Greetings Pastor!
This is a common question that many
people ask. Fortunately, it is one that is answered
directly in the Bible. God's word says this:
8 For it is by
grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not
by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9,
NIV)
Salvation is by the grace of God through faith.
Grace is the favor (His great love) that God grants us
even though we do not deserve it. The Bible tells us
"There is no one righteous, not
even one" (Romans 2:10, NIV). Every human being
on this planet is a descendent of Adam and Eve and, as a
result, is born with a sin nature. You see we all sin
because of our nature. That is why there is no hope for us
apart from the grace of God.
Grace is the only way that a holy God can relate to
sinful people. And so God provides grace to every person
through His Son, the LORD Jesus:
For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John
3:16, NIV)
Faith is the trust we have in who God is and
what God had done. For salvation, faith is what enables
each person to receive the gift of God's forgiveness and
eternal life.
Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for all
our sins - past, present, and future (1 Peter 3:18). And He
rose from the dead so that we can be sure that Jesus is LORD
and that eternal life is ours (Romans 4:25). When you try to
earn God's salvation by doing good deeds, you put Jesus to
shame. In essence, you are saying to Jesus, "Dying on the
cross for me is not enough - I must help you so I can gain
salvation."
When you trust only in what Jesus has done for you (what
you cannot do for yourself), salvation is yours. It is
simply not possible to be good enough for a holy God. One
can never do enough good works to overcome the sin in our
lives. So you place your faith in the LORD Jesus because He
paid it all for you on the cross.
Another way to think about it is this:
- You are saved by grace alone through faith
alone in Jesus Christ alone.
Now, having established that salvation is by grace and
not by works, the Bible goes on to explain this:
For we are God’s
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians
2:10, NIV)
We are not saved BY good works but we are saved FOR good
works. Because we are saved, we do the good works that God
has planned for us to do all along. Good works are the
result of saving faith in the LORD Jesus. This is the point
the Bible makes in the book of James:
14 What good is
it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has
no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose
a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you
well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about
his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In
the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied
by action, is dead. 18 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. (James 2:14-18, NIV)
This passage is not saying that good works will save you.
It is trying to define the difference between someone who
claims to have faith (but does not) versus someone
whose saving faith is shown to the world in the good works
he performs. When you trust in the LORD Jesus, you become a
disciple. A disciple is one who learns from a teacher and
does the things the teacher does. So our good works show the
whole world show that we are disciples of Jesus Christ (John
15:8).
Some see this passage in James as teaching that you are
saved by good works. At first glance, it does seem to
contradict the teaching that salvation is by faith and not
by works:
21 Was not our
ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did
when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22
You see that his faith and his actions were working
together, and his faith was made complete by what he
did. 23 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.
24 You see that a person is justified by what he
does and not by faith alone. (James 2:21-24, NIV)
First, look carefully at the first part of verse 23. This
states that Abraham was determined to be righteous by God
because of his faith alone (ref. Genesis 15:6). In fact,
because of his faith, Abraham is called
"God's friend." This
happened before he was willing to offer his son Isaac
as a sacrifice (ref. Genesis 22).
So in the second part of verse 23 it says that a
"person is justified by what he
does and not by faith alone" - the question is
justified to whom? God has already justified Abraham by
faith. But the world does not see the faith that saves us.
The world only sees the work that we do. Abraham was
justified to the world by the good works he did BECAUSE of
his saving faith.
Again, we are saved by the grace of God through faith in
the LORD Jesus Christ. And because we are saved, we find
satisfaction and fulfillment in a life of good works - doing
the things that Jesus did (1 John 2:6).
For more on the gospel of grace:
I hope this helps you give a good answer to your
congregation. It is an honor to provide you with resources
to help in discipling your congregation.
