Salvation By Works?

Or, By Faith and Works?

This is a complete classic. This is one of the heresies debunked at the Reformation. It is surprising that anyone holds this today, but they do. The doctrine of salvation by works, or faith and works, is held by many, mainly the RC religion, and its spin offs, the Orthodox and Anglican religions etc. It has no basis in Scripture as we shall see, but many hold to it as tenaciously as a dog with a bone. Before we look at this in Scripture maybe we should ask why do some hold so dearly to such a doctrine?

Let’s remember that the Lord God says that the human heart is desperately wicked, (Jer.17:9). The unsaved man, and even the saved man who has gone back to walk in the old things again, wants to feel that he is earning his place before God. He does not like the idea that there is no good in him, and he is sure that a bit of modification is all that is needed, and he will be fit to stand before God. The old man, that is the nature we are born with, will justify itself before God by any means he can.

It appears that the main element in why men hold to this doctrine is the classic one of ‘the offence of the Cross’. Man is offended that God says that the naturally born person we are, the nature we are born with, is so bad that it has to be put to death, and be replaced by the new man who is fit for Heaven. The Cross runs up against the pride of man. Man does not like to think himself to be that bad.

Hence he holds this doctrine dear. It is his way of justifying himself, and if we come against it we are attacking his chance of approving himself before God, and he does not like that one bit! However, God will not have anyone stand before Him and claim any righteousness of their own, as we shall see.

The Basic Doctrine.

Many claim that they are saved by faith and works. By that they mean that the work of the Lord Jesus is ineffective in itself. That they have to add something to it, in order to get into Heaven. In effect this means that no works equals no salvation, so faith is no good; you have to earn your salvation. The Scripture used for this is Jas.2:14-26. More on this later.

Scripture also says that we are saved by grace, (the unmerited gift of God, without works), and by ‘hope’. In context here, ‘hope’ is not an airy fairy ‘I hope so’. It is a sure and certain hope. We have not yet fully entered into the kingdom to see Him face to face, but that which He authored in our hearts, of His own sovereign will, gives us a surety, a living hope, which keeps us.

The position of those who hold this also assumes another heresy, and that is ‘future salvation’. In other words, they are looking to be saved later, when they die, and they stand before Jesus on Judgement Day. In some senses that is true, as the correct position is that we are saved now, by new birth, we are being saved; by ongoing sanctification, and we will be saved; when we pass finally into His presence. Salvation is not a single event, but an event and a process. Those in that process are saved, and if they died before full sanctification was completed in them they would go to be with the Lord. However, those who have never had new birth now, and do not know Him, now, are not saved, not in the process of sanctification, and will not be saved ultimately either. We have to come to Christ now, while we are in this life, not later on Judgement Day. It is too late then to put things right with God.

If they hold that no one is saved now, that they are going to be saved later, and in the meantime they are supposed to struggle on in sin, and religion, until they meet Jesus face to face, then they may well think that the doctrine of having to add good works to faith is real, as they see themselves as having to earn ‘Brownie points’ with the Lord. But the Scripture does not say that. Many think that if you must do good works to show that your faith is alive. But this James' passage does not mean that.

I suppose it is something of a truism that those who do not know the Lord Jesus personally, (unlike all Christians who do), hold to this doctrine of having to do good works, as they have never come and received from God personally, so have no idea that it is all a free gift in the first place; they are not recipients of grace. We cannot point a finger at them as we only received our salvation by grace anyway.

Compare

We need to compare other Scriptures if we are to look at these things from the right standpoint. You will know that there is a principle of grace in God’s economy.

“That no flesh should glory in his presence.” 1. Cor.1:29

He will not allow anyone to say that they have had a hand in their own salvation. If He did so He would immediately say in so doing that the sacrifice of His Son was not absolutely necessary for all, some could save themselves. He would also be saying that that sacrifice of His own Son was not good enough, and not complete.

However, Jesus said, from the Cross, in His dying breath, “It is finished!”

We can also see that our justification before God is by faith, and by faith alone, elsewhere in the Scripture. The first few chapters of the book of Romans are about just that. If the doctrine expounded by the RC religion etc., is correct immediately they are saying that there is contradiction in the Bible on matters of doctrine, and they should throw the Bible away, (which they do in practice anyway, preferring another ‘bible’ called ‘tradition’).

