"I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" (Rom. 10:2, ESV).
"Desire without knowledge is not good..." (Prov. 19:2, ESV).
You can have a lot of faith and have misdirected zeal ("They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" was Paul's wording in Romans 10), or you can have faith the grain of a mustard seed and be saved and serving God. Who has faith? One boldly steps on the thin ice and another timorous step on the thick ice. God doesn't countenance halfhearted, lackadaisical, or lukewarm discipleship, but only when one serves God with gusto. You don't have to have perfect faith, but sincere faith! Don't be "out on a limb" but have substantive faith that is based on sound doctrine and applied to your life.
But it isn't the faith that saves, it is only the instrumental means of salvation given as a gift of God to exercise and take the leap of faith. It is the object of the faith that saves, not the faith. Likewise, you must be sincere, but sincerity alone doesn't qualify for salvation, because you can be sincerely wrong and misguided as a fanatic who doesn't know what he is doing. As an example, Catholics have a lot of faith in their priest, nuns, Church, and Pope but it is misdirected.
Parenthetically, I must mention the kind of faith that saves: It is manifest in obedience only just like Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who is obedient believes, and only he who believes is obedient." We are indeed saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone (or dead faith without works). Without fruit our faith is suspect, but works are no substitute for faith, but only its fruit--we are fruit inspectors! Viva la difference between professing faith and exercising faith!
It is only faith "in Christ alone" that saves (soli Christo in Latin). You can have a lot of faith in your pastor but if it doesn't get personal to a relationship with Christ Himself, you are lost. Faith isn't the reason we are saved, though people say we should be defenders of the faith, or worse yet, defenders of faith per se. We should be apologists where necessarily and gifted, but God is looking for the simple, not simplistic, and childlike, not childish faith to be saved.
We don't achieve faith, we receive it (2 Peter 1:1 says that they have received a faith). Faith is "granted" according to Philippians 1:29 and we "believe through grace" per Acts 18:27. We don't just believe, we believe in someone and put it into action and practice our belief--turning or converting creeds into deeds! We don't just have a faith, but a growing and living faith that is not static, but founded in the truth (truth does matter--you can't be a heretic, no matter how sincere, and the vital doctrine is the person and work of Christ on our behalf and methodology of salvation to appropriate it.
The righteousness we have is not our gift to God, but His gift to us. Faith is God's work in us, but we make use of it and exercise it in a leap of faith. He kindles or quickens faith within us and makes believers out of the most stubborn and unbelieving. It is not the condition of salvation, but the means of it, because regeneration precedes faith ("through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth [in that order, the order of salvation, or ordo salutis in Latin]" according to 2 Thess. 2:13, ESV). If we have to do something for our salvation we are bound to fail! If left to ourselves, none of us would believe ("Apart from Me you can do nothing" according to John 15:5). We don't have a righteousness of our own, but our righteousness is as filthy rags per Isaiah 64:6 in the well-known verse.
We don't just have faith in a crucified Christ, but a living Christ. We believe not only that He died for our sins but rose again to proclaim His victory and our assured glorification and resurrection. There is no saving faith without genuine repentance, known as believing repentance or penitent faith (they are the flip side of each other). Having faith is being fully assured and certain, not just making a guess or a bet that you might be right--you are willing to bet your life and risk or bet your life that He is alive and victorious. "Measure yourself by the amount of faith God has given you" (Rom. 12:3). Note that faith, not feelings or experiences please God and we must earnestly seek Him to find Him. He will authenticate Himself to you because God is no man's debtor!
In conclusion, faith is a gift of God, however, we make a choice of the will--we decide to have faith. The Jews saw many miracles yet they "would no believe [not could not]" (John 12:37). We don't just have faith for its own sake, it must have an object or we'd be saved by sincerity. The only valid object is the person and work of Christ on our behalf. Faith also has legs, it must be put into action because dead faith doesn't save. Faith without works is suspect and we show our faith by our works or deeds. We are not saved by our works but unto works. If we had the complete revelation about God we wouldn't call it faith, but knowledge and it is faith that pleases God, not knowledge. We must all take that leap of faith with incomplete knowledge or evidence. Some of us may indeed say: "... I believe, help thou mine unbelief" (cf. Mark 9:24). Soli Deo Gloria!
"Desire without knowledge is not good..." (Prov. 19:2, ESV).
You can have a lot of faith and have misdirected zeal ("They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" was Paul's wording in Romans 10), or you can have faith the grain of a mustard seed and be saved and serving God. Who has faith? One boldly steps on the thin ice and another timorous step on the thick ice. God doesn't countenance halfhearted, lackadaisical, or lukewarm discipleship, but only when one serves God with gusto. You don't have to have perfect faith, but sincere faith! Don't be "out on a limb" but have substantive faith that is based on sound doctrine and applied to your life.
But it isn't the faith that saves, it is only the instrumental means of salvation given as a gift of God to exercise and take the leap of faith. It is the object of the faith that saves, not the faith. Likewise, you must be sincere, but sincerity alone doesn't qualify for salvation, because you can be sincerely wrong and misguided as a fanatic who doesn't know what he is doing. As an example, Catholics have a lot of faith in their priest, nuns, Church, and Pope but it is misdirected.
Parenthetically, I must mention the kind of faith that saves: It is manifest in obedience only just like Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who is obedient believes, and only he who believes is obedient." We are indeed saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone (or dead faith without works). Without fruit our faith is suspect, but works are no substitute for faith, but only its fruit--we are fruit inspectors! Viva la difference between professing faith and exercising faith!
It is only faith "in Christ alone" that saves (soli Christo in Latin). You can have a lot of faith in your pastor but if it doesn't get personal to a relationship with Christ Himself, you are lost. Faith isn't the reason we are saved, though people say we should be defenders of the faith, or worse yet, defenders of faith per se. We should be apologists where necessarily and gifted, but God is looking for the simple, not simplistic, and childlike, not childish faith to be saved.
We don't achieve faith, we receive it (2 Peter 1:1 says that they have received a faith). Faith is "granted" according to Philippians 1:29 and we "believe through grace" per Acts 18:27. We don't just believe, we believe in someone and put it into action and practice our belief--turning or converting creeds into deeds! We don't just have a faith, but a growing and living faith that is not static, but founded in the truth (truth does matter--you can't be a heretic, no matter how sincere, and the vital doctrine is the person and work of Christ on our behalf and methodology of salvation to appropriate it.
The righteousness we have is not our gift to God, but His gift to us. Faith is God's work in us, but we make use of it and exercise it in a leap of faith. He kindles or quickens faith within us and makes believers out of the most stubborn and unbelieving. It is not the condition of salvation, but the means of it, because regeneration precedes faith ("through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth [in that order, the order of salvation, or ordo salutis in Latin]" according to 2 Thess. 2:13, ESV). If we have to do something for our salvation we are bound to fail! If left to ourselves, none of us would believe ("Apart from Me you can do nothing" according to John 15:5). We don't have a righteousness of our own, but our righteousness is as filthy rags per Isaiah 64:6 in the well-known verse.
We don't just have faith in a crucified Christ, but a living Christ. We believe not only that He died for our sins but rose again to proclaim His victory and our assured glorification and resurrection. There is no saving faith without genuine repentance, known as believing repentance or penitent faith (they are the flip side of each other). Having faith is being fully assured and certain, not just making a guess or a bet that you might be right--you are willing to bet your life and risk or bet your life that He is alive and victorious. "Measure yourself by the amount of faith God has given you" (Rom. 12:3). Note that faith, not feelings or experiences please God and we must earnestly seek Him to find Him. He will authenticate Himself to you because God is no man's debtor!
In conclusion, faith is a gift of God, however, we make a choice of the will--we decide to have faith. The Jews saw many miracles yet they "would no believe [not could not]" (John 12:37). We don't just have faith for its own sake, it must have an object or we'd be saved by sincerity. The only valid object is the person and work of Christ on our behalf. Faith also has legs, it must be put into action because dead faith doesn't save. Faith without works is suspect and we show our faith by our works or deeds. We are not saved by our works but unto works. If we had the complete revelation about God we wouldn't call it faith, but knowledge and it is faith that pleases God, not knowledge. We must all take that leap of faith with incomplete knowledge or evidence. Some of us may indeed say: "... I believe, help thou mine unbelief" (cf. Mark 9:24). Soli Deo Gloria!
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