The Role of Faith in Salvation

The Role of Faith in Salvation: God’s Provision and Man’s Response

Faith stands at the very heart of the biblical message of salvation. Yet few subjects are more easily misunderstood. Faith can be treated as though it were a work man performs to earn God’s favor, while at the opposite extreme it can be described in such a way that believing is no longer meaningfully the response of the person who believes. Scripture presents neither picture.

Salvation originates with God. God provides the Savior. God provides the sacrifice. God provides the Gospel. God reveals the truth. God makes the promise. God provides the faculties by which His revelation can be perceived and understood. Man creates none of these things. Nevertheless, Scripture repeatedly calls upon man to hear, believe, trust, repent, obey, and receive what God has graciously provided.

Understanding saving faith therefore requires that we distinguish between God’s provision of everything necessary for faith and man’s genuine response to that provision.

What Is Faith?

The principal New Testament word translated “faith” is pistis (πίστις), while the closely related verb pisteuō (πιστεύω) means “to believe,” “to trust,” or “to place confidence in.” The adjective pistos (πιστός) commonly carries the idea of being faithful, trustworthy, or believing.

Many mock the idea of faith, assuming it is nothing more than a religious construct, a foolish belief in the unevidenced and unprovable existence of God, a supreme Being who created the universe and all life within it. It is true that those of us who believe in God cannot provide any more evidence or proof of God’s existence than what God Himself has already provided through creation and life. However, even if we were to gain a consensus and included Evolutionism and Atheism as religions in of themselves, faith is still more than a mere religious construct.

We all practice faith routinely even in so much as being confident and trusting that the next chair we sit in will not break. We all know chairs can break but we also know, based on our foundations of knowledge and experiences that the odds of a chair breaking are low. After all, if our knowledge and experiences dictated that the odds were against a chair supporting us, we would likely not have nor would we place any confidence, trust, or faith in a chair.

Therefore, while faith, including my faith in God, is built upon a foundation of knowledge, it is by its very nature and definition a confidence, or trust in in a person, thing, or concept that we do not have a full knowledge of.

Mankind has accumulated a wealth of knowledge throughout his existence, and yet there exists more that we don’t know then there is that we do. All those things we claim to believe, including the origins of the universe and life itself, be it by evolution or by God or anything else, lie beyond the foundations and boundaries of our knowledge, and therefore fall under the category and definition of faith.

The meaningful question, therefore, is not simply whether a person has faith. We all exercise faith. The more important questions are what we place our faith in, what knowledge and evidence provide the foundation for that faith, and whether the object of our faith is worthy of our confidence and trust.

Biblical faith is therefore much more than merely acknowledging that something is true. Saving faith involves trust. It has an object. It rests upon someone and upon something that has been revealed concerning that person.

This is why Scripture can speak not merely of believing facts about Christ, but of believing “in” or “on” Christ. Christian faith is directed toward the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Paul writes:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

Notice the relationship. The believer does not create the saving power. The saving power belongs to God and is revealed in the Gospel. Yet salvation is associated with the one who believes.

This distinction is essential. God provides salvation. God reveals salvation. Man believes what God has revealed.

This distinction between the object of our faith and the foundation upon which that faith rests brings us to another important distinction. Not everything we know or believe necessarily requires us to do something about it. I can possess knowledge of something, believe that it is true, and even have confidence that it is true without that knowledge necessarily obligating me to act. There are other truths, however, that by their very nature and their relationship to us absolutely require a response. Saving faith in Christ belongs to this latter category.

When Faith Obligates a Response

I can believe that something is true without that belief necessarily requiring anything further from me. I can believe that Saturn has rings, that a particular mountain exists on another continent, or that it will rain tomorrow. I may possess good reasons for those beliefs and place considerable confidence in them, yet none of them necessarily obligates me to respond.

But there are other things which, once known and believed, absolutely obligate a response. If I smell smoke, hear a fire alarm, and become convinced that my house is on fire, that knowledge is no longer merely information for me to intellectually acknowledge. If I genuinely believe my house is burning, the nature of what I now know requires me to respond. I may respond wisely or foolishly. I may immediately leave the house, attempt to extinguish the fire, warn others, or even refuse to act at all. But refusing to act does not mean that no response was required. Inaction itself becomes a response to what I know and believe to be true.

