Faith is the Passive Result of being Persuaded

For those of you who have been following my James series, it is going to continue, and I think the next post will be Post 8 in it. Please be patient and review the other 7 posts (in my sidebar) to get up and keep up to speed. The following is a very short article on my view of what faith is, which does lend some background information to our study in James 2:14ff. (Faith without works is still true faith as a bicycle without a rider is still a real bike and a car without gas is still a genuine car, but we will discuss this in a later post).

Faith in Christ is not a work. Faith's role in the reception of eternal life is purely instrumental; an organon leptikon (Martin Luther), like the empty hand of a beggar receiving a gift. Faith as a way of receiving eternal life precludes any idea of works. There is no boasting, says Paul: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” (Rom 3:27)

Faith is not even something that you volitionally do, no matter what someone tells you.

Faith is the passive result of being persuaded, convinced, and convicted that something is true.

Faith the a conviction that something is true.

And as pertaining saving faith, it is taking God at His word concerning the offer of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Guarantor of eternal life to the believer in Him for it.

Yes, faith is passive, and is not something that someone can determine to do. If a person is convinced that Jesus is the Christ, in the Johannine sense, then by automatic result, he is believing in Christ and thus has life (John 20:31).

To show that this is a simple truism, that faith is not an act of the will, a few illustrations will suffice. Have you ever believed something against your will? The author has. At one point in his life he received a phone call from his brother and was told that his dad had died. His brother, through his communication, convinced him that his dad was indeed dead. The author believed that his dad was dead against his will. He did not want to believe that he was dead.

Likewise, have you ever wanted to believe something that you couldn’t? Let’s say that Jimmy runs to his brother Pete and says, “Mom just brought home a new XBOX 360 with two new games!” Pete wants dearly to believe his brother, but his experience blocks him from becoming persuaded, for earlier that week his mom told him that they weren’t in the financial situation necessary to afford that game console. Therefore Pete wants to believe Jimmy, but more information would be necessary in order for Pete to believe. Pete then goes home and before he sees the new console, his mom says, “Honey, I just received a bonus from work and got you guys that game console you wanted along with two new games!” This was enough communication to persuade Pete that his family now owned a brand new XBOX 360, therefore Pete, as a passive result, believed.

No one can determine to put his or her faith in something. Either they are persuaded as to a proposition or they retain doubt. Doubt precludes faith (Romans 14:23; Jas. 1:6, 7). A single doubt about the gospel offer will keep one from saving faith. The convicting and convincing ministry of both the Holy Spirit and the Word of God is enough to overcome any doubt. It is when men have hardened their hearts that the word of God is of none effect. When one issue is answered, hardened men will come up with ten more; they determine to not consider the evidence.

The will is involved in one point. The individual must determine to consider the evidence of Scripture. A person cannot become convinced and convicted by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God unless they are open to the discourse.

With all issues of faith, the one who is persuaded through either communication or deliberation within himself or both concerning an issue, faith occurs as a passive result.

Once one has willed to consider the evidence, he has given it "permission" to act upon him, in other words, with a view that the evidence may convince him as to the veracity of the discussed issue. And once convinced faith occurs as the passive result.

For those of you who are of the Reformed “persuasion” and “believe” that faith is an act of the will, do this right now:

Determine in your heart to believe me in my Free Grace theology….

You can’t?

Why?

Because you remain unconvinced, unpersuaded as to my view.

Faith does NOT reside in the will.

(This teaching has a direct effect on assurance. When one is convinced, he believes. If he believes the offer of Christ, he by virtue of that faith has certain assurance of eternal life, for the guarantee is explicit in the offer. This is what some have described as "assurance is of the essence of saving faith". Both John Calvin and Martin Luther held this view of faith and assurance. Yet the Reformed tradition since then has left it. For an excellent REFORMED view that faith is passive (beside Calvin and Luther) see Gordon H. Clark's "Faith and Saving Faith" put out by the Trinity Foundation.)