How Are We Saved: Faith + Works?

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Staying on the topic of faith and works put together, is it wrong for a

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Protestant church to have a creed that says something to the effect, we are saved by faith, evidenced by works, or Abraham was saved by faith, demonstrated by works?

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Yeah, no, that's… I would say that the biblical view is that we are saved through faith alone.

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That's what… That's the instrument that joins us to Jesus, right? But saving faith is never alone.

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It always has works. If it is truly saving faith, it will produce works because it's a divine faith given by God that's real.

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So as a matter of fact, and this is really important, we need to know our Bibles, brothers and sisters.

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Paul says, and I want you to please, this is important because you're going to get this. He says, if you minister to your Mormon friends and neighbors, they will bring this up to you.

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And he goes right along with what you're saying. If you read Romans chapters 3 and 4, follow me here, please.

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None righteous, not even one, the law can't justify you, it'll justify nobody before God's sight, nobody,

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Christ is our propitiation, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, Romans 4,

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God credits to us righteousness apart from works of law. That's what he says, right? But then he asks the question in Romans 4, when was

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Abraham justified by faith? Was it before circumcision or after circumcision?

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And what's the answer? Before. And, watch, to add to that, was his faith and justification before the law or after the law?

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Before. So he was justified by faith before circumcision, before Isaac on the altar, and before the law given by Moses.

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That's Paul's whole argument. His entire summary of justification is ultimately

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Abraham. His faith before circumcision, before Isaac, before the law.

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Now, when you open your Bibles to James chapter 2, it says first in James 2 .10,

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whosoever shall keep the whole law and stumble in one point, he's guilty of all of it, right?

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But then he goes on to say, Abraham, was he not justified by works?

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And you go, wait, are Paul and James fighting? Right? And then you recognize, if you read

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James 2, that they're not even in the same discussion. Here's why. In Romans chapter 4, listen to the timeline, in Romans chapter 4,

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Paul argues about our justification this way. Abraham, when was he justified?

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Through faith before circumcision, before Isaac, before the law. That's when he was justified.

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Through faith apart from any work of law, before circumcision, nothing. Before God, he was counted righteous.

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That's his entire argument of justification. In Abraham, he's the central figure, right?

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When did it take place, Paul says? Through faith before circumcision, before Isaac, before the law.

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You've got to capture that. Now, you run on over to James, and James' wisdom literature, it's how do you live?

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He talks about someone's tongue and how it's like this ship, it's rudder, right?

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And he talks about the mouth and what we speak and how it destroys and it blesses. And then in James chapter 2, he asks the question, actually, let's go to it.

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Let's make sure you're in the text. James chapter 2, he says in verse 14, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works?

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It's in verse, sorry, 14, I'm sorry. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works?

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What's the point there? It's the profession. Someone says he has faith, but he does not have works.

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He says, can that faith save him? And what does every Christian say to that?

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He says, no, no. We're talking about kinds of faith here.

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Notice this, Paul's discussion in Romans 4 is about how a person is justified before God. James' discussion is about what kind of faith saves.

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And he says, can a faith that is a mere profession, but not a real possession, save?

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And his answer is, of course not. And he goes on. He says, if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

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So think about, watch, this is his story, watch, this is beautiful. He says, if someone comes to your door and they're in need of clothing and food, and you say, be warm and well -fed, and you slam the door in their face, he says, what is that?

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What is that? What's it mean if you slam the door in someone's face when you say, be warm and well -fed?

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Watch, what's it mean? You're lying. You didn't mean it. Why? Because you didn't provide anything.

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You didn't mean be warm. He says, watch, profession is one thing, but if there's not something following it, you don't know that it's real.

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So he says, so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

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Watch, the question here is not whether we are saved through faith alone or through faith plus works.

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It's not even the discussion. It's the question of whether dead faith saves or living faith saves.

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He says, if faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

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But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works.

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You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

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Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son

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Isaac on the altar? And you stop and you go, whoa. Paul uses the word justification through faith apart from works of law and here,

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James is saying, wasn't Abraham justified by works when he offered up his son on the altar? And you go, are they contradicting each other?

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Answer, absolutely not. Not even the same conversation. Proof, in Paul, Abraham believed

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God and was credited to him as righteousness. Help me know, when? Before what?

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Circumcision? Circumcision? Before what else? Isaac? Before what else? The law. How many years before Isaac?

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About 20. But in James' discussion, he says about Abraham, wasn't he justified by his works when he offered up Isaac on the altar?

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Listen, they're not even at the same point of Abraham's life in the discussion. Do you get it?

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They're in two different time periods of Abraham's life. James is talking about Abraham's faith vindicating him.

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The word justified in the Greek can be used about seven different ways. It can be used to describe being declared righteous before God through faith.

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It can also be used to describe vindication. Can I give you an example? Jesus, when he was accused of being a drunkard.

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When that happened to him, he said, wisdom is justified by her children.

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Is Jesus teaching that wisdom is declared righteous by God, by her children? No. Wisdom is justified by her children.

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Do you know what that means? He says, if you want to know what godly wisdom is, look what it produces. It'll vindicate what you're saying, what you're doing.

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And so James is using it exactly the same way. He says this, you want to know how you know

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Abraham's faith was true faith, living faith? He offered up Isaac on the altar.

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That's how you know his faith was living and not dead. And so to answer your question in this big way

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I just did, is if a church doesn't have a statement, a belief that says that true faith is always accompanied by works, then that faith doesn't understand the gospel.

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That church doesn't understand the gospel. All the confessions of the

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Christian church from beginning until now all agree that something fundamentally changes within us when we're saved.

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You go from death to life, your heart's changed from stone to flesh, you're indwelt by the spirit of God.

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If there are no good works, there is no faith. Watch, there's a big difference, right?

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It's not saying faith saves you in any way. It's saying that if there is no works, there was no real faith to begin with.

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So what's it mean? What's it mean? If you're like, well, I don't know, I don't know, I'd say repent and believe the gospel.

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Make sure that your faith is real. Contemplate your sin and the holiness of God and turn from your sin to Christ and cast yourself only on Him to believe in Him.

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And if you are in Christ and alive from the dead, good works follow. Ephesians 2, Christians love to quote

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Ephesians 2, 8, 9, by grace do you say through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not according to works lest any man should boast.

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And the Christians go, stop. But it's not done, is it? Ephesians 2, 10 says, for we are

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His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which

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God has already prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. So I, I would say that one of the things we need to talk about more today in the

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Christian church, it needs to be heard often, is what you're talking about and what

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George Whitfield preached all the time. Do you know what started the great awakening? George Whitfield's preaching, right?

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The George Whitfield's preaching of the gospel, England to America, England to America. The great awakening transformed the world, right?

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Do you know what he preached? He preached the message of repentance and faith and salvation only in Christ through faith alone and the absolute necessity of the new birth.

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And he taught that if you don't have a new life, you don't have any faith.

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Is that saying that Christians are going to be sinless and perfect? It means you're going to be at war with your sin until Jesus brings you home, for sure.