KCU/04/The Gs

Topic 13: Saved by grace, faith, or works?

Question: Based on what you know from the Bible & other sources (including the Theology Matters reading), what roles do you think grace, faith, & works play respectively in Christian salvation? (Be sure to do more research into the issue. If the group cannot come to a consensus, feel free to have different group members each express their own opinions.)

Introduction--Different Views of Salvation

For centuries,Christians have been having discussions about whether it is by faith, works or grace that we are saved.Different church demoninations and different authors in the Bible have varied views on how salvation can be attained. Paul and John say that people are saved as a result of believing in Jesus as the Son of God and in his resurrection. Some churches, like the Catholic church, say that church rituals, particularly baptism and confession, save. Others say that good works and a belief in Jesus' resurrection, Jesus as the Son of God, and Jesus as one's personal Savior and Lord or a combination of all is what saves.

The early Christians also had different views of salvation. The Jewish Christians believed that salvation was achieved by performing temple sacrifices and by following the rules of the Torah. The Gnostic Christians, on the other hand, believed that Jesus was sent by God to impart special knowledge to save humanity. With this knowledge, they believed that one could go to heaven. Another group of early Christians, the Pauline Christians or Roman Catholics, believe that we needed good works and baptism for salvation, forgiveness of sins, and heaven. Justin Martyr, a Catholic Christian Philosopher, reinforced the Catholic's belief by saying that "if men by their works show themselves worthy of His design, they're deemed worthy of reigning in company with Him."

Christians today are still trying to figure out what one must do to be saved. Fundamentalists and Evangelical Christians teach that only those who trust Jesus as Lord and Savior will be saved. They believe that one is justified through faith; the person's actions and his works have no impact on his salvation but show his faith. The Roman Catholics, unlike the Fundamentalists and Evangelical Christians, believe that infants are "justified when they're baptized into the Roman Catholic church." When the infant is mature to the point where he's accountable for his sins, he is no longer justified whenever he sins. They believe that church sacraments can restore them to salvation, and a person's actions and regular presence during sacraments determine if they go to heaven. The Catholics believe that only they can be saved. The Liberal Christians generally reject the idea of Hell as a place of eternal punishment for those who don't believe in Jesus. They tend to believe that everyone will go to heaven after death. Finally, the Mainline Christians teach beliefs that correspond with those of Evangelicals, Liberals, or which lie between these two extremes.( G.A. Mather & L.A. Nichols, "Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult," Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, (1993), Page 171. Associated Press, "Evangelicals Unite on View of Salvation," 1999-JUN-12. from http://religious tolerance.org.)

Although Christians from centuries ago and Christians today still argue on the subject, the question of how salvation is attained still remains unanswered. Is it by grace, faith, or works? “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Each one of these verses alone may lead people into believing that they can get to Heaven with either grace alone, faith alone, or works alone. However, upon more research and reading more verses, it is clear that the Bible is not "sliced bread." We cannot concentrate on one verse alone, take it out of context, and ignore the rest of the passage. It needs to be read as a whole in order to be understood. Therefore, when all the passages that talk about salvation are read as a whole, we find that grace, faith, and works are all essential for salvation

Grace

Grace is defined by Webster as beneficence or generosity shown by God to man; divine favor unmerited by man; and a free gift of God to man for his regeneration or sanctification. Grace can also be defined as God's fullness in the life of a beliver. It is a quality of God that is seen through his sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross. Grace is not earned but given freely as a gift to man from God. Although Paul makes it clear in Acts 20:32 that grace is the foundation of salvation, it is not sufficient for salvation. In the book The Grace of God, the Bondage of the Will, grace is referred to as “irresistible grace,” which no one is without not even the blind, people with hardened hearts, or people who choose not to believe. Everyone receives the gift of grace, but not everyone chooses to accept this gift and let it change their way of living. Because God does not force anyone to accept this gift, one must accept it and believe in it in order to gain salvation.

Faith

This act of believing in God's grace is called faith. Faith is defined by Mirriam Webster as a belief and trust in and loyalty to God; it is a belief in the traditional doctrines of religion; trust; and something that is believed especially with strong conviction. Faith is further defined as a "firm belief in something for which there is no proof"; "complete confidence"; "belief, trust." Hebrews 11:12, the well-known chapter on faith, describes it as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Another translation states, "It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead."

As Mark Black says, "Faith has an objective and subjective element. It is a belief that Jesus died for sins and was raised, and it is trust that our sins have been removed. In other words, faith is our recognition that we have nothing to offer God and that we have no hope outside that offered because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is also our complete confidence that God accepts us on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus."This quote from Black basically sumarizes what faith is and its role in salvation; it is the underlying stance of Christian life.

