“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

© Brian Labosier  July 15, 2022

Faith is the key to responding to God’s Call.  God tells us very clearly in Hebrews 11:6, “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”  There is simply no other way. 

We normally relate to other people through seeing them with our eyes and hearing them talk with our ears.  But God is invisible.  Paul describes God as “the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Timothy 1:17), and the One “whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16).  Moses is also described in Scripture as “seeing him [God] who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27).  Yet, God still calls us to relate to Him. 

While we can’t see God physically with our eyes or hear Him with our ears—at least in this present life—we can sense Him in another way, and this way is through faith.  Faith is comparable to spiritual eyesight or spiritual hearing.  When Jesus healed the blind and deaf during His earthly ministry, he often contrasted those who were physically impaired with those with normal eyesight and hearing yet were spiritually blind and deaf.  Faith is a picture of spiritual sight and experiencing a new connection with the invisible God.

So, what exactly is this substance we call faith?  In English, the word faith is grammatically a noun.  In biblical Greek, there is actually a whole family of Greek words, where faith as a noun is related to its corresponding verb form, which is often translated into English as believe.  Thus, having faith in Jesus is the same as believing in Him.  Both believing and having faith require a certain content or belief.  Earlier we looked at four truths about God that formed the basis of our faith: knowing God as Creator, knowing Him as Judge and Ruler, knowing Him as Redeemer, and knowing Him as Restorer and Perfecter. 

Where does faith come from?  Obviously, faith doesn’t simply appear out of nowhere; it grows out of hearing the gospel message: hearing that the God who created us and judges our sin also provided a way for us to be redeemed and restored.  But the reality is that not everyone who hears the gospel message with their ears, or even everyone who understands the basic truths of the gospel message intellectually with their minds, comes to faith.  There is more involved in biblical faith.

Faith is both a gift from God and also something He requires of us. Thus, this topic requires careful thinking and balance.  There is a tension in the gospel between God’s sovereignty and the reality of human choices.  The Bible tells us very clearly that God is sovereign and He elects or predestines certain people to salvation.  At the same time, we experience countless choices in life and God clearly holds us responsible for the decisions we make.  So, there is also the reality of what we might call free will.  The author of Hebrews points us to the essential role of faith in salvation by reminding us of how faith functioned in the lives of those living during Old Testament times, “For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened” (4:2, italics added).  Like in every generation, there were those who chose not to believe the message they heard.

We need to make room in our thinking for both realities—God’s sovereignty and human free will—even though as human beings, the two seem incompatible.  J. I. Packer describes this tension as an antinomy.  An antinomy, by definition, is something that appears to be a logical contradiction, but isn’t.  Another illustration for those more scientifically inclined is the question whether light is a wave (with frequency and wave length) or a particle of energy (as illustrated in a radiometer that spins when placed in sunlight).  And again, the correct answer is both.  Ultimately, God knows and understands how these two truths fit together, even if we can’t with our limited human minds.

At the same time, as human beings we also need to realize that we don’t have access to the secret knowledge of God and know who His elect are or how other people will respond ahead of time to the gospel message.  The truth of the matter is that we can even be deceived ourselves and assume we are believers when we are not.  Jesus warns us,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

The only way we can identify God’s elect—whether we are reflecting on our own lives or on the lives of others—is in hindsight: is there a true response of faith and trust in Jesus Christ coupled with evidence of a changed life?  This is what Jesus means when He tells us in Matthew 7:16, “You will recognize them by their fruits.”  Those who are born again show new life.  Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  If one is truly born again, he or she receives new life, and new life inevitably shows itself in a changed life characterized by a new relationship with God and with other people.  Those who respond in faith are God’s elect.  But since we can’t know beforehand who is elect and who is not, we are called to share the gospel with every person we meet. 

The Bible is crystal clear that there are always two ultimate destinations: a broad way that leads to death and a narrow way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14), and each of us are on one road or the other.  Jesus warns us in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money [literally mammon—which could also be translated as wealth or property].”  We are either on “the narrow way” or we are not.

