Hebrews 11:1 looks at “faith” by defining what it is (taking God at His Word) and what its object must be (Jesus). Over the next few days we are going to answer another question about the nature of saving faith, namely, “Where does faith come from?” We will examine Romans 10:17, Ephesians 2:8-9, Galatians 5:22-23, and several other key texts that will help us identify where saving faith comes from.
In order to affirm the positive about where faith comes from we must first expose the negative, that is, we must explain where faith does not come from. Not only will this sweep away several myths floating around the evangelical world, it will also give us a clean foundation upon which to build with the Word of God as we answer the question about where faith really does originate.
So what are a few of the incorrect answers out there about where faith comes from and how do we know that they are indeed wrong answers? Let’s look to the Scriptures and allow the Spirit to expose doctrinal error where we find it.
3. Does Faith Come from the Spirit of Man?
By spirit we mean the spirit of a man, not the Spirit of God. Each of us has a physical (material) part and a spiritual (immaterial) part. We are by design spiritual beings with physical bodies. Unless we are alive when Christ returns, our physical bodies will die. We will be raised and glorified at the Second Coming. Unlike our fleshly body, which is temporary, our glorified body and our spirit will live forever.
So does each person have faith resting down in their spirit, waiting to be brought out and exercised? Is faith there in all of us? Is it a spiritual matter that we can manipulate or persuade? Does faith come from the spirit of a man?
Again, the answer is “No.” We are spiritually dead in our sins and trespasses. Each of us is conceived in sin and born a sinner and dead spiritually. The spirit is not sick, or weak, or malnourished. The spirit of a fallen man is dead. He is dead in sin. So can a dead spirit produce living faith? Can something that is alive come from something that has no life?
Just as Adam died spiritually when he sinned in the garden, now we inherit that original sin and are born spiritually dead. That is why we need to be “born again” or regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We were dead in trespasses and sin and were by our very nature children of wrath. Consider these verses:
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. – Romans 5:12
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. – Ephesians 2:1-3
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God – 2 Corinthians 3:5
Before being born again we are spiritually dead. That which is dead spiritually surely cannot do anything good and cannot bear spiritual fruit. In our sinful, fallen state we can only bear bad fruit, the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21).
Tomorrow we answer, “Does faith come from our emotions?”
