Let us now look at other aspects of faith and see if they are part of man’s fallen capacity. If they are not, we will see that man as fallen cannot believe of himself and needs a new principle in order to believe. In the previous BLOG we looked at faith as an act of man as either a spiritual act or the act of the natural man. It is clear that man cannot look to Christ with saving faith from the capacity of his fallen nature. Instead, man must have a spiritual nature given to him which has the capacity to see Christ as the outshining of the glory of God (II Cor 4:4-6). It is the deep conviction and love that the sight of God’s glory brings is that which tells us what true saving faith is.
Faith is also a trust in Christ and nothing else but Christ. In other words, for a man to believe in Christ alone for salvation that man cannot believe or trust in anything else for salvation. During the time of the Reformation the doctrine of Scripture was set out that one is saved by faith alone in Christ alone. The term “alone” is surely self-evident, but we must draw attention to it for a moment. To have faith alone would mean faith without anything else but faith. To have Christ alone means to have Christ as the object of faith without any other object of faith at all.
The word “alone” should teach us that nothing that comes in our own strength and power is acceptable in terms of trusting in Christ alone with faith alone. The natural man’s fallen nature has no capacity to exercise anything that is acceptable to God. True faith is spiritual in nature and all of grace. Man’s fallen nature cannot assist in this.
At this point we can see that humility is an absolute necessity for faith. Habakkuk 2:4 shows this: “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.” In this text it is the proud one that is not right and it is the righteous that have faith. Pride is opposed to faith which shows that humility is necessary for faith. Matthew 18:3 also shows this: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus’ words were to the disciples who were acting from pride in the preceding verses in desiring to be great in the kingdom. Jesus tells them that instead of being great in the kingdom they must be turned or converted and become like little children to enter. Humility is the proper place of the creature before the Creator and that is to be on our faces empty of self. In order to believe in Christ from humility one must be empty of self and all trust in self and the power of fallen man at all points.
Faith comes from the work of the Spirit rather than the capacity of fallen nature. To see this we must see that man must be raised from the spiritual dead. A person that is spiritually dead has no spiritual nature or capacity (Eph 2:1-4). Yet true faith requires us to believe Christ which requires us to see the glory of God shining in Him. Hebrews 11:13 shows us this: “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” This is the practical application of verse 1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The people in verse 13 had faith which is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. They had faith because they saw and welcomed the promises which they could not see with their physical eyes. It was because their faith operated within the spiritual realm that they could see the true nature of the promises. This leads us to verses 24-26 where we see that the faith of Moses saw into the spiritual realm: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.” This shows the need of a spiritual capacity.
Scripture sets out true faith as something that is of a spiritual nature and can only be exercised from a spiritual capacity. This is not possible for the person that is dead in sins and trespasses and has no spiritual life at all. If faith is a spiritual act it must come from a spiritual nature and that must come to human beings based on grace and grace alone. Faith is a trust in Christ alone without any trust in self at all, so again this shows us that faith cannot be a mere act of a free-will or the act that comes from the power of self. Faith is the deepest conviction of the soul and is always accompanied by love and in fact works by love. We know from the book of I John that love is how to see if one is converted even though justification is by faith alone. Love must be the pure act of God in the soul as God alone is the source of true love (I John 4:7-9). If faith is a spiritual act done without trust or help from self at all, then the fallen will cannot assist in the matter in the slightest. If faith must see the glory of God in order to rest on Christ, then this is also not within the capacity of the fallen soul. If the Holy Spirit must open the eyes to see, then this is not in the capacity of fallen man. Human beings have no ability in themselves to savingly believe. As long as we trust in self for salvation, even a little, we will not have it because we must trust in Christ alone for all things.
God Loves... Himself 
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