Can't Choose Your Belief

Imagine a life in which the Omnipotent Deity will save you if you can successfully high jump a five-foot bar or if you can perfectly sing "The Star Spangled Banner" in a stadium of 60,000 fans. There are plenty of potential requirements God could demand of people if God wanted to save people conditionally (as opposed to unconditionally). But the condition most Christians think is a prerequisite for salvation is faith.

As I will argue here, God might as well have required an Olympic level high jump or a vocal performance that makes professional singers nervous. Because if God requires a person to choose to believe in Jesus, it is no less impossible. You can't choose your belief.

Here at the Reimagining Paul blog, my purpose is to replace the common understanding of Paul with a historically sound and theologically accurate view of his life and message. The old perspective on Paul is of a law-obsessed Jew who discovered that Judaism offends God with legalism. So he became free from the law by accepting Jesus Christ, who allegedly came to do away with Judaism. This old view of Paul sees him as someone who failed at moral perfection and was thrilled to discover Jesus and the easier way to be saved: just believe.

Then you are forgiven, according to the common view, but not morally transformed. The hope—a rather weak one, I must say, based on observation—is that forgiven Christians will be so grateful for pie in the sky when they die that they will give money to the church and wave a friendly wave to their neighbors from time to time. Maybe they will even hold the door open for the elderly person with a walker. But, I mean, let's not expect any Mother Teresa's or Saint Francis's here.

Is this what Paul believed? May it never be! Let me be crystal clear about what Paul believes: God gives us everything and we do nothing to save ourselves.

The Common Understanding of Paul . . .

The common understanding of Paul—also called justification theory, the justification gospel, justification by faith, the Four Spiritual Laws, the Romans Road, and many other names—says God holds you responsible to conclude that he exists and that he requires moral perfection. And upon hearing someone talk about Jesus, you are supposed to listen to their arguments and be persuaded to believe in Jesus yourself.

As soon as you manage to change your belief, the Angry God who is hypercritical, will suddenly change his attitude toward you. Instead of torturing you with fire for eternity, he will love you. Your ability to choose faith changes everything. Your eternity hinges on the ability to choose faith.

Hurry up! Time waits for no one! You'd better believe today!

No. I wouldn't worship a God like that even if he existed and even if I was up against eternal flame. That God would be the devil. And I'm not just talking about the problem of God torturing people (although that would be enough right there to count me out) but that he requires something people cannot give.

Sure, it is possible for someone to persuade another person that Christ really lived, that he really rose from the dead, did miracles, etc. But that would be a decision to believe something about the past. By the same token, you might persuade someone that the Civil War was not about slavery. But such a belief will not last. Contrary evidence will wipe it out.

The one thing you cannot do is choose your belief. To believe something, you must be persuaded entirely (at least temporarily).

David Hume and the Problem of Belief . . .

The empirical philosopher David Hume said that our beliefs have more to do with our insecurities and passions than some kind of objective truth. In his worldview, we have access to nothing but our observations inside our minds and of things outside of our minds. There is no direct access to "objective" truth (see Douglas Campbell, The Deliverance of God, p. 57).

According to Hume, we are deeply insecure about death and all things unknown and hidden from us. Irrational passions led to the development of polytheistic religions and the same emotional fears produced monotheism.

Most importantly for our discussion, he said that belief does not arise from the will. If it did, we could choose to believe anything we want—a rose-colored world with benevolent fairies and every possible wish-fulfillment.

Quite simply: you cannot make yourself believe something no matter how much you want to believe it. You may want such-and-such a person to love you in the way you love them and you may want to believe they do. But you can't believe in their love unless you're actually persuaded of it. A belief in unicorns might make you happy (wouldn't the world be more beautiful if there were unicorns?) but you cannot make yourself believe in them, no matter how hard you try.

So, people outside of the church are right when they say, "Just because you believe in Jesus doesn't mean I can just start believing in him too."

How It Actually Works . . .

You don't decide to believe in Jesus. God gives the ability to believe to those he chooses. Faith is a gift; it is free.

Faith is not the condition of salvation in Jesus Christ. Faith is not the cause of our salvation in Christ. Faith is the result of our being saved. Faith is a sign that God has already begun working in us, a gift he has bestowed upon us, and it is not an accomplishment of our will but a blessing willed by God. If you find that you believe Jesus is Lord, then the Holy Spirit has done his work in you and you are a miracle.

Yes, this raises a number of questions.

Why doesn't God choose everyone? Maybe he does. Paul says in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 that the New Adam's salvation is far more powerful than the Old Adam's fall. He says Jesus will save "all of humanity." Yes, all, says Paul.

What if I don't believe in Jesus? Then what I am saying is good news. In my opinion—and I am not saying this out of pride or a need to be "right"—it is just not your time yet. But it will be. My advice would be, "Don't worry." There is nothing you need to do. God will do it for you in his time.

Is it fair that people get all these wonderful things and they didn't do anything to deserve them? It's not fair at all. But then "fairness" is a concept that already makes a huge assumption: people should only get what they deserve. Thank God this isn't strictly true!

You may have thought you were choosing God, but in reality he chose you. And you may think that this happened recently, or at least within your lifetime. But the Gospel Paul believes says the following:

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world . . .

—Ephesians 1:4 NASB

He predestined us to adoption

as sons and daughters

through Jesus Christ to Himself . . .

—Ephesians 1:5 NASB

But God, being rich in mercy,

because of His great love

with which He loved us,

even when we were dead in our wrongdoings,

made us alive together with Christ

(by grace you have been saved) . . .

—Ephesians 2:4-5 NASB

By grace you have been saved . . .

—Ephesians 2:8 NASB

This is not of yourselves;

It is the gift of God.

—Ephesians 2:8 NASB

And the same principle is operative after we receive the New Birth from God. We need divine aid to live lives free from Sin and Death, to overcome our immaturities and enslaving passions. And how do we get that aid?

We simply exercise the same faith that God gave us the ability to draw on. By simple trust we allow God to empower us with love and compassion, integrity and virtue. Having begun by faith—God-given faith, not faith we had to muster for ourselves—we are transformed by the same faith (Galatians 3:3).

There is value in studying, and there is merit in character work. But these will not by themselves prove successful in reforming our lives, at least not completely. Without divine enablement, our efforts will not overcome the powerful forces of Sin and Death.

God bestows faith on his children, faith that accompanies the New Birth and faith that transforms Christians into New Creations. You cannot do either of these things by your own will and power. No preacher can persuade you. Nor can you, by preaching, persuade someone else. It is God who wills and works.