How Faith Comes

Faith 19

      Our Christian life is birthed in faith. But how does that faith come? How does one get enough faith in the first place? It is one thing to hear a thing and a different thing to believe what you hear. It is especially difficult to believe it enough to stake your eternal existence on it. Additionally, the Christian needs faith not only for the new birth, but faith for every moment after that. As we wrote last week, it is from faith to faith. That which is birthed in faith must then be lived out in faith. The same substance that surrounds and enfolds us as we are born again is the same stuff in which we must live and breathe for the rest of our life. To accomplish that, we must have ready access to faith, a steady supply, a constant acquisition. So how do we get it?

          Paul gives us his wonderful answer in Romans 10.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

          Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. In the original language “by” means “out of”. Faith rises out of hearing the Word of God. The simple truth is we do not know what we ought to have faith in until we hear it. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? We must begin with hearing the Word of God. What is the Bible? It is the revelation of God, the revealing or unveiling of Who He is and what He thus expects of us. The Scriptures ever direct us toward Him, and with sufficient specificity that our steps can be guided. This is the first step – hearing the Word.

          Once heard, we begin to grow toward it, be begin to gradually see the validity of the Word. This is the gracious work of the Spirit in our hearts. When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth (John 16.13). We hear the truth of the Word and the Spirit compels us to admit that it is the truth. He compels us logically, evidentially, and experimentally until we come to agree.

          Once that process has begun, once we have begun to admit the validity of God’s Word, we naturally come to gradually turn over ever-increasing aspects of our lives to God’s control. We hear the Word. We believe the Word. We act on that belief. We hear more of the Word. We believe that too. We act on that too. This is faith growing. It is faith that first depends upon God for salvation, then for parenting advice, then for money advice, then for marriage advice, then for our view of government, then for our perspective on entertainment, then for etc. etc.

          Having said this, it behooves us to understand that not all who hear the Word of God will respond in faith. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esiais saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? The Bible is not magic. It does not do its work outside of a willing reception. Jesus was God come in the flesh. Every word He spoke was a Word of God. And yet He said, Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 13.9). With mingled sorrow and anger in my heart, I can point you to young people who grew up under my preaching who walked away from the Lord the first minute they could. They heard me preach hundreds of times. That does not mean the Word of God is ineffective. It means God’s design does not overpower man’s free will. God wants to be wanted. The entire Scripture record shows us that.

          Assuming this – that you receive the Word when it comes – and understanding that faith comes to us as the Word comes, it stands to reason that each of us must prioritize a healthy diet of preaching. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? I am all for reading the Scriptures, for meditating upon them, for singing them, for putting them up on the wall as art, for listening to them read to you on your phone, and for every other way you encounter the Word of God, but if you do not regularly sit yourself down in front of an old-fashioned, leather-lunged preacher you will inevitably find yourself drifting into the spiritual weeds. No, the preacher does not have more access to God than you. No, the preacher has no more inherent ability to see things in the Word than you do. But he has more experience studying it, he has more time to dig it out, and – above all – he has a different perspective than you do. It is so easy to get tunnel vision, to let your vision be filled with what is directly in front of you. Preaching breaks us out of that. The best preaching presents God’s Word to us from another spiritual man’s viewpoint and compels us to examine ourselves in the light of the written revelation of God.

          This is why preaching, real preaching, is so resisted in our day. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears (II Timothy 4.3). We do not want to know that we are wrong. We do not want to feel uncomfortable. We do not want to feel that we do not measure up. We do not want to hear thus saith the Lord because we would rather go on secure in the ignorance of thinking we already know what the Lord said. Just try knocking on a stranger’s door and turning the conversation toward the Gospel and see how quickly the resistance comes.

          This foolish rejection of the preaching of the Word of God is not limited to the unsaved on his doorstep. It is practiced by many a person occupying the rolls of the average independent Baptist church of our day. Apparently, they already know everything. Apparently, they are not interested in hearing the Word preached. Apparently, they are more interested in watching television or taking Junior to his soccer practice or chillaxing on the back deck then they are soaking up ever increasing amounts of the Word of God.

          …and then they wonder why their faith is so weak. It is not complicated. Faith grows as you encounter the Word of God through preaching. Open your heart and head for the Lord’s house. Sit yourself down, Bible in hand, to see what the Lord will show you. And watch your faith grow.