Romans 10:17 (17) So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. New King James Version Change your email Bible version 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). — Charles Whitaker
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:57:08 +0000