This blog is inspired by a fascinating interview I watched with a famous clinical psychologist and public speaker called Jordan Peterson (if you want to check the interview, here is the link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbVwV8_TEkM). As he begins to speak about Christ, he chokes up; tears suddenly spring into his eyes. You can see how surprised he is by his own admission – that despite all his misgivings about religion generally, for some reason he cant quite explain, he does believe the outrageous claim that Christ was in fact divine.
It is obvious that he is uncomfortable with this realization, he wishes that it were not true, but he cant seem to shake the fact that it actually is true.
As emotionally touching as this clip is, I believe this little story gives us a window into the nature of what coming to faith in Christ looks like. It’s not quite as simple as Christians make it out to be. Let me explain.
When Christians talk about faith in God, they are often quick to point out that faith is a gift from God. Therefore, if someone believes in Christ, it is only because Christ first enabled them to do so. And the reverse would also then be true – if someone hears the Gospel but then does not respond in faith, this is an indication that God did not grant them faith to believe the Gospel. But this is not quite how it works.
In my experience the simple proposition that I have outlined above causes Christians a huge amount of confusion down the road as they begin to spell out the implications of what this means for the salvation of individuals. Here are a few typical follow-on questions:
- ‘So if God has the ability to make people believe, why does he not choose to make all people believe?’
- ‘If faith is not the basis upon which God chooses to save people but rather the means that God uses to save people that he has already pre-chosen, then on what basis does he choose who he will save?’
- ‘If God chooses to grant some people to believe the Gospel but not others, is he choosing some for heaven and others for hell, with no hope of salvation?’
This last objection has had a particularly devastating effect on people’s understanding of how salvation is administered in the world because it shifts the onus onto God to make people believe rather than on to the unbeliever who is being invited (through the Gospel) to ‘repent and believe’. For a heart-breaking real-life conversation on this exact point, check out this interview with an atheist probing the question of faith – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a3eMTy4mAw
So, coming back to the question at hand then, if faith is a gift from God, why is it that so many people (the majority) do not believe?
First, let me say that I do believe that faith itself is something that God enables in a person by his grace. And without this grace it is not possible for anyone to believe in Christ and be saved.
Then let me hasten to add that even when a person begins to believe the truth about the divine identity of Christ (as with Jordan Peterson), saving faith is still a choice. For Jordan Peterson, right now, he has a decision to make – is he going to choose to believe (and go on believing) in Christ for salvation?
I have had several conversations just like the one with Peterson. As I am talking to an ‘unbeliever’, I see the lights go on, I can see the person’s eyes light up as they suddenly come to that inward surety of knowing that everything said in the Gospel about Christ is true. But as this happens you see them begin to wrestle internally with the implications of this and they now have a choice to make. They are wrestling with the choice of whether or not they want to believe that this is true.
I find this is the oft neglected aspect of saving faith. Salvation is not simply about if I believe that Christ is God’s appointed saviour. The crucial question becomes, when I feel the stirrings of faith in Christ, what am I going to do about it?
Once I have discovered the ‘treasure in the field’ am I going to go and sell everything I possess and buy that field? Am I willing to break off the immoral relationship with my girlfriend to follow Christ? Am I willing to allow Christ to now decide for me what is true and what is false? Am I now willing to trust God’s definition of what is right and what is wrong? Am I willing to concede that not only am I too sinful to inherit heaven but that I am past the point of saving myself? Am I willing to admit that I need help, help that only Christ can give?
Could not believe vs Would not believe
Why was it that the Pharisees were so hard on believing after all the miracles that they witnessed Christ do? Was it because God did not enable them to believe? Not at all. Christ tells us exactly why they would not believe,
“I have come in My Father’s name, and you have not received Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” John 5:43,44 (see also John 12:43)
They could have believed, but they would not believe because they envied the ministry of Christ. Christ was an offense to their pride and sense of dignity. They were not willing to lose their high social standing as religious leaders.
This is why the ‘tax collectors and prostitutes’ came into salvation ahead of the Pharisees. And Jesus called them out on this. He said,
“For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” Mat 21:32
In Jesus’ ministry, he was quite often ‘amazed at their lack of faith’! (ref Mark 6:6). He was amazed because of their stubborn hearts, he was not amazed at his Father for not granting them faith!
So when we say that faith is a gift from God, what exactly do we mean by that?
God has created us ‘in his image’ which means he has given us personhood, which means that we (like God) have mind and emotions as well as a will with which to make decisions.
Many people have this idea that in order for God to enable faith in us, he goes to work on us like a mechanic working on a car, ie, he pops the hood, does a few tweaks on the carburetor with his size 11 spanner and, what do you know?! she is now good to go!
Or a more biblical example, you are Saul taking a journey on horse back as an unbeliever. Suddenly a blinding light strikes you off your horse and you instantly become Paul, a devout believer!
No, the language that Scripture uses throughout is that God calls us, he draws us, he woos us, he reasons with us. And very often he uses people who are his servants to do this.
Rather than a mechanic going to work on a car, the picture we have is a man wooing a lady whom he is relentlessly pursuing.
God respects our personhood.
Without God, Peterson could never come to the point of genuine inward conviction, that spiritual sense of knowing that Christ is in fact the Son of God – faith is only possible by grace.
But here is the crucial distinction: after Peterson comes to a place of spiritual ‘knowing’, does this mean that he is now a ‘believer’ in the salvific sense? No. Peterson now has to choose – heart, mind and soul (ie, with his whole ‘person’) to believe in Christ, and act on it.
Like the woman who is pursued by her doting man, she must choose to ‘receive’ him, she must say yes to his invitation, she must ‘open the door’ of her heart.
Why is this significant?
It is important because the onus is not on God to make all men believe. The onus is (as is clearly and repeatedly stated in the Gospels) on every person alive today to repent and believe in Christ.
When the multitudes stand before God the judge on the final day of reckoning, the question that is going to be ringing in every ear is ‘Why did you not take hold of Christ, the salvation freely offered by God?’
We will not see the multitudes with perplexed faces, desperately enquiring of God ‘Why, oh why did you command us to repent and believe the Gospel, all the while knowing that we did not have the wherewithal to fulfill your command?! And why do you now hold us responsible for failing to believe the Gospel when you were the only one able to make us believe?’
“In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” Acts 17:30
Epiphanies and Orthodoxy 