- Jul 30, 2004
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Hi guys, I am a Christian but I have a question about whether or not belief in God is enough to be saved.
Somewhere in these 77 pages, this answer must have come up, but if not ...
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Eph. 2:8, 9
So we can't earn salvation by works, but works are prepared ahead of time by the Holy Spirit who works through us. What James was saying is, "by their fruit, you will know them." We don't produce fruit by ourselves, GOD DOES, since He is all that is good emulating through us. If the Light reflects off you, should someone say it is coming from you or God? So when James expects to see works, he does not mean works generated by man but works of God through us. He is love. We reflect and radiate that love. Of course we are participating, willingly doing His will. Give Him the credit, don't boast, otherwise you'll be like the Pharisees who blew their trumpets when they gave to the poor and did good deeds to be noticed and glorified. "Oh look, there are the Pharisees ... giving ... what wonderful, godly men are they!"
Don't we want to look around when we do a good deed to see if anyone is watching? Don't we want to be noticed and praised? "Oh, you're a saint!" "Gee, thank you ... it's nothing ... really!" And if we aren't noticed, most of us have an urge to tell someone the nice deed, offering or big tithe we gave. Is that what James expects from you? Cause, Jesus criticized the pharisees for doing such things and being white washed tombs and condemned them to Gehenna.
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