So, what is it all about – faith or works? This daily devotional looks at the connection between the two.
Nuggets
- We cannot earn salvation because it is a gift.
- We are called to act on our faith.
This is a sermon that I ran across when we were looking at Confidence in the Spirit.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
It has a couple of things that stuck out at me. The first one I was to dig into is about the works or faith issue.
Gibbon wrote,
“If we look into the Bible we shall find two sets of texts. One set ascribes the whole work of redemption to God — faith, repentance, love, holiness, are all declared to be gifts of God. Another whole class of texts describes repentance, faith, purification, and love as acts which each man ought to, and therefore can perform himself.”
Resource
Let’s dissect this.
Faith a Gift from God
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2: 8-9 ESV)
We cannot earn salvation because it is a gift.
Gibbon talked about the redemptive work of God. What does that mean?
Redemption is where God bestows His gift of grace on us in order to deliver us from sin.
- Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
While I am being Dictionary Chick, I had better throw in the other two words that someone searching for God might find confusing.
Faith is a gift from God that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
- Righteousness is the indwelling goodness that is the result of a solid relationship with God built by a sincere life of conscientious obedience to God’s laws and commandments and from which all virtues flow.
- God’s goodness is His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Disciples’ goodness is imitating God’s holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
- Submitting to God is actions by humans that obey God and keep His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, follow His purpose for us, and do not follow Satan’s promptings.
Glossary
Is it any wonder that we call it a mystery?
But let’s boil it down to its essence. We either sin or submit. What are those again?
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Submitting to God is actions by humans that obey God and keep His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, follow His purpose for us, and do not follow Satan’s promptings.
They are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. We either sin, or we don’t. We either submit to God, or we don’t.
It is all about what God did for us and does in us. The only thing we have to do is accept the gift.
What Man Performs
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas. 1: 22 ESV)
We are called to act on our faith.
But then Gibbon goes on to say, “… repentance, faith, purification, and love as acts which each man ought to …” We can perform those.
Well, yes. We have to choose to repent — and we have to choose to continue turning away from sin.
We have to grow our faith. “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing” (II Thess. 1: 3 ESV).
We are told time and time again to love.
Love graphic
In fact, love is the foundation of the two greatest commandments. “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mk. 12: 30-31 ESV).
Those are all things we can — and are suppose to — do.
Making the Connections
“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Jas. 2: 17 ESV)
What all of this is saying is that we can’t earn salvation through works, but we can’t have salvation without works.
Think about it. What is works? Works is generally being considered the good things we do for others.
That might make us a good person, but it won’t cover our sins. God is interested in us being more than good people. He wants us to be free from our sins.
That means nothing we can do or don’t do can bring us salvation.
Only God can do the work. Gibbon wrote, “Man cannot save himself, yet God’s preparing grace has kept alive in each man enough of moral life to respond to the offer of Christ, a something living in each man to which the Christ can make His appeal.”
Resource
Salvation is all about God.
How Do We Apply This?
Gibbon said one other thing that I like. He wrote, “Salvation, they teach, is a work of God’s grace, in which each man is required and enabled to take an active part. … Faith is preeminently a matter of will.”
Resource
We have to take an active part in salvation. Worldview people would like it to be the I’m-a-good-person syndrome. They want Matthew 25: 35-36 to be taken literally.
But we flipped it in a previous devotion.
- For I was hungry for the Word of God and you introduced me to it and helped me understand.
- I was thirsty, and you took me to the well of Living Water and gave me drink.
- I was a stranger searching for God, and you welcomed me and guided me to find Him.
- I was naked, and you clothed me. “I rejoice greatly in the LORD, I exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness …” (Isa. 61: 10 CSB).
- I was sick because sin is an illness, and you visited me with the cure.
- I was in prison because all sinners are prisoners to sin, and you came to tell me how to break free.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We have to remember that loving others is the second greatest commandment. We have to put our priority on the first — loving God. We do that by searching for and seeking God.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
What all this tells me that faith is a complex act. But that act must focus on God and His Will.
Father God. We are humbled that Your desire to restore our relationships with You led to Your designing the Plan of Salvation. We know that salvation comes only through Your grace. It cannot be earned through our works. You use our works to grow us in grace and knowledge. Help us to grow. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.