I think that just about everyone here is familiar with the doctrine of justification by faith, being justified by faith. This was one of the big teachings of the Reformation, faith alone, which was expressed as sola fide. Sola fide is Latin for “by faith alone.” Faith alone, this is what saves; this is what is able to bring men into Heaven. Of course, this teaching has been around not only for hundreds of years since the Reformation, but it is in the Bible.
If we turn to Romans 3, I am going to look at a couple of verses. Romans 3:20 says:
Therefore by the deeds of the law…
The Greek word that is translated as “deeds” is ergon, which is often translated as “works.”
Therefore by the [works] of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
If we are not justified by the deeds of the law, how are we justified?
We read in Romans 3:28:
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds [works] of the law.
What is a work? First we have to understand what the Law is. The whole Bible is a Law Book. It is God’s Law to mankind. It is His communication and it is full of commandments.
Wherever God says something, it does not just have to be in the Ten Commandments for it to be a commandment. If He says something in Isaiah, and He does—Isaiah 58 says, “Turn away thy foot from…my holy day;” meaning that on Sunday the Sabbath, we are not to do things that please us; instead, we are to follow God’s guidelines for that day—and this is a commandment. This applies to wherever in the Bible that God gives a command. Matthew 24 says, “Let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains,” which was a sealed command because it was hidden truth that we did not understand until recently, but Judaea is referring to the church and when the time of the end comes and God’s judgment is upon the congregations, get out, flee to the mountains, to the Word of God. This is a command.
So what we just read in Romans was telling us that by the works of the Law, no man is justified, or as it said in Romans 3:28:
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the [works] of the law.
So if we obey commandments such as get out of the church; repent, which covers a wide spectrum in a person’s life; repent of sin; do things God’s way; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; believe the Gospel—these are all commandments of God but none of them justify us if we obey them.
When we attempt to obey them, that is the work. God told Abraham to take his son, Isaac, and to offer him up on Mount Moriah. Abraham obeyed. He took his son and was about to plunge a knife into him, and that was a work.
Did this justify Abraham? No, that is impossible. We are justified by faith without the works of the Law.
Romans 5:1 was also a very prominent verse during the Protestant Reformation of a few hundred years ago:
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
We are justified by faith alone, sola fide, faith alone. No works justify us, and yet this has not always been accepted. It is still not accepted with many denominations. For example, the Catholic Church argues that this is not true. They say that we are not justified by faith alone, that we are also justified by works. It is the same with the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Muslim world would say likewise that we must do good works to get into Heaven.
What the Catholic Church does, as well as others, is that they turn to James 2, which we are going to look at today. I am going to read James 2:14-26 where it says:
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Do you see the problem that was found here in James 2 and why the Catholic Church and others would insist that it is not faith alone? Yes, it requires faith to become saved, but the Bible says that one must also have works. The Bible actually makes this very statement in James 2:24:
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
So they say, “No sola fide. No, it is by works plus faith, the two; you have to have the two.” But, you see, this is how God wrote the Bible. Some of the Christians in olden days who understood that faith alone is what justifies were so perplexed with James 2 that a few of them even tried to say that it should not have been a part of the Bible. But it is part of the Bible, of course. This is God’s Word and this is how God wrote the Bible. You read something in one place like “by faith only” and you read something in another place like “by works a man is justified.” You can come away thinking that it has to be faith plus works. So what do you do?
Unfortunately, what some do is say that the Bible is full of inconsistencies, contradictions, and fallacies, and they come to the conclusion that you cannot trust the Bible. They say this because they are lazy. They are spiritually lazy. This is because, first of all, they do not go to the Bible with the right mindset, which is that God gave us the Bible and that the whole Book is “true and faithful.” He tells us this in other places. There are no errors. There are no mistakes. There are no contradictions. However, there is the laziness of man because it requires study, and there are those who want to read the Bible superficially, “Give me the plain meaning and seek no other meaning,” which is what they teach in seminaries.
