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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | forgivness of sins | John 3:16 | Makarios | 226187 | ||
Greetings again DD4Truth! Yes, it is true that faith in Christ alone (to the exclusion of everything else) saves a person. What is faith? For a Biblical definition, I would recommend the following: Romans 4:5, 23-25; 5:1 You stated, "The only time faith alone is used in the scripture is in James 2:24"... Close to 200 times in the New Testament salvation is said to be by faith alone- with no works in sight! Recall that in Acts 16:31 the jailer asked Paul and Silas how to be saved, and they responded, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." The jailer believed and immediately became saved. Also, the thief on the cross was saved, but never baptized (Luke 23:42-43). John 3:15 says that "everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." John 5:24 says, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." John 11:25 Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies." John 12:46 says, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." John 20:31 says, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." If salvation were not by faith alone, then Jesus' message in the Gospel of John- shown briefly in the above quotations- would be deceptive, stating that there is one condition for salvation when there are allegedly two- faith and works. But I cannot emphasize this enough: we are saved by faith for works. Works are not the condition of our salvation, but a consequence of it. We are saved not by works, but by the kind of faith that produces works. Thank you for mentioning Galatians 3:5, which explains that circumcision was the human response by the children of Israel to the promise of God as conveyed in the covenant.. Just as baptism for the believer today is the human response of identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. As mentioned above, you referenced James 2:24. There are no real contradictions in the Bible. In the context, James is concerned with "justification" (that is, "declaring righteous") by man, whereas Paul is talking about being justified by God. Man necessarily must judge by what he sees, and he cannot look into another man's heart to ascertain whether he really has saving faith or not. So, James says, "I will show you my faith by my works." (James 2:18) Paul does not contradict this, but is fully in agreement with the principle that genuine faith will inevitably show itself in works: see Ephesians 2:10. Therefore, "good works" come as a result of a faith that is truly genuine. In this post that I am responding to, you go on to mention 1 Cor. 13:2; 16:22; Luke 13:3; Matt. 12:41; Jonah 3:10; Hebrews 5:9; 2 Thess. 1:8; Ephesians 1:7 and Romans 1:16, summing all of that up by saying, "The scripture clearly teaches that faith, obedience, repentance, the blood of Jesus (Eph 1:7), grace, love, the gospel (Rom 1:16) are all necessary for salvation." The problem here that I see in the interpretation that you have given is that the only real requirement in all of these verses is faith in Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:16 says, "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, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." If a person is depending in any way upon his own righteousness or good works to earn his salvation, he may very well not be saved at all, since basically he is trusting in himself and what he is doing, rather than in Christ and what He has done. I pray that this response is received constructively! Blessings to you, Makarios |
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2 | forgivness of sins | John 3:16 | DD4Truth | 226194 | ||
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