“enough to make anyone committed to complete inerrancy wither”.
WRONG: We are justifed by God’s grace (our faith in Christ), but works show that we have true faith in Christ!
In other words Your Faith is dead unless works can be seen in your life..but since only The Father really knows a man’s heart, this is all moot anyway..!
Here we find the roots of one of the fundamental schisms between Protestants and Catholics. Protestants think Catholics rely on “works” for salvation, while Catholics think Protestants rely on faith (without works) for salvation. But for the true Christian, both are present or at least aspired to (my admittedly failed and sin ridden case), so in the end, there is no conflict, at least for the true believer (to which I aspire). In other words, true faith leads to works of faith.
Both are right and wrong. Works without faith are insufficient, as is “faith” that inspires no works. If you have true faith, then works necessarily follow from that faith. Thus both faith (the underlying cause) and works (the evidence of same) are related to salvation. If you are a Christian, the two go hand in hand. If you lack either, then your faith is weak, although weak faith without works is superior to no faith with works.
(Spoken from a Catholic viewpoint, and open to debate, but what I believe.)
Faith might die without works, but not salvation! That can never be taken away because you can not perish. The scipture is very clear on this point, doubters turn it into something which is completely bogus, unfortunately to their detriment.
>> In Romans, 5:1-2, Paul writes, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.” James seems to say just the opposite, “You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.” This appears to be a first rate contradiction. <<
How is there any contradiction? Paul writes that man is justified by faith, and James adds that he is also justified by works, and not faith alone. There’s not the slightest thread of contradiction.
Waitasec... let me see those Calvinist Goggles:
“Therefore having been justified by faith [[[alone]]], we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Oh, I see the problem. Five hundred years after Luther first adulterated the bible, you actually see the word “alone” in Paul... even though even Lutherans eventually acknowledged that Luther had added the word where it hadn’t belonged.
Perhaps someone can help me. Which of these was written first and could it be that the second was expounding upon the first?
any system of works makes God indebted to the one who qualifies. Salvation is not a gift, but a wage paid to the one who earns it.
AMEN.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." -- Romans 4:4-5 "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Grace saves, and grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Pitting James versus Paul reminds me of the teaching of Dr. Gene Scott. He referred to James as James the Jerk. I do think he had a point that James is where the legalists camped out, and legalism is the foundation for the hypocrites.
Romans was written by Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles; James was an apostle to the twelve tribes and states such;To whom were these two books written and why ?
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
the book is to those gentiles, who were already followers of Yah'shua.
his teaching should be first of all seen in this light.
“Faith alone saves, but faith that is alone is not the genuine article. It’s not saving faith.”
This is clear in Scripture, and Reformers taught such. Sola Fide means that God-given faith appropriates justification by imputed righteousness (Rm. 3:9-5:1), but it is IMPOSSIBLE to Biblically believe on the Lord Jesus Christ without effectually confessing Him as such, as enabled. Faith, like love, causes responses corresponding to the desires and will of it’s object. What you really believe will be manifest in what you do. But the key distinction is that it is not by any merit of our works, which must includes even the heart assent of faith or “sinners prayer,” that we are justified by, but by imputed righteousness, appropriated by God-given faith. Thus it cannot be said that souls “by their very works sake.. have merited eternal life” (Trent), if that is to mean that by any merit of works themselves one is justified.
Paul (against the Jews) in Romans 4 and elsewhere deals with the very issue of upon what basis sinful man is justified, and states that God justifies a man by faith without requiring works as regards a means of merit. But elsewhere makes it clear such faith is a confessional one. James (against “easy believers”) specifically deals with what manner of faith is saving, and requires works as a condition of salvation. What i believe both are saying is that God only imputes righteousness in response to a confessional faith, which begins in the heart, but which will (if at all possible) be manifested outwardly, and seals such faith as salvific, and without such it is considered incomplete. And which confession God also enables. But again, it is not be any merit of any confession that one is saved, but by imputed righteousness true faith appropriates.
James is not contrary to Paul in this who attests, “That if thou shalt CONFESS with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth CONFESSION is made unto salvation” (Rom 10:10). If one does believe in the heart, such a faith, if real, will constrain confession. “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak” (2 Cor 4:13). The Lord Himself stated, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven” (Mat 10:32). And the writer of Hebrews declares that Jesus “became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb 5:9).
And so we see that true faith and confession are inseparable, and that the only kind of faith that saves is one that will manifest heart faith by outward confession. But what constitutes a confession? It is a manifestation of response, which begins at the heart, the outward confession of which Paul states here is by the mouth. But confession is surely not limited to the mouth, but can be any faith (in Christ as Lord and Savior) motivated action. As regards bodily action besides the mouth, the primary formal manifestation is volitional baptism (Mark 16:16), which for some can be a “sinner’s prayer” in body language (Acts 2:38). This is not adding works to salvation, any more than the mental assent of faith is. In another instance, previously lost (Acts 11:14) Cornelius and household believed on the Lord Jesus and received the Holy Spirit just as the apostles did, before they spoke or were baptized (Acts 10:43-47; 15:7-9; Eph. 1:13).
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Faith is the form charity (love) takes. Charity and love is how the Lord knows us. It's what is written on our hearts.
The Holy Spirit cannot enter us until we have been purged and purified. That sometimes takes years after we are 'saved' when our heart of stone can be replaced with a heart of flesh.
The Bible is full of truth, laws and statutes. The love is there if one looks... see what Paul wrote on love in 1 Corinthians 13. Really profound and beautiful and certainly demonstrates how he lived his life.
To me, faith without charity (being of service) really means nothing. We are given free will to choose good over evil. A full confession of faith will reflect that.
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