a) Heb 10:39 b) 2 Cor 4:13, Eph1:17, Eph 2:8 c) Rom 10:14 d) 1 Peter 2:2
Q: Why is Faith a Grace?
A: Because it is the gift of God.
Apparently some would disagree with this. I have discussed this before, but faith is not a work. You cannot build up faith within yourself, it is not an emotional stir you feel during the keyboard playing while the prayer is being said, or the invitation. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Maybe the place to start would be to examine, in a broad sense, what grace is.
Grace is a gift, it is given by God not for any works that man has performed, but is freely given to those whom God has chosen by His good pleasure. For if man deserved it, it wouldn't be grace.
So if faith is a grace, then faith is a gift given by God, not by any works that man has done, but by God's own good pleasure. Therefore it is not of man's own doing, but of God's so that no one can boast. "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." Romans 11:6
"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." Romans 12:3
(Romans 1:4-6, 3:24)
Saving faith, is not a work of the will of man, but of the Spirit.
Faith comes before justification, but after regeneration.
Regeneration= Rebirth, or to be "Born Again". This outlined in Christ's discussion with the pharissee, Nicodemus in John 3. Jesus says to him:
5Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
8The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Man cannot act in faith because of his depravity apart from God. There must be a supernatural working of the Spirit within the person, before the fall there didn't need to be, but after the fall man has no ability within himself to bring himself to saving faith, apart from God the Spirit.
Ezekiel 36
26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
God will put the Spirit within you, He will do the work, not you. This is regeneration. The making of the heart to be alive, it was once a heart of stone. Lifeless, unbeating, and unable to act in faith to God. But God gave you a heart of flesh, a heart that beats and reacts to the things of God in saving faith. So then faith comes after regeneration.
But faith comes before justification:
Justification= Taken from the Westminster Confession again:
"Those whom God effectually calleth, He also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith intself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness, but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness of faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the Gift of God. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accmompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love." (Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 11 "Of Justification", pg.56-57)
(Romans 3:24, Romans 3:22-27, Romans 4:5-8)
So justification is basically, God looking at you through grace, the whole purpose of Christ's life and death, was to fulfill the law because none of us could have done that, living a sinless life, then dying on the cross for our sins. He was made a curse, and codemned in our place, so that God would look at us as though we had lived the life of Christ.
So then faith comes before justification, God has opened your eyes to your sin and has now shown you the only way to justification and to see the kingdom of heaven, through Christ.
Romans 4
5And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
There is a faith that can be worked up by yourself, its called dead faith. (James 2:14-17) Faith apart from works is meaningless. When it is the faith given from God, it will be a faith that will be followed by works, and living in obedience to God.
1John 2
4Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
5but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him:
6whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
7Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
8At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
9Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
There will be a perseverence of those with true saving faith, in works and obedience to God. They do not simply get saved and then go off to another religion or stop going to church or obeying the commandments of God. If Christ is in you, and the love of Christ is in you, you will find nothing better than Him, and you will look for nothing else to fulfill your needs. (1 John 2:19)
Citation:
*Westminster Confession of Faith (Reformed Church Confession)
*ESV (E-Sword)
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