I know, I know, some of you feel you’ve considered all there is to know about the age-old debate between faith and works, grace and faith, and God’s role versus our role in salvation. Others of you may have never thought about the question above and are hopefully intrigued. In either case, however, I’d be willing to wager a hefty sum that there is more to this question than meets the eye, much more than can be neatly (or adequately) summarized by simple theological analogies or phrases like “salvation by grace alone through faith alone.”
Whether human faith is portrayed as 1) a non-work, 2) a non-act work to receive a gift, 3) a truly free-willed choice that God can still somehow foreknow or predestine, or 4) a deed we can’t take responsibility for even though God holds us responsible for the result, such explanations are often confusing and unhelpful, right? In Booklet 4 of Healing Hereafter, we seek to eliminate such conflict and lay out the salvation process God offers to humans-including both our faith and his grace-in a way that brings sensible resolution and satisfying closure. Below is a summary, check out the whole Booklet for all the Scriptural and logical support!
Belief in the gospel is only part of how faith is applied to the salvation process. It continues to be utilized by increasingly building an intimate relationship with God, and it culminates in living a life more and more like his. This makes sense because people who genuinely have faith that God can and will do what he says and that what he says is the best will not stop with merely accepting Jesus as savior; their faith will generate a desire to know this God who knows what is best and is able and willing to actuate it (Click to tweet). As this best continues to be confirmed to them, their faith will also lead them to emulate God’s best more and more. And this intimacy with and admiration of God eventually continues as fulfillment of humanity’s purpose: eternal community with him in Heaven. Therefore, God desires the faith that he does, not because he needs an arbitrary prerequisite for salvation, but because it must be present for humans to genuinely take every step of the salvation process and prove that they truly want their purpose to be fulfilled..that they truly want God’s Heaven.
Of course, God’s involvement is essential throughout this process too, from making the solution of Jesus an option, to seeking out those with faith, to teaching them the gospel. In addition, his words in the Bible teach us about him and his ideals to deepen our relationship with him as well. Moreover, upon exercising our faith to believe Jesus’ message, his Holy Spirit enters us to prompt and even predetermine godly deeds of emulation. The impetus of free-willed human faith is both an act and work we can partially (not fully) take credit for to show God we want salvation, but wanting salvation and accomplishing it (just like anything else) are two very different things. It is the insistent work of God that he starts and finishes upon seeing our faith that accomplishes that salvation (Click to tweet). A human’s faith convinces God to specially predestine her to be saved, guaranteeing that the rest of his involvement—and therefore her inevitable salvation—will occur as well. See the full text for much more!
