If Faith Comes By Hearing, Why Do Some Reject and Others Receive When the Holy Spirit Goes Out With The Word? via @IssuesEtc

(Begins right around 11:30 and ends at the 19:17 mark.)

TEXT

Question: If faith comes by hearing, why do some reject and others receive when the Holy Spirit goes out with the Word?

Answer: First of all, let’s establish what the Scripture means when it says, “Faith comes by hearing.”

What it’s talking about there is the means by which God creates saving faith in unbelieving hearts.

All hearts in their natural state, they may acknowledge there is a God, but they do not have saving faith. They do not believe that Jesus Christ lived, suffered, died and rose again as their substitute – for them. That is the nature of saving faith.

Now is there more to saving faith than that? Does it contain much more?

Yes, it does. It’s the Gospel and all its articles.

But the bare simple Gospel is that Jesus Christ lived, suffered, died and rose again as your substitute to pay the price for your sins.

Therefore you have forgiveness of sins before God. You are reconciled to God. You are a child of God. You are forgiven and therefore saved from the wrath of God.

All of those things go along with it.

That trust, that simple trust can only come by hearing.

That is, it is received only through God’s Word.

There’s a lot more in that phrase than we generally give it credit for.

Because this faith is a miracle that the Holy Spirit must work through the means of His Word – that is His Word of Law and Gospel.

He brings a man to genuine repentance through Law and Gospel.

He gives them, that is contrition over sin, that knowledge of sin, and that saving faith.

That must be wrought solely by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of God’s Word of Law and Gospel.

That’s a simple way of unpacking, “Faith comes by hearing.”

Notice here that hearing is, by its very nature, a passive thing.

That is, this faith is given to us, worked in us, created in us, established in us by the Holy Spirit from the outside.

Sounds come from the outside, not from the inside.

So faith is not the product of reasoning. It’s not the product of one’s own will or effort. It’s not the product of a mechanical set of propositions that lead to an inevitable conclusion.

It is a miracle worked by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of Law and Gospel.

Faith comes by hearing.

Now that we rightly understand what that phrase means, your question is very good.

Why is it then that, if faith comes by hearing, why is it that not everyone who hears believes?

That is a question – sometimes it’s put this way: Why are some saved and not others? If God alone saves, why are some saved and not others?

If you treat that as only one question, then it can only have one answer which is, well, God saves some and He doesn’t save others. He wills to save some and He doesn’t save others.

The Calvinist’s will come up with this answer which views that as one question with only one answer.

The answer must be God and so if God saves, then God will also be the One who would not will someone to be saved or not work saving faith.

Which is why, if you’re a thorough going Calvinist, you can never really truly be sure if you’re preaching that the Holy Spirit’s working through that in every case of those who hear.

You can’t be sure of it.

Because sometimes that preaching comes with the work of the Holy Spirit according to Calvinists. And sometimes it doesn’t. It’s an empty word that may be heard, but not believed.

It’s not one question, it’s actually two questions: why some and not others.

Why do some hear and the Holy Spirit works faith and others hear and the same Holy Spirit is at work through that Word, earnestly working to create faith, and yet that person does not believe.

It’s two questions with two different answers.

God is earnest in His preaching of Law and Gospel that all who hear it believe it.

His Word is always powerful to do these things.

But whenever God works through means, and that’s why I had mentioned early on this is how the Holy Spirit works through means – whenever God works through means, He suffers Himself to be resisted. That is, He permits man to resist.

We do not teach an irresistible grace.

But rather we teach a grace that is grace – that is a gift that can be rejected – can be heard and rejected, ignored, pushed away.

This is evident from Jesus’ interaction with His opponents in the Gospels how “You thrust the Word of God from you” is what the apostle says to those same opponents in the book of Acts. “You thrust the Word of God away from you.”

Man can resist the work of the Holy Spirit and often does.

So there are two questions with two different answers.

When the Holy Spirit through His Word of Law and Gospel is being preached and one hears and believes, then the Holy Spirit has done what the promise says.

The Holy Spirit gets all the credit.

When the Holy Spirit preaches through His Law and Gospel and someone hears and does not believe, we do not fault the Holy Spirit for lack of effort or maybe He’s just having an off day. No. That is man’s responsibility.

The answer to that question is: Man resists the Holy Spirit.

I think Jesus even faults His opponents again, “Always resisting the Holy Spirit.”

And He doesn’t blame the Holy Spirit for failing to work faith. He says, “You resist Him.” “He works and you resist Him.”

Now there’s one other way we can get this wrong before we take our break and that is to say, “Well okay, so what you’re saying is the people who hear and believe, they didn’t resist.”

And again, this is rather tricky, but no.

The Holy Spirit even works faith in those who resist.

He overcomes even the resistance in those who believe.

Why doesn’t He overcome the resistance in those who resist and don’t believe?

It’s not for lack of effort or for trying or for exerting His work.

But God allows Himself to be resisted.

Is this an intellectually satisfying answer?

No.

Is this a satisfying answer in our sense of fairness – that man would be blamed for his unbelief and God would be given all credit when a man does believe?

Is this an answer that ties up all the loose ends and answers every last little objection we might want to raise to it?

No.

But this is what God’s Word teaches there.

When a man is saved it is all due to God and His work through His word of Law and Gospel.

When a man refuses to believe, it is his fault and his fault alone.

(The Judas Kiss via wikipedia)