Reformed Faith Is Not Biblical Faith!

Faith has always been a pillar in the truths of scripture but in the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church began to move away from Biblical faith and began to lean on works as the way to ensure that people were saved. To his credit Martin Luther was bold enough to confront these works practices. When Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on the door of the Roman Catholic Church he confronted a Church that had pulverized the entire idea of faith. Luther made faith a big part of his theology but Luther's faith was not the faith that is clearly described in scripture.                                

Many people are confused about Martin Luther and his declarations about faith. That was true for me until I actually studied the man's history and his theology. People often proclaim that Luther had recovered faith during the Reformation. He is attributed with developing "Sola Fide" which means "Faith Only" in English but Luther had a strange new twist on faith which is clearly not seen in scripture. Luther believed faith was given only to some men. He held vigorously that men have no free will and therefore could not exercise faith but this is not at all what scripture conveys faith to be.

Luther's problem is his conception of what he thinks faith is. Luther believed that faith is simply given to man by God at the time of salvation. He had a fundamental misunderstanding of what the word faith even means. Luther twisted the word "faith" to mean understanding. If one understands something they know it to be true but this is not the Bible's clear definition:                    

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

Faith does not mean understanding. The word faith is "pistis" in the Greek and it means "to be persuaded". Here is Vine's Expository Dictionary description for the word "pistis":

primarily, firm persuasion," a conviction based upon hearing (akin to peitho, "to persuade"), is used in the NT always of "faith in God or Christ, or things spiritual."

God has given man something to be persuaded by: the gospel. God also sent the Holy Spirit in to the world to convict men's hearts of their sin and to convince men to receive salvation which is the free gift of God. Through the gospel therefore God offers man the free gift of salvation by the message of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit. God gave man free will and man has the opportunity to receive or reject God's gift. Real faith in the Biblical sense is man exercising his free will to receive God's gifts. God initiates his offerings including the gift of salvation and man must respond by faith. In terms of sotierology God persuades man through the presentation of the gospel and man is able to respond to God by faith.                                                                                                            

Thus Ephesians 2:8 confirms this:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

The gift of God in this verse refers to the matter of being saved and it occurs by God's grace since God sent Jesus. Grace is the conduit by which we receive God's gifts and provisions. It is through faith that we are saved since God has given to all men as a response mechanism to receive or reject God's wonderful gifts that flow to us by God's grace.

But Luther's "faith" as he construes it implies that God gives man the understanding to be saved and this he concludes is because man has no free will. Sadly, Luther's erroneous understanding of man's free will is apparently what provoked him to believe that man had lost his free will.

Another well-known Reformed theologian, John Calvin also shaped Reformed Theology but he parted ways with Luther on some things theologically and one of his disagreements with Luther was his conclusion regarding faith. Calvin and the Calvinism that burgeoned out of his teachings declare that man died in the garden after the fall and therefore cannot have faith since he died spiritually and lost any ability to have faith due to the fall. The Bible never records this conclusion but Calvin developed this understanding out of his own philosophy and then pulled scripture out of context to support his thesis.

Calvin believed that man can only have faith after regeneration. Therefore in my opinion, Calvin's faith is not really true faith because his conception can really only be understood as an automated response of one already regenerated. Like Luther, Calvin's understanding of faith is not found in scripture. Calvin misses by a wide margin what faith is actually defined as in scripture: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the substance of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

The "faith" defined here is about believing something before he sees it. Faith is not the fruit of being saved but is in fact a connecting point with God that must happen for men to be saved.

Therefore what Calvin has done here is minimize faith so that it is pretty much rendered irrelevant. When Calvinists quote "saved by grace through faith" I get the idea that there really is no difference between their understanding of grace and faith. If God gave men both grace and faith then what value does each bring? Where is the difference between the two? There is no need for faith for salvation if it occurs after one is saved.

