The
Proper Relationship Between Faith And Works
Unknown
A lot of people believe in
God, they just don't believe what he says, or they believe some
of it but not all of it, or they believe what he says does not apply
to them today. Here is a quote, which reflects how most people just want enough
to slip into heaven, but not enough to cramp their lifestyle.
Three
Dollars Worth: "I
would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my
soul or disturb my peace, just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze
in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man, or
pick beets with a migrant; I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the
warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want about a pound of the eternal in a
paper sack. I would like to buy about three dollars worth of God, please."
Wilbur Reese.
Many people say, "We're under
Grace, not the Law." But my answer to them is that they are lying. They're
hypocrites. Because they obey man's law, but won't obey God's Law. They say
"Jesus is Lord of lord's and King of kings," yet they don't obey the
Laws of the King! They place the will of man above the will of God.
Grace is not the Opposite of Law
Grace is like a governors pardon
to a prisoner; it forgives him, but does not give him freedom to break the law.
Likewise, the Lord is our Governor (Psalms 22:28), and his grace forgives us,
but does not give us freedom to break His Law.
The proper relationship between
faith and works can be best illustrated by the example of the apple tree. The
apple tree does not produce apples so it can be an apple tree but
produces apples because it is an apple tree. A follower of Christ will
do good works because he is, and not so he can be, one. When Christ dwells in
your heart, your actions will show that He is changing you on the inside. You
will become like a light on a hill in a dark world (Matthew 5:16).
Grace is not the opposite of God's
Law, because the giving of the Law by God was itself an act of Grace, for God
did not have to tell us what sin is. The real opposite of Grace is Gracelessness,
and the real opposite of Law is Lawlessness. God's Law is an act of
God's Grace. Therefore, for us to obey God's Law is synonymous with God's Grace
saving us. His Law and Wisdom saves us from sinning. To set Grace against the
Law is a contradiction of God's nature, because God never contradicts himself.
With this ignorant view of the
law, it is no wonder that Christians are being led like lambs to the slaughter
by lawless governments that Christians themselves have allowed to come to
power.
Everybody wants a Savior, but most
people want a Savior on their terms, and not God's. They want to live
their life without God interfering in their life. So they create a
Savior in their own mind, and only accept the parts of scripture that don't
contradict their views of their Savior. People who believe they are not under God's
Law believe there are no laws at all except their own, and that's how every man
appoints himself as his own god (Genesis 3:5). The Ten Commandments, unlike the
temporary sacrificial Old Testament laws, are a reflection of God's Character.
It is His image. We are to reflect God's image. His Law is His way of telling
us how to be conformed to His image (Romans 12:2).
Shall we "test" out
adultery to see if it is really destructive or not, and judge the Law by what
our "conscience" or "feelings" tell us? Shall we do the
same with murder, coveting, etc.? Believe it or not, this is what is happening
in the Christian world. Once you make your religion existentialistic, then
there are no laws at all except your own, and that, friend, is new age
doctrine. In short, every man appoints himself as his own god. This line of
reasoning may seem extreme but sometimes we need to see the consequences of
taking our position to its logical conclusion before we see the folly of our
own personal theologies.
Examples
Let's go to the book of Jonah.
Nineveh was a wicked city, and God sent Jonah to tell them that He was going to
overthrow that city. So, Jonah goes into the city and starts preaching,
"Yet forty
days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" (Jonah 3:4). After Jonah
preaches this message, look what happened:
Jonah
3:5-8, "So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast,
and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For
word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid
his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he
caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the
king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste
any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered
with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God:" and listen to what he says,
"yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from
the violence that is in their hands."
Now, Nineveh believed in God. And
they did the godly work of repenting and turning from their wickedness. And
because of this, God did not destroy Nineveh. If they didn't repent, God
would have destroyed them (Jonah 3). Now, let me ask you a question, dear
reader. Was Nineveh saved by their godly works? Or were they saved by God's
grace? Think about this before reading further.
The answer is...both!
Why? Because they are not opposites. Look at what God's Word says is the reason
why he did not destroy Nineveh: Read this carefully:
Jeremiah
18:8, "If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from
their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them."
You see, the nation of Nineveh repented,
and turned from their evil. And because of this, God's grace saved them!!! God
pronounced evil upon Nineveh, and they repented, and God saved them. His Law,
in Jeremiah 18:8, states this as the reason! He says IF that
nation repents (conditional), THEN, and only then, will God be
gracious to them.
It does not say how long after
Nineveh "believed," and repented before God decided not to destroy
them; it could have been one minute. Even though they did not do any
"godly work" up to that point, just like Abraham might not have done
a "godly work" up until the time he "believed," the
following fact remains:
As soon as they
"believed," they gave up their own will to seek God's Will.
This is very important. As soon as
they "believed," they set their heart to become obedient to God. You
see, usually before one obeys God, they must first hear His Word and
"believe" in him before they put their faith in Him (Romans 10:17).
So, in this sense, we are saved by "believing in God." Yes. However,
this goes right along side of obeying him. You cannot separate the two. Once
you "believe", you will be moved to "obey" Him as well.
If one truly "believes"
in God, they will then obey his commandments. If one "claims" to
believe in God, but does not seek God's Will, then his works bear witness that
he is not of God, and this "belief" will not be counted as
righteousness.