The plain meaning? Well, how far is that going to get someone? This is not going to get someone to truth. What we have to do is to recognize that what God said in Romans 3 is true and that what God said in James 2 is also true. Then we have to ask ourselves how they fit together. This is harmonization and this is what we have to do. We are to compare Scripture with Scripture, and so we compare Romans with James.
But the one thing that has to be done before any Bible student can say that they have done their homework is to make it harmonize, to make it fit like the pieces of a puzzle. This is because the Bible is a great mystery and we could liken it to the most difficult puzzle that the world has ever known. If left to ourselves, it is like we have pieces of a puzzle all over the place and we are never going to get it together. However, with God’s Spirit guiding us and helping us and directing us, pieces start fitting together. We find harmony among the pieces and then we know that we have come to truth because we can see that this is what God is teaching and that there are no contradictions.
So if we go to James 2, let us look at James 2:14 again:
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
This is referring to what man says, his profession. This is what is referred to as a profession of faith. When someone from the Gallup Poll knocks on your door and asks, “Are you a Christian?” and you say, “Yes, I am a Christian,” you are making a profession of faith. This type of polling is done throughout the world and they figure that there are about two billion professing Christians in the world. The key word in this verse is the word “say,” because anyone can say that they are a Christian; however, God does not look on people because of what they say.
Let us go to Matthew 15:7-8; it says:
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias [Isaiah] prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
This is referring to those who say that they are Christian if anyone asks. They say that they are Catholic or Lutheran or Presbyterian or Episcopalian, etc., “I am a Christian.”
Well, okay. This is what they say and about two billion people say this, but this does not define a Christian. God looks on the heart of man and knows that they are saying this with their mouth but their life is not in agreement, their heart is not in agreement with their profession of faith. They really and honestly are not Christian.
When we are trying to distinguish between these two groups of people, you will hear us speak of “true believers.” This is because there are so many “believers,” but “true believers” are those whom God has saved, those whom He has given a new heart and spirit. They are being drawn away from the lusts and desires of this world more and more and seeking to do things God’s way. They trust the Bible completely. They honor God through His Word and they want to be obedient to what it says.
But God is the only One who knows what is going on within our own hearts; no one else knows. We can get an idea with some people. But really, finally, we do not know who is saved and who is not saved, who is a true believer and who is not a true believer. However, we can know when someone is bringing other gospels that true believers would not be involved in. Or if someone is being outright disobedient to God, then that is giving evidence that they are not saved.
Let us also go to Matthew 7; this is what is going to be said on May 21st in 2011 by about two billion professing Christians. In Matthew 7:21, we read:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Again, it will not be those who just say the right words. God is looking at the reason that someone says these words, and is that not getting back to the issue of works? Yes, but this is because He saves people and then He moves within them “both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Therefore, there should be some works seen or in evidence after salvation.
Now look at Matthew 7:22:
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
People are deceived into thinking that the things they do justify them. Does it not say this in James, that we are not justified by faith alone but by works? So if I hand out a lot of tracts, this means that I am alright with God. If I give a lot of money, this means that I am alright with God, right?
No, it does not mean that. We read in Romans that there are no works that can justify us. We are “justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Well, if you are getting confused because you do not get it, you are not alone. Many people throughout history did not understand this. You would probably be surprised at some of the renowned theologians who did not understand this, as far as to what God is actually teaching.
Let us go back to James 2:14, which says:
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?…
That is, does his faith stand alone?
…can faith save him?
This is the question, and it goes on in James 2:15-16 to give us an earthly example:
If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them…
Do you see the emphasis again on speaking, not doing?
…Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
This is just a picture that God is giving us so that we can understand that saying something is not going to change the fact that they are naked. They need some action to be done to be clothed.
Now, we have to give some caution. In the church world, people go to this verse and they conclude that they have to go and build people houses and that they have to clothe them and feed them and provide for them good medical services and take care of their physical needs.
