One debate that still matters among Christians: Are we saved by faith alone, or are works
necessary to be saved? There is no one
better than Dr R.C. Sproul to discuss this.
Here are his thoughts to a small group of seminary students. I’m giving
you pretty much word for word on the subject.
He begins with the battle between Catholics and Martin Luther. Then, in seeming defense of Catholics, he
quotes James 2:21-24:
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac
his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was
working together with his works, and by works faith was
made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled
which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.” And he was called the friend of
God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and
not by faith only.
Here we
have the explicit statement in sacred Scripture that a man is justified by
works and not by faith alone. You would think that that single verse would be
the crushing blow to the article that Luther said was the article upon which
the church stands or falls, as he believed it: faith alone.
So how
do we reconcile what Paul teaches in Romans with what James teaches here?
(Let me
interject God’s Word in Romans 4:1-5, so you can compare with James above, and
get a clearer idea of this apparent problem):
What then shall we say that Abraham
our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For
if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast
about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture
say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.” (Note: see Genesis 15:6) 4 Now to
him who works, the wages are not counted [c]as
grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but
believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for
righteousness
Bank to
Dr. Sproul:
Some
people think that it (the reconciliation of these two verses, one vaunting
works, the other relying on faith) is an impossible task, that they are simply
irreconcilable. Some feel that James
wrote later, after he read Paul, in an attempt to refute him. Or Paul was trying to refute James. This is beneath the dignity of God’s perfect
Word to even discuss this. Classic
orthodoxy would say that neither one of them was trying to refute the other,
and that the two positions are not contradictory, though on the surface they
seem to be. The difficulty is further
compounded by the fact that both James and Paul use the same Greek word here
for justification. The matter becomes
even more severe when we see that both of them have the same person that they
use as Exhibit A to prove their point: Abraham.
Paul says
that Abraham was counted righteous before he had done any works. So Paul has Abraham justified in Chapter 15
of Genesis. But James does not have Abraham justified until his quote from
Genesis in Chapter 22, where he offers his son Isaac on the altar. A work.
This is
one of the things that made Luther question the canonicity of James, calling it
“an epistle of straw.” But he later
repented of that judgment. Many scholars
since have charged that Luther did not believe in the inerrancy of
Scripture. But he is quoted as saying
“The Scripture never errs.” He was “simply” questioning if James should be
included in the inerrant Bible.
By way of
solution, as it turns out, there is more than one meaning for the term
‘justification.’ Recall Jesus saying that “wisdom is justified by her
children.” (Luke 7:35). Obviously, in context, He did not mean that
“wisdom” is a person, or that it was reconciled to a holy God with an imputed
righteousness. He is saying, if it is
true wisdom, it is shown by its fruit.
Thus, the meaning of “justified” in this case is to demonstrate or to manifest
the truth of something. The term has a
second meaning: it can be used to prove
the truth of a claim.
It would
help if you find out “what problem is the apostle trying to solve, and why?” What
were the issues of Paul and James? For
James, we get an idea in James 2:14-17:
What does it profit, my
brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can (some versions add “that”)
faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and
destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to
them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the
things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus
also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
James is dealing with the people who make
a profession of faith, but do not manifest any fruit of it. In our day and age, we have hundreds of
thousands, if not millions of people in America who have made professions, but
have never demonstrated the reality of the faith they claim to possess. That is
James’ concern.
But that’s not the question Paul is
asking: “How can an unjust person stand in the presence of a just and holy God?” His concern for justification is before God,
and that is where he says that we are justified by faith apart from the works
of the law. James is asking, “what about
the person who professes faith, but has no evidence of it?” If someone has faith but does not have works,
can that faith save him? He concludes that faith by itself, if it does not have
works, is dead. He is making a
distinction between dead faith and faith that is alive.
When Luther was challenged about the need
for works, a question asked of him was, “Does that mean we can just believe and
live however we want to?” Paul answers that question, “May God forbid!” (Romans
6:15). Luther says, “Justification is by
faith alone, but not by faith that is alone.”
The faith that justifies, he said, is a living faith. And you know it is alive when it manifests
itself in the fruit of obedience. That’s
the work aspect of it. If we say, “I
have faith,” how do you know? Can
anybody read my heart? The only way you
can evaluate the truth of my claim is to see if I manifest it in my life. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matthew 7:20). And even then we can fool people with rotten
fruit that is phony fruit. But on the other hand, how long does God have to
wait before He knows that my profession of faith is genuine? He does not have to wait 7 chapters to see
evidence. He knows my heart is genuine
or not. And so I think it is critical in
answering this problem of reconciling theses verses; we see that even though both
James and Paul appealed to Abraham to make their case, they appealed to Abraham
at different times in his life. Paul
makes his point that we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law
by pointing to Chapter 15, when Abraham believed God, and God counted it to him
for righteousness. James makes his case
that Abraham is justified by works by pointing to Chapter 22. Is he talking about Abraham being justified
in the sight of God? Or is he saying
that Abraham is being justified in the sight of men? He says, “if a man says he has faith, but not
works, can that faith save him?” His
answer is ‘No.’ The only faith that saves is not a dead faith, but a living
faith. If it is a living faith, it will
certainly be made manifest by works. So
Abraham is authenticating his claim of faith in Chapter 22. Just as we claim to have faith, we have to
show forth that faith by our works.
Thus Dr. Sproul does a great job of
explaining the seeming irreconcilability of these two sections of verses. But something else bugs me, and Dr. Sproul
alluded to it. Those of you old enough, do you remember how, in the Billy
Graham crusades, people got saved? By
listening to “Just As I Am,” and walking down the aisle. What we don’t see on TV is, these folks got a
brief connection, got a little handbook, and went home. There was little follow-up to even figure out
what church they ended up at, if any.
Hard data was done by others, however.
In one study, it shows that most of the people going forward were active
churchgoers, and already Christian. They were mostly rededicating their
lives. In another case, Baptist churches
did an intense survey after a California crusade. This showed paltry numbers of people actually
saved.
It is claimed that Graham’s methods follow
those by Charles Finney, a 19th century evangelist, who changed
evangelism from “conversion” to “easy decisionism,” and, some say, wrecked
it. Ray Comfort, a lifelong evangelist,
does follow up on people saved, does speak on the Ten Commandments to convince
people of the depth of their sin, and talks about Judgment Day and repentance. He
is convinced that, today, over 80% of those supposedly saved fail to follow up
with any evidence of changed lives.
All this
leads to a likely conclusion: Among the
non-Christian respondents who go forward are thousands of people who think
that they are saved. But they did not change their lives, nor did Dr. Sproul’s follow-up
works even get mentioned. Thus, they
were unconverted. This has an unfortunate opposite effect: it makes these
multitudes of people extremely hard to evangelize again; they’ve convinced themselves
that they’re already saved, and will shrug off any effort to unconvince them.
Thus, they end up hardened against real conversion Their “insurance policy” is
in. A one-off confession, a walk down front, did it.
Poll
numbers echo the story of their certainty: While 72% of Americans believe in
heaven as a place where people “who live a good life” go, and while the
majority of Americans believe in hell, only 4% believe they will go there. Thus, a great number of Americans hold this,
shall we call it, smug conclusion that heaven is their endgame. But Jesus said “few” would go to heaven
(Matthew 7:13-14). Maybe 6-10% of
everybody is the definition of few. You
may question that, but I have proof below.
I suspect most Americans—yes, most—will be like Jesus’ warning in Matthew
7:20-23:
By their fruits you will know them 21 “Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many
will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your
name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then
I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness!’
What is my proof that Americans do not respect God’s rules, and
are thus lawless? Just to cite a few: First, a majority of Americans believe that
abortion is necessary. (After all, we
haven’t eliminated it, after 48 years). From
the Guttmacher Institute, 2014: 17% of
abortion patients identified themselves as mainline Protestant, 13% as
evangelical Protestant, and 24% as Catholic.
That’s 54%. Secondly, only 47% of
Americans belong to or are members of a church (that study was done before
Covid). Thirdly, Americans’ ignorance of the Bible is astonishing: In a Pew
Research study of 2019, a multiple-choice question was posed: “Who preached the
Sermon on the Mount?” Choices were: John, Paul, Peter, and Jesus. 49% got the wrong answer! Fourthly, we allow
ignorant pastors to preach to us: according to a Cultural Research Center 2020 study,
49% of pastors “do not have a Biblical worldview.”
My point in all this is, Americans blindly speculate on the path
to heaven, when the way is clearly pointed out in Scripture. But they don’t want to read Scripture,
because they would have to confront their sin and a holy God. They are comfortable
with their lives in the world, and their sin. So they all make up their own
mind about what gets them to heaven.
They also make God whatever their minds want to see in Him—usually, a
forgiving, grandpa sort. Some believe
that their church works will get them to heaven, or they believe that their
wealth proves that God loves them eternally, as long as they don’t do anything
really bad. Or they believe that their
one-off confession, or their infant baptism, will do the job. They have no idea of the nuances of Dr.
Sproul about works—instead, they perceived from their pastors, perhaps, that assurance
of heaven was an easy task. God will make my life easier if I believe in Jesus.
They don’t know about the holiness or fear of God, and how they deserved
hell. The demons believe in Jesus, and
where will they go? (James 2:19).
The Bible puts forth the plan of salvation quite differently than
all this speculation: As Dr. Sproul suggested, we are saved by living faith, or
faith that abides in Jesus Christ. Ponder
Jesus’ words in John 15:5-6:
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides
in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without
Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not
abide in Me, he is cast out as a
branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the
fire, and a l they are burned.
To put it bluntly, as the verses say, we are burned in hell
unless we abide in Jesus. What is “abiding
in Jesus?” If it’s the key to avoiding hell, it’s rather important. It’s not works, as we typically imagine them;
it’s fruit. Fruit will result in good
works. The Bible has a definition of
fruit. And obedience. These are all required stuff. It’s a long-term relationship, too. That’s vitally important; none of these
“one-off” ideas.
It’s the subject of another paper, too. I have blogs on the
subject.
I’m simply writing this to set you worried about whether you
can be sure of heaven. Do you speak,
with your voice or with your mind, with Jesus daily? Do you read His Word, His laws, for direction
in your life daily? You should be seeking
Scripture on the whole subject, with an open heart. As the Word says in II Corinthians 13:5:
Examine yourselves as
to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves…unless indeed you are
disqualified.
May God bless you as you seek more of Him.
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