And what about grace? Is salvation about grace or is there some work involved? The Calvinist Doctrine is by “grace alone” (Latin; sola gratia). Is that true? Yes, it is! God is Sovereign, so it is by His Grace alone. He is the One who died to redeem mankind and mankind did nothing to assist Him.
Just as Noah found grace (Gen 8:6), he did nothing to find it! The grace was from God, but Noah put it on and used it. He built an Ark, not just large enough for himself, but for many.
God allowed the door to remain open and called, so to speak, but few came in. So, what must a man or woman do? They are to come unto the grace that God provides. For Noah, that is alleged to be the Garment of Adam that he put on. God gifted it to Adam, and Noah used the gift. Even if it was not the Garment of Adam, Noah still used the grace that he had found.
Noah built a boat so big that many could come in. He shared grace by the works of his hands. He never worked only for himself but all whom God called. God called, but few entered, so the door to the Ark was closed. Someday, the door, or gate, to Paradise will be closed because so few will enter in.
Now to tag the graph with evidence:
Jesus said, “Marvel not; ye must be born again” (John 3:7). He said nothing about being birth because life was predestined (Eph 1:4) “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph 1:4). The natural man was meant to be holy, was not, hence required a rebirth to accomplish what he had failed before.
God’s intention was that his creatures be holy and have affection for Him. That was to be their function. That did not happen with natural birth as everyone is born in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). Cain defected from God, and so can anyone. He did not give to God what was His, and that is fidelity.
Man was to function subservient to God who he was to love (agape); that is having goodwill toward God as He has Good Will toward man.
Natural birth did not endow man with goodwill because of the original sin of ill will toward God by disobedience. Therefore, do not be surprised, you must be born again to correct that.
Already mentioned is that just as natural birth is in the process of time, so is rebirth. The one born again is a “babe in Christ” (1 Cor 3:1) which infers that there is room for spiritual growth.
The newborn has no faith because they are not cognitively developed. They are innocent of willful sin but still retain inherited sin in their genes. Prevenient grace is because children are like Eve whose wrongdoing was not accounted to her because she did not understand the Law, just as she demonstrated with a wrong quoting of it (Gen 3:3).
However, because sin changed her inwardly, she still required grace, so God put a coat of skin on her because of His mercy. It was to keep her safe until she would turn to the Word for salvation, which salvation, by the way, surely occurred at the time of the Resurrection of Christ. (Mat 27:52-3). The coats of skin kept them safe until they were saved to Paradise with Jesus.
Prevenient grace is grace just because God created man. When God calls, gradually, some hear the messages, and their minds begin to change. That is shown in the upward slope of the curve betwixt “born” and “born again.” Most people are not struck by Light as Paul was but absorb Light a little at a time. They move through stages of cognition: (1) unhearing and unpersuaded, (2) doubtful, (3) almost persuaded as Agrippa Acts 36:28), and (4) persuaded as the Jews and Greeks were with the preaching of Paul (Acts 18:4).
“Born again” occurs when there is obtained a little faith. What degree of faith is that? That you can never save yourself, but Jesus can (John 3:14). Once that is understood; faith does not cease there! Paul and Barnabbas did not let up after some believed. The proselytes (converted) were “persuaded (by) them to continue in the grace of God” (Acts 13:43). Grace was them persuaded by the Word of God, not by their thoughts but God implanting unto them His Thoughts, to wit: “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord” (Isa 55:8). So, it is not our thoughts that convert but God changing the way we think!
Just as a toddler, as soon as he is born, begins to love, he wavers when crawling and continue to waver until stable.
The wavy line on the curve is the unstable Christian, who James calls double-minded (Jas 1:8). A double-minded Christian is one whose doubt is as great as his faith, and they endeavor to go both ways and serve two masters: ““No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. (Mat 6:24).
The perception of the newly born Christian is as poor as a newborn baby’s vision. The prize — the bottle or the milk and honey in Paradise — is there but is hard for the infant to focus upon.
A babe in Christ has little perception of the Glory of God and it seems so far away as not to be obtained. They are safe, think they are there, but all the while, their vision is not clear.
John wrote in his epistle, “(I) write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13; ESV). “Know” in that passage is eido in the Greek and means to perceive either by the eyes or the mind (ibid).
Perception is not absolute knowledge of but sensing. A believer senses that they have eternal life because he believes the Word of God. Eternal life is contingent on something, and that is enduring faith (Mat 24:13).
The perception of the gain of eternal life is labeled on the graph in figure #2 after the wavering ceases and there comes steadfast faith (Col 2:5). The perception is clearer once the faith becomes more intense and steadier.
The independent axis on the vertical axis has the degrees of faith labeled from “no faith” (Mark 4:40) to the “faith of God” (Rom 3:3). Yes, God believes in and trusts Himself because he is Absolute Faith — I AM THAT I AM.
Even Christians retain some of their “to be as God” in their way of thinking, just as the Serpent wanted (Gen 3:5). Babes in Christ endeavor to serve both themselves and God and thus have two masters; although they are in Christ, they are also into themselves. Some eventually choose the world.
Jesus accused some of having little faith (Mat 6:30). A little faith is enough to get by, and the falling away takes little time if the faith is misplaced.
