attract. Impel would be a better word to
give the true force in John 6:44.
This also indicates
that the unregenerate sinner is so depraved that without an unchanged heart and
mind he will never come to Jesus Christ. This change of heart and mind which is
absolutely essential is a change that only God alone can produce. So it is only
by Divine Drawing that anyone comes to Jesus Christ. Not by any self-produced
faith or human urging.
When the Gospel
is preached the power of the Holy Spirit overcomes the self-righteousness of
the sinner and convicts him of his lost condition. It is the Holy Spirit who
awakens inside the individual his/her sense of need. It is the power of the
Holy Spirit that overcomes the pride of the natural man so that person is made
ready to come to Jesus Christ as an empty-handed beggar. The Holy Spirit creates in the person a great
hunger for the bread of life. Paul quotes
the prophet Joel in Romans 10:13 “Whoever will call on the
name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel
2:32) and continues by asking how will anyone call on the Christ
that they haven’t believed, and how can they believe if they haven’t heard
about Him? In order for anyone to hear someone must preach the Good News. Then he
ends in verse 17 by saying what has been stated at the beginning of this
writing that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ”.
Yes it is only by the power of God that a person is impelled towards
Christ, that the Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of his need of salvation,
which is the gift of faith that is given to one which draws that one to Jesus
Christ to be saved.
The bottom line is the Faith that one is required to have is itself
God’s faith which He gives to the person and draws that one to Himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment