“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.”  (Hebrews 11:1-2)

 

“I have faith”…”  “S/he has faith,”  “Put your faith in God.”  Statements like that are made and believed by both lost and saved persons. The (3rd) third statement is said by theologically incorrect ministers. The (3rd) third title of our article asks the question –  Does a lost person, intrinsicly, have a faith s/he can put in God? The answer, according to Scripture, is in the negative. No one has a faith in and of themselves to savingly believe in Christ’s death and resurrection. The (1st) title asks what is faith. The answer is not simply believing in Christ, but the God-gifted power to act upon the revelation of the Gospel. Faith is a gift from God, a gift given to those he quickens which then allows them to believe upon the divinely revealed truth concerning Christ and His love for a sinner. Man cannot understand, much less obey the Gospel lest the fallen and dead spirit in man is given life by the Holy Ghost of God and followed by the gifting of saving faith, which enables one to understand and respond to the God revealed truth of the Gospel. The actions that follow the Holy Ghost’s enlightenment and gifting of faith are repentance and belief.
Some may think that understanding and belief are equivelent to one another, they are not. Understanding is the enlightenment and belief is one’s love, desire to obey God and child-like trust in Christ. Belief follows repentance as repentance is the new willingness to submit to God’s ways. This is why Scripture puts repentance before belief.

Some think the study or the preaching of these works of the Holy Spirit is splitting hairs, it is not, it is theology. They think that since all these acts occur simultaneously that there is no need to get “too detailed.” It is true these graces, the Holy Spirit’s gifting of a quickened spirit or faith and His gifting of repentance followed by the ability to believe may happen simultaneously but they are still separate works performed by the Spirit. To suggest that these graces and giftings occur together there is no need to complicate the matter is similar to suggesting that since the Triune Godhead acts as One there is no need to teach or to understand that They/He are (3) Three Distinct Persononages forming One God.

Some analogies:  1. Since multiple and simultaneous actions can cause one single outcome, the multiples and simultaneous actions are not important in their singular, specific and independent actions.  2. A police officer will speak to the (10) ten witnesses to the accident instead of only one, thinking he needs to speak to only one, since they must have all seen the same thing.  3. There are many independent gears that cause one watch or clock to keep time, though they all work together they are all independent and essential.  4. There are many organs working independently of one another, yet they operate in unison in one body. If one necessary organ is diseased it causes trouble. Each organ is necessary and each organ has it’s own medical professional dedicated to it.

By the above analogies I am attempting to point out that each miraculous and independent operation of the Holy Spirit should be pointed out and God should receive glory and much thanks for all He does even if they appear to be one act. No time is lost or wasted in the study of all that God does. One more analogy to drive home the point: When one prays the table grace, he is thanking God for all that has done toward the meal. By saying, “Thank You Lord for Thy Provisions,” the pray-er is acknowledging the air and strength God grants the workers that grew and harvested the food, the sun, rain and soil the food grew in, the truck driver, gas, oil, etc that is used to transport the foods to the store, all the store workers, the money and strength and effort that allowed the purchase of the foods, the preparer of the foods, and so on. Each person or operation is necessary for the table spread.

Proverbs (3) three tells us to acknowledge God in all our ways, we should also acknowledge God for all His ways and works. It is proper to magnify each single act and operation of God, that is one purpose of Bible study and meditating upon Biblical truths, and the works and ways of God. To look upon the singular and independent works of God is not getting to detailed or mired down in the unnecessary or complicated, it is arrogant, lazy and shallow to suggest so.

To speak of salvation is to speak of God, the glory of God, the mercy, the grace, the longsuffering, and the hope that is of God, the everlating covenant between the Godhead, the fall of man, sin, the devil, the law, election, God’s preservation of the elect person to the point of the new birth, the calling of God, the justification and sanctification, and predestinated end of the believer, the glorification of the believer, and the return of Christ for the believer and the reward the Lord brings with Him, and eternity future, that has been prepared from before the beginning. In other words, the Salvation that is of God is the sovereign operations of grace that He ordained in eternity past and through the prophetic and priestly offices of Christ, performed in the stead of the believer which brings the believer into the Presence of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ and into Eternity future. That is the salvation of God.

If one wants to get “mired down” in the details of God’s salvation of His elect, one would  note that all the Works of God wrought in the Old Testament (The birth of Israel/the call of Abraham, the killing of pagan and enemy tribes, kindreds, tongues, peoples and, nations, the establishing of those who did right in the sight of the LORD,) were  done to bring about God’s Salvation to, for, and of man.

It is said, “God is in the details,” I would concur and add that God should be thanked, praised and glorified for each and every work He does. His Great Glory is in the details.

Godspeed