Day 10 of False Choices: You must choose between having faith or having good works.

“So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?”

‭‭James‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬-‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I have a theory. As you may or may not realize, there have been arguments over the place of faith versus the place of good works in our relationship with God since the days of the New Testament; we will go further into that discussion in a moment. But first, back to my theory.

I have a theory that those who press the importance of good works over faith alone are those who take some amount of pride in the things they have been able to do. It’s only natural, when you feel that you have worked hard and accomplished some things, you want to believe that this has given you a leg-up on those who have not worked as hard as you have.

On the other hand, I believe those who stress faith without good works are those who are probably not living the way they ought, and are using the excuse of dependence upon faith alone to live however they want to live or to be lazy and do no good deeds.

So, that’s my theory. It may not be right 100% of the time in either of these cases. But I imagine that it does have a certain amount of influence over what people tend to emphasize in terms of faith without works or faith shown through works.

First of all, we know that we are saved by our faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists…”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭6‬a ‭NLT‬‬

Certainly without belief in the very existence of God, there is no basis for a relationship with Him.

But I want you to note the last part of the above scripture:

“…and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

Hebrews 11:6b NLT

Along with believing in God‘s existence—and with that, belief in the finished work of Jesus Christ—we must believe that He is a rewarder of diligent seekers. So what does it mean to diligently seek Him?

Certainly, study of the Word and prayer (which can be seen as “works”) are pillars in our seeking of God through Jesus Christ. Additionally, if there is no effort at doing what we clearly know He wants in terms of good deeds, how can we say we have a relationship with Him?

Jesus said this:

“If you love me, obey my commandments.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It’s clear that a lack of attending to and acting on what the Lord wants, indicates a lack of love for Him. That is not a good position in which to find oneself.

Let me bring something else to your attention.

Even one of the most often quoted scriptures referencing the importance of believing—or faith—in our being made right with God, indicates that there is also action required to assure that we are saved. That action involves the words of our mouth, our testimony.

“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Indeed, as I have pointed out many times in our different journeys, we are saved not just to avoid eternal destruction, but also to do what the Lord originally intended for us to do!

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

In our opening scripture we see that James is apparently addressing those who are using the excuse of salvation by faith alone to do nothing in terms of good works. At the very least, a lack of good works brings no glory to our Lord to whom we owe everything.

“In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The transformational power of Jesus Christ in our lives, births us into His Kingdom. As such, we are propelled toward good works. We do the good works not to become who we are, but because of who we are in Jesus Christ.

Soon and very soon the Lord will come and receive us to Himself. And apparently, our place (rank) in eternity will be determined by what we have done with what we have in this life.

““Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.””

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭22‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

There is absolutely no conflict in terms of an emphasis on faith or an emphasis on works; indeed, you cannot have faith without it producing good works.

Today we lay to rest the false choice between having faith or having good works.

#10daysoffalsechoices