Salvation of Faith or Salvation of Works...

This comes from the first part of a 3 night study that I did several months ago during our Mid-Week Service.  I’ve just noted some of my thoughts from that first part of the study.  I may share more on this a little later… 

The dynamics of Salvation… The workings of Salvation…  The plan of Salvation…  It’s so very important to understand and comprehend to the best of our ability as believers.  There has been a debate ongoing for some 2,000 years as to how we are saved, by Faith or by Works.  I believe the scripture is clear on this topic and in this brief overview, I would like to clarify.

There are some folks who believe that your Works are the most important part of your life as a child of God, yet there’s another group who believes that Faith is the most important part of your life…

Let’s look to the Word of God to find the basis of the controversy and then attempt gain proper perspective and clarification on the matters.

Saved By Faith

Romans 3:21-28 (My Words in Parenthesis for Emphasis and Clarification)

21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, (Referring to the Righteousness of God being imputed to us by faith in the Finished Work of Christ Jesus) to all and on all who believe. (Believing is the requirement)  For there is no difference;

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,he's saying

25 whom God set forth as a propitiation (An atonement or a Substitute) by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

27 Where is boasting then? (A legalistic doctrine of works will always produce boasting) It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.

28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. (We are justified ONLY by faith in the Substitutionary Finished Work for us by Christ Jesus and NEVER through the works that we commit or omit).

A brief Definition of Justified ~ “No Prosecution Pending”.

So the Apostle Paul clearly states here that we are not justified by our works, but we’re justified freely and completely simply by Faith.  And that wonderful news!

Now, let’s look at the other side of the coin…

Saved By Works

James 2:14 (My Words in Parenthesis for emphasis and clarification)

14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?   Can faith save him?  (Keep this in context. Remember what type of faith James is speaking of here).

15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,

16 and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  (Speaking of ‘Lip Service’ Faith which helps no one.)

17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead, being alone. (Again, Living Faith will produce proper Works. If Faith doesn’t produce proper Works, then it’s declared ‘Dead’)

18 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble! (Simply believing in God is not Living Faith or rather Saving Faith. Hundreds of Millions believe in God, just as the demons do, but their Faith does not have the Finished Work of Christ Jesus as the object of their Faith for Salvation)

20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? (Again, Faith that does not produce proper Works is declared ‘Dead Faith’)

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? (This scripture has been taken out of context and often times used as a standalone scripture to build a Legalistic Works Based Salvation. That is False! It must be kept in it’s proper context with verse 22)

22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? (He’s clearly stating that his works were simply the Proof of his Faith. The focus is not on the works, but on Faith producing Works)

23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God.

24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. (This is another passage that has been misused and taken out of context many times. It must be kept in the proper context and flow of the entire passage. James is simply clarifying what he’s already stated in the text which is that Living Faith in the Finished Work of Christ Jesus is what Justifies an individual and that Justification will be proven by proper Works. If a person has a Faith which produces nothing, they are deceiving themselves)

25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? (One more beautiful picture of Faith that produced proper Works)

26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (Remember, Dynamic, Living, Saving Faith in the Finished Work of Christ Jesus will always produce proper works and victory in a life. However, simply having a lip service faith or a confession which produces no life or good works according to the Word of God, will condemn you.)

Now, the bottom line is that you either believe that you are saved by the Grace of God through Faith in the Finished Work of Christ Jesus on your behalf or you’re saved based upon your own works and performance.  There’s no alternative.  You’ll either believe one or the other, but not both. 

There are many who claim to believe in Salvation by Grace through Faith, yet they also attach some form of Works, Rules, Law, Etc. to it, thereby making it a doctrine of Salvation by Works which is Faith in us and not in Christ.

It is in our human nature to believe that we must do something in order to be saved.  We have trouble accepting the fact that there is absolutely nothing that we can do to save ourselves.  For if we could, then Christ died in vain.  The truth is, He died for us and completed the work in our behalf that we could never complete ourselves.  Our works are all in vain and useless when it comes to Salvation.

Still, most of us have heard since we were toddlers things like, “If you’ll be a good boy, you’ll go to heaven” or “If you want Jesus to love you, you’re gonna have to be good”.  And from a very early age, we build a perception that somehow our goodness plays a role in our acceptance with God.  Therefore, it makes perfect since from that viewpoint that we can only be saved if we’re good enough.

