FAITH, New birth comes first, C. H. Cayce We most assuredly think you are correct in saying salvation precedes faith. If faith is used in the sense of belief, then it is a mental act, an act of the mind. The unregenerate man is in possession of a carnal mind, and the carnal mind is enmity against God. He is not in possession of a spiritual mind, or the mind of Christ. For one to be in possession of a natural mind, or carnal mind, be must necessarily be in possession of the natural life. Then no act produced in or by the natural or carnal mind can be in order to the receiving of natural life, but proceeds from that life. No stream can possibly rise higher than the fountain head, and no effect can be higher than the source from whence it comes. Then a belief or faith produced in or by the carnal mind can be no higher than the mind, the source from whence it springs. The mind can produce nothing above itself. Then in order that one have true spiritual faith or belief he must first have the spiritual life— he must first possess a spiritual mind.
We learn from Gal. 5:22 that faith is a fruit of the Spirit. Anyone can understand that in nature the vine produces the fruit. The grape is an evidence that the vine existed first. The first grape sprang from the first vine. It is the vine that produces the grape.
This is true with reference to every kind of natural fruit. The tree or vine produces the fruit. Hence the tree or vine must necessarily exist first. One must first possess the tree in order to produce the fruit. So one must possess the Spirit in order to produce faith, which is a fruit of the Spirit. If one is in possession of the Spirit he is already a child of God, is already in possession of eternal life, has already been born of God. In Rom. 8:9 the apostle says, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Every proposition has two sides to it— an affirmative and a negative. In this proposition the apostle affirms the negative side of the question, and the other side of it must, of necessity, be “if any man have the Spirit of Christ, he is one of His.” As it is true that one must have the Spirit in order to produce the fruit of the Spirit, it follows that one must be Christ’s in order to have faith. This means that he must be Christ’s in the sense of regeneration— in possession of the Spirit of Christ.
1st John 5:1 says, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” This is the
King James translation. When we see one who is a true believer in Jesus we know that one is born of God. How do we know it? We know it from the fact that the belief is the fruit and the evidence of the birth. Being the fruit and the evidence of the birth it cannot possibly precede the birth.
The Interlinear or literal translation of this passage reads, “Every one that believes that Jesus is the Christ, of God has been begotten.” To translate the words so they would read easier in the English we have it this way, “Every one that believes that Jesus is the Christ, has been begotten of God,” or “has been born of God.” The word is correctly translated “has been born” as well as “has been begotten,” for it means the same. Then the one who truly believes in Jesus has been born of God. The birth is first. John 1:11-13 says, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” We are told here that those who believe on Him were born of God. The birth preceded the belief, and their believing was an evidence that they were born of God. Those who believed had been born of God. Eternal life is given first, and faith follows after, and is an evidence of the previous existence of life.
These are only a few of the reasons which might be given and evidences that might be produced showing that eternal salvation or eternal life precedes true faith in Jesus, but we deem these to be sufficient. May the Lord bless these remarks to the good of every reader. The Primitive Baptist, October 30, 1906.