But no; God is not teaching that here. Man’s overwhelming need, especially even more so as we get ever closer to Judgment Day, is their spiritual relationship with God. Are they saved or are they not saved? This is where we have to minister. What we need to focus on and spend our time and money on is getting the Gospel to people and not their physical needs.
But God is using this as a picture just to teach us that words are not what is necessary. Saying that you are a Christian is not going to cut it. This is not what God is looking for. He is not looking for people to accept Him. He is not looking for people to say the sinner’s prayer and then afterwards proclaim that they are a Christian.
None of this is true. None of it. This is not how God saves. He is not looking for people to join up. This is why the crusades that fill stadiums with 30,000-50,000 people are all a big hoax and a big lie. Nobody is getting saved, no matter how emotional they might get or how desirous even they are in their minds. They become teary-eyed and they go down to the evangelist and they are dunked or they wave their hands. Whatever they are doing, it is all a big lie. Nobody is getting saved at all, but many people will leave there saying, “I am a Christian.” This is because they think that they did the work that was necessary for salvation, even though they do not recognize that accepting Christ is a work; but it is.
No, we are justified “without the deeds of the law.” There is no work—from believing or accepting Christ or being baptized or partaking of the Lord’s Table—that can justify anyone.
Then in James 2:17, we read:
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Again, what is God saying here? What is He saying?
Concerning this idea of being justified apart from works, we could also go to Galatians 2:16:
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
This is about as strong an emphasis as God could possible put on this. We are not justified by the works of the law. We are justified by the faith of Christ, which brings us back to sola fide, faith alone.
This is the truth. We are saved by faith alone. But it is also true that faith cannot be alone. There have to be accompanying works, but it is not our works. This is not speaking about our works. This is central to understanding what James 2 is saying.
Again, James 2:17:
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
This is a reference to people’s profession of faith. Then we read in James 2:18:
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
Who is this “man”? Some people try to say that what God is saying here is that after someone is saved by faith, good works will show up in your life, that this is what James 2 is dealing with. But no. This does not have anything to do with that, even though it is true that good works will show up after salvation.
The question is: are you the “man” that this verse is referring to? Would you dare to make this statement? Let us even ask this of a true believer, someone who has truly become saved by God. Are they going to say as a representation of this “man” as they are speaking to another professing believer, “You have faith, but I have works”?
What do you hear immediately with this? You hear pride. “I have works! So show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.” This would be arrogant and prideful. No believer could put themselves in this position. No one could say, “I will show you that I am a true child of God by the things that I have done. Let me recount them to you.” No. No way.
Well then, who is the “man”? The Lord Jesus Christ is this “man.”
Let us turn to Jeremiah 5:1; we read there:
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
This means that if Jesus were in Jerusalem, if the Spirit of God were there, He would not have brought judgment. If the Spirit of Christ was in the churches today, He would not have brought judgment. However, immediately, as soon as God’s Spirit departed, “the faithful city [became] an harlot” on the spot. This is because they no longer had that “man.” The Lord Jesus was no longer in the midst of the congregations. Therefore, it does not matter anymore what a particular church teaches. They immediately became “an harlot” because God forsook them and gave them over into the hands of Satan to prepare them for judgment.
Or let us go to Isaiah 4:1, which says:
And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
Who is this man? This man is Jesus. The churches today, who are typified by the seven women, want to be called Christian. They want to be called by Christ’s name; however, they do not particularly care too much for His Gospel, His bread, “We want Your name, but we will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel. We will develop our own covering for righteousness because we do not need the righteousness that You speak of in the Bible. We will develop our own, but we do want to be called by Your name.” This is what they do (with their false gospels). But we can see that this is referring to this a man, which is Christ Himself.
If we go back to James 2 with the understanding that Christ is the One speaking, we will see that it is then no longer something that is prideful. James 2:18 said:
Yea, a man may say…
This is referring to the Lord Jesus and He is speaking to the Christian world of about two billion people:
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith…
These Christians are saying, “I believe, Lord,” but Jesus is saying:
…I have works: show me [your] faith without [your] works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
Christ works. He is the One who has these works. What works is this referring to?
