Romans 10:17 (17) So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Faith does not come through natural genetic processes. Faith truly has a vital link with blood—the blood of Christ, whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith (Romans 3:25). But an individual does not inherit faith through a natural bloodline; God did not see fit to encode faith in human DNA, so that it could be passed to offspring. Christs disciples, in asking Him to increase our faith (Luke 17:5), exhibit their understanding that God, not genetics, is the ultimate source of faith. Because God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34; see Romans 2:11), He has no proclivity to limit His giving and increasing of faith to a particular racial stock. For that reason, faith as a characteristic does not belong to a particular race as, say, a set of facial features is peculiar to a given race. In His time, then, God made faith available to the Gentiles and with it, spiritual salvation, which has its taproot in faith: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, . . . [so] that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Galatians 3:13-14). Peter says as much to the church gathered in Jerusalem. In Acts 11:17-18, he connects the gift given to the Gentiles with belief—faith—in Christ: If therefore God gave them [Gentiles] the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? When they heard these things they became silent: and they glorified God, saying, Then has God also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. Gods Israel crosses natural racial or ethnic distinctions; the faithful of any race make up the Israel of God. These are the faithful who receive the blessing of Abraham (Galatians 3:14).
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 07:31:08 +0000