In the previous post I noted, towards the end, that even the faith with which we, as regenerate spirits, believe and are justified through, is given to us by God. In reading through the book Mere Christianity by CS Lewis I came across this same idea presented in a very insightful illustration which I want to share with you:
“So that when we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God, I will tell you what it is really like. It is like a small child going to its father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’ Of course, the father does, and he is pleased with the child’s present. It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction.”
Thus, the question is, why does God even bother to grant us the faith if it is solely His work in the first place? And the answer, I feel, we can see in this illustration of the father, who could easily have bought for himself whatever present the child has purchased using the father’s money, but because it was the child who presented this gift to him it bore a more pleasing nature. Similarly, the Father could just present us to Himself without going through the trouble of granting us faith to believe, but in granting us such faith He is able to be glorified all the more when we do (as we must!) use it to believe in Him!
It is a very humbling knowledge to know that we are so completely depraved that even the faith to believe must come from God’s own mercy, and yet it is so much more praiseworthy that He had such a mercy on us at all. This is truly a wonderful act of love by the Father!
