Faith Without Works

Just this week I read the following on page 53 of the 2016 edition of the “rule book” of a major Christian religious organization; “God’s grace calls forth human response and discipline. Faith is the only response essential for salvation.” Actually, this belief, or one very similar to it is widely accepted among mainline Christian churches. Is it correct?

The real question is always, “What does the Bible say?” The answer is always what the Bible says. If you find your answers regarding how to please God outside of the Bible, you’re not finding what God said pleases Him. You’re finding how man wishes to please God.

There are, indeed, many passages that mention faith/believing, and nothing else, as a precursor to salvation; John 3:16, Acts 10:43, Acts 16:31, Rom. 1:16, Eph. 2:8, to list a few. There are also verses that mention only confession Matt. 10:32, only repentance Luke 13:3, and only baptism 1 Peter 3:21. There are no verses that state that faith is the only response necessary for salvation.

If I have faith and that alone saves me then I can go on to live however I choose. (Replace faith with confession or repentance or baptism, and the argument still holds.) I believe in God, and so I am saved. I could commit the entire list of sins in Gal. 5:19-21, because I have faith and that alone saves me. But someone will point out that at the end of that list the Bible says people who do such things will not enter Heaven. Indeed, there is more to it than faith (or confession, or repentance, or baptism) alone.

Imagine a person who has become a Christian and from that point on in their life they avoid all sin as mentioned in Gal. 5:19-21 and many other places. But there's nothing in their entire life that we could point to and say that they had positively done something good. I admit it’s hard for me to imagine the life that such a person would live. But assuming there is such a person who believes in Jesus Christ, never commits a sin, and likewise never does a single thing that could be considered good, how are they positioned in regard to eternal salvation?

Will their faith save them? If faith alone is what saves people, the answer must be yes. Peter has some interesting comments on such a subject. In 1 Peter 2:11, he tells us to “abstain from sinful desires.” So our example person has that covered.

But in verse 12, he tells us to “live such good lives among the pagans that . . . they may see your good deeds and glorify God . . .” The Bible tells us we should do good deeds. In verse 15, Peter says, “it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence ignorant talk.” It is God’s will that we do good deeds. In verse 21, Peter says, “Christ suffered for you, leaving an example, that you should follow in His steps.” Peter is also speaking in Acts 10:38, where he says that “Jesus . . . went about doing good.” If we follow in Jesus’ steps we will do good. Another interesting thought is found in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” So our example person fails miserably on the “doing good” side of the ledger.

Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), and other places, that we should do good. He also said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says unto me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven .” This is correctly understood as, “Not everyone that believes in Me (has faith) will be saved, but the one who does good works.”

The common sense conclusion of the above is that having faith is not a guarantee of salvation. In fact, it seems to indicate that good works are a rather important part of being pleasing to God which is definitely a prerequisite to getting into Heaven. But we must be quick to admit that good works are not a guarantee of salvation either. In fact, our good works will not earn us a place in Heaven at all. What does the Bible say?

In Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” God through His grace offered us the gift of salvation which we could never earn by works but can access through faith. The entire chapter of Romans 4 discusses how Abraham was credited with righteousness because of his faith and not because he earned it by the works that he did.

Paul’s point in Romans 4 is not that there is no value in good works. His point is that good works do not “clothe us in righteousness.” Righteousness would qualify us for Heaven, thus we would have earned it by the works that we have done. In other words, we would have put God in our debt. He would owe us salvation by the righteousness which we earned. Ephesians 2:8-9 is a commentary on Romans 4. We have nothing to boast of, because our salvation does not come through the work we do. It is a gift that God offers because of His grace. We can never put God in the position of owing us anything. We are the ones who owe him everything.

But it is wrong not to notice that because of his faith, Abraham left everything he knew to follow God to a land he didn’t know and did so without so much as asking a question, Genesis 12. He also, because of his faith, took his only son whom he loved to be offered as a sacrifice without asking a question, Genesis 22. Abraham was counted as righteous by God for the faith that led him to do these, and other, things, not because he did these things.

It helps to add the counsel of James into this discussion. Beginning in James 2:14 he begins writing words of inspiration pertinent to this subject, and includes the example of Abraham used by Paul in Romans 4. Some people think there is a contradiction between the two but that is shallow thinking. Read James 2:14-26 which I don’t have room to quote here. James points out that talking about faith without producing fruits of faith is useless, but that a person can demonstrate that they do indeed have faith by the fruits they produce.

In verse 22 he shows how in Abraham’s case faith and works were intimately related and as a result of the work he performed (offering Isaac, to the extent God allowed it) his faith was shown to be complete. James says in verse 24 that a person is not justified by faith alone, but by the works that faith produces. Paul’s point was simply that we can’t make God owe us salvation by our good works. Both concepts are correct and function compatibly. In verse 26, James says that faith without works is dead. The Greek word is “nekra” which properly translated is “dead.” That is the description of faith not accompanied by works.

What have we learned? Faith is necessary for salvation. But faith doesn’t guarantee salvation. Faith by itself is insufficient for salvation. Good works are necessary for salvation. But works don’t guarantee salvation, no matter how dedicated to good works we are, no matter how many we do, God will never owe us anything. We cannot put Him in our debt. Yet, no matter how imploringly we cry, “Lord, Lord,” Jesus doesn’t know us unless we do the works that are His Father’s will.

It seems both faith and works are necessary for salvation, while faith alone and works alone are insufficient for salvation. Works cannot earn us anything, they are done as a result of our faith leading us into them. But without works, faith is dead. Maybe arguing the value of either one by itself is the wrong thing to do. Maybe we must accept that the two are required together before any good comes of either. On that I’m certain Paul and James would agree.