Is salvation by faith alone or works also ?

Soyeong

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Ok, correct me if I'm wrong here, but it's my understanding that you are saved by faith alone, however, while you are saved, you still need to maintain that level through works.

If it's through faith alone and only through faith alone, then Ted Bundy is saved (IIRC wasn't he Presbyterian or something?).

If a friend tells you that they will do something and you trust them, then you will act differently than someone who doesn't trust them. You will demonstrating that you trust them by acting in a way that is indistinguishable from someone who knew with 100% certainty that your friend will do that they said. If instead you act like someone who knew with 100% certainty that your friend wouldn't do what they said, then you would be demonstrating that you didn't trust them. So faith can not fully be understood alone apart from works. The distinction is that we are saved because it is true that we trust God, not because our trust in God leads us to demonstrate that truth. We are saved by being in the right relationship with God, not by works so that no one can boast, but rather we are new creations in Christ for the purpose of doing good works.
 
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LaSorcia

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Part of the confusion is the bible diction that people just don't use anymore outside of the church. The passage from James could be paraphrased as, "If you have a lot of beliefs, with no actions to back them up, those beliefs are useless to you."

We are saved by grace only, BUT when you get saved, a regeneration begins and this will show up as actions in your life and changes in your behaviour.
 
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The Portuguese Baptist

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In the bible it is said that we are saved by what our Lord Jesus has done on the Cross and not by being good or works. But somewhere else it is said that faith without works is not helping. Can anyone texplain to me ? I am really confused.

The Bible makes it crystal clear that salvation is by faith, apart from works.
  • ‘Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.’ (John 1:12)
  • ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.’ (John 3:16-18)
  • Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.’ (John 3:36)
  • ‘They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved [...]”’ (Acts of the Apostles 16:31)
  • ‘For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.’ (Romans 3:28)
  • ‘Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ [...]’ (Romans 5:1)
  • ‘[...] if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.’ (Romans 10:9-10)
  • ‘So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.’ (Galatians 3:24)
  • ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no-one can boast.’ (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Salvation is by faith alone; works do not influence your salvation in anything. Paul harshly accused those who believed that salvation was by works of ‘deserting the one who [had] called [them] to live in the grace of Christ’ and of ‘turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all’ (Galatians 1:6-7). The entire letter to the Galatians is written essentially with the intent of showing them otherwise. Read especially Galatians 3 and Ephesians 2 for more insight.

Many people will mislead you, trying to make you believe that you must work your way to get salvation. This is ridiculous. Firstly, it is saying that Jesus' work on the cross was not sufficient to forgive you of your sins, which is actually pretty much offensive. Secondly, if your salvation depended on your works, you would go to Hell, because you are a sinner.

And what about works? Works demonstrate to others that you are saved. That is why James says, in James 2:18, ‘But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.’ Works are a result of salvation, not a requirement for it.
 
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Giacinta

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The Bible makes it crystal clear that salvation is by faith, apart from works.
  • ‘Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.’ (John 1:12)
  • ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.’ (John 3:16-18)
  • Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.’ (John 3:36)
  • ‘They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved [...]”’ (Acts of the Apostles 16:31)
  • ‘For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.’ (Romans 3:28)
  • ‘Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ [...]’ (Romans 5:1)
  • ‘[...] if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.’ (Romans 10:9-10)
  • ‘So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.’ (Galatians 3:24)
  • ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no-one can boast.’ (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Salvation is by faith alone; works do not influence your salvation in anything. Paul harshly accused those who believed that salvation was by works of ‘deserting the one who [had] called [them] to live in the grace of Christ’ and of ‘turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all’ (Galatians 1:6-7). The entire letter to the Galatians is written essentially with the intent of showing them otherwise. Read especially Galatians 3 and Ephesians 2 for more insight.

Many people will mislead you, trying to make you believe that you must work your way to get salvation. This is ridiculous. Firstly, it is saying that Jesus' work on the cross was not sufficient to forgive you of your sins, which is actually pretty much offensive. Secondly, if your salvation depended on your works, you would go to Hell, because you are a sinner.

And what about works? Works demonstrate to others that you are saved. That is why James says, in James 2:18, ‘But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.’ Works are a result of salvation, not a requirement for it.

Go read Lord Jesus' parables. You must have not paid attention to His parables, especially the Separation of goats and lambs, the 10 foolish maids, etc.

How about the Book of Maccabees, which Martin Luther simply torn off from the Holy Bible? He torn it off because it contradicts his own ideas.
 
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DeepWater

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Salvation is by Jesus alone, and by faith you access this "grace" whereby God accepts you based on what Jesus did, and never by what you do.
God will never accept you based on you or what you do, He only accepts you based on what Jesus did for you that is applied to you, when you TRUST.
Salvation is not what we do, its what Jesus did for us that God gives to us (Righteousness) when we TRUST, as Faith is nothing more or nothing less then TRUST.
Faith is Trust., and saving faith is Trust in the Gospel, = which is what Jesus earned for you > forgiveness and Righteousness< and you get it for Free when you >TRUST<.
So, there is no "works" that a believer has to do to be saved or to stay saved, as Salvation is completely and solely based on what Christ did, and not what we do.
Therefore when you read in James that its Faith and Works, then realize that James is not speaking about salvation, he is speaking about Discipleship, which is .....how we are to behave AFTER we are saved.
So, be sure you dont confuse this with working to BE saved as so many are trapped in this misunderstanding.
 