You see, those people who say
God's grace saves us are correct. Those who say our works save us are also
correct. But they are both full of half-truths if they say God's grace is the
ONLY thing that saves us, or if works are the only thing that saves us. You
see, they go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. They
compliment each other; they do not contradict each other.
The primary reason God said he was
going down to Sodom and Gomorrah was because of the violence that it was filled
with (Genesis13: 13), but Lot found grace (Genesis 19:18-19), because he was a
righteous man (Genesis 19:1). The reason he destroyed the earth in the time of
Noah was because of the violence it was filled with (Genesis 6:13), but Noah
"found grace" (Genesis 6:8), because he was a righteous man (Genesis
7:1). And here he is into Nineveh and the Ninevites knew that they needed to
repent of their evil doings, and specifically turn and repent and turn away
from his fierce anger, so that they don't perish. And God saw their works, that
they turned from their evil ways, and God repented of the evil that he said he
would do to them, and he did it not.
God did not show grace to Sodom
and Gomorrah because they did not do the godly work of repenting and turning
from their evil. God did not show grace to those during Noah's time, because
they did not do the godly work of repenting and turning from their evil. God
shows grace to those who have a heart that seeks after God. He does not show
grace to those who do not seek after Him.
Obedience
Today, the meaning of the word
"believe" (and "faith") has been weakened. In the eyes of
most, it has become a mere acknowledgment of a certain fact. To many, it has
nothing to do with obedience. But in 1 Peter 2:7, the words "believe"
and "disobedient" are represented as opposites.
1 Peter
2:7, "Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto
them which be disobedient..."
In other words, to believe is to
be obedient, while unbelief is synonymous with disobedience. The Scriptures
exhort "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life" (John 3:16).
As a result of the way we view the
words "faith" and "belief", many think that all they are
required to do is believe that Jesus existed and died at Calvary, and they are
in good standing with God. If this were the only requirement, the demons would
be in good standing with Him (James 2:19). But there is no salvation for them!
"Faith" is Greek word #4102, pistis. This word comes directly
from a primary verb (#3982 peitho), so is itself ACTIVE.
"Believe" is the same, as it comes directly from pistis. Faith
and belief is some action based on God's word of promise.
1 Timothy 6:12, "Fight
the good fight of faith [Action]"
Here, Paul expresses
"faith" as an action, as something we are to fight for. Here is
another verse, which describes "faith" as a "fruit," or as
a godly work:
Galatians
5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance…"
As you can see, scripture defines
"faith" as a fruit. Scripture places "faith" in the
same category as godly works. Therefore, if godly works is a verification of
being a child of God, faith is also an evidence of being a child of God.
Those who say we are saved by
faith only are full of half-truths. Look at these passages:
James 2:24, "Ye see then
how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."
James 2:17, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being
alone."
In other words, the
relationship between faith and works is so close that in fact they are one
entity.
James 2:26, "For as the
body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead
also."
Legalism?
I find it interesting that so many
Christians call me a "legalist" because I follow God's Law. But I try
to explain to them that everyone is a legalist, everyone is a slave to
someone's will, whether it is God's, Caesar's, or their own. For example, the
very ones who say I'm a legalist, are themselves legalists to every code, rule,
and regulation that Caesar passes. They obey Caesar's will without taking any
thought as to whether it is right or wrong in God's eyes. They do it
blindly, and that's blind faith in a false Savior.
Let me ask you a question, who
will God be more pleased with? Those who are legalists to man's law, or those
who are "legalists" to God's Law? I think the scripture is clear. If
we are to walk as Jesus walked, and reflect HIS image, and Jesus, according to
these people, was himself a legalist, then I believe God will be much
more pleased with those who walk in His Commandments, like Jesus did,
rather than man's commandments, like the Pharisees did.
The scripture nowhere condemns
anyone for following God's Law, and it never calls someone who follows God's
Law a "legalist." On the contrary, God's Word encourages people
to follow God's Will. The ones who are condemned in scripture are those who
place the commandments of men above the commandments of God (Matthew 15:9, Mark
7:7, Titus 1:14).
Many claim "We are under
grace, not the law," and use that as an excuse to forsake God's Law and do
their own will. But ask them, "If this means we are not under God's Law,
why is it that you are under man's law?" They will readily admit that they
are under man's law. Ask them "Why?" They will say, "Because
God's Law says to obey the government." Then point out to them that they
just said they were not under God's Law! Why are they still under that part of
God's Law that says to obey man, but not under God's Law that says to obey God?
Did God intend for man's law to replace God's Law? Did God intend to replace
obedience to God with obedience to secular man?
Many an unbeliever is
willing to go God's way if God goes his way; many a professing believer
ends up going his own way and making it look like God's way. Are you going
you're own way and making it look like God's way, or are you
going God's way even if it hurts?
We are to place ourselves under His jurisdiction, living in His kingdom. And we're not going to be perfect, we may fall and do wrong, but we are to check everything that we're doing. And if we do something that's against God's Word, we repent immediately to renew our mind. That's how we renew our mind, by repenting to the King and saying, "I'm sorry. I did not want to do that. It's a habit; it's the way that I learned in the world. Help break me of that." And He does help us if our heart is truly after Him. And if you don't repent, he has the natural man right there as a rod of correction for you, and that's what man's codes, rules and regulations are all about.