God Loves… Himself

We will now move to thinking about sola fide (faith alone). This teaching of Scripture is easily distorted by a man-centered view of the world and of theology. However, if we start with the teaching of Scripture that God is God-centered and that all God does is to manifest His own glory, it will help us to understand the true activity of faith. We should also know that faith alone is related to Christ alone since God manifests His glory through Christ. Faith alone is tightly linked with grace alone because God operates according to Himself and grace is caused by Him rather than human beings. The activity of faith, therefore, is always primarily that which displays the glory of God through Christ and comes to human beings through faith.

Romans 4:16 – “For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 (as it is written, ‘A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU’) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. 18 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, ‘SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.’ 19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; 20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.”

Romans 11:6 – “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”

Ephesians 2:8 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Habakkuk 2:4 – “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.”

James 4:6 – “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.'”

The five texts above demonstrate the main point about faith that we must hang on to with tenacity. Faith is not a human work or salvation would be by works. Faith is not something that a human being does in terms of work or effort, but it is the way human beings receive grace. Grace cannot be received by human worth, effort, work, or merit of any kind. Grace can only be received by the humble (empty of self) soul. As we see from Romans 4:16, salvation is by faith so that it may be in accordance with grace. So often we hear from Arminian and Reformed people alike that we must believe in order to be saved. That is true, but we are urged to have faith and believe as if an intellectual belief is all that is necessary. We are urged to believe without being told what the Bible says that it really is. If we do not understand something of the nature of faith and why we must believe we will miss the real point of faith and so miss the Gospel while teaching correct words about it.

Faith does not look to itself to see if it has faith, but looks to God in order to receive grace. Abraham believed in accordance with grace rather than His own works because he looked to God to perform the work rather than himself and even his own faith (Romans 4:21). Faith is what receives grace rather than faith being a work itself. If faith comes from human beings as something worked up by human beings, then salvation is by at least one work of a human being. If Reformed people are going to claim the five sola’s of the Reformation, they must hold to the teaching of faith (including justification by faith alone) that exalts the glory of God through Christ by grace alone as well. Faith has nothing to do but receive grace. When we are said to live by faith and work by faith, all that means is that we live and work by grace that has been received by faith. The proud always look to themselves and even faith alone. The truly humble do all by grace and so have nothing to boast of.

This entry was posted on September 16, 2008 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Historical Reformed Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.