If you’re a Christian today, what would
you say? Why have you come to follow Jesus, when many that you know, including
friends and family, do not?
One answer is to say something like, “I
guess I am just more spiritually sensitive than others in my family.” Or maybe,
“I became so desperate that I turned to Christ.” Some might even say, “I
started investigating the claims of Christ, and it finally made sense to me.”
For many years I would have said the
same thing. I didn't realize the subtle pride inherent in my perspective. I was more sensitive than others…I became more desperate...I was investigating and I finally understood.
But over time I discovered that the
Bible gives the credit for my salvation, even for my faith, to God. Here are
some examples. (My highlights)
And when the Gentiles heard this, they
began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed
to eternal life believed (Acts 13:48). See the order? God in His grace “appoints”
to eternal life and then people
believe.
One who heard us was a woman named
Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper
of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul (Acts
16:14). The woman is a Gentile proselyte to Judaism, but she doesn’t believe in
Jesus till God opens her heart.
And when he [Apollos] wished to cross to
Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him.
When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed (Acts
18:27). At Achaia Apollos encouraged other Christians, who are described as
people who through grace believed. In
other words, their faith was a gift of God’s grace!
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 (Ephesians
2:8, 9). This very familiar (and wonderful) passage seems clearly to say that
everything about our salvation, including the faith to believe, is a gift of
God.*
But
we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord,
because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by
the Spirit and belief in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Notice Paul says
that God chose the Thessalonian Christians to be saved through belief in the
truth. The gift of faith was the means God used to accomplish His gracious
purpose.
This
Holy Week gives us so many reasons to be grateful to God. Through the death and resurrection of His Son, He paid for
our sins and brought us to Himself. And all glory to Him – even our faith to
turn to Him and believe in Jesus is a gift of His grace!
*The
question is, what is Paul referring to when he says "this is not your own doing" but is instead “the
gift of God.” The Greek word "this," a demonstrative pronoun, is neuter in gender. Normally a pronoun's gender would agree with its antecedent - the word it points to. But both "grace" and "faith" are feminine nouns in Greek, so it's unlikely "this" is pointing only to one or the other of them. The best explanation, in my opinion, is that "this" refers to all of salvation, including grace and faith.
