Jennifer Rothnie
Well-Known Member
Where did I say I perceived faith as a boastful work? Faith is the gift of God.
Room to boast comes in the choice, in my opinion. For if I choose Christ and the person who goes to hell did not, then I have ROOM to boast because I did something that the other could have, but did not. THAT's what I said.
Faith is the persuasion that something is true (albeit based on secondary evidence, not sight.) You don't 'choose' to believe something is true - you either find the evidence persuasive or you do not. I assume you did not come to Christ on some sort of 50/50 gamble where you didn’t have faith that Christ was who He said He was, but just wanted to hedge your bets on the off-chance that He was? Most people come to Christ because they find scripture, testimonies, or other evidences compelling enough to say ‘yes, I truly believe.’
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen.” Heb 11:1
Faith isn’t the ‘choice’ of assurance or the ‘choice’ of proof or even the ‘choice’ of faith. The assurance is there, the hope is there. Faith is our response in complete trust in that proof and assurance.
‘Choice’ is not assurance, but is picking something by preference, selecting from a number of possibilities, to desire or be inclined, etc. We ‘choose Jesus’ through faith, in a manner of speaking – but if we view Jesus as merely one of many possibilities or just the possibility we like best, that isn’t faith. Faith is full trust and persuasion that He is the Messiah and the only way to be saved.
When you first learned about germs in school, before ever looking through the microscope, did you ‘choose’ to believe in their existence by some act of will, or did you simply accept/reject the authority of the teacher? Do you actively choose to believe that objects will fall from your perspective if you drop them, or do you accept that the laws of physics will control reactions?
The words ‘choose faith’ are not in scripture, nor is faith treated as a subjective ‘choice.’ We either respond to the gospel and revelation of Christ in belief, or we do not. We either trust the authority of God and His Word, or we do not. It’s not a subjective choice such as, ‘well I am not sure, but I am going to ‘pick’ what I believe like I pick a favorite flavor of ice cream.’
We do not 'choose' that Jesus is Lord - He is Lord regardless of our thoughts about it. We do not 'choose' He is the Messiah - He came to die on the cross for all men regardless of whether we believe that or not.
We give our agreement to the gospel when we respond in faith, consenting to receive the offered salvation. The term 'accepting Christ' summarizes our response in faith decently:
Why is 'accepting Christ' often mentioned in evangelism?
Accepting something, whereas someone else could but did not, isn’t a boast of any kind. If two people win a prize but one claims it and the other says ‘pass’ – does the one who claimed the prize have boasting rights over the other? You didn’t make the prize, didn’t offer the prize, didn’t choose the prize, had no inherent right to win the prize, etc. You took an offered prize while someone else freely rejected it – that wouldn’t make you somehow ‘better’ than them. You could erroneously decide to boast that you were somehow smarter or better than them because you claimed the prize and they did not - but scripture rejects that line of thought as human error and not a true boast one can make (Rom 11:17-21.)
This speculation that if every human could respond to the gospel in faith it would give those that did ‘room to boast’ over those who did is not supported in scripture.
“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his
blood--to be received by faith.” Rom 3:25
“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham.” Rom 4:16
“But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” – Rom 4:5
Related:
How are we to understand the sequence and part that man plays in his salvation?
Is human will capable of choosing or rejecting Jesus?
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