What is the nature of faith, and is it something which is properly exercised by man, or is it something which is prompted by the spirit of God? I have long wondered after these questions. For you see, the questions navigate a riddle of individual choice and divine election.
There are verses which state that grace is the gift of God; I do not think that the verses place faith as the gift of God (reader, bear with me as I draw a distinction between grace and faith). In Ephesians: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. That seems to me to stand squarely with the explanation in Hebrews: that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Yes, things hoped for - hoped for by man. I have heard a preacher comment, in passing, that the spirit of God might hover over a man, in analogy as the spirit of God hovered over the waters, on the formless earth. It is a poetic case.
So it seems to go like this: one hears the message, one examines the intellectual case, and finding it incomplete, perhaps foolish, yet one might come to choose faith - confessing and believing, thereafter one is filled with the spirit, and one knows the love of God. In Corinthians: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
I think this faith simpliciter is properly exercised by man; and, reserving room for the omniscience and sovereignty of God, I do not think faith is in any way animated by the machinations of the spirit of God. Were it not the case, I would regard that as being unfair - in the sense that choice means something. Who could resist choosing, were faith sprung by the spirit? As I see it, choice, meaningful choice, as we intellectually understand choice, is enshrined in the word, a zeroth law. In Genesis: Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. In Deuteronomy: See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil ... therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. I would not accept that one cannot choose to reject the spirit, even at this time. In Luke: Et noluistis. In Isaiah: I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.
Now, this is not to be taken as any argument for the glorification of choice, no. Righteousness by faith, and not by works - indeed, choice comprising faith. It is silly to say that the exercise of choice takes away from glory of divine salvation. So the spirit, coming to man after choosing faith, brings knowledge of God the father, and shows his love.
With such sight1 2, with love at hand, faith is no longer needed, as Reverend Wesley argues: all the glory of faith before it is done away which arises hence, that it ministers to love. It is the great temporary means by which God has ordained to promote that eternal end. ... And it was only when love was lost by sin that faith was added, not for its own sake, nor with any design that it should exist any longer than until it had answered the end for which it was ordained - namely, to restore man to the love from which he was fallen. (The Law Established Through Faith, 1750) That sits well with Corinthians: And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. And further in James: Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. This seems to me to run alongside the proposition that faith is man's choice; faith being the means to the ends of love. After choosing faith, we find ourselves compelled by love. The spirit gives proximity, but only after acceptance. Can love be spurned? Surely! Hence I argue, faith is our own. Being drawn to God by volition, and not by the spirit, the sanctity of choice is preserved.
1 Wesley: Love is the end, the sole end, of every dispensation of God, from the beginning of the world to the consummation of all things. And it will endure when heaven and earth flee away; for "love" alone "never faileth." Faith will totally fail; it will be swallowed up in sight, in the everlasting vision of God.
2 In Corinthians: For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. .... For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
In other words, this argument is for emphasis to be shifted properly from faith to love, to characterise Christian Faith instead as faith and Christian Love; all of it being called, Grace. Seen in that light, it does the sovereignty of God's grace no disservice to say that this rather meagre proposition of faith is exercised strictly by man's choice. I take this view. To the patient sceptic, it may seem duplicitous to exchange terms this way, to replace something fancied, such as faith, with something corporeal, such as love, but I would say in response to such a charge that this love forever remains vulnerable to doubt - doubt of the invisible. Yet is not doubt something which all loves must in time endure, even of the invisible? Returning now, I feel it in my soul, in my following after Christ in all these years - by faith I opened a door. In Revelations: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
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NB. This exercise, in which I have tried to set out the plan of the bible, in single words, has prefigured the foregoing discourse. Words in italics represent the actions properly attributable to man.
beginning
creation
proximity
warning
disobedience
expulsion
death
covenant
faith
righteousness
slavery
cry
deliverance
law
temple
commandments
choice
violation
ordinances
neglect
promised land
conquer
kings
tyranny
idolatry
prophets
stubbornness
judges
wickedness
subjugation
remnant
return
messiah
sacrifice
grace
confess
believe
faith
salvation
justification
spirit
truth
know
love
obedience
sanctification
restoration
