WHERE DOES BELIEVING, OR FAITH, ORIGINATE?

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in Him whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent?"

"So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."
Romans 10:14-17

In response to teaching on "simple believing is the means of being given God's righteousness" (Romans 4:1-12), someone texted to me this question:  If belief brings about righteousness, where does belief originate?

The question has been greatly debated among Christians who think theologically.

SOME INSIST THAT GOD GIVES A PERSON HIS/HER FAITH

Some fellow Christians insist that human beings--so ruined by the effects of sin in and through the entirety of our person--are not capable of understanding truth or believing in Christ.  In short, they are not able to believe even when hearing the truth.  We are (as they understand the Bible's description of fallen men) not only "totally depraved" but also "totally incapable."

This means, then, that should anyone come to faith in Christ, it is because a sovereign and gracious God gives not only the gift of righteousness (or justification), but also He gives the capability of understanding and believing the truth.  This is often known as the "regeneration-before-faith" view, and it suggests that God sovereignly regenerates a person first, so that such a one has his/her faith-capability restored to believe, and then be given righteousness.

The group of people who understand it this way usually identify themselves as "Calvinists" (i.e., following the theological framework that came from the writings of Protestant Reformer John Calvin, 16th Century), or "reformed" in their theological outlook.

For whom, then, does God do this?  For those whom He has sovereignly chosen to be His own.  Those He has not chosen are not granted this divinely initiated pre-faith regeneration.  Not chosen, and not capable of believing even when presented the truth of Christ, they (the non-elect) are lost forever.

OTHERS SEE A MORE COOPERATIVE PROCESS DESCRIBED IN SCRIPTURE

There are other Christians who agree that sin has thoroughly effected the capabilities of all human beings, but do not see Scripture teaching "total incapability."  Rather, while the "image of God" in man has been compromised by sin, still human beings are able to understand truth and respond to it with a faith that arises from within, especially when aided by the convincing and convicting work of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 16:8-11).

This viewpoint recognizes that even fallen-in-sin persons retain a capability to evaluate truth (both general and special revelation from God) and make a decision to accept it or reject it.  In short, we all still can understand information, and make a call on believing it or not.  Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself."  John said about Jesus, the Word, that he is the "light which enlightens every man."  So the Holy Spirit is active in presenting the truth about God, and the grace and truth found in Jesus Christ, drawing men toward faith, and urging them to believe.

However, this approach would not see God "regenerating someone before faith," but rather a more simultaneous process:  God drawing, people responding.  The choice is still man's, but the persuasion is from the Spirit.  Theologically, those who see the process this way are sometimes identified as "Arminians," or following the convictions of a Dutch theologian, Jacob Arminius.

HERE IS WHAT SEEMS CLEARLY TAUGHT

In my view, what is very clear and consistently presented in Scripture is that God gets the Word, or the Gospel, or the truth, out there in the power of the Holy Spirit, and women/men are called on to believe it.  When someone believes and trusts in what God has done and promised, righteousness is given, justification is declared, and such a one finds herself/himself in the family of God.  It's tough to improve on the simplicity of Romans 10 (quoted above) -- when the word of Christ is preached, faith can happen.   "If anyone believes," Jesus said in John 3:16,. "he/she will not perish, but have everlasting life."