The Order of Regeneration and Faith, and the Issue of Faith as a Gift of God! A Second Look!

For some reason it won’t go away—the issues dealing with the order of faith and regeneration and faith as a gift of God. If one believes that the saved are "chosen before the foundation of the world," these issues seem to be settled by the scriptural evidence. But the arguments persist. Bible scholars are split on the issues but those who hold to the absolute sovereignty and working providence of God in His world, all seem to come down on that side that God initiates the regeneration and the faith processes!

To repeat again, I find at least two verses that need to be examined with the idea that regeneration comes before faith. One is Titus 3:5. "He saved us by the washing of the again birth (born again, regeneration) and the renewing (remaking) of the Holy Spirit." The "again birth" in Greek is actually palinggevesia translated as "regeneration." While faith by God’s sovereignty is in the mix of the salvation process, Paul does not bring it up here in this verse. He just goes straight to the theological work of what "being born again" means. I also fall back on 2 Thessalonians 2:13 where Paul shows that we are chosen by God FROM THE BEGINNING FOR SALVATION "by means of" sanctification by the Spirit and "by means of" FAITH IN THE TRUTH. The sanctification of the Spirit would be the new birth (being born again) and the faith is our response brought about by God’s sovereignty. I do not understand what you mean about "unlimited atonement." I do not see the relationship of that with the issue of the order of regeneration and faith. I do not see the connection. I must be brain dead on this issue but I just don’t understand the big deal!
What I teach from the Greek text is that faith is merely the instrument by which we are saved, but it is clearly the gift of God. A. A. Hodge writes: "Faith is the gift of God—Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29." Thiessen writes:
From the divine side: The writer of Hebrews speaks of Jesus as being "the author and perfecter of faith" (Heb. 12:2). Clearly, faith is a gift of God (Rom. 12:3; 2 Pet. 1:1), sovereignly given by the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 12:9; cf. Gal. 5:22). Paul speaks of the whole aspect of salvation as being a gift of God (Eph. 2:8), and surely that includes faith. The former president of Wheaton College (where I attended and Walvoord also), James Buswell, said in his Systematic Theology: "Saving faith is a Gift of God. In Eph. 2:8 touto is neuter, showing that it is not merely grace, and not merely faith, but the entire concept of grace accepted by faith, which must be regarded as a gift of God."
Shedd in his Systematic Theology writes:
Election does not rest upon faith..., any more than upon a foreseen outward work. Faith is a gift of God to man (Eph. 1:8); therefore it cannot first be a gift of man to God, as the ground and reason of his electing act. If election depends upon foreseen faith, God does not first choose man, but man first chooses God, which is contrary to John 15:16. The Bible represents God as the author alone of election, regeneration, faith, and repentance (Rom. 9:16; 8:7; John 1:12-13; 3:5; 6:44, 65). I say what the Bible says. Both "saving" faith and faith "for Christian living" comes from God.

Before beginning to answer we must look at the issue of "Who is in charge" of this world, both in macro-management and micro-management? It is God! Whatever He has decreed will come to pass in every detail because He is at work. This world does not run on some kind of self-existence. He controls it and is bringing it to its conclusion.

Daniel said "And it is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings..." (Dan. 2:21).

After being restored, Nebuchadnezzar said "And all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?'" (4:35).

Now let's look at some passages on the giving of faith for the Christian life:
1 Corinthians 12:9. As those who are gifted in the body of Christ, some are given the gift of faith by the Spirit. This is not saving faith but a special dose of trust for some (but not all) for a specific reason: "To each one (individual) is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (v. 7). This gift of faith is given by God's sovereignty. "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills" (v. 11), and, "God has placed the members, each one of them in the body [of Christ], just as He desired" (v. 18). So the question is: Who is in charge?

Now concerning the giving of faith for salvation:

Acts 13:48. "And as many as had been appointed to eternal life BELIEVED." The word appointed is a Perfect Passive Participle of the Greek word tasso. It could be translated: "And for those who have been progressively positioned, determined, classified, inscribed, enrolled in the past [with the action coming up to the present], these believed." Believed is an aorist tense of "pisteuo" and could be translated: "They definitely believed, began then to believe."

What caused the belief? It was the "positioning," the "appointment." This work started sometime in the past and came to fruition at some point in the present!

Most of the great commentators on Acts 13:48 of the past and the present agree that this passage is saying that salvation faith comes from God's appointment. For example:

• John Polhill: "These Gentiles took an active role in believing, in committing themselves to Christ; but it was in response to God's Spirit moving in them, convicting them, appointing them for life. All salvation is ultimately only by the grace of God."
• Mal Couch: In my Handbook to the Book of Acts I wrote: The verse "implies the sovereign work of God in salvation. The great Greek scholar J. A. Alexander believes it scandalous the ‘violent attempts which have been made to eliminate the doctrine of election and predestination from this verse.'"
• C. K. Barrett: "Those believed who were appointed (the passive implies, by God) to do so."
• F. F. Bruce: "The Gentiles who heard and believed the gospel—all in fact, who had been enrolled for eternal life in the records of heaven then believed (for this appears to be the sense of the words here used)."
• Steven Ger (in my 21st Century Commentary series): "Luke uses the term ‘appointed' to reveal that God elects both Jew and Gentile according to His sovereign purpose. It is difficult to miss the doctrine of God's sovereign election in this verse."

Philippians 1:29 and Ephesians 2:8 are equally compelling. The Word of God is clear: The full package of salvation, including faith, is from start to finish the work of God!

My final thought is, "Let God be God!" He is totally in charge of salvation, from start to finish. And the best of the old giant Bible teachers concur on this issue!