The other day I was struck by the fact of just how utterly dependent upon God we really are. Not that I had never thought about this, but for whatever reason, this particular morning the thought stayed with me in a way it had not necessarily done in quite a while. I was reading Luke 18:35-43:

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Upon restoring the man’s sight, Jesus tells him in verse 42: “Recover your sight, your faith has made you well.” Jesus commends that man for his faith, but that very faith was a gift from God in the first place. In John 6:44 and 65, Jesus says that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws them. In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul says that prior to salvation, we are spiritually dead (we see the same concept in Ezekiel 37 and the vision of the “valley of dry bones”).

Regardless what you think Paul is referring to as the “gift of God” in Ephesians 2:8-9, this much is clear: salvation, which certainly includes faith, is a gift from God. It is not something we have done, it is not something we can claim, it is a gift of God. If it were not so, we would certainly boast, even if it appears in something as sublte as a pat on the back. It’s human nature to take credit, but Paul nips this in the bud saying that the entire thing, salvation as a whole is a gift from God.

So we have Jesus commending a man for the faith that Jesus gave to him in the first place! We are utterly dependent on God in every aspect of life, including the faith which we are responsible to exercise, for that faith itself must come from God. How wonderful, how marvelous it is that we love and serve a God who is faithful to Himself and will not share His glory with another, nor let His name be profaned (Isaiah 48:9-11) and who will call His children from the ends of the earth (Isaiah 43:6).

May God continue to grant us the faith necessary to cling to Him.

• Read The Doctrine of God: A Theology of Lordship by John Frame
• Read The Existence and Attributes of God by Stephen Charnock
• Read The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life by A.W. Tozer