The key distinguishing mark of those who are on the narrow way leading to eternal life is the response of faith.  Scholars have sometimes traditionally summarized faith by using three Latin expressions: Notitia, Assensus, and Fiducia.

Notitia [think here of notes or factual knowledge] refers specifically to the content of faith, or those truths we believe. We place our faith in many things, but in order to do so we need to have a certain knowledge or information about them.  In order to believe specifically in God in what we can describe as believing faith, we must know certain truths about who God is, what He is like, and specifically what He has done in sending us the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is comparable to the outward call we hear with our ears discussed earlier.

Assensus [think here of our intellectual assent] is the conviction that the content of our faith is true. You can know about the Christian faith and yet believe that it is not true. Genuine faith says that the content — the truths of the gospel taught in Holy Scripture — are true.

Fiducia [think here of fiduciaries who are trustworthy people who help with financial matters] refers to personal trust and reliance.  It involves our heart, will, and emotions.  Knowing the content of the Christian faith and believing that it is true are not enough.  God reminds us that “Even the demons believe [in God]—and shudder!” (James 2:19).  Fiducia focuses on our personally trusting in God alone for salvation.  We need to see our need of Jesus and how He is the solution to all our needs in order to embrace Him as our Lord and Savior.  In other words, we put our trust in Christ only when we have come to see Him as our “treasure” which alone gives us “joy” (Matthew 13:44).

The bottom line is that in some wondrous way, God demonstrates His power and willingness to save specific individuals by freeing them from the bondage of sin so that they are now willing to trust in Him.  God is the One who makes all this possible.  This is what election and predestination mean.  And this is also why we plead and pray to God for the salvation of people.  We pray specifically that God would so work in their lives that they will come to Him. 

At the same time, we recognize the role of human choice in God’s plan of salvation.  This is why we need to share the gospel with anyone and everyone we can.  We need to warn and plead with others to accept Christ as the ultimate Treasure in life.  If we don’t pray specifically for the salvation of others, we are amiss, and if we don’t warn and plead with them to accept Christ, we are amiss.  In the final analysis, God is sovereign and at the same time, our decisions and choices are meaningful and significant.  So, the correct answer is both-and and never either-or.  We need to emphasize both the sovereignty of God and also how God holds men and women responsible for their choices to believe Him or reject Him.

As we share Christ with others, we need to do so respectfully and appropriately.  First of all, we need to be sensitive to the Lord’s leading and be dependent upon Him.  This is where prayer comes in.  Then we also need to be sensitive to the unique personality of each person we meet and respond with a proper sense of timing and an approach that communicates to them individually and personally in their present life situation.  This is why listening and building bridges with others is so important in sharing the gospel. 

Pause and Reflect

(1) The gospel message has gone out.  As Jesus told us, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14).  “Being called” refers here to the outward call of hearing the gospel; “being chosen” refers to the inward call of God’s Spirit that leads to new life.  We need both.  God has so ordained that the inward call normally takes place only where there is an outward call.  This is why hearing the gospel is so essential to salvation.

(2) Many people are attracted to spiritual things, but only a few respond to God in faith and trust.  The Bible warns us that there will be a final day of a great separation of those who are God’s children from those who are not.  Jesus described this separation in terms of how a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25:31-46.  This is why God’s Word tells us, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).

(3) Reflect on how faith involves Notitia, Assensus, and Fiducia.  Have you experienced each of these in your own life?

(4) God doesn’t call us to understand how His sovereignty and the apparent reality of our own choices fit together in His perfect plan.  This is one of the secret things God has not chosen to reveal to us (Deuteronomy 29:29).  But He does call us to accept both His sovereignty and the importance of the decisions we make regarding Him.  How can we prevent this tension between salvation being both a gift and a requirement from tripping us up in our own walk with God?  How can we avoid the temptation of an either-or solution that is not faithful to the overall teachings of Scripture?