Faith Bible Fellowship

Dear brothers and sisters,

Are we saved by good works or the work of Christ or both? What do the Scriptures say? Actually the answer in James 2:14-26 is straight forward. Faith without works is dead and thus useless. Mere intellectual assent to faith propositions saves no one. The genuineness of our faith is shown by our life. When we come to the judgment seat of God we do not want to hear, “I never knew you”. Carefully think through Matthew 25:31-46 for the Lord’s teaching on practical living. After reading this passage I thought to myself, “Lee, when is the last time you visited someone in the hospital or called a lonely person?” And I’m the preacher!
Yet Paul plainly says in Romans 11:5 – So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Note also Romans 3:28:

and Galatians 2:15-16:

and finally, Ephesians 2:8-9

The testimony of the church down through the ages is that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone. But saving faith is not alone or to put it another way, we believe the Bible teaches faith leads to salvation + works, not
faith + works leads to salvation. There is all the difference in the world between these two statements. One invariably leads to a subtle religious pride and suffocating self righteousness and the other to a profound and abiding humility. One says: “hey, you need to have my religious experience”, the other takes your hand and meekly walks with you to the feet of Christ.
If the Bible seems to contradict itself it is because we have not given it sufficient quiet and thoughtful consideration. We have not seen the carefully reasoned thought in the passage. Take Genesis 15:6 – “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.” James uses it to prove the necessity of works and Paul uses it to show that salvation never comes by works, but by faith alone. Paul incidentally does see works as a normal result of faith as seen in 1 Corinthians 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
See if this way of looking at it makes sense to you; Paul emphasizes that Abraham believed prior to the TEST of sacrificing Isaac in Genesis 22, and thus he had righteous standing in God’s sight before he did anything. James sees the Isaac TEST as showing or perfecting his faith proving it was not just empty God words but a life changing and controlling power. Paul sees the the verdict of God regarding Abraham as based on his belief that his descendants would indeed be as numerous as the stars of the sky, and James sees the later sacrifice of Isaac as showing the validity of father Abraham’s faith. These views work together to give us a picture of true faith; namely, that true faith works.
Please get ready for listening to God’s infallible Word by reading thoughtfully the en-bolded passages mentioned above. Let’s not forget that eternity stretches out ahead of us, and we dare not trust a set of dusty systematic theological reasoning to satisfy the requirements of the Holy God. I shudder to think that those of you that listen to me will not be prepared when our doctor shakes his head and says there is no hope. Then we will more fully rejoice in the truth of the Gospel, but until that time comes let’s be faithful in putting into practice the things we know.

See you Sunday,

Lee