Week 35 Question: 

Since we are redeemed by grace alone, through faith alone, where does this faith come from?

Week 35 Answer:

All the gifts we receive from Christ we receive through the Holy Spirit, including faith itself.

Week 35 Verse: Titus 3:4-6

 

Commentary

We must realize that Christianity is the easiest religion in the world, because it is the only religion in which God the Father and Christ and the Holy Spirit do everything. God is the Creator; we have nothing to do with our existence, or the existence of other things. We can shape other things, but we cannot change the fact of existence. We do nothing for our salvation because Christ did it all. We do not have to do anything. In every other religion we have to do something…but with Christianity we do not do anything; God has done it all: He has created us and He has sent His Son; His Son died and because the Son is infinite, therefore he bears our total guilt. We do not need to bear our guilt, nor do we even have to merit the merit of Christ. He does it all. So in one way it is the easiest religion in the world.

Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984). An American Presbyterian pastor and philosopher, Schaeffer is most famous for his writing and his establishment of the L’Abri ("The Shelter") community in Switzerland. He wrote 22 books, the best known being the trilogy The God Who Is There (from which this quote is taken), Escape from Reason, and He Is There and He Is Not Silentas well as his A Christian Manifesto.

From “The God Who Is There” in The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy: The Three Essential Books in One Volume (Wheaton: Crossway, 1990), 182–183.

 

Video Commentary

NCC Q35: Since we are redeemed by grace alone, through faith alone, where does this faith come from? from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

 

Supporting Scriptures

John 3:5; Romans 10:17; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14; Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 1:29

 

Prayer

May God have mercy upon us all, and by his Spirit open our eyes to see the glory of the cross.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981). A Welsh medical doctor and Protestant minister, Lloyd-Jones is best known for preaching and teaching at Westminster Chapel in London for thirty years. He would take many months, even years, to expound a chapter of the Bible verse by verse. Perhaps his most famous publication is a 14 volume series of commentaries on Romans.

From The Cross (Wheaton: Crossway, 1986), 83.