Does Salvation By Faith Alone Mean “No Works Required”?
Faith Alone Versus Faith With Works
There is this constant debate within the Christian community of salvation by faith alone and faith plus works. Both camps point to various scripture verses to support their views so it appears that scripture contradicts itself. Let’s remember that, The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting (Psalm 119:160). It is important that Christians take whole passages into context when examining the meaning behind bible verses. The Holy Spirit inspired all scripture and He would not contradict Himself. So let’s dig in by defining these ‘works’.
The Works That Displease God
Trying to obey God in the flesh, through “self-reliance”, means we do not rely on the Holy Spirit and so we fall outside of God’s grace. This means we do not truly have faith in Jesus because we’re trying to figure it out on our own. This means we tried to save ourselves instead of relying on Jesus as our Savior through His Holy Spirit to guide us. These works we produce are called ‘works of the flesh’. Jesus said, “For what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:22-23). These works reek of sinfulness and are detestable to God.
If we fail to obey Jesus in this way, we are only deceiving ourselves by taking His grace for granted, and He will call us out as He predicted He would in Matthew 7:21-23:”Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
The Works That Please God
When the bible warns Christians of trusting in your works for salvation, this refers to the works you decide to do on your own effort and merit outside of Christ. Many Christians don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus and are going through the motions of warming up a church pew on Sundays, living their lives as sinfully as they want, and think they’re going to heaven just because of whatever law-keeping (they think) they’re doing and charitable works. God does not want us to live life the way we want, but the way HE wants in holiness. He expects us to be holy because He is holy. He hates and does NOT tolerate sin. And sin gets in the way of holiness and separates us from God.
If Christians do not turn away from their sins, you end up with situations where that sinfulness appears even in their works for God. For example, consider priests, laymen, or missionaries who had molested the populations they were serving. Because they did not address their own sinfulness, their good works for their communities cannot give glory to God and are like “filthy rags” to Him. Now this is an extreme example of how sin can taint our works for God. But no matter how big or how small our sins appear to us, they are still a big deal to our holy and righteous God. And He will not accept our good works while they are tainted with sin. These kind of works are unacceptable offerings to God.
Consider in the book of Genesis when God accepted Abel’s offering, but rejected Cain’s offering. While the story does not record exactly why He rejected Cain’s sacrifice, we can only surmount that God probably saw something within Cain’s heart that was not right as he presented his offering. Instead of repenting, Cain unfortunately killed his brother Abel. Given how extreme his response was towards his brother, one could conclude that Cain perhaps had born some grudge against him before the presentation of the offerings.
In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus says “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” Here, Jesus put the onus on the person making the offering to reconcile with those who they know may have a grudge towards that person. But we could imagine the same onus applies if that person carries a grudge towards someone else, that person would be need to reconcile. Either way, the bible emphasizes that before offering a gift to God, you should make amends with anyone you have a disagreement with. What this implies is that the intention and condition of your heart matters with which you present your offerings or works for God matters to Him.
Why Works Are Important
Let us be clear that our works, even the ones acceptable to God, are not our ticket to heaven. Salvation is through faith alone and our good works are a result of salvation, not the cause of it. Works are still important because they bear witness of our faith in God to our world. James 2:18 states, “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). We were created for good works. Ephesians 2:10 states, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”.
Jesus repeatedly emphasized works as well as belief in Him throughout His ministry. He said all people would know we are his disciples if we love one another (John 13:35). Love is used here as an action, a work, not a ‘feeling’. Several times Jesus commanded us to bear good fruit and even said you could discern who were truly his followers by their fruits.
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:19-20). Jesus said every good tree bears good fruit and every bad tree bears bad fruit (Matthew 7:17). What does ‘fruit’ represent? These fruits are every word and deed that comes from our hearts. Not only that, the Bible repeats over and over again that on Judgement Day, Jesus will judge us according to our works (Revelation 20:13, Matthew 16:27, Romans 2:6).
Now the response to Jesus’ message is not for us to run around and doing what we think are good works to earn His favor. That is the very wrong approach. Remember that the ‘good trees’ bear ‘good fruit’. Jesus wants us to become ‘good trees’ in order to produce the fruit He desires. How? True faith in God should cause you to want to become more like Christ in character, and within that character, your works demonstrate your faith. In fact, God gave us the Holy Spirit to help conform us to the holiness of Christ. This process is called sanctification. Part of this process is repenting from our sins and obeying what the Holy Spirit tells us to do so that we can become more holy. This is how the Holy Spirit helps us become ‘good trees’.
And the Holy Spirit will initiate His works through us as we submit to Him so that our outflowing actions that result from our pure hearts are pleasing to God. These works are not derived from our own initiatives, personal ambitions/beliefs/desires/fears etc. outside of Christ. Instead, the Holy Spirit, who converts our hearts and sets our minds with the right intentions for our actions, initiates and drives these works in us. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). These are the works that please God. These works also demonstrate that your faith is true and bear witness to God’s power. These are the ‘good fruits’ that Jesus expects us to produce in our lives.
Seek The Holy Spirit To Direct Your Faith
It is impossible to turn away from our sins or perform Godly works without the help of the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Truth and knows our inner most hearts and sees our blind spots. The Holy Spirit will direct us to repent of our sins while cleansing our hearts of sinful mindsets. He will also direct our actions. And if we are obedient in this practice, then we will know we’re on track to fulfilling God’s will without us vainly trying to do works on our own accord in the flesh.
Therefore, pursuing a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit is of utmost importance for every Christian. This is how we ensure Jesus will acknowledge us on Judgement Day. Please don’t take God’s grace for granted by saying “you believe in Jesus” and think you can live your life the way you want. A self-directed life is not a Christ-centered life, but a life of unbelief. Seek and submit to the Holy Spirit today.
