What Christianity Is: Faith or Works?

     Many people try to separate faith and works thinking that you have to earn God's favor or that just faith in Christ is enough to be a Christian.  Those who believe that we have to earn God's favor tend to be harsh and judgmental towards others.  However, those who believe that we only have to have faith tend to be overly sympathetic and accepting of sinful acts.  What I believe to be the correct choice is the middle ground: faith and works are the only way to Christianity.


     First, I will address the flaws in the ideals of earning God's favor.  The Bible covers this area fairly often and easily dispels the points of this doctrine.  Many will claim that the Bible is clear: "faith without works is dead."*  You may also hear them quote the times when many characters of the Bible were punished many times due to disobedience: the Israelites are exiled due to disobedience, David's child dies supposedly due to his adulterous acts, Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden.  However, if we look closer at the Bible, we will see that Jesus claimed that God is generous and gives what we do not deserve**.  If we look into the examples of punishment and exile, we will see that God exercised grace and compassion on them and gave them what they didn't deserve: the Israelites became God's chosen people and were given the promise land, David had another child with the same woman who then became the next king of Israel and David became a man after God's own heart, Adam and Eve were given clothing made by God himself.  As you can see, God exercised more grace on the characters of the Bible than He did punishment.

     Now I will address the flaws in the ideals of faith in Christ being enough to be a Christian.  The Bible also covers this area often and easily dispels this doctrine.  People of this doctrine will use the same arguments that I have used above to dispel earning God's favor to support faith without works.  The issue is that the scripture that the people who believe in earning God's favor use to support their argument dispels this argument: "faith without works is dead."*  There  are more scriptures that would seem to support this idea of faith without works.  They all say something along the lines of us being justified by faith, not works***.  However, we know that the Bible says that faith without works is dead.  This scripture and those surrounding it contradict this entire doctrine.

     You may be asking what the solution to this dilemma is if it is not faith without works or works without faith; your solution is faith with works*.  Faith with works is not earning God's favor, but it is having true faith.  The Bible says that faith without works is dead and this means your faith is not true faith, but it is just empty claims.  True faith is shown through works and good works are due to faith.  We are called to be dead to sin and alive in Christ<>, this means that we should die to our old unGodly works and rise again with Christ-like works; this is what being a Christian is.  If you truly believe that Jesus is your savior, then your life will start to reflect Him in everything you do.  This does not mean that you will no longer sin, but it does put you on the track of sinning less.  The moment I truly believed that Jesus Christ is my savior was the moment that my life changed and you will hear many Christians say the same thing.  This idea is backed up with the idea from James that faith and actions are complimentary and not separate*.


*James 2:14-26 -- "14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their 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 my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[d]? 21 Was not our father 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,”[e] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

**Matthew 20:1-15 -- "“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ 9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ 13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’"

***
1.  Rom. 3:28-30, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one."
2.  Rom. 4:5, "But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,"
3.  Rom. 5:1, "therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,"
4.  Rom. 9:30, "What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith."
5.  Rom. 10:4, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."
Rom. 11:6, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace."
6.  Gal. 2:16, "nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."
7.  Gal. 2:21, I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
8.  Gal. 3:5-6, "Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 6Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."
9.  Gal. 3:24, "Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith."
10.  Eph. 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 9Not by works, lest any man should boast."
11.  Phil. 3:9, "and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

<> Romans 6 -- "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord."

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