A Living Faith - Good Works

Is faith a dead, intellectual belief without works or alive with good works of obedience to Christ? Martin Luther added the word alone to scripture as follows:

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith [ALONE] apart from the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28 NKJV)

This then became a Protestant mantra, faith alone, in Latin sola fide. But James appears to contradict that.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:24 ESV, NASB)

Does Jesus command good works? Why?

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16 ESV)

Can our motive be wrong?

When you do good deeds, don't try to show off. If you do, you won't get a reward from your Father in heaven. (Matthew 6:1 CEV)

Simple belief in God grows to become faith (trust and faithfulness). Trust involves obedience. Faithfulness involves obedience. Are we created for good works?

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10 KJV)

Are good works different from works of the law?

know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16 NIV)

Was God’s kindness in saving us based on our righteous works or His mercy?

… he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy …(Titus 3:4-5 ESV)

Living faith is alive with good deeds. Without good deeds, we will be judged unfaithful on judgment day. Are works of the law different?

However, we know that a person isn’t made righteous [justified] by the works of the Law but rather through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We ourselves believed in Christ Jesus so that we could be made righteous by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the Law—because no one will be made righteous by the works of the Law. (Galatians 2:16 CEB)

What are the works or deeds of the law?

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (Galatians 3:10 ESV)

Was the law bad?

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” (Romans 7:7 ESV)

What is sin?

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (1 John 3:4 KJV)

This is puzzling. Why was the law added?

Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. (Galatians 3:19 KJV)

Was the law added because of transgression of something that didn’t yet exist? Let’s look at a more accurate translation.

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4 NKJV)

Was there a universal law before the law from Mount Sinai?

Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6 HCSB)

Did Abraham believe but not obey God?

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8 NIV)

Men divide the law into moral, ceremonial and civil categories. Does the New Testament speak of the law as a whole, the letter and Spirit of the whole law?

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6 NIV)

Could spiritual circumcision of the heart be an example?

… a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit … (Romans 2:29 NLT)

What really counts, the work of being circumcised in the flesh or something else?

It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. (Galatians 6:15 NLT)