Is salvation by faith alone or faith plus good works?
Either / Or?
So many Protestants are looking at the salvation in Jesus Christ question as “Either/Or.”
Either it is by faith alone, period. …
Or it by faith plus good works (or works alone – (gasp!).
Neither extremes are the spirit of the truth the New Testament teaches.
Actually, there is a THIRD OTHER answer …
This third other answer involves faith and works, but not as some would like to mischaracterize it. It involves faith and works but does not really contradict the teaching of faith alone as the apostle Paul meant it.
You see, Paul never advocated any kind of teaching about God’s grace that would permit a Christian to claim they once said a sinner’s prayer, and God is now obligated to save them without respect to how they live after covenanting with Him. He never advocated any kind of teaching about grace that would permit a Christian to live a life loving the world, and its sins and pleasures and ways, but somehow claiming immunity to judgment.
There are Christian teachers who have represented things along this line. They say if you are “truly born again,” while it is normal to do good and stop sinning, if you do not, you are still 100-percent covered. This kind of talk has sent confusion into the ranks.
Some reason something like this: If I am saved, and Jesus’ sacrifice was all the Father requires, and all my sins are forgiven, then what good works or deeds do I have to do to satisfy God in order to be accepted to heaven? If I want to do little or nothing, isn’t that OK? Even if I were somehow mistaken and it was not OK, does not Jesus’ blood cover even the sin of neglect or falling away under the New Covenant?
But Paul was not meaning to say anything like that about the meaning and purpose of grace!
Romans 6:1 – What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? …
vs. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? …
Even so, the faith versus works conundrum has been bothering Christians and spurring debates since Martin Luther offered his doctor’s cap for whoever could reconcile Romans 3:28 and James 2:24 which he saw as mutually opposing between either works or faith.
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. – Romans 3:28
You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. – James 2:24
In short, it was an “either/or” question between “works” and ”faith” for Luther who was wise enough to know the two scriptures – if God-inspired – needed to be reconciled but the problem was they do appear to contradict each other.
Romans 3:28 says we are justified by faith. James 2:24 says we are justified by works and not only faith.
Luther’s “solo fide” – by faith alone – doctrine shows which scriptures he sided with, and which he threw out. He called James an “epistle of straw.” Straw is what people in Luther’s day gave barn animals to trod upon. Paul had written in 1 Corinthians 3 that straw would be burned up as a useless work in the day of judgment.
1 Cor. 3 – 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
Luther’s preaching built an overly simplified picture of salvation according to a distorted comprehension of Paul’s complex writings. Since then, countless others over the past 500 years who reasoned along similar lines have been advocating a shallow view on what it means to be a Christian.
What is grace for?
Grace in the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood is God’s favor to do and become all of what God wants!
A person who claims eternal life must know Jesus Christ, not just about Jesus Christ. In grace, God reveals Himself directly and in spirit and truth to a true Christian.
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Hebrews 8 – 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
The profound experience of Christ manifested personally is more than a theoretical notion, or product of a strong and vivid imagination – which humans are naturally capable of apart from any real spiritual revelation.
We as Christians must also be filled with the real Holy Spirit and walk in the Spirit – a necessary aspect of grace because the Spirit is the power in a believer to perform God’s will and become all the Jews never could under the Old Testament.
1 Cor 15:10 – But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Col 1:29 – To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.
God’s New Covenant is to be that our deeds “have been done in God.”
1 John 3:21 – But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Here’s the answer!
Faith and good works must be present, but the “works” are nothing a Christian can take credit for!
If Jesus is in you, and it is true, as Jesus said, “without Me you can do nothing,” (John 15:5), even a hard-working Christian is not “doing” deeds or works all by themselves as the Old Testament Jews under the law of Moses would be expected to.
The Old Testament Jews lived in a completely different age. They were given laws as codes of conduct, and expected to keep them as a means of being approved by God. They did not have the benefit of the indwelling Holy Spirit the Christians who keep covenant in truth are granted.
