I think most Protestant Christians will balk at the last phrasing of our question at hand. We Protestants are generally well instructed in the notion that grace is not something earned...'salvation' is not earned through 'works.' Certainly scripture bears this out:
"...since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift...Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due" (Rom. 3:23; 4:4).
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God-not the result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8-9).Nonetheless, scripture is also clear that grace is dependent on faith:
"And he (Jesus) said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace'" (Luke 7:50).
"...they are now justified by his grace as a gift...effective through faith" (Rom. 3:24-25 NRSV).
"For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace..." (Rom. 4:16).Simply put, we are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8). Our question concerns the phrase through faith. Is faith on the part of the Christian something that is worthy of merit, something done by the Christian deserving of reward? My response is "No." But why? Why is Christian faith not worthy of merit? Why is my faith in Christ not a work done by me deserving of credit to my account (so to speak)?
It will be helpful at this point to clarify our understanding of what Christian faith is and is not. Christian faith is not simply mere belief. By 'mere belief' I mean 'assent to a proposition.' In other words, Christian faith is not simply believing the truth of a proposed set of facts. By way of example, let us suppose that I am presented with the proposition 'Jesus was raised for our justification.' It may be the case that I believe this in fact actually occurred (i.e. Jesus really was raised from the dead for the purpose of making me right in the sight of God). Nonetheless, simply believing this proposition does not entail that I posses 'faith in Christ.'
In short, I may believe all kinds of wonderful things about God, Christ, and the Christian Faith without actually having faith. Christian faith is more than simply mere belief. Nonetheless, Christian faith seems to include mere belief.
At first blush it would seem that mere belief does not entail faith; however, faith does entail mere belief. In other words, it would seem difficult to have faith in that which I do not believe. But I am getting ahead of myself. What is that 'something more' which is possessed by faith that is lacking in mere belief?
I liken the distinction between faith and belief as to the use of a map. I live in Virginia. Let us suppose I have never been to Lexington, KY and I would really like to go there. I get out my map and find that if I get on Interstate 64 and head west, meandering through West Virginia, in about nine hours I will arrive in Lexington, KY. The map has proposed to me a fact about the way to Lexington, KY (i.e. the route on I64 through West Virginia). At this point I have two options. I can say to myself, "It is true...this is the way to Lexington, KY" then fold the map and go about whatever I was doing. Or, I can pack my bags, get in the truck, and trusting what the map proposes head in the direction offered. The first option I liken to mere belief. The second I liken to faith. Both include belief, but only the second trusts the proposition in such a way that I follow.
It seems to me that without trust, faith is simply mere belief. Even so, it is difficult to see how one could trust in something they do not believe is an actual fact. Therefore, it seems to me, we have a workable analysis of Christian faith. Christian faith is belief and trust. We will revisit this analysis in a moment and consider a possible objection, but I think it will work for our purposes at this point.
Given our analysis of Christian faith we can now proceed in an attempt to answer our initial question (i.e. Is a Christian's faith in Christ worthy of merit?). We will do this by asking two separate questions. Is mere belief worthy of merit? Is the act of trusting another worthy of merit?
Is mere belief worthy of merit? Is giving our assent to a proposition worthy of merit? I think the answer to this question is "No." Why? I answer "No" because my believing something is true is not a choice on my part. I believe proposition p is true simply because it appears to me as true. To give an obvious example, consider the proposition 'two things added to two things results in four things all together' (commonly known as '2+2=4'). I do not choose to believe this to be true, I simply 'see' that it is true. I am passive in coming-to-believe the truth of the proposition that 2+2=4. But maybe that is too obvious.
Let us consider the proposition 'God exists' (we will call this proposition q). If I believe q, there will be reasons why I believe q. Maybe I look at the world and seeing its beauty I perceive that there must be some Divine Artist behind the beauty. Maybe I consider the probability that the universe would, by chance, bring about the possibility for highly intelligent life forms and after careful consideration conclude that there must be Intelligence behind the mystery. Or, maybe I have been taught all my life that there is a God who loves me, and I simply cannot think otherwise. Whatever reason I have for believing q (whether it be deductive, inductive, intuitive, or simply by conditioning), there is a reason. And, it seems to me, 'I simply choose to believe' is not one of the candidates for a reason why I believe q.
The general assumption I making at this point is this...we do not simply choose to believe anything. There are always reasons why I believe anything. And ultimately the final reason why I believe something is because it appears true to me. My believing anything is always a passive experience. This is true even if I put effort into coming-to-believe something.
Let us assume for the moment that I am shopping for a religion. I see that there is emptiness in my life and I decide that maybe I need a little religion in my life. I take a quick survey of the world's great religions and I decide I will try Christianity. I start going to church, reading my bible, praying, learning the 'lingo', and so on. Doing all of these things is not a guarantee that I will come-to-believe that Jesus died for my sins and was raised for my justification. I may do all these things and walk away believing that the Christian faith is simply 'horse-pucky.' I will not believe Jesus died for me until it appears true to me that this is in fact the case. I cannot simply 'pull myself up by the bootstraps' and make myself believe what seems untrue to me.
I use the phrase come-to-believe to emphasize the passiveness of the experience. Belief is always something that happens to me. I do not (under cognitively healthy conditions) create belief...I come-to-believe. It is no credit to me that I believe anything. My belief is simply how things appear to me. It is no credit to me that I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. In fact, I cannot simply choose to believe otherwise. I simply believe that in fact Jesus was raised from the dead. I have my reasons, but ultimately I believe it because it appears true to me...period. So, mere belief is not merit worthy. Mere belief is not something we do, but something that happens to us.
Is the act of trusting another worthy of merit? My response is again, "No". However, I think we have entered an area that is a little difficult to navigate through in order to show that my trusting another is not worthy of merit.
