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Faith Without Works

by Jerry Ousley  
5/09/2014 / Christian Living

Have you ever heard someone say something similar to: "That guy will certainly make it to Heaven; he'd give you the shirt right off his back!" We all know people like that. They are good folks. They want to help others and they sacrifice to do it. Their morals are impeccable. They are honest to a "T." They don't have bad habits and would never utter a curse word. Their life reflects wholeness and surely if anyone has earned his way into Heaven he has.

I've tried to be like that. I thought that being a Christian meant that I should never get angry, always be helpful, sacrifice and go out of my way to help others. I don't think I was as good at it as the guy I just described but I wasn't bad either. But more often than not I always seemed to disappoint myself and I certainly disappointed God in my failure. When that happened I'd bury my head feeling like a snake in a boxing match.

But the problem is that we've gotten the cart before the horse. When we think like this we've gotten it all backwards. I heard a story once about a brother and sister. They went to Sunday School and both were very good kids. But the boy had gotten it into his head that it was all about being the best and doing good. He excelled at good works. He memorized more Bible verses than his sister ever thought about. He received trophies and awards for his efforts and he kept them all in a bag. It was proof that he was good.

The day came when they were to go into Heaven. The sister had nothing to show for her life, yet she was ushered right in. The boy presented his bag of trophies and awards as proof that he had been a good Christian. But when he opened the bag, it was filled with dirty wadded up paper.

I've been with groups who based their salvation on this concept. They thought their faith in God was based on how holy they were. They dressed in a manner that was considered holy. They spoke in ways that made them appear to be holy. Now I'm not putting these folks down. Many of them did what they were taught. They wanted to please God and so they performed their works. The problem was that it was just that works that somehow made them feel they were holier than others. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Doesn't that seem to go against what many have been taught? It seems that Paul is saying that none of our good works are good enough to save us. We have been saved only by the grace of God when we put our faith in Jesus and what He has done for us. That's it! It is the only way to be saved.

It is certain that we can't earn our way into Heaven. In fact, according to the Bible, in Isaiah 64:6, all the righteousness we can muster may look good in the eyes of men, but in the eyes of God it is nothing more than filthy, dirty rags. It's like a bag of trophies that in reality are wadded up paper. It isn't good enough. When it comes to the righteousness of God we all fall short way short.

So why would we even considered doing good works? There is a balance I'd like to discuss for the next couple of articles. We cannot hope to be good enough and that's why we need Christ. He alone has made the way for us to span the great gap that lies between us and God. Only the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus will make up for our shortcoming. The gap is so large that we could spend the rest of our lives building a bridge and we'd never cross that great gulf. So we must come to Jesus, accept His free gift and put our full faith, our trust, and our belief, in what He has done for us. It's the only way.

But as I said, there is a balance. We are also told in the book of James, "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17). Now I'm confused. My works have no bearing on my salvation, yet the Bible also tells us that if we don't have works our faith is as good as dead? The Bible is right in both cases. We can only understand if we have accepted Christ and have placed our faith deep in Him. Faith without works, or works without faith? Which is it. It is both!

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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