Jesus is inside such faithful and obedient followers of Christ; enabling them, teaching them, guiding them. They are being treated not as immature children kept under tutors and governors (Gal. 4:2-4), as the Old Testament Jews were, but as mature sons or daughters.
A son or daughter as Jesus meant it is a trusted one who has the interests of God at heart. It is expected they will want to do what He wants, and gladly do so.
Sons and daughters are called to hear Jesus’ voice, know Jesus, and love Jesus.
John 10 – 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
John 14 – 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. …
vs. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” …
vs. 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
Sons and daughters gladly adopt the mindset of a son like Jesus who wants to do all God wants, who loves people with Jesus’ love, and think it is the least they can do to serve God.
They know if they do not serve God, people may not come to Christ, or if they do not serve Him, they would be serving only themselves while telling themselves they serve God.
Such thoughts are abhorrent to anyone who loves God.
It is more blessed to give than receive, and a holy all-encompassing sea change of a mindset is supposed to take hold in one who is good ground and seeks the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Matt 7:14 – Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
The New Covenant is called a “better covenant with better promises” (Heb. 8:6) because it is an order of magnitude above the paradigm of an Old Covenant Jew. The fullness of what it offers is often lost on people who may suffer for lack of knowledge, or wrong motives, or faulty indoctrination.
The confusion over Paul and James came in the mind of ex-Catholics of the Renaissance period 1,400 years after the death of the last living apostle of Jesus Christ in 100 AD. Although Martin Luther in the 1500s AD wanted to set aside the epistle of James, perhaps you can see James had an understanding that was not contradictory to faith “alone” – as Paul meant faith apart from works, not as Luther and others have misunderstood it.
James 2 – 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
Don’t sweep it away. James said:
1) I will show you my faith by my works
2) Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar
3) faith was working together with his works
4) by works faith was made perfect
5) a man is justified by works, and not by faith only
James said faith without works is dead. It is not enough to hold to theological concepts if they do not affect change in you.
Indeed the whole purpose of grace is to facilitate a radical sweeping transformation in a person!
The full picture of a life hidden with Christ in God is revealed to those who meet the conditions Jesus required.
It is true Paul taught one is justified by faith, but this enters an obedient person into the covenant of full grace; a new living reality in which works are expected, as contradictory as that can sound to the earthly logic of some. A person is accepted and forgiven without works. They continue to live a life in love with Jesus, walking according to His Spirit, from which works flow.
Galatians 5 – 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
In other pasages, Paul only says you are not under law, but grace – and the Protestant intellectuals have run with that. But in Galatians 6:18, Paul clarifies he means one MUST walk in the Spirit.
Gal 6:18 – But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
What about those who are not led by the Spirit? What about those who walk according to their flesh – which includes their earthly intellect, feelings, sinful natures? Paul answers that in the next verse:
Galatians 5 – 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul says: “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul’s list of “works of the flesh” include “heresies” which encompasses all false teaching and faulty understanding, including simplistic views of what it means to be a Christian. The “flesh” Paul speaks of could be called the religious flesh. This is when a person’s natural mind and sensibility seeks to understand the scriptures, or serve God, but they do it in their mind and feelings independent of God. If they had been able to hear Jesus’ voice to correct them, they would not have peace about false notions. Jesus always wants unity, and truth that can bear fruit.
Sadly, the history of the Protestant faith has been marked by wrong-headed views that nonetheless may be zealously defended. These are often constructed by intelligent people, but their doctrine is according to understandings God never intended in His inspired New Testament writings.
Even if scripture verses are used by Christians relying on their natural minds to support position statements about the faith, the nuances or spirit of their understanding can differ drastically from what a New Testament writer was thinking when he wrote his epistle. Paul was being misunderstood even in his own day, according to Peter.
2 Peter 3 – 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
Since the Protestant Reformation, Paul has been drastically misunderstood. This is self evident as the Christian faith is so divided against itself into thousands of sub-sects of people bearing witness against one another. Note works of the flesh also include idolatry, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, and dissensions.
