Apologetic Tracts Faith and Works
Faith & Works
Sometimes
we tend to emphasize one thing over the other, and rather than see them the way
God desires them to be seen, we see them as both. This is particularly true over the issue of
the relationship between faith and works for salvation. Some Christians historically seemed to give
the impression that salvation can be
earned, while others have gone to the
opposite extreme and practically reject all works in the plan of God for
salvation.
What is
the truth found in the Scriptures? We
have to approach the revelation of God holistically, which means looking at the
whole of the Word of God and not just at a particular passage out of context. For the Word of God is not
contradictory. It is truth.
First,
God is the one who saves. There is no
salvation outside Jesus Christ. Justification comes from God even before our
faith response and our good works. That is the heart of the New Testament
revelation. Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, died on the cross for our
salvation. Faith in him directly or
indirectly brings us into the process of salvation. “For by grace you have been
saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God.” (Eph
2:8)
As an
adult, faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection, faith in him as Lord and Savior
are the normal means of salvation. There
are several Scripture passages which affirm this. For infants who are baptized, it is the faith
of the parents and/or the faith of the community in whom the child is
incorporated.
The
beginning of salvation comes from God’s unmerited grace and continues through
our openness to receive and act on that grace through baptism.
Salvation
is a process that is not completed until the day we die. For if we die in Christ we will be with
Christ forever; but if we die alienated from him, we will be alienated
eternally.
Our
works do not earn us salvation, but are reflections of our response to the gift
of God. This response involves a way of life that reflects acceptance and
cooperation with the grace of God that brings us salvation. Again, our works do not save us, but they
reflect our response to God’s grace.
That is why we are reminded in several citations of the Scriptures how
important our actions are.
Recall
the final judgment scene in Matthew’s Gospel: “Then the king will say to those
on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world. For I was
hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger
and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in
prison and you visited me.’ (Mt 25:34-36)
All
these are works. At the same time, those
who were rejected from the kingdom, did not do the same works expected of them
by God.
Other citations are:
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for
God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil
2:12-13) Even though salvation is a gift from God, one needs to live in a way
that allows that gift to flourish.
“I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the
throne, and books were opened. Also
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written
in the books, by what they had done….all were judged by what they had
done.”(Rev 20:12-13)
“And I heard a voice from heaven saying. ‘Write this:
Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.” ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they
may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.’”(Rev 14:13) For deeds to follow us this must mean that
works are important as well as faith.
Finally, we have the clearest passage in the Scriptures
which give us the full revelation of God. It is from the Letter of James.
”What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith
but does not have works? Can that faith
save him? If a brother or sister has
nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go
in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of
the body, what good is it? So also faith
of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
"Indeed someone might say, 'You have faith and I have
works.’ Demonstrate your faith to me
without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and
tremble. Do you want proof, you ignoramus that faith without works
is useless? Was not Abraham our father
justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his
works, and faith was completed by the works. Thus, the Scripture was fulfilled
that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,'
and he was called 'the friend of God.' See how a person is justified by works
and not by faith alone. And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also
justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a
different route? For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith
without works is dead."
(James 2:14-26)
(James 2:14-26)
Faith alone does not save us. Works alone do not save us. It is our faith in the saving work of
Jesus—his death and resurrection—our justification--that is lived out in our
conduct of life in response that brings about the full work of God in us,
namely our salvation. In the words of
Paul to the Philippians: “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good
work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil
1:6)
In a 1999 joint Catholic-Lutheran statement on
the Doctrine of Justification, it was stated:
“We confess together that good works—a
Christian life lived in faith, hope, and love—follow justification and are its
fruits. When the justified live in Christ and act in the grace they receive,
they bring forth, in biblical terms, good fruit.
"When Catholics affirm the "meritorious" character of good
works, they wish to say that, according to the biblical witness, a reward in
heaven is promised to these works. Their
intention is to emphasize the responsibility of persons for their actions, not
to contest the character of those works as gifts, or far less to deny that
justification always remains the unmerited gift of grace. (JD 36-37)
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