According to James, faith is a belief toward God through which one endures trials, asks wisdom, resists temptation, looks after widows and orphans in their distress, avoids favoritism, contols one's tongue, keeps oneself from being polluted by the world, loves one's neighbors as oneself, and gives physical necessities to the poor; through faith, one lives as a doer of the Word. When we accept the grace of God and the fact that he sent His Son to die on the cross, we are actually telling God that we are not enough to save ourselves. It is our realization that God's grace is a gift and our way of telling God thank you for it.The New Testament is full of accounts of persons that were cured from all kinds of diseases of the body and of the soul, because they had faith in Jesus, the Son of God. True faith always results in acts of mercy and compassion.

Faith is not looking at Jesus; it’s looking unto Jesus, depending on Him, relying on Him, putting the matter of one's salvation in His hands and trusting Him to get to Heaven. Faith is looking away from everything else and looking only onto Jesus. And it is not experiencing a feeling but relying on a fact that cannot be seen.

Works

We have seen that grace is God's free gift to human kind and that faith is our acceptance of it. What then is the role that works play in salvation? In Isaiah 64:6 it says that "all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away", while in James 2:14, James asks the question, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?" These two verses, when taken out of context, seem to contradict themselves. The following passage from James 2:15-26 gives us a clear idea about the role that works play in salvation:

            Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and   
            daily food.If one of you says to him, "Go     
            in peace; keep warm and well fed," 
            but does not do anything about his physical needs,
            what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if
            it is not accompanied by action is dead. But someone 
            will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your
            faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by
            what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good!
            Even the demons believe that--and shudder. You foolish 
            people, do you want evidence that faith without deeds
            is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered
            righteous for what he did when he offered his son
            Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and 
            actions were working together, and his faith was made
            complete by what he did. And the Scripture was 
            fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it
            was credited to him as righteousness," and he was 
            called God's friend. You see that a person is 
            justified by what he does; not by faith alone.
            In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute
            considered righteous for what she did when she gave
            lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different
            direction? As the body without the spirit is dead,
            so faith without deeds is dead.

An interpretation of this passage would be that works is the spirit of salvation--what makes it alive. The deeds that James talk about in this passage are actions that are taken because of one's faith, therefore demonstrating and authenticating it. He does not say that deeds must be added to faith, but rather genuine faith includes works. Works come after we have been saved; they are an answer to the gift of salvation; and they are a sign that we have been saved. Faith expresses itself through works. James says that even the demons believe; so if we do not show our faith through works, there will be no difference between us saying that we believe and demons believing.

Although the passage is relatively clear, there seems to be an opposition in it about whether the concept of faith is with or without deeds. The argument in opposition to James' seems to be saying that " faith and deeds are separate entities; that if faith is validated by deeds, then it can be said to have some existence prior to this validation; that faith is both prior to and superior to deeds; and that demons beleive without deeds, so therefore a nonsaving faith does indeed exist." James on the other hand does not believe that there is a saving faith that exists without deeds. He argues that "faith and deeds cannot be sundered; that the only faith that is worthy of the name is faith that expresses itself through deeds; and that faith without deeds is false." ( Nystrom David P., The NIV Application Commentary.)

When we do good works, in a way, it is like showing God that we are grateful for his gift and that we will do something good for him in return. In Matthew 5:16, when Jesus said, "In the same way, let your light shine before all men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven," we see that Jesus teches that our works are an outward appearance of our attitudes toward our heavenly Father. Works also differentiate between faith that is dead and faith that is alive. Faith that is not accompanied by action is useless. If a person says that he is a Christian, and yet keeps on living a sinful life and does not do anything good for God, this person's faith is dead and he might as well be called a non-Christian.

Works set us apart as God's people.They are proof that we are Chrirtians.Good works and good fruits will be evident in a person who has true faith although one cannot be justified by his works. Good works should be done with humility and gratefulness towards God for His goodness and for sending His Son to die. These are the types of deeds that God delights in. Again, these works begin with faith. As seen in the passage from the book of James, James does not set faith and deeds at odds with each other. He only emphasizes the point that each needs the other; faith alone is not sufficient.

Conclusion

What then can we conclude? Is it either grace, faith, or works, or is it all three together? As we have seen and discussed, all three are equally essential for salvation. We saw that Jesus Christ and salvation were the free gifts that God gave us through His grace; that faith was our acceptance of that gift when we belive in Jesus; and that works were a result of that faith and proof that we are Christians. Therefore, to conclude, we can say that grace is the foundation of salvation, that faith is the act of believing in it, and that good works resulted from our faith. All three--grace, faith, and works--are important to salvation. We cannot have one without the other; they all need to work together.