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, 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 Luther's gospel of faith alone.
Here is 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: Genesis 15:6) 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted 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
So how do we reconcile what Paul teaches in Romans with what James teaches here?
Back to Dr. Sproul:
Some people think that reconciling 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. It is beneath the dignity of God’s perfect Word to even discuss this "refuting." 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. He had faith to believe God's pronouncement. But based on James, he would not have Abraham justified until Genesis 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 originally “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, 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. (Ed. I ask, are they in the end saved, based solely on their original confession? James answers that: No.)
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 a different question, “what about the person who professes faith, but has no evidence of it later?” 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, on another occasion, said, “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--he actually acknowledged the role of fruit, or works. If we say, “I have faith,” how does another person know? Can anybody read my heart? No. 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, 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 the sermon, then as the choir does “Just As I Am,” they walked 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 a separate 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 likely actually saved, since they did not even attend church.
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 (many pastors nowadays miss those). He is convinced that, today, over 80% of those supposedly saved fail to follow up with any evidence of changed lives. They simply missed the "follow on" fruits that embody true faith.
All this leads to an unfortunate 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 true faith's follow-up works even get a mention by the evangelist. The evangelist fails to emphasize the cost of discipleship nowadays. Thus, they ended up 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. Per the evangelist's words.
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 (which is not the point of our need for redemption), and while the majority of Americans understand 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, without much sweat. 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 defined as lawless? The word does not mean "bad" sins, just ignoring God, and not willing to have a relationship with Our Lord. Just to cite a few: First, a majority of Americans believe that abortion needs to be a necessary option. (After all, we haven’t been offended enough to eliminate it, after 51 years). From the Guttmacher Institute, 2014: 17% of abortion patients identified themselves as mainline Protestant, 13% as evangelical Protestant, and 24% as Catholic. That totals 54% of "Christians" who think it's fine to kill the baby in the womb. Church pastors don't help--they typically avoid the subject of murdering the innocents. 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 define for themselves on the path to heaven, when the way is clearly pointed out in Scripture; and missing it is not excusable. 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; i.e., visit church with some regularity; pray to God, like if my family is in trouble. 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. Since Scripture disagrees with what your denomination has always taught you, that's still no excuse. People just assume God will make my life easier if I believe in Jesus. These people 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 burning 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 and forming a relationship with Jesus--praying, reading His Word to learn to obey His commands, being honest, confessing sin, asking Him for clues on today's mission for Him. Fruit will result from good works. The Bible has a definition of fruit in Galatians 5. And obedience. These are all required stuff. It’s a long-term relationship, too. That’s vitally important; none of these “one-off” salvation ideas. Easy believism.
I have other blogs on the subject. 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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