Faith-Based Salvation and Faith-Based Works

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.

James 2:14, 17 (NIV)

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

There are those who do everything they can to prove that the Bible is a contradictory work. They believe that if the Word counters itself, it is fallible, or has changed. A major tenant of the Christian faith is knowing that God does not change, is truth and is infallible.

Paul states in Ephesians that grace, our salvation, is not from ourselves and not by works, but is a gift of God and is accessed through faith.

James tells us that a faith without deeds is dead and questions if such a faith can lead to salvation at all.

Bible verses used out of context are a favorite tool of those who are trying to prove a human point. For this conundrum, we can simply continue to Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

If we profess to have faith in Jesus Christ, we must accept everything He said, including the command from Matthew 22:37: “Love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and will all your mind.”

In 2 John 1:5-6, John tells us “... I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”

To shorten this train of thought, if our faith and trust are in Jesus Christ, we must listen to Him. We are to love God with every fiber of our being, and part of that love is our obedience to Him. God has prepared good works for us to do, our love for Him compels us to perform them.

Through our faith and repentance, we can access the salvation Jesus earned for us and God extends to us. The works will come, as our faith and love mature. Like the 72 disciples sent out to preach and perform miracles and return to boast to their master, we need, we need to keep in mind Luke 10:20, “However, do not rejoice [in your good works], but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Nick Makris

Sidney Nazarene Church