Is Faith a Gift or Act of Obedience?

In this video/article we will examine the question of whether faith is a gift from God or an expected act of obedience commanded for all people. I have two very important connected reasons for explaining this.

1. I was recently watching and commenting on a popular atheist YouTube channel where various questions are posted for online discussion. One of the statements for discussion was the atheists’ claim that ‘nobody chooses what they believe’. The argument was the usual it all depends on if you were born into a Christian, Hindu or Islamic culture, or in the case of the host, that God had not provided enough evidence to believe.  

The second reason was as follows.

Recently, a former pastor posted in an apologetics group for seekers a meme with the title ‘Your obedience will never make you righteous before God’. There was no article or explanation, just this meme. I was shocked by the statement, as were several others, and especially to see such a statement in a group which was formed to answer seekers questions about Christianity. I decided to comment and quoted Jesus’ first words in Mark 1:15 about the Lord proclaiming the good news.

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

I pointed to out to the author of the meme that the words ‘repent and believe’ are ‘present imperative active’ in the Greek. The present tense means to keep or continue to do something, the imperative mood is a strict command, and the active voice refers to the subject who is commanded to continue the action. 

In plain words, Jesus is saying this. The time has finally come and the kingdom of God is near. I command each of you to continue to repent and believe so that you may receive the kingdom of God. This was the beginning of Jesus’ three year ministry to prepare people to receive the kingdom of God through new birth. John the Baptist had been part of this preparation, calling people to repentance. The kingdom finally came on the Day of Pentecost and Peter preached his first sermon and told the people to ‘repent and be baptized’.

Please note this very important point: When Peter uses the words ‘repent and be baptized’ they are in the ‘aorist imperative active’, not the ‘present imperative active’. As previously explained, the present tense Jesus used means to ‘continue’ but the ‘aorist’ tense means an action done once whose effect is for all time. 

Jesus did not just turn up and expect people to believe in Him without evidence…that is not how faith works. He commanded people to keep a humble attitude of repentance, and to believe the evidence He would give over the next three years, and then, after He resurrected and sent the Holy Spirit, they would surrender their lives to Him by faith through what He had revealed.

The author of this meme then went on to state that faith is a gift from God and quoted Ephesians 2:8-9 which reads:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift from God - not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

And here is the connection between our atheist apologist and former pastor. The atheist is claiming he cannot choose to believe, and the pastor is confirming that false belief, and doing it in a group for seekers. I pointed out to this pastor that if faith is solely a gift from God, then every time Jesus rebuked people for not having enough faith, He was rebuking the Father or Himself for not giving them enough faith to be saved. I suggested that this guy must be a monergistic Calvinist to hold such a view, but he was indignant and told me he was a Lutheran. Both Calvinists and Lutherans are thoroughly committed to Augustinian views regarding salvation.

Bottom line. Our Lutheran just gave atheists an unbiblical excuse for never bothering to seek God. If they don’t believe, the verb of faith, it’s because God refused to give them the faith to believe. The Lutheran then accused me of teaching salvation by works.

This conversation just showed again that so many Christians do not acknowledge, or just refuse to acknowledge the difference between works of the law and acts of faith. This is not surprising coming from Calvinists or Lutherans, both of whom basically claim that people play no part in salvation.  

So how should we answer the Lutheran’s claim that ‘Your obedience will never make you righteous before God’? 

The simple truth is this. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and others lived prior to the Law and all were justified by faith (Hebrews 11) and considered righteous because they trusted God. God commanded Noah to build the ark and Noah obeyed. God commanded Abraham to leave Ur, and Abraham obeyed. Acting in faith requires obedience to God’s command. Without obedience there is no righteousness.

In regards to the Mosaic Law, there were two types of people which Jesus explains in His parable in Luke 18 about the Pharisee and tax collector who went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee was confident in his own self-righteousness, the tax-collector trusted in the mercy and grace of God. Only the tax-collector left the temple justified. 

But what about the gospel? Is obedience required by the individual? Consider these verses apart from Mark 1:15 which we have already discussed.

  God now commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)

True repentance is admitting that we cannot make ourselves righteous by good deeds, it is the exact opposite of relying on our own false perception of self-righteousness. It is relying complete on Christ, by faith for salvation. We are commanded to obey the gospel and only those who obey this command will be declared righteous. This is a consistent teaching in the New Testament. Consider the following verses.

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. (Romans 10:16)

In flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thessalonians 1:8) What will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17) He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. (Hebrews 5:9)

 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life for God’s wrath remains on him. (John 3:36)

Contrary to what the Lutheran pastor claimed, obedience to the gospel of Christ is the ONLY thing that will make you righteous. We are commanded to repent and believe, commanded to trust in God, to exercise faith, and from Genesis to revelation, those who have trusted God have been declared righteous.

And how do we answer the atheists’ claim that ‘nobody chooses what they believe’?