Let us go to Hebrews 4:3 where it says:
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
What did Jesus do from the foundation of the world? He took upon Him the sins of His people and He died. Revelation 13:8 states that He was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” and Romans 1 tells us that He rose from the dead to be “declared…the Son of God,” all before, as the Son, He created this world. All the works were done. He had already paid the penalty for all the sins of His elect people. It was accomplished. It was over and done with and every one of them was guaranteed to become saved at some point in history.
Now, at the last, God is saving the best for last. He is saving that “great multitude” by simply applying the work that has already been done to this one and to that one where they then begin to believe and then they say, “I am a Christian.”
There is nothing wrong with someone saying that they are a Christian or that they believe God or that they believe the Bible. The only caution is that there are so many who say this and this is not true in their lives.
But for the true child of God when God saves us, saying “I am a Christian” is a true statement. We can then honestly say, “I am a true believer by God’s grace.” And if someone were to ask us what we did to get saved, our reply would be, “Not one thing. I did not do anything.” If someone were to ask us, “Did you not believe?” our reply would be, “No, not unto salvation.” If they were to ask us, “Did you accept Christ?” our answer would be, “Forbid it! No, that is a work and the Bible tells me that I cannot get saved by my works. The whole Law Book is a work; therefore, anything that I would do, like repenting and turning from my sin or believing, it is all work. But I am justified by faith alone without the works of the Law. I did not do one thing; however, faith must have works, but it was not my works. It is not my work. It was the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Then it goes on to say in James 2:19:
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
Why does God make this statement here? Why does He put this statement here? This is true. It is true that the devils believe. They knew who Jesus was because we can read this question that they asked elsewhere in the Bible, “Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?”
Did their belief save them? Any of them? No, and that is not fair, is it? Is it unfair that God did not save any of the demons?
“He is so unjust. He is so unfair because He did not save even one of them. He did not take any of their sins upon Himself and die for them. He just left them in their own sin and under His wrath to eventually be destroyed, every single one of them, 100%. He is such a cruel God!”
Who says this? I do not say this. Nobody says this. What is our attitude in relation to these demons? We say, “Good!” or we at least think this. “They are despicable! Look at what they did! Look at what Satan and what his dominion of demons have done to mankind! They are just getting their just desserts!” God is going to destroy them all. I am not even going to shed a tear and I do not know of anyone who will. We recognize that this is the just judgment of God upon their sin.
However, on the other hand, God mercifully and graciously and kindly comes and takes the sins of perhaps as many as 200 million people upon Himself. He dies for their sins and redeems them and saves them, and yet we have people say, “Well, why did He not do this for everyone? How come He only died for certain ones? He is not just. He is not being fair!”
Come on. Come on! What would be fair is if He was to destroy every one of us, just like He will do to the demons. It is grace and it is mercy that He has saved some. He has saved a “great multitude” that is only “a remnant” in relation to the totality of the number of people who have lived in this world. But what mercy and what love that He has done this!
God brought up the devils in James 2:19, but first He said:
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well…
So this is good. There is nothing wrong with this. However, we are to keep in mind what the next part of the verse says:
…the devils also believe, and tremble.
The devils also believe the same thing. So what is the difference? The difference is that He did not pay for any of the sins of any of the devils. There were no works done for any of the devils. He did not pay for a single one of their sins. However, they also have a profession of belief, and yet they have no work. God did not do any work on their behalf. This is why He inserts this here.
Then we read in James 2:20:
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works…
And we can substitute “the works of Christ” here.
…is dead?
Faith alone, if it is our faith, is not going to help. It just is not going to save. And our faith plus our works is just as dead. That is not going to save. However, faith that is accompanied by the work of Christ will save. It is not our faith, so we should not bother with that kind of statement. God did all of the works “from the foundation of the world” and He is the One who will save His people.