This distinction becomes especially important when we speak of saving faith in Christ. The Gospel is not merely a collection of facts about Jesus that God asks us to intellectually acknowledge as true. It reveals something about Christ, but it also reveals something about us. It tells us that we are sinners, that sin separates us from God and places us under judgment, that we cannot remedy our condition ourselves, and that God has provided the remedy through the substitutionary and sacrificial work of Jesus Christ. Once that revelation is heard and understood, it is not merely information to be filed away among the other things we believe. It obligates a response.

Scripture itself distinguishes between merely possessing correct knowledge and the kind of faith that responds to what has been revealed. James writes, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble” (James 2:19). The demons are not atheists. They possess correct knowledge concerning the existence of God, and they believe that knowledge to be true. Yet no one would suggest that their belief constitutes saving faith.

Saving faith therefore goes beyond merely acknowledging that God exists or intellectually agreeing with certain facts about Jesus Christ. Saving faith places confidence and trust in the One whom God has revealed and responds to what that revelation requires.

John describes this relationship between belief and response when he writes, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). The language is not merely that they knew something about Christ. They believed in His name and received Him.

The same principle appears when the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). Their answer was not simply an additional piece of information about Jesus. They told him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). The revelation of Christ called for a response of faith.

This does not turn faith into a meritorious work. A response can be necessary without being meritorious. If a drowning man is thrown a life preserver, taking hold of it does not make him his own rescuer. He did not provide the life preserver. He did not place himself in safety. He did not create the person capable of rescuing him. Nevertheless, if he recognizes his danger and the rescue that has been provided, he must respond to that provision if he is to benefit from it.

So it is with saving faith. God provides the Savior. God provides the sacrifice. God provides the Gospel. God provides the revelation. God provides the promise. God provides the faculties by which that revelation may be heard, understood, and believed. Man provides none of these things. But the Gospel that God has provided confronts man with a truth that requires a response. He may believe or disbelieve, receive or reject, repent or remain in rebellion, but he cannot make the revelation meaningless by refusing to respond to it.

Saving faith therefore goes beyond intellectual knowledge. It is confidence and trust in Christ that responds to what God has revealed and provided. The response does not merit salvation; Christ alone provides salvation. But the fact that faith is not meritorious does not mean that faith is passive or that God’s revelation requires nothing from the person who receives it.

Faith Requires Revelation

No one can place faith in something of which he has absolutely no awareness. Before something can become the object of faith, there must first be some revelation of that object.

This is particularly important when discussing whether faith is a gift from God.

Saving faith is bestowed by God as a gift through His revelation. Apart from God’s revelation, we would have no knowledge or awareness of Him upon which to place our faith. God provides both the truth to be believed and the God-given faculties by which that truth may be perceived, understood, and believed. Thus, faith does not originate independently of God, nor is it a meritorious contribution to salvation. Yet God’s provision of the capacity and object of faith need not mean that God necessitates the act of believing. Faith remains man’s genuine response to what God has graciously revealed and provided.

Paul makes the relationship between revelation, hearing, and believing particularly clear in Romans 10:

“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without someone to preach?” (Romans 10:14).

He shortly concludes:

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

Faith does not arise in an informational vacuum. God reveals Himself and His saving work. The Gospel communicates that revelation. Man is thereby presented with the truth upon which faith may rest.

God therefore precedes man’s faith at every point. Without God, there is no Savior. Without God, there is no atonement. Without God, there is no promise. Without God, there is no Gospel. Without God’s revelation, there is nothing concerning Christ for man to hear and believe. Without the faculties God created and sustains, man possesses no capacity by which to perceive, understand, deliberate, or respond.

But none of this requires us to conclude that God must therefore irresistibly determine whether a particular individual believes what He has revealed.

Provision is not causation, and enabling a response is not the same thing as necessitating that response.

Faith Is Not a Meritorious Work

One of the most important distinctions Scripture makes is between faith and works.

Paul writes:

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28).

Again:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

And:

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16).