It may be helpful before proceeding to consider the following: In a morally perfect world there is no basis for approval or disapproval, merit or demerit.
I think we often consider trusting another worthy of merit because of our experience in an world not worthy of trust...a world were we experience lies, pain, and disappointment. I think of a little girl at the top of a playground slide. Her daddy is at the bottom attempting to convince her to trust him,"Come on baby, trust Daddy. Don't worry I will catch you...come on and slide down." The little girl musters up all her courage against the obvious upcoming disaster and slides down. What does her Daddy say?..."Good girl...see, there was nothing to be afraid of." I think this is how we often view the Christian faith. It is as if God is saying,"Don't worry, trust me. I will take care of you." Certainly this is the case, but are we doing something worthy of merit when we eventually do trust God?
The act of trusting another only seems commendable in a fallen world. The fact is we trust people all of the time and never think that we have done something worthy of reward. Every time I drive down the road I trust that oncoming traffic will continue in the appropriate lane. No one gives me a medal. I pay my bills and trust the money will be placed in the proper account. No one says, "Good job Chad." We literally commit acts of trust a hundred times in any given day and no one pays the slightest attention. The only time a head is raised in attention is when trust is broken. Trust only becomes an issue in a broken world.
Trust is an essential part of any relationship. Without trust there is no relationship. There really is no choice here when it comes to trust. Without trust we simply cannot function in this world, broken as it is. This is why there is good reason to disapprove of those acts that break trust, but there is really no reason to approve of those acts where trust is kept intact. We are not going above and beyond the call of duty when we do what is expected.
Moreover, there is something simply wrong-headed about not trusting someone who is fully worthy of being trusted. Consider someone who, in your experience, has always been trust-worthy. This individual tells you that tomorrow they will be at the house to pick you up at 9:00am. Now they have said this before, and every time they are at the house on the spot...9:00am. It would only make sense to be ready at 9:00am. You have no good reason to say to yourself, "Today she will probably be here at 11:00am so I will sleep...yeah!" Those who are trust-worthy, are worthy of being trusted.
Now consider the act of trusting God. Assuming a theistic worldview, we implicitly trust God every day simply for existence. My very existence depends on my trusting that the next moment will follow the current moment. I realize that this point is not so obvious. I really have no choice (short of suicide) whether or not I exist...do I? Let's assume that I am theist who believes that my existence is wholly God dependent. Am I not trusting God for my very existence? Do I deserve some credit for this? (Maybe this attempted 'point' is wholly unhelpful...let's move on)
Let's try again. Is God's character such that we should trust God. Assuming a Christian understanding of who God is the answer is "Of course...please ask a real question." If God is worthy of being trusted, then is it to our credit to trust God? Let's look at it another way. Are we created to know and love God? Yes. Then isn't it simply 'how the world works' to trust God. Isn't it simply a condition of our being creatures to trust our Creator? If our answer is "Yes," then there is no basis for credit or merit to be considered on our part. We are simply doing that which is expected.
I do not think that mere belief nor acts of trust are worthy of merit. If that is the case, then I do not think that a Christian's faith in Christ is worthy of merit. So what is the status of a Christian's faith in relation to grace if it is not worthy of merit? I think a Christian's faith is a condition, without which the divine/human relationship cannot occur.
A condition of my being alive is that I breathe. It is no credit to me that I breathe in spite of the fact that without my breathing I would die. It is condition that I put gas in my truck in order for it to run. No one would say, "Chad makes his truck run" simply because I put gas in it...what makes my truck function really has nothing to do with me. Maybe these analogies are muddying the waters.
Let's use human relationship as an analogy for the divine/human relationship. For you and I to be in relationship we must trust one another. There is really no two ways about this. Either we trust and thus have relationship, or we do not. Trust is simply a condition necessary for relationship to function. Faith is a condition necessary for the divine/human relationship to function.
"Aha!" you say, "I've got you Chad Rhodes! You have just contradicted your last post. You argued that grace is wholly dependent on God...that humans cannot hinder grace. Now you are saying that faith is necessary condition for the proper functioning of the divine/human relationship. What have you got to say for yourself now buddy!"
You got me (not)...although we have arrived at the crux of the problem. All I can say is that my very faith, my very belief and trust in God, is an act of grace on the part of God. Yes, it is true that I must have faith to be in relationship with God. I did not say that I must have faith for grace to function. I said I must have faith to be in relationship with God. How did I come to have faith? By God's grace I came to believe and trust in God. By grace I believe and trust that Jesus died for my sins and was raised for my justification. By grace I am saved through faith. Praise be to God!
One last point. Is it possible to trust and yet not have mere belief? Can I hear the great things of the Gospel, not believe they are true, and yet trust them? I think yes and no. I think a person can start out in this type of state...i.e. not being sure if these propositions are true and yet trusting them nonetheless. "You will do well to be attentive to this (i.e. the Gospel) as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" (II Peter 1:19 b-c). I think many of us approach the Gospel unsure as to its truth, at first. We meditate and contemplate its truth until that moment of grace when the light shines through and we see that Jesus is Lord (I Cor. 12:3).
One more last point. Why is it important that we know a Christian's faith is not worthy of merit? Short answer: pride. It seems to me that sometimes Christians take pride in their faith, as if they chose to believe what should be obvious to everyone. It seems that sometimes Christians look down on those who do not believe. This is incredible to me. The great truths of the Gospel are not obvious truths. A man was raised from the dead? God became human? Are you sure?
It is helpful to examine our coming-to-believe if only to be aware of the grace we have received in merely believing such incredible things (much less trusting such things). It is simply not fair to look down on those who have not received such a precious gift. Remember, "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit'" (I. Cor. 12:3b).
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