Is Faith a Requirement?

"Where does God say that man is required to have faith and why?" That was the query recently posed to my friend. The question can be construed to represent God as a hard nosed stickler. If you're not bringing faith to God's table, don't bother coming.

I find it helpful to think of faith as a privilege not an obligation. It is true that unleashing the power of the Gospel cannot be accomplished apart from faith. BUT, God forces Himself on no man! God does not compel belief, He invites it; He respects us enough to allow us to make our own decision. Think of “faith” as God’s declaration: “I am NOT going to compel you to believe the Gospel. Yes, it makes sense. Yes, it holds within it the power for salvation. And yes, that power will be unleashed when you, by faith, choose to apply it to your life. But I am giving you the power to choose what you will do – I am allowing you to believe or not believe. Now, don’t get me wrong. There will benefits and consequences depending on what choice you make. Not all decisions are created equal. Rejecting the Gospel is the worst possible decision you could EVER make. But it IS your decision to make."

Let’s say that you are selling some sort of agricultural product to Farmer Brown. This product will revolutionize his farming enterprise. So you make your pitch and FB seems thoroughly impressed with your field studies, charts, and cost projections. But the power of your product is not unleashed until it is applied to his cropland. He must purchase it and then act on the “application instructions” to see the results.

So is it with the Gospel. Someone can be quite impressed with the evidence for the Gospel. He can even appreciate how it has been helpful to others. But the power of the Gospel is not unleashed until that someone ACTS on it. He doesn’t have to purchase it (Jesus already made full payment for as much Gospel as a man could need). He merely signs for delivery and applies the product to his life. This is “faith in the Gospel,” choosing to apply the Gospel to his thoughts, words, actions, and aspirations. When a man does this, the power of the Gospel is unleashed.

God is not forcing anyone to use His product. But it happens to be the only product on the market that works. It's the smart choice.

Comments

[Alex Marshall]

Its interesting to me that you described faith as a privilege, not an obligation (I agree, by the way). That's the exact same line of reasoning that Roman Catholics use to defend their view of the sacraments- that is is a privilege God has granted us to fulfill the sacraments and be saved. Not really going anywhere with that, I just thought the parallel was interesting.

For me, the challenge of "faith" is trying to understand what faith is. Growing up in the church culture of the south, it seems that viewing faith as "belief" in God/Jesus work of salvation without anything beyond belief is too superficial (though too often it seems the norm) and yet as Protestants we don't want to add "works" to salvation. Somewhere in between those seems to be what we mean by faith, but it seems hard to define exactly what that looks like.

[ms]

When I studied biology, I learned that living organisms are formed when environmental influences flip genetic "switches" that unleash specific potentials for growth.
For me, faith is the "switch" that allows human spiritual potential to come alive - to blossom and produce fruit, or "works."

[Alex Marshall]

MS, I think that is a very insightful way of looking at faith and works. Excellent analogy!

[Walter Moore]

Although I'm sure its not unique, I've defined the difference between belief and faith is that one is a thought that might be true, and the other is a thought that has sufficient conviction to cause you to act upon it.

Example: Let's say you have a 50 year old car that you believe can make the drive from Memphis to New York City. This is a thought, a belief. But if you have faith in the car, you will put that belief into action by actually getting in the car and driving it from Memphis to NYC.