Faith and Works (Part 3)

Any talk of faith must lead to a discussion of works and that’s where the controversy begins.  Salvation is a free gift.  God’s grace provided a sacrifice for our sins and provided us with the sacred scriptures to show us how to be saved.  Without God doing this, we would not know.

Nor would we be able to have faith as we have already noted.  If God had not given us His word, we could not learn from it to gain the faith we need act further.  Here is the dirty little secret—faith is a work that we do.  Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (John 6:29.)  Did you catch that?  Jesus said that belief was a work.  All recognize the need for faith and some even go as far as to say we are saved by faith alone.  But did we ever equate faith as being a work?  Certainly the Bible speaks of many “works” that are associated with salvation.  Faith is only a starting point.  The New Testament says much about obedience (working.)  Hebrews 5:8-9 tells us Jesus learned obedience.  If the son of God needed to be obedient and DO what God said, why are we any different?  Whether we like it or not, works are a part of salvation but many remained confused or willingly ignorant on the subject.  A proper understanding depends on the kind of works we discussing.

No one can be saved by their own works.  No one lives so perfectly that they could go to heaven and demand to be let in.  This is the point of Romans 4:1-5.  Abraham didn’t live so perfectly to not need salvation.  Nor do we.  His belief in God was a way of life for him.  There were commands for him to keep and it is no different for us.  We are not saved by works of righteousness which we have done (Titus 3:5.)  Our own living is no where near sufficient for us to deserve heaven.  We need God’s grace and mercy to be saved from our sins.  Don’t be confused on this.  There is a difference in our own works and doing the works of God.  We’ve seen that faith is a work.  Can we be saved without ceasing to sin? That’s called repenting and we do it.  Why is baptism any different?  Jesus said do it to be saved (Mark 16:16) and the apostles equated it with remission of sins (Acts 2:38) and washing away sins (Acts 22:16.)  As we see the way God wants us to live, we change to conform to His will.  Again we do what is pleasing to God and these works will save us because they are the works and gifts that God provided. Not lying, attending worship, doing good to folks, and many more things are works God gave.  The son of God was baptized and commanded it himself (Mark 16:16.) Are you too good to do the works of God?

(more next week)