It was never God’s will that those who call themselves by the name of Christ perform such acts, but they most certainly have. A lot.
Who can even be a Christian, anyway?
There is such a thing as “easy believism.” Also known as “cheap grace,” or “hyper grace,” and an abuse of grace, there are brands of Christian teachings that lower the bar to below what Jesus said.
Salvation has often been misrepresented by teachers to negate or minimize conditions Jesus required for anyone who wishes to be a Christian – also known as a disciple.
Here is what Jesus said to anyone who wants to call themselves by His name:
Luke 14 – 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
Jesus Christ also required one be truly born again. As countless people have testified before, it is possible to go through the motions of calling on Jesus after an emotional or intellectually stimulating sermon or event, but somehow the miracle of the new birth did not take place.
John 3 -Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” …
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
We are called to look for the unmistakable fruit of the Holy Spirit in anyone who claims to be born again. If fruit is lacking, one must seek the Lord directly as to what the issue(s) are.
Jesus Christ also required anyone who would be a Christian to become as a little child.
Matthew 18:3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus said also that His true followers are able to hear His voice spoken into them by His Spirit so as to guide and teach them.
John 10 – 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
So let’s sum up these explicit written requirements by Jesus:
• Be born again (Jn. 3:3,5) (This really comes first in the order of things)
• “Hate” his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also (i.e., love Jesus far above all else) (Lk. 14:26)
• Bear his cross and come after Me (Lk. 14:27)
• Count the cost (Lk. 14:28-32)
• Forsake all that he has (Lk. 14:33)
• Become as a little child Mt. 18:2-4)
• Know Jesus’ voice (Jn 10:4-5)
The Mission
The ultimate mission of the gospel is to create a class or caliber of people who bring about the kingdom of God – a witness and testimony of those who love Him in the face of the fallen creation. The end goal of preaching is not just to save sinners as though it was all about us.
1 Peter 2 – 4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. …
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
God is the only good one in the creation. His highest creature – fallen man and Satan and fallen angels – have been flouting His will, and operating independently of God, seeking to establish their own glory.
God wants and has always wanted a people who will let Him boast something like:
See I have found a people who truly love me just for ME.
1 Cor 15- 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
Paul said Jesus “must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet,” and then “when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
The gospel is the solution for all lawlessness. It is a root-level solution. It restores law and order in the creation, and all the bad guys go to jail.
The testimony we so often hear in preaching is of Jesus’ great work. Yes it was great, but “greater works” He said we are called to do (John 14:2). The testimony of Christ in you is what He gave His life for.
Colossians 1:27 – To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
To have Christ live His life in you is no small thing! Christians, if they obey and love Jesus, are supposed to have a testimony too – a great proof of God. Jesus wanted a witness and testimony in His true followers …
Matt 5 – 13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do theylight a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
= WITNESS AND TESTIMONY!
John 13 – 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
= WITNESS AND TESTIMONY!
John 17 – 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
= WITNESS AND TESTIMONY!
The normal Christian life as Jesus envisions it is not a “works’-based” salvation, but a miracle, impossible without BOTH the indwelling Jesus, and the voluntary will of man. God has ordained it to be so.
Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
It is a holy work, beautiful and pure, and with maximum glory to God.
The kingdom of God is what Jesus is zealous for.
He did not wish to create a class of “Christians” who even take His Spirit and covenant with Him but then turn to the “arm of flesh” (intellect, feelings, self-focused ideology, self-effort, relying on one’s own strength, etc) …
Jeremiah 17 –
Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.
Notice there is a curse of spiritual blindness on those who make “flesh their strength.” This includes theologians or any Christian who use their independent fallen fleshly minds without abiding in the vine and letting the life sap of Christ flow in them, and out of them.
1 Corinthians 2:16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Jesus gave a root level fix for all sin. The old man is crucified, and we may now walk in the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
No longer law but grace?
Let’s follow up on some of the confusions that have come out of the Protestant Reformation.