So then next in James 2:21 comes this problem:
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
This is a problem, is it not? Abraham was justified by works, and God gives us practically the greatest demonstration of a man’s faith possible when Abraham took his only son Isaac, the child that God had given to him and Sarah, the promised son, when God had commanded him to sacrifice his son, which pointed to what God the Father did with the Lord Jesus. But still, this is a commandment of God and to obey this would be work, it would be “the deeds of the law.” As Abraham faithfully went up Mount Moriah with his son and faithfully laid Isaac on the altar and was ready faithfully to kill him, he was going to bring down the knife except that God stopped him, that was a work on Abraham’s part because this was all in obedience to God’s command.
Did this justify Abraham? No. No, it did not. He was not justified because of what he was doing. Here we find one of those traps, one of those snares in the Bible.
God said in James 2:21:
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
And yes, he was. But you see, God picks a point in Abraham’s life that is like the greatest highlight, just like they do in things today. We are shown the best to try to attract our attention. This is what God did by making this statement about Abraham, “There was a great act of obedience by man to a command of God.”
Certainly, this justified Abraham, did it not? No. No. Was he justified by works when this happened? Yes. Well, the day before he was justified by works, too, when Sarah had him take out the trash. Yes, he was.
This is because he was justified by the work of Christ. Once God saved him and applied salvation to him—and we do not know when God did this, but once God did this, at that point in his life, maybe when he came out of Ur of the Chaldees some 25 or more years earlier—God justified him by the works of Christ. From then on, at any point in time in his life, God could take a snapshot of anything that Abraham was doing and declare him to be justified. When God came in the form of three angels and warned him about Sodom, was not Abraham justified when he interceded for Sodom? Yes.
You see, it depends on what God picks. If it is an everyday chore, like doing the dishes or taking out the trash or vacuuming the rug, something that we might refer to today, “Was not Abraham justified when he swept the house?”
What? Who is going to believe this? Even in our natural minds, we would immediately ask, “How did sweeping the house justify him by faith? How did taking out the trash justify him by works?” Of course, it did not; neither did offering Isaac his son upon the altar. This is how God has hidden this truth.
He uses this in the exact same way regarding Rahab, because we read in James 2:24-25:
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified…
Wherever we read of this, this is referring to the work of Christ.
…and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
She was living a wicked life as a harlot. Then she heard the news. She had probably been pondering it for some time because there had been reports about Israel coming out of Egypt and she now knew that they were very close to Jericho. So she had heard the Word and God saved her and immediately justified her by the work of Christ. At the time that she hid the spies, she was saved. This is all that this is saying. She was saved. Christ had died for her and that work was already applied to her at that point.
Once we understand this, everything concerning faith and works makes sense in the Bible. We do not have to fall into that trap and that snare that we have to do good works in order to get right with God. No. Honestly, with about 18 months to go, if we devoted ourselves from this point on for this entire 18 months to do whatever we could and to work, work, and work to obey God, that would not save us. It cannot save us. This is an impossibility. Of course, if anyone is saved, God is going to move us to work, work, and work over these next 18 months, but not to get saved. This will be because God’s Spirit is working in us to accomplish these things.
So we need to go to God and to speak the truth, “O Lord, I believe and I desire to obey You. I believe that the Bible is true. I do want to turn from my sins. However, I know that no matter what I do, I cannot get myself saved and so I ask You for mercy. Have mercy on me and apply that work of Christ to my life.”
Let us stop here with a word of prayer. Dear Father, we do thank You for Your grace. We know that by grace are we saved through faith and that it is not of ourselves, not of works lest any man should boast. We do not offer any works to try to get right with You. We know that we do not deserve salvation and we could never earn this. Father, we do ask that for what Christ has done that You would have mercy. Have mercy on our children and have mercy on our families and our friends and our neighbors. Father, we also pray that You would give us wisdom at this time to live our life, to redeem the time for it is very short, and we do ask that You would guide us especially today so that we would live this day, this Holy Day, according to how You would have us to live. Father, we thank You once again and we pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Questions and Answers
Chris: If anyone has a question or a comment that you would like to make, please do so.
