Published by Can we work our way to salvation? We are told to work out our salvation. Paul says that Abraham was save by faith while James claims that he was saved by works. Romans 4:16, 5:1 and James 2:21. So which is it faith or works. The Bible is clear, you can not be saved by works. That is, no matter how “good” you are, no matter what you do, you CANNOT make yourself acceptable to God. You cannot save yourself. So why then does James talk about works? He is not saying that good works will save you. He is saying that if you have faith, you will have good works. In fact, if you do not have faith in Christ, you cannot have good works at all.
One of the best examples of faith and works going hand in hand is found in the book of Genesis. If you read the story of Noah and the Great Flood, Genesis 6, you will find that Noah believed in God and walked with Him first, and then he built the ark. He built that ark according to God’s instructions, or His Word. Remember, it had never rained upon the earth before.
Another way of showing is this: Let us say that you want a garden. Will it matter how much you break up, work, mulch and fertilize the soil if you do not plant any seeds in it? If you plant seeds on solid rock will it matter how many and how good the seeds are? No.
If you have the seeds of faith and value them, you will prepare the ground for them. Once the seeds are planted can you just leave them alone? Again, no. If you plant seeds in the ground and just forget about them, do not water, weed or otherwise tend them, you will not get any good fruit.
Without the seeds of faith works are useless. Without works faith will die.
motie
Very well done – good analogy: planting a garden with no seeds!
I compare faith and works to a marriage where husband and wife do nothing for each other – they are still married, and will stay married until they make a conscious decision to end it, but it isn’t much of a relationship and they probably won’t feel fulfilled.
It is the same with the relationship between God and a Christian: if one has made the decision to follow Christ, but does nothing to get to know God, it won’t be much of a relationship. It isn’t ours to judge, but I believe that a Christian who ignores God eventually reaches a point where the person makes a decision (consiously or subconsiously) to not be a Christian any more. God sees our hearts and He knows those who belong to Him.
good points, very good metaphors, take a look at eph 2:8-9 when you get the chance to.
Well said; your article explains it clearly.
I believe that faith in God is the key and then opening the door of opportunity.
Well said and well pronounced. however, there was a lot of controversy over James 2:14-26 on faith and good works. Even Martin Luther was not so in favour of James as he viewed him as anti-Paul. what can you say about that?