But then there’s the other side who says, “Wait a minute now!  You’re not saved based upon your works and your performance, but you’re saved by faith apart from your works!” But, here’s what it all boils down too; Either we’re gonna believe God’s Word as it stands or not! As for me, I’m gonna believe His Word!

Now some would say, “Yes, but James and Paul are contradicting one another”.  Hear me, there are no contradictions in God’s Word, whatsoever! If you find something in the Bible that appears to be a contradiction, trust me, His Word isn’t wrong, it’s just that you’re understanding isn’t clear.  And so, we need to seek clarification and revelation of His Word.

One thing that we must understand is that you cannot build an entire doctrinal stance based upon just one scripture.  There are some denominations and ministries which do that, but remember scripture always interprets scripture.

2 Corinthians 13:1 says, “By the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established.”

And so if there’s a major doctrinal text in the Bible, it’s not something that God’s going to say just once, but His Word will continually bear that Truth out.  When you take something out of context, it can seem one way, but in reality it was meant an entirely different way.

Also remember that not everything in the Bible was written to you.  It’s all meant for your edification and the building of your faith, but it’s not written directly to, nor about you.  There are some things which were written directly to the Jewish people and not to us and just like reading someone else’s mail, you can read something in the Bible written strictly concerning the Jewish people and try to apply it to you and come away completely confused. So recognize that it’s not all concerning you directly.

So when we view these 2 passages of scripture, written by two great men of God, one being the Apostle Paul who is the writer of the majority of our New Testament and the other being James, a Pastor in Jerusalem, we must understand that they are writing from 2 entirely different perspectives.

Paul is writing a Doctrinal Epistle or A Doctrinal Truth and he proclaims this exact same truth several times over throughout his other Epistles.

James, on the other hand, is a Pastor who is writing concerning practical Christianity for people who are Saved.

Paul tells us plainly, that we are justified completely by Faith and Faith alone and of course, we realize that the faith of which he is speaking is a Dynamic Faith or a Living Faith in the Finished Work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.  He’s telling us in essence, that we are saved based upon the Finished Work of Jesus and not our own Works, regardless of how wonderful they may be.  In God’s sight, they are as filthy rags!

It is impossible to do anything to earn or merit your own salvation. You can’t cry hard enough. You can’t tithe long enough. You can’t be baptized by a certain formula. You can’t think pure enough. You can’t walk straight enough. You can’t dress modest enough.  It is impossible to DO anything to obtain your own salvation. PERIOD!

However, If truly are saved, the Fruit or the Evidence of your salvation is that works will follow.  Salvation produces Works, but Works do Not produce Salvation!

We don’t know that people in the church have been saved because they’re doing good works.  However, we do know that if they really are saved good works will begin to follow…

Now there are some folks who believe that just because they’re saved, they now don’t have to do one blessed thing, and the truth of it is, you don’t HAVE to, but AFTER you’re saved, you should WANT to.  And honestly, if after you’re born again, your desires don’t begin to change and you don’t have a desire to live righteously and to do good works, then that causes me to question your new birth!

One problem within the ‘Church-World’ today, is that it has been propagated by many ministries and across many pulpits for far too long that if someone repeats a sinner’s prayer, that they suddenly got saved.  They’ve been told, that if they’ll just repeat some words that a preacher or someone else tells them to say, that they’re saved.

That is NOT Scriptural and it’s caused many to believe that they’re saved when in actuality not one thing genuinely happened in their life.

Romans 10:9&10 says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Now, it did not say “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

It didn’t say that at all!

It said, “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus AND believe in YOUR HEART that God raise Him from the Dead, you shall be saved.”

You can speak words with your mouth all you want to.  You can repeat some Sinner’s Prayer.  You can confess Jesus all day long, but believing it in your head won’t save you.  People say all the time, “Well if you’ll just believe in Jesus, you’ll be saved”. NO YOU WON’T!  The Devil believes in Jesus and that joker sure isn’t saved!

Listen, you can walk into just about any Crack House or whatever and ask people, “Do you believe in Jesus?”  And most will reply in all sincerity, “Well of course I do!” And many may even go onto say, “Yes, I’m a Christian!”  They sincerely believe it in their head, but there’s a difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge and what you believe in your head will not produce life! But when you get that down on the inside of your heart and it gets into your inward man, it will produce new life in you and you will never be the same again!  You will be a changed individual!