If exercising faith were itself a meritorious work that earned salvation, Paul’s repeated contrast between faith and works would become extremely difficult to explain.

Faith is not the price paid for salvation. Christ paid the price. Faith does not accomplish the atonement. Christ accomplished the atonement. Faith does not make God’s grace available. God graciously made salvation available in Christ. Faith receives what God has provided.

This is why Paul can simultaneously insist that salvation is entirely by grace and that salvation is received through faith:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).

Grace and faith are not competitors. Grace identifies the source and character of God’s provision; faith describes the response by which the sinner receives and rests upon that provision.

Believing therefore gives man no grounds for boasting. Paul specifically makes this argument in Romans 3. After describing justification by faith, he asks:

“Where then is boasting? It is excluded” (Romans 3:27).

Faith excludes boasting precisely because faith does not present God with something deserving payment. It acknowledges dependence upon what another has accomplished.

A drowning man who accepts rescue has not thereby become his own rescuer. Likewise, the sinner who trusts Christ has not saved himself. His faith rests entirely upon the saving work performed by another.

Abraham: Faith in God’s Promise

Abraham provides one of Scripture’s clearest illustrations.

God made Abraham a promise. Abraham did not create the promise, determine its terms, or possess the ability independently to bring about its fulfillment.

God provided the promise. Abraham believed God.

“And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).

Paul repeatedly returns to this event:

“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness'” (Romans 4:3).

The significance is difficult to miss. Abraham’s believing did not transform God’s gift into a wage earned by Abraham.

Paul makes precisely this distinction:

“Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt” (Romans 4:4).

Faith is fundamentally different. Abraham depended upon the faithfulness of the One who made the promise.

God’s promise preceded Abraham’s faith. God’s revelation supplied the object of Abraham’s faith. God possessed the power to fulfill what He promised. Yet Abraham himself believed.

This provides an important model for understanding saving faith. Dependence upon God’s revelation does not eliminate genuine human response. It establishes the very circumstances in which that response becomes possible.

Faith and the Gospel

The same pattern appears in the proclamation of the Gospel.

The Gospel is not man’s discovery of a way back to God. It is God’s announcement of what He has accomplished through Christ.

Paul describes the Gospel as “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

Elsewhere he explains that God was pleased “through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).

Again we find both divine provision and human response. God provides Christ. God accomplishes redemption. God sends the message. The Gospel is proclaimed. People hear. People believe or disbelieve.

This pattern is particularly important because it prevents us from placing the saving power in faith itself. The Gospel is powerful because of the saving work of God that it proclaims. Faith does not possess saving power independently of its object.

It is Christ who saves. Faith rests upon Christ.

Faith and Justification

Justification describes God’s declaration that the believer is righteous before Him. Scripture consistently denies that this standing is achieved through human merit.

“The righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe” (Romans 3:22).

God remains both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

Faith therefore does not persuade God to overlook sin. The Cross provides the basis upon which God can remain just while justifying the believer.

This distinction protects both grace and responsibility. Man cannot accomplish his own justification. Man cannot erase his own guilt. Man cannot provide his own substitute. Man cannot resurrect himself. Man cannot reconcile himself to God by moral achievement.

God has accomplished what man could never accomplish. The appropriate response is therefore not achievement but trust.

Faith and Receiving the Holy Spirit

Scripture also connects faith with receiving the Holy Spirit.

Paul asks the Galatians:

“Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:2).

He repeats the contrast several verses later:

“Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:5).

The contrast is again between works and faith.

Later Paul explains that Christ redeemed us “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14).

Ephesians gives us a similarly important statement:

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13).

The important point is not that faith merits the Spirit. It does not. Rather, Scripture associates hearing the Gospel and believing with receiving the Spirit God has promised.

The Spirit Himself then becomes the guarantee of the believer’s inheritance until the redemption yet to come (Ephesians 1:14).

Faith, therefore, stands within a much larger work that God Himself has established:

God reveals the Gospel → the Gospel is heard → Christ is believed → the believer is sealed with the Spirit → the Spirit guarantees the promised inheritance.

The entire saving arrangement originates with God. Faith is man’s response within that God-established arrangement.