This statement is typical of atheists who sit with arms crossed demanding that God and Christians provide evidence to prove God’s existence, evidence which they will evaluate and decide if it is enough, and it never is, for the problem is not a lack of evidence, but a lack of humility, and a denial of who they are.  I often ask the atheists who operate or comment on atheist YouTube channels why, if they believe this short life is the only one they have, do they spend countless hours arguing obsessively about a being they claim does not exist. Frankly, if you are obsessed with a being you are convinced does not exist, you are demonstrating a perfect example of insanity.

This is one of the main reasons I do not believe active, vocal atheists...the fact that they cannot just walk away and get on with their lives, proves that, as Ecclesiastes 3:11 states, ‘God has set eternity in the hearts of men’.  To state that ‘nobody chooses what to believe’ is a pathetic excuse to deny the inward call to seek the purpose for our very existence. Every atheist or skeptic can develop genuine faith if they choose to obey God’s call. This is what I refer to as ‘progressive revelation’. Let me explain.

Acts 17 explains the purpose of creation. Paul told the Athenian philosophers that God gives every person life and breath and everything else and then wrote;

God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. (Acts 17:27)

The desire to know the origin of our existence is verified in every culture throughout human history. People can simply not escape the question of the purpose for our existence. And God has provided the starting point for our search which we can either willfully suppress in order to demand our independence and deny God, or humbly begin that search. God is ‘not far from any one of us’, He is available to open the eyes of those who sincerely seek, but the arrogant choose to suppress that truth. Paul writes;

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

I often hear arrogant atheists claim that ancient people just believed in gods because they were unscientific. I laugh at such statements because 21st century people, with the help of science, have discovered the incredible evidence for Intelligent Design. For example, the infinite complexity of the single cell, or the 3.2 billion base pairs of information in the DNA code, arranged in a long sequence like a text book. Only a complete fool or arrogant denier of the revealed truth can simply dismiss the fact that information cannot create itself, that our DNA is like a massive book with 3.2 billion letters. The issue is not a lack of evidence!

But rather than be humbled by these and other undeniable facts and begin to sincerely seek God, they choose, yes choose to deny God’s eternal power and divine nature, and demand He provide more evidence. God will never submit to the demands of arrogant fools. He has provided the means and evidence, both externally and internally, for every human being to humbly begin to seek him, reach out for him and find him (Acts 17), and He has promised that those who do this sincerely will be rewarded. Hebrews 11:6 explains it this way.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must first believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6).

If any person will sincerely begin the process of seeking, then God will provide further revelation. But if they refuse the evidence of His existence, and refuse to begin to seek Him, then He will allow their heart to become more and more hardened. This pattern is seen through human history. God never asked the Jewish people who were enslaved by the Egyptians to trust Him without evidence. He performed miracles through Moses and Aaron, He led them through the Red Sea, He provided them with food and water, He showed His presence day and night, and then He commanded them to trust Him to enter the Promised Land.

This is progressive revelation and it applies to every person. But let me also make it very clear that sitting and demanding evidence in not seeking God. The Bible states that God actively opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. If you approach God with arrogance, He will leave you in ignorance, but if you seek with sincere humility, admitting that what you do know is likely only 1-2% of what can be known, then God will lead you to deeper revelation, and as you learn to trust Him, to even deeper revelation until you have the conviction to trust Him with your life.

In summary.

The gospel message is ‘repent and believe’. That includes repenting of self-righteous pride in our so-called good works. Good works can never save anyone because God’s standard is perfection, and perfection can only be given through being united with Christ in His death and resurrection.

But we are commanded to obey the gospel, to act in faith based on the revelation of Scripture, on the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and the command to surrender our self-rule to Christ as Lord and Savior.

Faith, in terms of the gospel, is not a gift, it is grace that is the gift. Faith is a free-will choice to trust God based on His revelation to us. Failure to trust Him is to refuse to obey the gospel.

To the atheist, agnostic or any other person who doesn’t know Christ I say this. The more you argue about God’s existence, just proves that you cannot deny His existence. If you are seriously convinced that you evolved from Charlie the chimpanzee, then just go and enjoy the few years you have. But you know as well as I that something inside refuses to be quiet, no matter how much you try to silence that voice. Seek God sincerely and in humility and He will lead you to the truth.

And then there are those who try to drown out the call of God with every kind of amusement or obsession with money, popularity etc. Some of you only think about God when you’re at a funeral, or lying in a hospital bed. Do yourself a favor. Get away from humanity for a few days, completely alone with nature. The Bible says, ‘Be still and know that I am God’. Re-evaluate what is important, ask yourself why you or anything else exists and what is the real purpose of life.

I pray this video has been enlightening and even a challenge to some of you. I hope that Christians will understand the difference between relying on good works, and acts of repentance and faith, and I hope that atheists will realize that they do choose what they believe.

God bless