Paul wrote Christians are no longer under the law of Moses and in grace, but this gets misunderstood or blown beyond what he meant. Jesus said not one jot or tittle is done away from the law till all is fulfilled – which will be at the establishment of His kingdom at His second coming.
The law says do not commit adultery. Is adultery now OK? Are other sins now automatically scrubbed? If they must be atoned for, they are still sin, and thus the spirit of the law is still in place.
Paul spoke of the understanding of the Jews of the Law of Moses, adhered to by men who lacked the Holy Spirit on the inside.
Our justification is walking in this holy dynamic, which is what is meant by walking according to the Spirit.
Walking according to the Spirit is a command, not optional.
The spirit of the law of God which never changes and the commands of Christ set a higher bar than that of Moses (Mt 5). They are directed to those filled by His Spirit who enables them to do all His will out of a holy dynamic of mind and spirit God will birth in those who truly love Him.
Romans 8:4 – that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Paul was not against the law in the spirit of it. He spoke to Jews who were oppressed trying to keep the law without “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Col 1:27)
The same sin that sent Jesus to the cross is not now OK.
We are called to a grace which is God’s enablement to become free, no longer “slaves of sin.”
This was a vital ingredient to a rightly oriented disciple of Jesus to be holy, and be a vessel of honor. This is one who is useful to the purposes of the Lord, which includes how we conduct our lives, and what deeds we do.
2 Corinthians 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad.
Romans 2:6,7 – [God] will repay every man according to his works. To those who seek after glory, honor, and immortality by patiently continuing to do good, [he will repay] eternal life.
Galatians 6:8,9 – He that sows to the Spirit shall reap everlasting life from the Spirit. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap [eternal life], if we do not faint.
The same Paul who has been quoted out of context countless times to create a dumbed-down version of the faith which does not produce the fruit God wants says above that our works or “deeds” do matter, and we will be judged for them.
Again, God’s word is to those who are “in the Spirit’ and enabled, taught, and guided by the living Jesus in them.
Those who truly love Him and make Him their number one priority find this living reality.
Are all a Christian’s future sins forgiven?
Yes, but conditionally. More accurately, the blood sacrifice is great enough to atone for all sin, but the New Testament speaks about persevering to the end, keeping the faith, not sinning in the power of grace, obeying and coming to know Jesus in the precious time purchased with His blood enabling us to do so.
If we love Jesus, we will meet these conditions as He will show us His power in us to do them. What sins we do not know, can be covered in grace.
God has put His covenant keepers on the honor system as sons and daughters.
He expects them to walk in the covenant, not look for expedients and work-arounds.
Who goes to hell?
God is the ultimate sovereign judge. He knows the motives of a person’s heart. He knows who has heard His Spirit speak truth and whether they obeyed it or turned away from it or were bound in the spirit of their mind by a demon of false religion.
He decides what is just. We do not. His ways are “past finding out.”
Protestants, whose first impulse is fleshly, and wishing ultimate security, so often want a locked-down security policy for themselves.
Many who think they have found irrevocable grace should fear if their fruits are not evident. And be warned: playing fast and loose with grace and hoping to “get away with” sins or disobedience or ways in this life not pleasing to God can be catastrophic. Indeed, people who live like that display the opposite mindset of anyone who loves Jesus! It was never the intent of grace to permit stretching the bounds of acceptable behavior before God. Jesus warns many will be dismayed on the day of judgment, even those who did what they thought were great exploits in Jesus’ name.
Mt 7 – 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
The attitude of a son or daughter is knowing Jesus, talking with Him and hearing from Him. Seeing fruit of Him in their lives, and ultimately, they cast their lives into His hands in ultimate trust. They only want to take care of His interests and trust He will take care of their interests.
We are called to walk in the Spirit until the end. God has promised us. We are kept by the power of God to be kept in this holy state.
God wants it. He is most glorified by it.
2 Tim 4- 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Paul is saying since he kept the faith, the witness is still in him (per Rom 8:16) that his rewards are laid up. Such is true for others who love Jesus to the end.
1 Cor 9:27- But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
May the Lord bless and guide you.
Related articles:
