Is Faith a Work?

Faith as Essential to Justification, Not a Meritorious Work

So another issue regarding faith is whether or not faith is essential to justification. And if it is essential, then does it become a work? Faith, the scriptures describe faith as being essential to justification.

Justification by faith is how it refers to it often. And we're told that without faith we cannot come to God, we cannot please Him. He that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

So faith is repeatedly shown as necessary, essential. And yet, is it a work? Well, if it's a work, then are we justified by faith? Have you just been justified by your work? So how do we distinguish between it being essential, necessary to justification, but not as something that earns justification?

So is it a meritorious condition? No. It is not a condition that once it's fulfilled it has earned anything. But by the very nature of how God saves us, by placing us in His Son, and being in His Son, we have all that the Son has purchased and constantly provides in the New Covenant, God has determined that that would be accomplished through faith.

Faith as the Empty Hand That Receives Christ

And so faith uniting us to the source of our salvation, the person of Christ, faith is essential. And Blair talks about this when he talks about the beggar reaching out an empty hand. No beggar reaching out an empty hand would have any right to think that that has earned the kindness of a benefactor.

But if the beggar holds his hand in in pride and will not stretch his hand out hoping only in that person's kindness, he will receive nothing. It hasn't earned anything, but it is essential to receiving that he stretches it out.

For the Christian, faith is a gift from the Lord, like repentance. But it is a gift that you must exercise. And in turning the heart and the mind and the will away from all else to Christ, and being united to Christ through that faith and the work of the Spirit placing us in Christ, we receive all that we call salvation.

Faith as Grasping the Board in the Water

One of the things Blair mentioned about the activity of faith being essential, he gave an illustration of a man that's drowning and a board floats by him. And he says, so let's say the board is the great realities of Christ, and we're drowning in sin and in the false hopes of our righteousness.

If we look at that board and agree that that's a board that would hold us, that would save me if I would grab that. That's one thing. And you'd have to believe that to even make an effort. But if that's all you do is agree and intellectually kind of process that, if you don't reach out your arm and wrap it around the board, you drown.

And just a really simple illustration, but good. These are great facts that I'm reading about. These are things I'm hearing about from the ministers, sermons, the books that I read. But if I don't lay hold of them, if I don't receive them, take them in, you know, all those wonderful metaphors we have of faith in Scripture.

If I don't lean upon them, then it does me no more good than the board floating by the drowning man. Another great thing that he points out is that when we say that faith is the ascent of the mind, that leads us to something that's pretty important, especially for our day.

Distinct Knowledge of Christ and the Dangers of Vague Religion

And that is that there must be what he calls a distinct knowledge of the doctrines of Christ in order to be saved. If a person has only a vague idea of religion, and he's kind of hoping in this vague idea of religion.

And in his day, he points to the Roman Catholicism. He says, well, you kind of had this superstitious faith in your church, or in my priest, or in whatever my church has said is true. Okay, well, if my church says it's true, I'm one of them, therefore I must believe it.

He says without distinct understanding of what the Scripture says about Jesus Christ, what are you believing? Well, you're not really believing anything, are you? You're kind of, you just kind of believe in like a basic hopefulness, like, well, I'm going to be okay because I'm this.

So it is essential as we look at Scripture and the scriptural definition of faith, it is essential that we become people who acquaint ourselves with what the Bible itself says about the work of Christ.

The Object of Faith Matters More Than the Amount of Faith

If not, we might end up at the end of time, so to speak, standing before a Lord, telling Him, trying to, you know, in a sense, trying to convince God that we're believers. But what have you believed in?

Yeah, faith has its object.

Yeah, and that is much more important, what object your faith grabs hold of, than the amount of faith. We tend to think big faith, little faith is the importance. Actually, little faith in the right object is faith.

Big faith in a wrong object is not biblical faith.