We have previously seen that faith is the basis for our coming to know Christ. This same faith, not some heroic or special faith, is the same basis for our growing into maturity in the Christian life (cf. Colossians 2:6-7). We have further seen that faith does not seek to "prove" Christianity through human logic. Nor does it try to establish faith in a human theological system, as an unshakable foundation, that gives us certitude that we know the truth without any room for mistake. We further saw that faith is both a human decision and a divine gift. The Bible calls upon each of us to believe, not to ask someone to believe in our place. It also reminds us that we who now trust Christ were at one time "dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world . . ." (Ephesians 2:1-2). But "because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions . . ." (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Later in Ephesians 2, we read that even "faith" itself "is the gift of God" (2:8). This point is critical since the human tendency to idolatry, as we saw in a previous article, can even turn faith into a human work, a meritorious activity that is independent of God and his grace. This is why faith is not a subjective religious feeling or a factual scientific and philosophical certitude. My feelings or emotions about the gospel, or my knowledge about the teaching of Scripture, is not the same as faith. "Let those who boast, boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31).

True Faith Has a Correct Object

True faith always finds justification for itself from outside of itself, from its object, from that upon which it relies. This is why Stuart Briscoe rightly taught me years ago that you can have strong faith (as in human confidence) in a very thin ice cover on a winter lake, but if you walk boldly out onto that lake you will get very wet and be very cold. On the other hand if you have weak faith, trembling and doubting and struggling, but you walk out on a lake with thick ice you will be dry and secure. You see, it is the object that matters, not the faith.

The martyr-theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, understood this well when he wrote in one of his classic books:

Our salvation is external to ourselves. I find no salvation in my life history, but only in the history of Jesus Christ. Only the one who allows himself to be found in Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, his cross and his resurrection, is with God and God with him.

Evangelical theologian, Donald G. Bloesch, states the distinctions and differences that I am seeking to make here as clearly as any theologian that I know.

We must oppose the view of faith as an irrational leap in the dark (an idea sometimes entertained in existentialist theology) and the view that identifies it primarily with intellectual assent (as in orthodoxy gone to seed). Faith is a commitment of the whole person which entails rational understanding. At the same time the object of faith is not directly accessible to human reason, and this means that reason must rise above itself if it is to apprehend the mysteries of God (Calvin).

Faith finds it true foundation in the living and gracious Word of God, Jesus Christ, not in human constructs, even doctrinal ones. Faith trusts the "ever living one" and thus it is free to develop, to change, to be redefined and to face new and quite difficult challenges. Concludes D. Densil Morgan:

Its validity, veracity and continuity are guaranteed not by any inherent virtue-individual's faith can often be pathetically weak, fractured and unstable-but by the continuing promise of the gracious God. Within the relationship of faith everything depends upon the reliability of the one in whom we trust. The basis for that trust, according to the church's conviction, is Jesus Christ. It is in him, who is before all things and in whom all things hold together, that God ahs pledged his faithfulness to humankind.

But true faith, totally dependent as it is upon its object, Jesus Christ, is "profoundly rational." The great theologian, Karl Barth put this very well: "Christian faith is not irrational, nor anti-rational, not supra-rational, but rational in its proper sense." In this sense Barth means that true rationality is not something that is grasped as an autonomous human enterprise, but true rationality is profoundly bonded with its object. D. Densil Morgan concludes, "It is the logical and considered response of the intellect to its God." Again Barth is right when he concludes:

Christian faith and knowledge of Christian faith takes place at the point where the divine reason, the divine Logos, sets up his law in the region of man's understanding, to which law human, creaturely reason must accommodate itself.

How Christian Truth Finally Makes Sense to Us
If Christian truth claims are to ever make sense to us, then our human attitude must first be one of trust, dependence and humility. This will lead us to a sincere desire to understand faith and to live gospel obedience. Faith, set free within us by the Spirit's divine energy, does affirm the factual realities of God's revelation to us in Jesus Christ. Evidence does have a part in this, insofar as previously we found the gospel to be unattractive to us, but now we find it compelling and glorious. But such factual evidence, in and of itself, will never alter our life story unless we receive God's true light in the gospel. So faith is not assent to propositions, but it always treats truth as exceedingly important. Believing on Christ is not believing "some facts" given to you by an evangelist or apologist, but rather believing on the one who is the basis for all knowing and right understanding. This is absolute dependence. This is real faith.

How Obedience and Faith Connect

This is precisely why I regularly cite Paul's own framework for putting this idea of faith forward in his Roman epistle. Here is how this epistle of faith begins:

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ (Romans 1:1-6, NRSV, emphasis mine).

The purpose of Paul's gospel being preached among the Gentiles was to bring about faith, but not faith as an acceptance of intellectual propositions or faith as a leap in the dark, but rather faith as trust and obedience. This is why a friend of mine, an esteemed New Testament scholar, regularly speaks of our relationship with Christ as a trust/obey relationship. Faith is, by such a clear and proper definition, a human trusting, a real clinging, and a continual following of Christ, as revealed to each of us in the gospel of God's free grace.

As I noted earlier, Paul frames the Roman epistle by this term. He reaches his climax in Romans 16 and adds:

Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen (Romans 16:25-27, NRSV).

There is need for continued debate in the church about the questions raised by serious controversies regarding faith and obedience, or faith and works. This has been true down through two thousand years of church history. What I am appealing for is not that we stop this discussion. I am submitting that being right about a theological discussion simply cannot be the same thing as having real faith, or living out the obedience of faith.

Eugene H. Peterson often captures a particular nuance in his biblical paraphrase, The Message. Such is the case with Romans 1:5 and 16:26. When Peterson comes to the phrase "the obedience of faith" in Romans 1, he captures the sense correctly by referring to our "entering into obedient trust." And in Romans 16 he translates the Greek this way: "All the nations of the world can now know the truth and be brought into obedient belief, carrying out the orders of God, who got all this started, down to the very last letter" (Romans 16:26).

Conclusion

I am still amazed when various parties within the Christian world debate doctrines and then draw sharp conclusions, often with 98% of what they are saying being profoundly true. Then they put in the 2% of what they believe to be crucial to the debate in order to attack other Christian evangelicals and the simple meaning of the truth of Scripture. Sadly, this has been done all throughout church history.

For some years I have been teaching this idea of the "obedience of faith" in the way that I have explained it above. I do not honestly know how to make it any clearer yet sometimes, quite oddly enough, even the phrase ("the obedience of faith") is itself being attacked. Let me try to summarize my conclusion as simply as possible.

The new birth is God's divine work. But the new birth is not fulfilled without the human decision of faith. To put one against the other is patently wrong, even dangerous. But this is done by theological advocates on many sides. Reformed people err by stressing divine sovereignty and non-Reformed people err by stressing human decision. Both are right-but both often make huge mistakes in the process, often because their vision is clouded by the debate itself.

As we have seen, faith is clearly the work of the Spirit within us. But faith manifests itself, and this manifestation results in what Paul calls "the obedience of faith." We believe something, we trust someone, and we follow and obey that one. I insist, one more time, that there is no place for passivity in any of this biblical idea of faith. John Calvin, a much better theologian than many of those who use his name regularly, got this right when he concluded: "Faith cannot apprehend Christ for righteousness without the Spirit of sanctification."