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Originally Posted by Bnonn  What do you mean by "a thing"? The Bible refers to faith as a gift of God (Eph 2:8), so it is certainly something more than a mere human belief. After all, Jesus founded and perfected our faith (Heb 12:2), and he is God. So faith is not merely belief, but in fact is knowledge of God, given by God himself. We can stir ourselves up to love and good works in light of that faith, but the faith itself remains steady, since it does not rely upon our own effort, but God's. I'm not sure exactly what you were meaning by your post, so I am not sure if I am agreeing with you or not; merely clarifying my own position. |
What makes you think faith is the gift in Eph 2:8? I see salvation as the gift in those verses or even grace but they come 'through faith' which is not the focus there. Faith is the means, not the end, therefore it's not the gift. I know that it's a popular teaching that faith is the gift, but so is calvinism (TULIP), sinful nature, spiritual death, immortality before 'the fall', confession of sin for forgiveness for a believer, and the kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven being the same throughout the 'synoptic gospels', and none are scriptural either.
Jesus founding and perfecting our faith has nothing to with faith being something we can work up to release to God. Something we control on a spiritual whim. As if in some moment of need we work up something that was not already there.
Abraham is the model given in the bible for faith and he simply believed what God said and it was counted as righteousness. That was/is faith. To say God gives us faith, as in something more than belief, so we can believe is calvinistic because some are given it and some are not, yet we know he died for all and it is his will that none perish, so if that's true, and we know it is, then he gives everyone faith at some point and all are saved, but that is not true so faith is not the gift because the gifts and callings of God are without repentance! One can reject salvation but how could anyone reject faith? Irresistible grace is bunk!
We can stir up our spirit and God can stir up our faith as seen many, many times in the bible but without God we would stir up our belief towards nature, astrology, ourselves, or a tree stump. That's what makes faith of him, is it is his revealing of himself to us. We can, as believers, begin that process by faith because he wants fellowship but it wouldn't exist without him.
He put Adam in the garden and said 'don't eat that tree'. As long as Adam lived by faith, believing what God said, all was well.
Faith is belief in his word/s.