The Word of God is clear though:

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Rom.3:2

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” Rom.5:1.

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Gal.3:24

If we could earn our way to Heaven, in whole or in part, then the sacrifice of Jesus was either not necessary, or inefficient.

The principle of grace is undone if we have to earn our salvation in whole, or in part. And, as we have seen, our Lord will not have any flesh boast before Him that they had any part in their salvation. It is to be all of grace. If we had earned any part of our salvation we could say, “I did this bit Lord, I earned this much.” That would be to boast before Him. He will not have that.

We are presented with a fait accompli, a finished work, into which we enter by faith. That faith is given to us too. It is not the sort of faith which we can work up of ourselves. This faith is a gift also, so that all our salvation is by grace.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Rom.10:17

It is when the Word of God enters our hearts by the Holy Spirit; when God speaks to us directly, and authors that faith Himself, that we have faith. That faith is His gift, and we cannot produce it by ourselves.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Eph.2:8

There, are in effect, two sorts of faith; that which is natural to man, and which he can work up himself; and that which is given to him as a gift, which is authored in Him by a sovereign act of God. It is only the faith, which God authors in us, which is the saving faith. Or we would have grounds to boast before God, in that we worked up the faith, or we decided to believe, and, in effect, saved ourselves.

So we can see that it is not by works, in part or in whole. It is all of grace or we would be able to say we had a hand in our salvation to some degree, and grounds to boast before Him. But He has said that He will not allow that; so why try? We must faithfully hold to the truth of the doctrine of grace as revealed in the Word. There can be no violation of that.

All Scripture agrees in matters of doctrine, and if we are making a doctrine from one Scripture, which contradicts another Scripture, or makes it appear that there is contradiction in the Word of God, we are wrong. Yet many do, for their own purposes.

It is one of the rules of Bible study that all Scripture agrees. If we break that rule then we may as well throw away the Scripture and write our own, which is what many do anyway, in effect, by picking and choosing the bits they like and the bits they do not, from the Scripture.

Back to the doctrine

In the light of what we see elsewhere in Scripture let’s look at the doctrine of salvation by works, or faith and works, again.

If we now understand that all Scripture says that no one can earn his, or her, salvation, in whole or in part, we can see that this passage cannot be referring to salvation. The comparison, as already stated is between a living faith, and a dead one.

If you had a tree in your garden, and in the Spring it did not produce any leaves as usual, you would know that your tree was dead. It is by such signs as those that you would know. In the same way, if you say you have faith, and it does not have an outworking, it is dead. Hence: “Faith without works is dead.”

The example given to us of Abraham in this passage of James is plain. Abraham was told by God what to do, to go and offer his Son. Abraham showed that he believed God by his actions. His faith resulted in action. His faith was alive. Also Rahab believed, and because she truly believed, she acted accordingly.

Let me put it like this. Let us assume we all work in a large office, and there are desks everywhere, and people working at them. Suddenly someone rushes in shouting, “Fire! Fire!” Those who really believe are up from their desks and down the fire escape, out of the building. Others may sit there and say, “Yes, I really believe there is a fire!” But they sit there, and carry on working.

There are lots of people like this in Christian circles. You preach the truth to them, but they are unaffected by it. They carry on with their lives, and yet say that they really believe that Jesus is coming back to judge the world, and yet live in a place where they will be lost, as they live like the unsaved. Their faith is dead, it is alone, it has no outworking; it does not result in action.

A true and living faith results in action. You cannot have the power of God living in you, by faith, as authored by God, and have no outworking of it. The comparison in the James 2 passage is not between a man with no works, and one with works being the one who is saved. The issue here is between a living faith, which has outworking, and a dead faith which has no outworking, that is no fruit.

As I said at the beginning, many hold this doctrine not because it is the truth, but they wish to justify themselves, at least in part, before God. They are offended by the Cross of Christ, which says there is no good in any human being, and that there is nothing we can do with the person we are naturally, but put it to death and receive a new person, fit for Heaven, and walk in him.

Those who hold the doctrine of justifying themselves, wholly or partly, are the enemies of the Cross of Christ. They are a walking insult to Him. This doctrine of earning your salvation guarantees your destruction if you follow it. No Christian even tries to justify himself before God, to do so would be to insult the Lord, and no one who knows Him and loves Him would do that.