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I have heard Christians use the term faith in all sorts of contexts. I have listened to them speak of it when facing objections to Christianity. They reply, “Oh, you need to have faith.” I have heard them use it when talking to someone going through hardship. They say something like, “Have faith God will get you through this situation.” I have told people to place their faith in Jesus Christ from behind the pulpit. The above uses aren’t necessarily wrong. Indeed, some I believe are faithful uses of the term faith.

Moreover, I have heard atheists speak of faith with disdain, equating it to superstition. Superstition means to hold to something regardless of evidence to the contrary. As I will show in a later post, this conception of faith does not reckon with the Scriptural account of faith, which leads to another issue. Scripture uses the term faith in a variety of ways. Which type of faith am I talking about? This question will be explored in more detail in the later post too. However, when I use faith in space below, I am talking about saving faith, the type of faith required for salvation.

In the next two posts, we will deal with the source of saving faith. The question we will answer is fundamental: Where does saving faith come from? We may divide the answer into two headings: Faith’s first cause and faiths instrumental cause. The first heading will make up the rest of this post.

Faith’s First Cause

The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (2LBCF) provides a powerful summary to answer to our inquiry.

The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word; by which also, and by the administration of baptism and the Lord’s supper, prayer, and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened.¹

The first cause of faith identified in the confession is God in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. He enables it in the hearts of the elect. Those who exercise saving faith, do it ultimately because God the Holy Spirit has produced it in their hearts.

The testimony of Paul confirms this truth in Ephesians 2:8. He writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” It is possible that “this” refers to (1) “by grace you have been saved through faith,” (2) “grace,” or (3) “faith.” Folks like John Calvin take the first option, and if we take it that way, the principle of faith being a gift of God remains. The second option of “grace” would be somewhat redundant. Of course, grace is a gift from God. The third option of “faith” is plausible in that it is the closest word to “this.” Thus, the two best options teach us that faith is a gift from God.

Paul also demonstrates his belief that faith is a gift from God in scriptural prayers:

1. He prays that faith, among other things, be with the brothers from the Father and Jesus (Eph 6:23)
2. He continually thanks God for the love and faith of the Christians in Colossae (Col 1:3-8)
3. He gives thanks for the work of faith and labor of love among the Thessalonian Christians (1 Thes 1:2-3).

It would be odd for Paul to petition or thank God for things that God doesn’t have a part in producing. With the above texts considered, it is also worth noting that repentance, something often paired with and inseparable from faith, is described in gift like language (see Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2 Tim 2:25).

Furthermore, John, in his Gospel, provides us with some insight on this matter. He states that those who believe in Jesus’ name “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). Jesus explains this birth as coming from the Holy Spirit (John 3:1-15). These lines of evidence taken together support the summary given in LCBF 14.1 above. Faith is a gift of God produced by the person and work of the Holy Spirit. God is the first cause of saving faith.

In the next post, I will discuss the instrumental cause of saving faith, which is primarily the Word of God.