Once the person first believes, the Devil goes on the defensive, and endeavors to tackle those who crawl and totter. That is where the safety comes in. Jesus, in a manner, holds the hand of the babe in Christ until faith matures. Although He never lets go completely, the walk of the mature Christian is more certain. They perceive the One to whom they are walking is closer than appears (Rev 22:20).
The distance in time is not only time oriented but how clear the perception. Each moment of perception is represented as “now” on the horizontal axis. Right now, measure your own faith — your perception of how near you are to the time of salvation, or as Paul wrote, “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:10).
Salvation is time oriented. It is somewhere after the “now” on the graph. The status of “first believed” is at the “born again” on the axis. The time between “now” and “salvation” at “mortal death” is perceived as lengthy, but Paul says that it is nearer than “born again.” In fact, death may be in a few moments or as much as one-hundred years or so, but it is unknown. The point, though, is that salvation (soteria) is in the future sometime, and that is the “gain” of which Paul wrote as “death.”
With that said, It is high time to come out of sleep — to be sober and vigilant to keep the Devil from devouring Christians (1 Pet 5:8) who are in a stupor of some sort. The “stupor” may be that although “asleep” many perceive that they are awake; they believe they are saved in their dreams (hopes) but are truly very vulnerable!
The “stupor” is the non-vigilance that a Christian may have — the perception that the “prize” is in hand and that they are saved from the Wicked One all the while He remains adversarial and near. They may have a false perception of where and when the prize is to be obtained (1 Cor 9:24). Thus the living have a false sense of eternal security that is finally real-ized at death.
Most have faith but it is moderate because some hang onto the things of the flesh. When anyone sins, it purveys some degree of doubt.
The vertical distance between the faith curve and the perfect “faith of God” line is doubt. Everyone doubts because they are not truly gods. Only God is without a doubt of His Existence, and His faith is absolute. Just wait until the government comes to grab you from the church to see in whom your faith lies! (Oops! They already did that, and most Christians failed to trust God!)
Because Christians hang onto the flesh, they are of little faith. How many Christians do you know that have the power to move mountains? None? Jesus said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Mat 17:20). How many disciples moved mountains? The only mountain that has been moved is perhaps Calvary whose location is uncertain.
Consider that much faith as “little faith” because nobody today has even that much faith!
Then consider the “faith of Abraham” (Rom 4:16). He was willing to give up his own flesh with his son, Isaac. That willingness had value: “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son” (Heb 11:17)… “And (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen 15:6). The willingness was the “work” that Abraham accomplished. He never needed to behead or pierce his son, but instead, Abraham cut off his own flesh — his foreskin with circumcision.
Born again is as if cutting off the flesh but not only the foreskin but all the skin, inside and out and to the heart: “Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffneckeD” (Deut 10:16). The “heart” as said before is the inner self… the faculty of the will. No more shall those who are born again do their will but the Will of God.
The Idumeans (Herod and his kind) had a problem. They were not Jewish; in that they were from Ishmael and Esau. However, once they lived with Jews; they wanted to be Jews. Then, they did what the Jews did. They got circumcised and were Jews outwardly but inwardly they remained pagans.
“But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Rom 2:29). Circumcision did not make righteousness for Abraham. It was what he was willing to do for God. Likewise, for Christians is it not what they do but are willing to do. God’s Will is written plain and simple on stone. They are not things to do, but ways to think and things not to do! Hence, they were never works at all but most of them perceived them to be works.
Likewise, it is with faith. No ergon work is required but only katergazmai “work” — to accomplish tasks with no work involved. That is retaining the faith that God has given to you! Paul wrote that in his absence for them to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). They were to do nothing but think on Christ to be in Christ. They were to submit (rest) to truth and not do the hard work of resisting it!
The ”faith of Abraham” is not on the graph because God is the God of Abraham. He was the first to believe in Jesus as he indicated with his willingness to kill his own flesh. Nobody now in existence has that much faith and do not even approach the ”faith of God.”
When the centurion measured his own faith, he minimized himself; the centurion told Jesus that he was not worthy. To which Jesus responded, “(Jesus) marvelled, and said to them that followed, ‘Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel’” (Mat 8:10). The centurion had little faith in himself; he was a humble leader. However, he had great faith that Jesus could heal the infirm.
The degrees of faith from “no faith” to the “faith of God” is the variation within faith, yet some Christians have the audacity of saying that they “believe without a shadow of a doubt,” not evening knowing what that means, and neither do they “salvation.”
Rather, they believe in Jesus and trust Him for salvation. Trust is another variable that is time dependent and called “faith.”
Trust varies due to the “impedance” of Satan. Wicked ones impede the thought processes to endeavor to unpersuaded the persuaded.
Do you think not? Then what was Satan doing when he tempted Jesus and what are his demons doing when you are tempted? Are they merely wasting time? Remember that Lucifer was cunning and knew all knowledge. He would waste time on neither Adam, nor us, if there was no possible outcome favorable to his plot to replace God on high (Isa 14:12-14).
In the beginning the “Serpent” said to Eve, “Ye shall not surely die” (Gen 3:14). In other words, once you have been created you will not be uncreated. He hit the nail on the head: He as well have said, once you have been safe, you cannot be unsafed. He was saying an irrational thing to Eve and some say much the same thing to this day: Safe man; you surely will not die.
This completes the commentary on the variability of faith and that it can either wax or wane depending on whose “word” the Christian is in. Next, the meaning of the curve will continue.
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