The relationship between salvific faith and works of righteousness in Christian theology can seem complex and confusing. After all, there are numerous different positions held by Christians that cannot all be simultaneously true. Are people saved by committing acts of moral goodness? Are we saved by divine intervention [1]? And if we are saved apart from our own good deeds as Christians often say, do we still have to keep moral obligations after salvation? In this post I will examine what Christian theology objectively teaches about this matter.
Please note that the word "faith" in the context of this post refers to personal acceptance and reception of salvation from God and has nothing to do with believing in God's existence by "faith" instead of because of reason. As such, the context and meaning of the word are very different than the uses and meanings of the word I have so vehemently opposed in other posts of my blog.
In order to explain what the Bible says about the basis for the salvation of humans, allow me to quote Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:8-9--"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."
First of all, this clearly conveys that we are not saved by contributions of morally-good deeds. Also, we are saved not by merely knowing that God alone can save us but by choosing to accept this fact. Now, even apart from Ephesians 2:8-9 (and Titus 3:3-6), it is obvious that no person could redeem himself or herself from the ontological guilt of committing morally evil acts.
Say that the only sin you had ever committed was a brief malicious attitude towards someone else. During your entire existence before and for the rest of your life after, your priorities, actions, and motives were constantly perfect. Despite the immaculate moral record of your entire life other than that momentary lapse into malice--an internal sin and not an external one--your subsequent perfection could not erase the fact that you had sinned. Being perfect afterward alone could not absolve you of guilt. Salvation would have to come from an external source, and, since there can be no morality and therefore no such thing as objective wrong or guilt without God's existence, God himself would have to deliver the sinner from his or her condition. There can be nothing or no one to turn to that could do this other than God.
Also, I want to clarify something I rarely, if ever, hear brought up by other Christians. If no one is saved by works, yet dedicating oneself to God or requesting divine forgiveness and salvation or "believing in Jesus" (or whatever else Christians have described the moment of salvation as) is undeniably a human work, then a major contradiction arises. This contradiction is resolved when one realizes that Ephesians 2:8-9 means that no one can earn salvation through righteous deeds like suppressing an impulse to steal, fighting human trafficking, or benefitting the poor. Obviously, the very act of accepting the gospel is indeed a conscious decision and a "work" in and of itself! To be saved people must receive God's mercy instead of appealing to their good acts and to God's justice.
Now, let's look at a verse that may seem puzzling and contradictory to the one in Ephesians 2.
James 2:14, 17, 26--"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? . . . In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead . . . As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
What do we make of this alongside Ephesians 2:8-9? Is it a paradox, a contradiction, or something that can make sense? For the answer, I will first consult a passage elsewhere.
2 Corinthians 5:17--"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
This verse describes Christians as new creations with renewed natures. According to the Bible the difference between someone before and after becoming a Christian is not merely his or her destination in the afterlife--the very nature of that person has transformed in some way. As I proved above, it is ontologically impossible for human works to save anyone. However, the Bible is explicitly clear that saved people will perform good works (Matthew 7:17-20), not in order to purchase or preserve their salvation but because their nature is objectively different than it once was, as "every good tree bears good fruit" (see the Matthew 7 passage mentioned above). James 2 explains that if we claim to have been saved and transformed by God but there is absolutely no evidence that our actions or attitudes have improved at all then perhaps we were never transformed to begin with. I want to note that Christians can enter long periods of spiritual inaction or even apathy and that the seeming non-existence of good deeds on their part during these times does not mean that they are not Christians. I myself have had such times in my life. Remember, absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. Do not assume one way or the other!
In conclusion, an objective reading of the Bible reveals that according to Christianity works cannot save someone because they could never remove guilt, but God, in almost incomprehensible mercy, decided to allow the humans he created an opportunity to be saved anyway. While I don't have space to elaborate fully on this point and need to address it in the future, salvation does involve intentional choice on the part of humans, unlike what some brands of Calvinism might teach--but like I said, that is for some other post. I hope this has adequately described at least some of the significant teachings in the Bible about the relationship between works and faith when it comes to salvation from sin.
[1]. Here I do not mean divine intervention in the sense of Calvinistic predestination. The issue of free will and God's foreknowledge in salvation is for another time. In this case, I am asking the question "Does God save us apart from our own righteous actions?"
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