It’s not good enough just to walk around and say, “I’m Saved!”  If you’re really saved, it’ll show forth. It will produce fruit or rather evidence of the change that’s taken place in your heart and life!

You say, “Well, I didn’t think works were important!”  They’re not as for as attaining Salvation, but following Salvation they are the fruit thereof.  The Bible says, “You’ll know them by the fruit that they bear!”  I say it oftentimes, that I’m not talking about Perfection here.  Please don’t ever get into the mindset that your own expectation of yourself is perfection, because when you think like that and you make a mistake, as we all do, you’ll say, “What’s the use? I’ll never be able to serve God!” and you’ll just throw in the towel!

That’s not proper Christianity!  That’s just stupidity!  Everybody makes mistakes!  The difference is that when you’re truly saved, you don’t WANT to make them over and over and over again!  You don’t want to live the same way that you used to! You don’t want to do the things you used to do!  And the Spirit now residing in you will begin producing fruit in your life that begins to cause you to look a little bit more like Jesus.

Listen, I hear people all the time and you probably do to saying things like, “Well, they know I believe in God!”  But saying you believe in God don’t mean one thing. Saying it amounts to nothing unless there is some change that comes along with that.

If you say you’re saved, but you never have a desire to change, then I’ll say it bluntly – You Don’t Know Jesus!  If you can still cuss and raise all kinds of Hell on Earth and hang out in barrooms all night and that don’t even bother you, then you need to get saved! Because when you truly get saved, again you’re not perfect, but there’s something dwelling within you that makes you want to change. And when you do foul up, the Holy Spirit living in you will convict you and you’ll ask God to forgive you and help you not to do that again.

Again, looking back to our text in James 2:19 & 20, “You believe there is one God. You do well!  Even the demons believe – And tremble!  But do you want to know O foolish man, Faith without works is dead?”

He speaking here of Dead Faith and Dead Faith is basically people who have a profession, but they have no evidence in their life. Those often become professional church goers. They’re attenders and they may even be givers, but they’re really just going through traditional motions.  And all they have is a Profession of Faith.  But there’s never any change in their life.

They can still go out on the weekend and party all night long…

They can cuss you out and never think twice about it…

They can sleep around all over town…

They can just keep on living just like they always have.

The only difference is, now they go to church and look the part, but there’s no real change!

And Churches of every name and denomination are full of people of Dead Faith!

It sounds good, but it don’t produce any real fruit!

We’ve got a huge tree on our property next door to the church that’s dead. It’s still standing…  It still looks like a tree…  But we don’t expect any production from that tree in the future because it’s dead…

And there really are many people in churches just the same…  Their lives don’t produce anything because they’re not connected to the True Vine…  They don’t really know Jesus and there faith is simply dead…

Then again in James 2:19 he says, “If you believe in one God, you do well.  Even demons believe…”

That means that even the Devil himself has faith and again, we know that he’s not saved!

The text goes on and says that “He believes and TREMBLES”…

He believes and even becomes emotional…

And we see that same sort of faith and emotion often times played out in the lives of people in church.  I’ve been around people at church who could shout on Sunday Morning.  Cry and Dance around and scream like an Apache Indian on the Warpath and then live like the Devil the other 6 days of the week…

It’s not Real Saving Faith or it would produce something other than a little emotional response in church…

That’s pure Demonic Faith in action!

But the faith that God is looking for and desiring, is that Dynamic, Living Faith in the Finished Work of Jesus Christ on our behalf and nothing else!  That’s a Faith that will change the way that you live.  That’s a Faith that will put victory in your life.  That’s the only Faith that God will recognize!

Through it, God will produce Good Works in your life and began forming your character into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Matthew 7:16 Jesus said, “You will know them by the fruit that they bear.”

Titus 2:6-7, “Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works;”

God wants there to be Good Works in the lives of His children, but they will not save you.  They’ll simply be the product of your Salvation!

I’m so grateful for price that Jesus paid to purchase my salvation and give me liberty!  I'm also grateful to know that I'm completely Justified simply by faith in what He's already done for me.  That's truly Amazing Grace!

Thinkin’ Out Loud,

Pastor Robbie