The Error of Boasting in One’s Faith
Many Christians boast about their faith in Christ Jesus for salvation. They trust in the faith-choice they made on a particular date in their personal history. They claim they made a free will decision to let Jesus Christ be their personal Savior.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but God searches the heart (1 Sam 16:7). Therefore, it is never our intent to judge the validity of one’s claim to be saved. The Lord knows those who are His (2 Tim 2:19).
Our purpose in writing is that among professing Christians, there are some who claim that it was their self-generated faith that saved them. Others believe that faith is a gift of God granted to them by His grace. Obviously, both views cannot be correct.
Both views would claim that Christians are saved by grace, through faith, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8–9). Both agree that salvation is a gift of God, but whereas one group sees faith as part of that gift, the other group sees faith as separate from God’s gift, originating in each individual, who decides of his own will to follow Jesus.
It is also an important distinction: although one believes faith is of man, he denies it is a work of man. In their view, choosing or decision-making is not a work. It is something that occurs in one’s mind and in one’s heart, but choices and decisions are not works, according to them.
“But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness (Rom 4:5),” is also referenced in both views. In theory, neither group wishes to boast (Gal 5:25), and the apostle Paul presses hard against any inclination of a Christian boasting, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded.” Paul’s reasoning is that Christians are justified by faith (Rom 3:28). Clearly, no one can boast about faith, if he is being led by the Spirit (Gal 5:18).
The fact is that God justifies the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom 3:26). Works of the Law do not justify, nor does circumcision/baptism. Justification is a legal statement from God, the Judge, declaring a person, “not guilty” before Him. This is profound because all have sinned and all are guilty, in fact, all are condemned already in Adam (Jn 3:18; 1 Cor 15:22).
How does God make the sinner righteous? He does not make him righteous in himself because all people continue to commit sins until their death. Rather, God takes the righteousness of the unblemished Lamb of God (Jn 1:29; Heb 4:15), that is, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and He imputes Christ’s legal status to the one He justifies.
Justification, being part of salvation, is a gift by God’s grace (Rom 3:24). God justifies, and the sinner is justified by the blood of Christ (Rom 5:9). Thank God for His indescribable gift (2 Cor 9:15): the precious blood of Jesus that justifies the ungodly as a gift (Rom 3:24; 4:5; 1 Pet 1:19).
Now, if justification is a gift, and it is by His grace (Rom 3:24), then we need to clarify that we are justified by His blood and justified by His grace (Titus 3:7). Before we forget, we are also justified by faith (Rom 3:28). In other words, God makes a “not guilty” declaration because of these elements: blood, grace, and faith. All of which means we are justified “in Christ” (Gal 2:17).
Clearly, the blood of justification belongs to Jesus, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. The grace of justification also belongs to God. “The Lord gives grace (Ps 84:11b).” The Christian message is called, “the Gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).” We are saved by grace given by God, and grace abounds toward us who believe.
The last element that is key to the Christian’s justification is faith (Gal 3:24). If faith is something in a person, then where does it originate? Paul tells us that faith comes by hearing (Rom 10:17). What does the Christian hear that gives her faith? Paul indicates it is the Word of faith which we are preaching (Rom 10:8).
With the heart a man believes (Rom 10:10), and you know who and what he believes by his own confession (Rom 10:9). The man confesses what He believes in his heart, and what he believes in his heart is the Word of faith, heard at the preaching of that Word of Christ.
In other words, it was the Word of God that was implanted (Jas 1:21), like a seed in good soil, in the man’s heart (Mt 13:23). How did the Word go from his ears to his heart, resulting in the man responding in faith? It is the Holy Spirit who bears witness of Christ Jesus’ person and work.
Through the means of Gospel preaching, the Spirit spreads the seed of the Word. It is also the Spirit who causes the soil to be good, as in the case of Lydia at Philippi, when God’s Spirit opened her heart to respond to the apostle Paul’s preaching (Acts 16:14). Simply put, the Spirit sends the Word, and the Spirit causes the regenerate to receive the Word. This results in effectual calling, which is a product of irresistible grace, which is the exclusive work of the Holy Spirit.
The Word of faith brought into the heart is why one has faith and another does not. Who opens one’s ears to hear this Word of faith, making it effectual? Who is operating in the heart of the one manifesting faith in his speech and good works? It is the Holy Spirit, who is coincidental to the one having faith (Gal 3:2; 5:5, 22).
The Holy Spirit is a gift of God (Acts 2:38; 10:45; Gal 3:5), sent from God the Father and God the Son (Jn 14:26; 15:26). The Spirit baptizes the one He comes to (Mt 3:11; Mk 1:8; Acts 1:5; 1 Cor 12:13), as the Word of faith is being preached.
The Spirit and the Word both enter the chosen recipient to abide there. They never leave the one made alive (Eph 2:5; Heb 13:5), nor do they forsake the one who is now being sanctified with the truth (Jn 17:17). The gift of God indwells (Rom 8:9, 11), and whom the gift indwells, he or she bears witness of the faith handed down to all the saints (Jude 3).
Faith grows as a result of its Author’s sovereign will (Heb 12:2) and by the measure of His determination (Rom 12:3). Truly, it is a gift of God granted in the manner described here (Phil 1:29). Faith has substance and that substance is the Word. God sends the Word that never returns void because it returns as faith manifested in God’s elect. This is evidenced by prayer, preaching, and praise…not boasting.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
April 12, 2022
