Salvation Summaries

To be saved, does a person have to perform good deeds, or do good works, in addition to having faith?  Or, is faith alone sufficient?

The answer to this has divided Catholics and Protestants on the subject of salvation.  Can I solve the 2,000 year old question to set one of them straight?  All I can do is honestly give you my interpretation, based upon a lay person’s understanding of the verses, and without catering to what any church father or denomination founder said.  Let’s review the relevant verses.

James 2:14-24  14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?  15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  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 what I do.  19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that– and shudder.  20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?  21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.  23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.  24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 

So, who is right? The Catholics, or the Protestants?

From a surface reading of these verses, it appears the Catholics have it right.  Faith and deeds are required for a person to be justified, and deeds are needed – in addition to faith – for faith to be legitimate.  However, where Catholics may error (and I don’t know the Catholic faith well enough to understand all of what they may believe, so I might err in my assessment of their error) is viewing  good deeds or works as independent of or separate from faith.  When viewed this way, salvation becomes a matter of having faith plus an unknown minimum amount of good deeds that must be performed for a person to be saved.  Without knowing the amount, one can never have full assurance of salvation.  The Bible is clear that a person can have assurance of salvation.

I think the problem Protestants have in interpreting these verses, or the problem I had anyway, is that James wrote to Christians,  but he was talking about non-Christians who claimed to have faith but in reality did not.  Why did he do this?  I believe he did this to indirectly rebuke his audience.  Non-believers who claim to have faith but don’t have deeds that show who they really are.  Christians are to act differently, for a change has taken place within them and they have help from the Lord.  However, the Christians to whom James wrote weren’t acting much, if any, better than non-believers.  They were spiritually immature, and needed a lot of growth for their lives to reflect their salvation.

“So, are you saying that Protestants were/are wrong in their interpretation of these verses?”  Some Protestants could well be right. How ? There is a difference between claiming to have faith (verse 14), and possessing true faith. Anyone can claim to have faith, or love, or compassion, but if they don’t do anything in response to it, their claim is unfounded. Where other Protestants may error is in their definition of faith.  If faith is seen as not influencing a person’s behavior to do good things or deeds, then that view of faith would be incomplete, in my view.

Let me try to explain how two seemingly separate things should be viewed as part of one whole.  Faith, love and compassion are all things that are accompanied by deeds, or a desire to perform good deeds. Let’s take love for an example.  Does love consist only of  romantic or caring thoughts for someone?  No, it includes action, or doing something.  If you love your wife and she needs help with something, what do you do?  You help her.  If she feels down from having a bad day, or hearing bad news, what do you do?  You console her. If your child gets a cut, a bruise or splinter, and is crying, what do you do?  You give aid and comfort to your child. Doing something good or helpful to another is a byproduct of having love for them; it is not an unrelated action. 

Here’s a long-winded analogy that may work.  My wife had been asking me to fix the leaky shower faucet in our bathroom.  After a period of time went by (I’m busy you know), she placed a bucket on the floor of the shower to catch the dripping water.  In the morning, I looked at how much water was in the bucket, and the bucket was a third full.  I realized we were wasting water by not fixing the faucet, but, I was still busy. However, the periodic dripping of the water, into a bucket of water, began to keep me up at night, and at that point I realized that I was no longer too busy.  After replacing the “innards” behind the shower knob, the faucet no longer leaked, which made my wife happy, and my sleep uninterrupted.

“So, what does all of this have to do with faith and deeds,” you ask?  I’m now ready to tell you. Faith is like a faucet. The purpose of the faucet is to allow water to freely flow through it, and benefit the recipient of the water.  Water represents good deeds, or good works. When a person receives the gift of faith, good deeds should flow from him or her.  A faucet that does not work well, or one where little water flows out of it, is like the Christians James wrote to. They were spiritually immature Christians.  A faucet that works well is a person of strong faith, and one whose deeds reflect that faith.  A new faucet is a new Christian who hasn’t had time to prove he is such by his deeds.  A device that looks like a faucet, but is not a faucet, is a false teacher.

In prior blogs, I’ve wrestled with the definition of faith- what is it, and where does it come from.  In a recent blog entry, I learned that faith appears to be a gift from God; a gift that enables a person to believe, and gives that person the opportunity to respond to that belief in ways that benefit others. In another blog entry, I commented that there is no such thing as a lazy Christian.  Once you become one, you are expected (and I would say obligated) to grow spiritually, and spiritual growth will result in doing good deeds (which is one reason why we were created).  I believe James helps reinforce the second part of the definition of faith that relates to the response of the believer, or good deeds. Faith without works truly is dead, for that is not true faith.

So, what is true faith?  Based upon what I’ve read and understand thus far, faith goes beyond a belief in God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit.  It is a strongly held conviction in the reality that God is real, the Holy Spirit is real, Jesus is Lord, and God’s word is true.  But it doesn’t stop there. When a person receives the gift of faith, forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit, a change takes place in that person; he/she is a new creation, and one who has the ability and a desire to please God by obeying Him.  The title of a popular Sunday School song, Trust and Obey (…for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey) is an easy way to remember what the essence of faith it. It is trusting in the Lord, and seeking to obey what He wants you to do.

Fellow reader of this blog, I have a request of you.  If you think you are a Christian, examine your actions.  If you’re acting like the world, having the same wants and desires and interests, and not helping your fellow neighbor (where neighbor is anyone other than you), then ask yourself – do I truly have faith…the kind of faith that saves?

CONCLUSION

Here is what we learned about salvation from the  book of James:

How good does a person need to be to become a Christian?  It’s not about how good you are.  No one is good enough to be a Christian based upon one’s deeds, for none of us is perfect. Becoming a Christian is a matter of faith and forgiveness of sins.

A new Christian may not act much different from others who are non-Christians, as spiritual maturity may be needed to eliminate some old, sinful habits.  Christians should seek God’s wisdom to grow in their faith so that they act more like Christ.

Faith is like a faucet. The purpose of the faucet is to allow water to freely flow through it, and benefit the recipient of the water.  Water represents good deeds, or good works. When a person receives the gift of faith and becomes a new creation, that person should have a desire to please the one who saved him/her; as a result, good deeds should flow from him or her.  A faucet that does not work well, or one where little water flows out of it, is like the Christians James wrote to. They were spiritually immature Christians.  A faucet that works well is a person of strong faith, and one whose deeds reflect that faith.