We wanted to give you an example of how we answer questions with the “whole counsel of God”.
Question:
“What role does faith play in my salvation? What about works? And grace? Many people disagree and argue about these things. Can you please tell me what the Bible says about these
things?”
Answer:
Hello,
Thank you for writing to us! We will surely be happy to give you the most complete answer that
we can to your questions.
First of all, we need to know how the Bible defines faith:
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen…”
– Hebrews 11:1
And…in this same text, in Hebrews 11:6, we can see that faith is necessary in order to please
God. Well then, we really need to have faith!
But where do we get it? Romans10:17 tells us that “Faith comes from
hearing, and hearing from the word of God…” So, we can truly conclude
that in order to please God, we must have faith, and that that faith must come from what we hear and learn from the Bible. God said Himself that the Bible is the source of the faith that pleases Him, so first
of all, we must be sure that we believe only
the things that are within its pages.
Secondly, about “works”…you really asked a good question! Several times in the
book of James alone, the Bible says that “Faith without works is dead.”
So, the life of our faith is dependent upon the things that we do. In
other words, do we act accordingly to the things we have learned in the Bible? If
not, then we find ourselves in the place of a hypocrite, because we say we believe something that we do not do. Do you know the story of the “Good Samaritan”? So,
works are nothing more than us putting our faith into action. As it is written
in another place…”add unto your faith virtue…” (2nd Peter 1:5), meaning that it is necessary
that we do the things that we have learned from His word. Once, Jesus said “Why
do you call me Lord, and do not the things that I say?” (Luke 6:46) and also He said: “If you love me, keep my
commandments.” (John 14:15). Therefore, to have the faith that God is pleased
with; it must be put into action, being combined with obedience to His word.
Thirdly, about grace…well, grace is a gift, even THE
gift that we receive from God. Truly speaking, no human deserves eternal life,
because “the law has concluded all under sin” (Galatians 3:22), and “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:23), and the “wages” of those sins “is death” (Romans
6:23). So, grace is a gift…but,
it is a gift that God will only give to those that are worthy of it…meaning that they are faithful and obedient to Him
(Hebrews 5:8-9). See, if we want that salvation, that gift, it still requires our obedience to His will, and our working,
living faith. This compares very much to how our parents dealt with us, doesn’t
it? They would give us a job to do, and if it was done as they said to do it,
there was some kind of reward or payment, but if we did not, then we could not expect the reward, plus, we could probably
expect come form of punishment as well! This is the same principle that Jesus
taught in His parable of the “Householder’s Vineyard” in Matthew 20.
Now, I want to show you how all of these things work together…in Ephesians 2:8-10 –
“For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it
is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.”
People often use verses 8and 9 together
to “prove” that works are not necessary…yet they ignore the “whole counsel of God” in order
to reach this conclusion. Even verse 10 shows that we (Christians – those
who are created in Christ) are created
“unto good works”. This is our purpose! To walk in the obedient, serving, working footsteps of Jesus (“…take up your cross daily, and
follow me…(Luke 9:23)).
Anyway, to take a simple approach, let’s stack some blocks. Three blocks. And, we will name our blocks “Faith”, “Grace”
and “Works”.
According to our study here, “Faith” is the primary
block, which lead us to our next block, “Works” (faith in action), which resulted in our third block “Grace”
(the salvation given freely to all those who obey Him and keep His commandments).
So, without “Faith”, our block “Works” has
no place to stand, and since “Works” has no foundation, it cannot support “Grace”.
Simply stated, “If I am a faithful worker, I will receive
God’s grace.” No, I do not earn His grace, but I show Him how much
I want that reward, that payment, by showing Him my love towards Him, by keeping His commandments. I “fight a good fight, I keep the faith, and I finish the course” (2nd Timothy 4:7).
I hope this has helped you.
I recommend that you study the references I gave here, and if you have any further questions, please feel free to reply
at any time!
Thanks again for writing!
In His service,
Romans10-17.com
