Faith Alone?
- Thread starter RedTent
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It's not commanded but would you agree that good works will follow the faith of CHRIST,If you really don't understand what I mean by justified before men,maybe someone can explain It better than I can.
I believe it should, if one is properly discipled. There may be some, in terrible circumstances, that fall back into the carnal way of life.
C
Chuckt
Guest
They aren't basing their theology on those who believe in faith alone and who don't fall back into their carnal way of life.
They are basing their theology on people with a said faith.
What God has clearly declared is written plainly, and it is not what you just said.
(BBE) What use is it, my brothers, for a man to say that he has faith, if he does nothing? will such a faith give him salvation?
(CEV) My friends, what good is it to say you have faith, when you don't do anything to show that you really do have faith? Can that kind of faith save you?
(Complete Apostles' Bible) What does it profit, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Is that kind of faith able to save him?
The implied answer is a resounding, no.
Jas 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Jas 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Jas 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
It is simply amazing that something can be written in the bible so many times, in easy to understand language, and still have so many so-called believers screw it up by change the wording around to fit their doctrines.
Let's understand one thing , if you are able to receive it.
Simply believing you are saved, because you said the sinners prayer, is not living by faith.
"And the just shall LIVE by faith".
Neither is it an all encompassing bomb, where one faith covers all things in life.
It is like a laser gun.
You point it at something in particular, you pull the trigger, and you hold it there until the thing is taken care of.
You have to have and direct your faith at ever individual thing.
To say I am a Christian, and my good works or fruit show or prove that I have faith, has nothing to do with corresponding works. To say, I go to church, give to the poor, tithe, lead others to Christ,... etc, is not faith with corresponding works.
What does believing you are saved, have to do with believing for your healing, or for a good paying job, or for anything else, for that matter?
Absolutely nothing.
You have to have and apply your faith for salvation, and you have to have and apply another kind of faith for healing, and so on.
If your works don't correspond to what you believe in your heart for each individual thing, it is still dead.
Faith without corresponding works, right then and there, is merely believing at best.
And we are not saved by believing, but by faith.
And for the record, when God says, "Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: ", it is not talking about simply believing that Jesus is the son of God.
It has more to do with casting out demons or asking for something IN HIS NAME, and expecting it to be done.
Mar 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
That is what believing on or in Jesus' name means.
Faith acts on and/or speaks what it believes.
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I think it applies to one faith. God’s toward us.Not our amen towards him
As to what type or kind of work accompanies true faith?’ The kind of work, or labor of love that accompanies God’s creative faith that works in the believer not of the believer , it is simply called a "work of faith".
Its work is to reveal the will and perform it. Not just will it. That kind of faith would be dead seeing faith must be performed in the end of the matter to make it perfect or complete. Like the parable/pattern of Abraham and His son.
So then faith without works has no spirit life to offer needed to perform the will of another, not seen.
It is one of those things that some people might say; “well we are not robots” as they look to make the work about them own selves, almost as if they were afraid to trust God totally for their salvation . .If he has begun the good work in us he will finish it as he did with Abraham. Its called imputed faith
It was God working in Abraham in order to both will and do the work of Spirit of Christ that lived in Abraham, as to God’s good purpose. By and through that work of Christ’s faith that worked in Abraham (the unseen) the same faith was made perfect or complete
Note.... purple below in (parentheses) my personal commentary to help make my point.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how (Christ’s) faith wrought (worked) with his (Christ’s) works, and by works was faith made perfect (complete)? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, (not his own self) and it (Christ’s work of faith) was imputed unto him for righteousness:(not of Abraham) and he was called the Friend of God. am 2:21
Amen! God worked in Rehab to both will and perform His good pleasure.
The key is both to will or reveal and secondly to empower to perform that off another.... all together as one spiritual work of God.
A few references that I have gleaned that show the faith/works principle and how it works in the affairs of men
Phi 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Job 23:13-14But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
2Ch 10:15 So the king hearkened not unto the people: for the cause was of God, that the LORD might perform his word, which he spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
2Co 8:11 Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.
2Ki 23:24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
Heb 13:21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing (good purpose) in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Jer 1:12 Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
Job 23:14 For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
Psa 119:112 I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.
Rom 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Rom 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Only God alone is good.
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I agree, saving faith is Christ's faith towards us and He displayed it on the cross. However, Christ's faith was not yet available to Abraham. That's the whole dilemma people have. They try and equate James with Paul. James is writing to a whole different people group than Paul. James is taking you back to OT faith where man had to have works to show his individual faith. A man lived by his faith(Habakkuk 2:4) not the faith of Christ. Check out Galatians 3:
22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.