Faith Cometh: First Mention Basics of Faith Pt. 2

In the early years after my conversion when I was learning how to evangelize and win souls, I had considerable trouble trying to find the proper place of faith in the design of grace. I understood grace to be pure unmerited favor, that salvation was a gift of God and was freely bestowed upon us for no cause within ourselves, and that none could boast in having received it (Eph. 2:8-9).

The words of the apostle Paul fit quite well into this picture: “But on God who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16). But the trouble can be illustrated in a device I had observed some evangelists use. After having preached his sermon, the preacher begins to give an invitation to accept Christ as Savior. In order to demonstrate the offer of salvation that can be accepted or rejected at the whim of the sinner, he takes a dollar bill out of his pocket and offers it to any boy or girl who will come to the front and accept it.

After some time of assuring them that the offer is real and no trick, some little boy gingerly steps out, walks down the aisle, and receives the bill. As soon as he has the bill in his hand, he turns around and walks back to his seat with a proud and victorious smirk on his face to the envy of the other children. Why did they not accept it? “They did not have enough faith,” the preacher says. Why did he? “He had faith,” the preacher concludes.

The boy is therefore proud of the fact that he excelled above everyone else. Such a demonstration of salvation pictures saints in heaven strutting and bragging about their faith which allowed them to enter, far superior to those sinners in hell who refused to trust Christ.

The same lie is presented to us today in the form of those who claim to heal by faith, to get certain spiritual gifts by faith, or who have great worldly goods which they claim to have gotten by faith.

If this is true, then faith has no place in the design of grace but belongs properly in the realm of meritorious works. But that cannot be the case. God designed salvation so that the very receiving of the gift would also come of grace.

Faith therefore is a duty wholly without merit within itself. One can never boast in his faith. It is the least any man is obliged to do, and anything less is manifest wickedness in unbelief.

Consider the mother who bears a child in her womb for nine months. She suffers the travail of giving birth to him. She nurses him, feeds him, changes, and washes him. She binds up all his bruises and comforts him in all of his sorrows as he enters boyhood. She cares for him night and day through all of his childhood diseases, sitting up late at night, and rising early in the morning to care for his needs. After he is grown, should she reward him for calling her his mother? Indeed not! Anything less would be unforgivable.

Having received so much from her hand, what should possess him to refuse her honor except his own ungrateful, proud, and wicked heart? He will not allow himself to be in anyone’s debt. He has his own designs into which the mother does not fit, and he would rather forget about her. In the same way, what father would not be offended when the son he has begotten forsakes him, his wisdom, and his goodness to prefer help from his enemy? You see now the great offensiveness of unbelief. No wonder unbelief is the sin that sends men to hell. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

Salvation is of faith, that it might be by grace. True Biblical faith finds a way to bestow the gift and yet still be pure grace. It excludes any boasting of the receiver’s attainment.

Therefore when you hear someone telling you how to believe in God and thereby acquire blessings, bragging about how he got certain possessions because of how he lives by faith, you can be sure he knows neither of faith nor grace. “In this way, you also, when you do all the things which are commanded of you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done’” (Luke 17:10).

CONRAD MURRELL
Conrad Murrell served in evangelistic ministry for over 50 years and was powerfully used by God in many Assemblies of God and Baptist churches in the United States and around the world. Throughout that time, Conrad pastored churches in Texas and Louisiana, successfully hosted numerous Bible conferences, engaged in continuous itinerant preaching, and diligently evangelized throughout the United States and Mexico. In addition to his fruitful ministry, he also wrote several books, many of which are read worldwide today. Mack Tomlinson's biography of Conrad Murrell is a testimony of God's grace and truth in the life of a man called by God for the proclamation of the Gospel.

Conrad Murrell was a significant contemporary and friend to two of the 20th Century's leading experts on revival, Leonard Ravenhill and Richard Owen Roberts, as well as a dearly loved co-laborer and associate of several other significant evangelists of our age, such as Manley Beasley and Al Whittinghill. Like them, he was a committed, passionate, and anointed itinerant minister. He was a man's man, a man of conviction and grit, but most importantly, he was God's man—a man completely devoted to his Lord and Savior.