Is Salvation by Faith Alone, or by Faith + Works?
Salvation by faith is not an invention by New Testament authors. Salvation was always by faith. Hebrews 11 has a long list of Old Testament patriarchs that testify to this fact unequivocally.
The Old Testament prophets affirm this as seen in the prophet Habakuk
"The righteous shall live by his faith." (Hab 2:4)
And if there was any doubt what Habakuk actually meant, the apostle Paul quotes this when he explains what the gospel is:
"For in it[the gospel - see v 16] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" (Rom 1:17)
Paul quotes this same verse again to the Galatians
"Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" (Gal 3:11)
And the author of the letter to the Hebrews just before launching into his list of patriarchs who all affirmed the same message
"But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." (Heb 10:38)
So what have we seen so far? Salvation is and always was by faith, but is this a work of grace or is the faith produced by human effort?
Is salvation is by grace through faith?
Let’s firstly look at a few very obvious and clear passages in the New Testament that show that true Christian salvation is by grace through faith alone in Christ alone! Time does not permit to work through every one of these verses in their context. I would encourage you to do this for yourself, so that you stand firm in what you believe.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Eph 2:8-9)
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." (Acts 16:31)
"For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." (Rom 3:28)
"And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." (Rom 4:5)
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom 5:1)
"Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified." (Gal 2:16)
"So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith." (Gal 3:24)
"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit." (Eph 1:13)
"And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." (Phil 3:9)
"But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." (Rom 11:6)
There are many more, but these alone should suffice for the honest student to realise that the reformation doctrine of "salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone" stands as a towering principle and central doctrine of protestantism. Pretty much the whole tree of all the denominations that grew out of the protestant reformation believes in this central tenet of the Christian faith.
If Roman Catholics are unified in their belief in the Pope, Protestants are in principle unified in this belief in salvation by grace through faith!
Taken at face value we could turn this passage into a syllogism as an argument
Let’s start with an argument that is relevant to some of the churches Paul founded:
P1 - Salvation is the gift of God
P2 - Salvation is not a result of works
P3 - Salvation is not your own doing
P4 - Actions like circumcision & keeping the sabbath are clearly works of some sort
C - Circumcision & keeping the sabbath do not contribute to salvation
Now let’s turn this into an example that is more relevant to our day
P1 - Salvation is the gift of God
P2 - Salvation is not a result of works
P3 - Salvation is not your own doing
P4 - Actions like baptism are clearly works of some sort
C - Baptism does not contribute to salvation
Another example - since there are some groups who claim:
One must receive the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues to be saved
P1 - Salvation is the gift of God
P2 - Salvation is not a result of works
P3 - Salvation is not your own doing
P4 - Actions like baptism are clearly works of some sort
C - Speaking in tongues does not contribute to salvation
Another example relating to the ongoing life of a Christian:
That is relevant to many the big mega churches today
P1 - Salvation is the gift of God
P2 - Salvation is not a result of works
P3 - Salvation is not your own doing
P4 - Actions like tithing are clearly works of some sort
C - Acts of financial generosity do not contribute to salvation
Ahh, but I can already hear the objector who is saying: What about all the many passages that say very explicitly we must obey the commandments given in the New Testament in order to enter heaven. Let’s first list a few of them so that people see that I want to take this objection seriously:
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." (John 3:36)
"But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury." (Rom 2:8)
"And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him." (Heb 5:9)
"So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 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." (James 2:17+18)
There are many more. The reason I am not quoting more is not to be found in the idea that I believe in doctrine by counting verses! These three suffice to raise a serious objection to what we have asserted so far!
These verses, taken on their own and without consideration of the context of the rest of the New Testament, seem to strongly indicate that only those who obey Christ will be saved. Are we therefore done, and must concede the argument to the objector? Let’s formulate these passages into a similar syllogism to see:
P1 - Whoever does not obey the son, the wrath of God remains on him
P2 - Whoever does not obey the truth will receive God’s wrath
P3 - Christ is the source of salvation to all those who obey him
P4 - Whoever has faith but no works has a faith that is dead
C - Salvation is by obeying Christ or doing works
Well, the objector seems right. We have to concede the argument to him, but wait, we not only have to concede the argument to him, we also have to say that the apostles contradicted each-other in their letters. Let’s formulate this into a syllogistic argument as well:
P1 - The New Testament epistles affirm salvation is by grace through faith and not through works of obedience
P2 - The New Testament epistles affirm salvation is by obedience
C - The New Testament authors contradict each other and hence the New Testament cannot be true!
Oh, this is not how we wanted this conundrum to end up? The atheist objector is now rubbing his hands together getting ready to cheer.
Considering that as Christians we believe in things such as the inspiration of scripture and as protestants we believe in what is called "Sola Scriptura" - which simply stated means the scripture is the final arbiter in all matters of faith and practice in relation to God.
IF we hold to these two foundational principles, then we cannot accept the conclusion of the last argument, namely that the New Testament contains contradictions.
So how can we overcome this conundrum - I would suggest we can lay these two syllogisms side by side to see which one makes sense of both sides of this coin:
Argument ONE:
P1 - Salvation is by obeying Christ’s commandments (and we are not even getting to the issue of whether perfectly or not)
P2 - Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ
C - The New Testament authors contradicted each other. We are at an impossible impasse
Argument TWO:
P1 - Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ
P2 - All true Christians must obey Christ
P3 - True Christians will naturally through the means of the grace of Christ and their faith in Christ also obey Christ’s commandments - albeit imperfectly
P4 - Salvation is not by works or obedience, works are not the cause by the effect of true salvation
C - The New Testament authors did not contradict each other when they claimed salvation is by grace through faith and also claimed that true Christians must obey Christ since dead faith indeed does not save, true saving faith produces the right works demonstrating the truthiness of their faith
The reality here is that this is the only way to properly resolve the many passages in the New Testament that call and command the believer to obey Christ and even go so far that disobedient Christians will not be saved. The "Christian" who does not obey, isn’t a true Christian after all and is showing by his or her disobedience that he or she in fact is a tare and not wheat, a goat and not a sheep.
There is what theologians call "antinomianism" [anti nomos = against law] i.e. those who say all you need to do is believe, no works are necessary for salvation. We would agree that works are not necessary to be saved, but we would deny that a truly saved Christian will not produce true works of obedience. The works of obedience play absolutely no part in the act if justification & salvation, they are not the cause, they are the effect.
Christ is the vine; we are the branches. We produce fruit by the very nature of being connected to the vine, which occurs when we are first born again and truly justified by his grace through the means of faith.
I truly hope you enjoyed this post. Please like, feel free to comment and share with your family and friends.
God bless.
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