Faith or Works?

Faith or Works?

As I sat on the mower and mowed most of the property at my job today, I thought about faith and works, which our Christian community as a whole seems to struggle with.  Depending on who you talk to and what type of Christian faith they have been raised in, you will get a whole variety of answers about being saved in relation to faith and works.  Some say that faith alone without any other change in the person's life is all that is necessary to go to heaven.  Some say believing in Jesus is important but your works are what get you to heaven.  Some will say that being a good person is the only thing that matters.  You will even hear from time to time someone say that neither faith nor works matter because God is too loving to allow anyone to perish.


I am always perplexed by the shear magnitude of interpretations people can come up with utilizing the same Biblical text as their evidence.  In a world that is highly resistant to the idea of absolute truth, the world's contention is that each person is right to have and believe their own truth.  I personally believe the Bible wasn't created so we could all find our own separate truth and way to heaven.  I believe God created the Bible through men as a way for us to know the one way to eternity in Heaven.  Though many would disagree with this statement, I believe the Bible is perfectly created as a instruction manual on how to live life with God and for God allowing us to find complete joy and peace in God.


The main passages dealing with being justified in Christ through faith or works are as follows:  

• For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20
• For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Romans 3:28
• For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:3
• And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Romans 4:5
• You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. James 2:24
• For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. James 2:26

These verses represent the battlegrounds for many Christians who argue for why they are right about their belief on either side of the faith or works argument.  The problem with this is that James in no way refutes what Paul says in Romans.  He just adds to Paul's argument about justification.  James is not arguing against being justified by faith.  He is only saying that in being truly saved your genuine faith will produce works.  This can be seen as James speaks about true faith and fake faith in the full passage of James 2:14-26.

As I was thinking about this concept, the Lord laid on my heart an example of what James is talking about in terms we can understand.  Say I told my wife I love her and yet did not show my love in anyway.  I refused to encourage her, want to get to know her, have any desire to hang out with her, or allow her to get close to me without being repulsed.  On top of all this, I spent time hanging out with other girls, hugging everyone else I met, giving people praise, and always jumping at an opportunity to hang out and get to know other people.  

Now on the other hand, I tell my wife I love her and spend the rest of my life trying to learn new ways to show her.  I love spending time with her and learning about each facet of who she is.  I am happy to take the time to craft a wonderful expression of my love.  I am more than willing to announce my love for my wife on the nearest mountain top or park bench.  When people look at us together they can see how passionately in love I am with her.  


Though I said I loved my wife in both scenarios, which one do you truly believe to be real love?  The works are not what makes my love true but are in fact evidence of my true love.  It is in my actions that the love within me is visible to others.  So what James was talking about at the end of chapter two is the difference between saying you have faith and living your faith.  The works do not save you but they are a natural out crying of the genuine faith you have.  When you have true faith just like when you have true love, you just can't keep from living out the implication of this glorious belief inside you.


So just as Paul says in Romans you are indeed justified by faith alone but as James expounded upon your true faith will indeed produce works in your life.  So I ask you today.  If you profess to be a follower of Jesus and have faith that Jesus indeed is the savior who came to this world lived, taught, died, and rose again, can you see natural culminations of works in your life as an outpouring of this faith and love you have towards Jesus?  If not, I hope you will take some serious time to examine whether you truly know or have faith in Jesus at all.  If you discover that your faith indeed is genuine, then never let the devil keep you from living your faith daily.  If you discover that you have never truly known Jesus, I hope you will take a true leap of faith today and allow the Holy Spirit to work a true change in your walk and heart.


Blessings,


Another good resource on this topic is Are we Justified by Faith (Romans) or Works (James)?.  In the article on Carm.org the author goes much deeper in explaining the issue than I can.  

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http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?fundraiser_id=3437&url=roadtofreedomforproclaimingchrist

Justified Through Jesus Alone

I read a message today that mentioned the hope that this person would be good enough to get into heaven.  I have to say that my heart sank upon reading those words.  There isn't anything anyone can do to be good enough to go to heaven.  To be good enough, you would have to live a sinless life that is perfectly aligned in God's will.  The Bible makes it clear that it is impossible to do that.

I believe Romans 3:9-31 gives a clear explanation of what it takes to get to heaven and why Jesus is the only way.  I have decided to use The Message paraphrase for this post for easier reading but the link will take you to the ESV translation.  The Message helps to offer a modern day language perspective of this passage but I highly recommend you also read the ESV translation and take the time to understand what Paul is saying here.

There is a lot to this passage and this passage is incredibly important to understanding our need for Jesus.  I hope this passage helps to deepen your faith as you seek to walk closer with Jesus.  I pray these words will help clear up any misunderstanding about works and getting to heaven.  If you have other questions that come up from this passage, www.needhim.org is an excellent resource for you to be able to talk to ministers directly.




We're All in the Same Sinking Boat
^9-20So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it: 

   There's nobody living right, not even one, 
      nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. 
   They've all taken the wrong turn; 
      they've all wandered down blind alleys. 
   No one's living right; 
      I can't find a single one. 
   Their throats are gaping graves, 
      their tongues slick as mudslides. 
   Every word they speak is tinged with poison. 
      They open their mouths and pollute the air. 
   They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year, 
      litter the land with heartbreak and ruin, 
   Don't know the first thing about living with others. 
      They never give God the time of day.
This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin.

God Has Set Things Right

 ^21-24But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

 ^25-26God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

 ^27-28So where does that leave our proud Jewish insider claims and counter-claims? Canceled? Yes, canceled. What we've learned is this: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We've finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.

 ^29-30And where does that leave our proud Jewish claim of having a corner on God? Also canceled. God is the God of outsider non-Jews as well as insider Jews. How could it be otherwise since there is only one God? God sets right all who welcome his action and enter into it, both those who follow our religious system and those who have never heard of our religion.

 ³¹But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don't we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.

Blessings,

Greg