1st Question: According to God’s salvation, faith and works are one and the same. It is all part of the whole thing. Would this be correct?
Chris: Let me read that statement from James 2:18 again:
…I have works…and I will show thee my faith by my works.
Faith is a work itself, and so they are very close together. Christ demonstrated His faith in finishing the works from the foundation of the world.
1st Question (continued): Yet good works will be found within anyone whom God saves without any doubt. Is this correct?
Chris: To some degree, but there are different degrees, like the thief on the cross. He did not have very much time or the potential for works.
1st Question (continued): What about the commandments of God, which are a work in themselves? This is a work that is added to you at that point along with the faith that comes with salvation. For example, we are told to love the Lord with all of our hearts, and yet none of us can do this.
Chris: Right. When God saves us, He gives us a new heart that is without sin, which is what 1 John tells us. This means that our new heart is obedient to all of the Law of God. This is the desire that is now within the child of God due to that new nature, but we still sin, which 1 John also says, because we are still living in a physical body that is fleshly. Until God redeems our flesh, we will have sin in our life.
1st Question (continued): If we are saved, is any work accounted to us in that it is impossible for us to do on our own?
Chris: God commands us to repent, but we also know that the Bible tells us that repentance is a gift. And yet we are not to sit back and wait for God to react because we are to respond, which is part of that striving to get into the gate.
If anyone heard Mr. Camping this past week, it was very good. He pointed out that the command to repent, “God…commandeth all men every where to repent,” is primarily for us today because as for the ignorance of those in times past, He winked at it. This means that they just died, many of them without any problem in their minds or they even died thinking that they were right with God. However, God’s judgment is now much more severe because of the five months. In our day, He is not going to wink at sin. He is going to bring an awful judgment and, therefore, He is commanding for everyone to repent.
This message of God’s coming judgment came to Nineveh also, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Even though repentance was not part of the message, they knew that they had to turn and cry out to God.
This is what we are hearing also: time and judgment. And we know that we also have to turn. We have to get away from our sins.
1st Question (continued): But is not God the One who causes this change to take place so that all of the glory goes to God?
Chris: Yes, of course. He moves within us “both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” If anyone does repent, ultimately it is because God did give them the gift of repentance. If we believe and we are a true believer, it means that God did give us His faith. This is the same with all of the spiritual blessings that He gives us.
2nd Question: Works is a result or a consequence of faith, is it not?
Chris: If you are looking at the believer, this is true. I quoted part of Ephesians 2 earlier. If we go to Ephesians 2:8-10, it says:
For by grace are ye saved…
So He is addressing the elect. It continues:
…through faith; and that not of yourselves…
It is not our faith. It is Christ’s faith that saves, as we saw in Galatians 2:16.
Ephesians continues:
…it is the gift of God: Not of works…
That is, to obtain salvation. It is not of our works, but it is of Christ’s works.
…lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works…
This is why God’s people do go on tract trips, do give their money, do want to obey the Word of God. It is because they are created anew. They have been given a new heart and a new spirit and they want to do these things because God is giving them that desire, and yet never are these things something that can justify them.
3rd Question: You mentioned something very interesting about Abraham as he was going to sacrifice his own son, Isaac. But also, could you look at 1 John 4:7-8:
Chris: 1 John 4:7-8 says:
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
3rd Question (continued): Is not a characteristic of a true child of God that they love others by wanting to bring them the Gospel?
Chris: Yes, right; because we have to go with the Bible’s definition of what love is. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” and one of His commandments is “Go ye into all the world” or “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” So this is our commandment. It is not something that we can choose to do or not do. This is a commandment of God and we are obligated to obey this. This is our duty and our responsibility and this is our “reasonable service.” We are to bring the Gospel to the world.
But at the end of it we say, as we find in Luke, even if we “have done all,” we are “unprofitable servants,” which is because this was our duty.
3rd Question (continued): So in other words, even in sharing the Gospel, it is all of God’s doing because He is working within us to do this.