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RDKirk

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In the Epistle by James, we are told that works are important to show and prove the faith one claims. Many souls talk about faith, but it is often a shallow thing, and even misdirected. True faith in God and His "great salvation" through His beloved Son --the Lord Jesus, and trusting God and living for Him, must be shown in reality in the life of one, else it is only a concept and unprofitable to one. Read the Book of James and pray for God's teaching!

All Scripture must be in complete harmony, for there are no contradictions in the Bible.

I agree with this, but let me say something more. I suspect James was in argument against a gnostic view that this material world is an illusion and that faith would only be manifest in a spiritual sense. A gnostic would argue that true faith would not display any material activity.

But James is believing in a faith like that described in Hebrews: Faith is substance; faith is evidence.

What is the writer of Hebrews trying to emphasize? That faith is not a spiritual concept. Faith is something palpable. In ancient times, the Greeks had discovered air. Prior to the discovery of air, people thought the wind was an invisible force that came from somewhere and went somewhere. Your breath was an invisible force that you generated in your chest. The ancient Greeks discovered that we are constantly surrounded by an invisible substance, and that wind is the evidence of the unseen air.

The writer of Hebrews is telling us by using concrete words that denote concrete things such as substance and evidence that faith is not a "concept."

"Evidence" is not a matter of belief, evidence is what gives you reason to believe. For instance, if a police forensic scientist walks into a crime scene and sees a bloody knife, splatters of blood on the wall, collects four pints of blood from the floor, and determines that all the blood came from a single person, he will conclude that somewhere there is a dead body. He believes there is a dead body, but that belief rests on evidence that needs no belief.

"Substance" is not a matter of belief. If I'm watching the Powerball lottery on television and the announcer is counting out the numbers, I have a reason to believe I may win if I have a lottery ticket. If I have no ticket, I have no reason to believe I can win. That ticket I'm holding in my hand is the substance of my belief that I may win.

You don't need to have faith that you have faith. If you have faith, you know you have faith--like you can feel the wind as evidence of the unseen air, if you have faith you feel something that compels you to action, something you know you did not have before, but you have it now, and it compels you to be more like the Lord, to do what the Lord did, and that palpable compulsion is the evidence of something you can't see.

James is saying that if a person can sit and say, "I have faith" but don't feel that palpable compulsion to get up and do what the Lord did...he doesn't have what James is calling "faith."
 
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The Portuguese Baptist

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Go read Lord Jesus' parables. You must have not paid attention to His parables, especially the Separation of goats and lambs, the 10 foolish maids, etc.

Similarly, I could say: ‘Go read Paul's letters and the Gospel of John. You must have not paid attention to the Gospel of John, especially to John 1:12, John 3:16-18, John 3:36 and John 6:29; you must also not have paid attention to Paul's letters, especially, Romans 3:28, Romans 4, Romans 5:1, Romans 10:9-10, Galatians 3 and Ephesians 2.’ Don't forget that what you are saying, if it were correct, would imply that the Bible contradicts itself, because, apparently, according to you, it simultaneously says that salvation is by faith alone (without works) and by both faith and works.

Anyway, though, if we are to go by the parable of the separation of goats and sheep, you will have to conclude that, in order to be saved, you have to: 1) feed the hungry; 2) give something to drink to the thirsty; 3) invite strangers into your house; 4) clothe those who lack clothing; 5) look after the ill; and 6) visit those in prison. Only then can you be saved. Have you ever done all of these things? You'd better hurry up, then! When you tell the Gospel to someone, and they choose to convert, tell them to hurry up too! In fact, why did Jesus even die on the cross? After all, the way you can get to Heaven is by doing good things unto others! Why even share the Gospel? Just tell people to be nice and help others! Surely that was the reason why Jesus died on the cross! Somehow...

In this parable, good works are the result of salvation, not the reason for them. God's people will do good works because they wish to do the will of God. For more information, I recommend http://www.gotquestions.org/parable-sheep-goats.html, especially the final two paragraphs (I would quote them here, but, according to CF rules, I cannot quote more than 20%). Besides, according to Matthew 25:34 (in that same parable), their salvation had already been prepared since the creation of the world, before they did any good works!

Regarding the second parable... How do you even use it to say that good works are required for salvation?

How about the Book of Maccabees, which Martin Luther simply torn off from the Holy Bible? He torn it off because it contradicts his own ideas.

Wrong! The Catholic Church added the Maccabees because they lent support to their own ideas. Those books are not part of the Holy Bible.
 
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