But if one has a right understanding of grace and faith it becomes clear quite quickly that the two are actually quite different as they work hand-in-hand. Grace is simply God's good, unmerited favor given to all men through Christ alone. Faith is simply man's response to that grace given by God in Jesus Christ. Therefore the combination of "saved by grace through faith" is actually quite significant.  Without the "by grace" the "through faith" is irrelevant. Visa-versa is true too. The "by grace" without any "through faith" means that nothing happens unless grace comes and is received in faith. Grace is God's advance towards man and man's response is by faith. Grace and faith therefore are uniquely different but synergistically function together as it applies to men's salvation.

Scripture never supports either Luther's or Calvin's ideas on faith. Scripture makes it very clear that faith is a response of one who hears the word of God. That one who hears can reject or accept and the response to receive is faith and rejection is lack of faith. Faith is man's response to God's grace and is always exercised as a means of responding to God's initiations and invitations. God gave man the ability to have faith (believe) as a response to hearing the word of God and when man responds to God in faith, God is very pleased.

Faith is Big in Scripture

Throughout scripture faith is seen and approved of by God. The Bible clearly records that Jesus commended faith when He saw it. When the centurion responded in faith, Jesus gave credit to him for his faith:

When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Matthew 8:10

The most convincing passage of the many scriptures that note our Lord's response to faith is the story of the woman with the issue of blood:

And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.                                                                                                             

And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. 

And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. Luke 8:43-48

The above story is truly amazing because Jesus did not know that the woman was healed until after the woman touched him. This passage crushes both Luther's and Calvin's understanding of faith because it clearly shows faith came from the woman. She neither received her faith from God nor was she already saved.

Jesus was also quick to condemn the lack of faith when He saw it. Jesus rarely criticized His disciples and when he did, it always was about faith. When Peter was walking on the water with Jesus he began to doubt and Jesus rebuked him saying "O thou of little faith." (Matthew 14:31)      

Another time, Jesus confronted his disciples when they reasoned among themselves about not bringing bread:

Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Matthew 16:8

Another time a man brought His son to Christ's disciples because His son was demonized but the disciples were unable to help so the man went to Jesus and he responded:

Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me." Matthew 17:17

Jesus lumped being faithless and perversity in the same sentence as he rebuked his disciples for not having the faith to help the man's son. There are many other passages in scripture where Jesus honored people's faith or rebuked them for lack of faith. In every occurrence, faith is described as a response to God.

Therefore we can only conclude from scripture that having faith is something man can do to respond to God. God does not give the faith but instead gives the innate ability to respond in faith. Luther's doctrine that God gives man faith blindly to man proves to be false. Calvin's doctrine that man cannot have faith until after God regenerates him is also proven false. Otherwise why would Jesus give credit to people when they had faith if it was really His faith? Why would he rebuke people for having little or no faith if He was the one who gives faith? If only Jesus provided faith to man He would have to rebuke himself for having little or no faith when man does not display faith.

Scripture Crushes Both Luther and Calvin's Understanding of Faith

Regarding Luther, scripture is clear that man does have free will and does have the ability to respond in faith. Regarding Calvin, scripture is clear that having faith by responding to God is what happens before man is regenerated. This is found in many scriptures. Consider these scriptures and follow the order what comes first in each passage:

He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Acts 16:31

and                                                                                                                                  

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:8-10

and

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 6:16

The emphasis above for anyone who knows the English language is clear. It is "whoever" that believes that is saved. Believing occurs before salvation.

and

The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Luke 8:12

The scriptures above are abundantly clear that the word through God's initiation comes into the heart and one must believe to be saved.

Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter and in this chapter God honors all those that responded in faith to God. Why would God honor those who move in faith if faith was given to man and not a response as Luther believed. Why would God honor those who exercised faith if they only received faith after being saved like Calvin believed? The fact is that those mentioned in Hebrews 11 were not saved when they moved in faith.

The scriptural passages above make it abundantly clear that one must believe and have faith in order to be saved. The false faith doctrines that most in the Reformed movement believe must be rejected because they are foreign to scripture. Instead, as believers we should resolve to share the good news about the faith mechanism God has given to us and to exercise that faith as often as we can.    

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6

Darrell Brantingham

(Check out my pithy tweets on Twitter @confrontcalvin)