Gospel Guidebook: Getting and Keeping It Right 
Faith is NOT a Choice
by Robert P. TerryUpdated July 20, 2025
There are many people who think that faith is a choice because God commands us to believe. However, the command to believe simply points us to what needs to be done. But what needs to be done leaves no room for choice. Faith is being persuaded that the content of the Gospel is true. You are either persuaded or you aren't. There is no choice in the matter. If faith is a choice, then faith saves. If faith is a persuasion, then the object of faith saves. This is the difference between appropriation (which is a form of works salvation) and grace. However, if we believe that Christ did it all, then we know that we don't appropriate anything. Rather, Christ confers the benefits of His salvation upon us and faith is simply His way of revealing it to us.
Justification by faith is being persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the One who accomplished a justifying act on the cross. It can be experienced every time a person believes. The initial instance of justification by faith is accompanied by regeneration. Because of this, we might be tempted to make too much of this initial instance of faith, as if it was faith itself that justified us. When Jesus told people that their faith saved them or when the Scripture says that Abraham's faith was imputed to him for righteousness, we have to realize that faith represents its object. This is why Jesus said to the blind men, "Do you believe that I can do this?" (emphasis added). It's the object of faith that matters. The blind men didn't save themselves. Jesus saved them. There is nothing inherently good about faith. Faith is nothing more than the faculty of the mind that assents to something being true. In many instances, the object of a person's faith, instead of saving them, can actually destroy them. For example, people who believe in a false god are harmed by the object of their faith. People who believe in money are deceived by the object of their faith. In these instances, the problem doesn't lie in faith itself, but the object of faith. In the case of justification by faith, faith is being persuaded that the content of the Gospel is true, by which we recognize that Jesus did it all. But if this is the case, then there is no room for choosing or appropriating anything.
When someone believes the Gospel, assurance is of the essence of faith. However, assurance is only possible to the extent that such a person is currently believing the Gospel. For example, if such a person believed the Gospel and was justified by faith years ago, but then fell away from the faith for a while, his justification remains valid because it was accomplished for him by Christ on the cross, but he doesn't enjoy the assurance of it until he believes the Gospel afresh. If he were to look back to a past instance of faith for assurance, he would not be believing the Gospel, but would be believing faith. It is a big mistake to get assurance from faith itself or think that we have favor with God because we supposedly made a choice to accept Jesus so many years ago. Instead, our assurance must come from believing the Gospel. The Gospel is our only source of assurance.