The Erroneous Teaching of Faith without Works

The teaching of faith without works emphasises that merely believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and confessing Him as your Lord and Saviour is all you need to be part of God’s kingdom and eventually spend eternity with Him. These teachers of faith will hardly talk about holy living from their pulpits, nor will they preach against sin and ungodly lifestyles. Infact some of them would attack any minister who dares talk about the righteous standards of God. It does not matter if you are a thief, liar, fornicator, adulterer, adulteress, idolater, covetous etc in the church. They tell their members that they can always go back to God for forgiveness and that the blood of Jesus Christ is always there to cleanse them. But is this the teaching of the Bible? Did Christ die for us in order for us to keep sinning and never able to live victoriously? Does God expect that having saved us from sins, justified (declared righteous) through faith in Christ and adopted as His children to go back into our old ways as a dog swallows back its vomit? Is that the kind of faith that the apostle Paul preached? I have specifically mentioned the name of this beloved apostle because most of these teachers of faith would always refer to his writings in order to support their teachings.

We shall therefore look at what Paul the apostle wrote about faith in some of his epistles, see what James the Lord’s brother also wrote on faith and works in his epistle and see whether both apostles are in agreement or not. Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9 said ‘8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.’ Our salvation is not earned by our good works, good deeds of love or strenuous efforts to keep God’s commandments. Rather, we are saved by the grace of God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ saved us, justified us and made us God’s adopted children. Faith is an indispensable ingredient in any person’s relationship with God. Hebrews 11:6 says that ‘But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.’ If we take a curious look into the lives of the patriarchs in the Old Testament, we see that their relationship with God was not founded on good works but on their faith in God. The Bible says of Abraham in Genesis 15:6 ‘And he believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness.’ Also in Habakkuk 2:4, the Bible declares ‘but the just shall live by his faith.’ This means that a person who has faith in God and has thus been saved, and made righteous by God must henceforth on a continual day to day basis be in a right relationship with God. This was the experience of the patriarchs in the Old Testament as seen in the testimonials of some of them.

Abel – Hebrews 11:4 ‘By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.’ 1 John 3:12 ‘Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.’

Enoch – Genesis 5:24 ‘And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.’ Hebrews 11:5 ‘By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.’

Noah – Genesis 6:9 ‘Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.’ Hebrews 11:7 ‘By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.’

As it was with the patriarchs in the Old Testament, so is it with us today in the New Testament. God has not changed. Paul in Ephesians 2:10 says ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.’ It is rather interesting that this passage of Ephesians is next to the passage where he spoke about salvation by grace. What do you think he meant by ‘created in Christ Jesus unto good works’? He meant that we have been recreated in Christ Jesus (that is become born again) to do those good works which God had planned beforehand for us to do. These good works includes holy living (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:7; Titus 2:12); love for God (Deut 6:5; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27-28); and love for our fellow human beings (Matthew 22:39; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14). The apostle in emphasising the need for works further stated in Philippians 2:12 ‘Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. As believers saved by grace, we must work out our salvation to the end. Failure to do this will lead to our losing our salvation. We do not work out our salvation by mere human effort, but by means of God’s grace and the Spirit’s power given to us (John 1:12). In order to work out our salvation we must resist sin and follow the desires of the Holy Spirit within us. This involves a sustained effort to use every God-appointed means for defeating evil and revealing Christ’s life. Thus working out our salvation focuses on the importance of sanctification. Lastly all of God’s children should possess a holy fear that trembles at the Word of God (Isaiah 66:2) and causes them to turn away from evil (Proverbs 3:7; 8:13).

James wrote to correct erroneous ideas about the nature of the saving faith and exhort and instruct his readers about practical outworking of their faith in righteous living and good deeds. James 2:14 ‘14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.’ James 2:14-26 treat the ever-present problem of those in the church who profess to have a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, yet at the same time show no evidence of sincere devotion to Him and His Word. True saving faith is so vital and will always express itself in godly action and devotion to the Lord Jesus. It always manifests itself in obedience to God and compassionate work done for needy people. James says that faith without a personal obedient relationship with Christ as Lord is a dead faith and will produce neither salvation nor anything good.

Conclusion
Let me close by explaining what James meant by the phrase ‘by works a man is justified’ in James 2:24. ‘Works’ as used by James has a different meaning from ‘works’ used by Paul in Romans 3:28. For James ‘works’ refers to the obligations to God and fellow human beings that are commanded in Scripture and which emanates from a sincere faith, a pure heart, the grace of God and the desire to please Christ. For Paul ‘works’ refers to a desire to gain favour and salvation through obeying the law by one’s own effort rather than through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Brethren from the foregoing, we see that there is no contradiction between Paul and James with regard to the matter of saving faith. While Paul emphasises faith as the means by which we accept Christ as Saviour, he goes further to state that true saving faith will lead believers into obeying God’s Word and inevitably produce works of love in the life of the believer (Ephesians 4:24-32; 5:1-11; Colossians 3:1-17; Romans 8:1-17; 12:1-2). James on the other hand calls attention to the fact that true faith must be an active and enduring faith that shapes our existence. Works without faith are dead works. Faith without works is dead faith. Thus faith and works can never be separated; the latter flows naturally from the former.

God bless you in Jesus' name, Amen.