Chris: Yes, this is true. All glory goes to God in everything. He is the One who works this all out. If He left us to ourselves, where would we be?
4th Question: Something that the Lord has been speaking to me about is Philippians 3:10.
Chris: I will begin in the earlier verse. We read in Philippians 3:9-10:
And be found in him…
This is referring to Christ.
…not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law…
This would be referring to the works of the Law.
…but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
4th Question (continued): I think that we do not emphasize enough this resurrection power. We have recently found out that Christ did this work before He made the world. He destroyed Himself and brought Himself to life. This was a tremendous work. Ephesians 1:19-20 includes us, too.
Chris: Ephesians 1:19-20 says:
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought [or worked] in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
4th Question (continued): This is just tremendous to me because we cannot do anything. It takes that great power of His to do that work in us. Whatever we do that is good, it comes from God. It is not anything that we could take credit for. We can never say that something we have done is now credited to us.
Chris: Yes, that is true regarding everything. The only thing is that we have to keep in mind that, yes, it is God who will move in us to do anything good, but He is nonetheless commanding and we are responsible to Him as far as those commands go.
Now we find that it is time to repent and turn and some people are thinking that God will move them to obey Him, but they are not striving in that sense to turn from sin and to do things according to God’s will.
4th Question (continued): Is this the same idea as when people go and pray to the Lord for His mercy and yet they do not praise Him for the fact that He is a gracious and merciful God? It is possible for us to take advantage of what He is telling us to do.
Chris: We read in Ephesians 3:16:
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
We read in Philippians of this strength, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” whereas it was said to Joshua, “Be strong and of a good courage.” God is saying that this is the strength that God gives to keep His commandments, to obey Him, to do things His way.
I think that the Bible gives us a good analogy of this in the lame man who was set by the Beautiful gate of the temple. His ankle bones had no strength. Through one of the apostles, God miraculously healed him and he was able to jump up onto his feet. It says that he was “entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.”
This is a picture of what God spiritually does for any one of His people, “I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.” We are “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” in order to obey Him. This is because we are naturally all lame.
The Bible says to “walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments,” “walk in thy truth,” walk, walk, “walk in the Spirit,” but naturally we cannot. We take a step and we fall. This is a very good and apt description when people say, “I fell into sin.” This is because they tried to walk and collapsed. The reason for this is because we are lame. Any person is spiritually lame. It therefore takes a miracle to cause them to walk uprightly. It takes the power of God.
4th Question (continued): Yes, but some people just keep harping on the fact that they cannot do anything, that they are wicked. And we should know that we are not deserving of God’s grace, but is there not a time when we start praising the Lord for the fact that He is able to give strength?
Chris: Yes, this would be a good thing to do. When we are praying to God, “O Lord, have mercy and strengthen me in the inner man that I might obey You.” Yes, we can thank Him that this is possible today because it is still the day of salvation. This is not always going to be the case. And there are many other things that we can thank God for—they are countless—and that would help us. It would help anyone in that situation.
4th Question (continued): It says in the Bible that when we praise Him, it is to His glory and He will show us His salvation. This just came out of my mind, but I am thinking of Psalm 50:23.
Chris: Yes, I was just thinking about walking in good works. I did not finish the verse in Ephesians 2:10 from the earlier question:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
This is the evidence of a child of God. We will have this ongoing desire to do the will of God and to keep His commandments, which is like a spiritual walk where we take step after step.
5th Question: I just wanted to bring up 1 John 3:19-21, which reiterates everything that you just said.
Chris: 1 John 3:19-21:
And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
This is basically saying, as far as our heart condemning us, that salvation is in God’s hands and that it does not even matter if we look at ourselves and we see our sin and we say that there is no way that we could be a child of God. We are condemning ourselves if we say this, yet God is the One who justifies. We are not to say that anyone who does this is in fact saved, but this would not prevent a person from becoming saved if God had determined to save that person.
Okay. Let us stop here.