If Grace, Why Works?
How do salvation and lifestyle interact...and how much?
September, 2022
Debates and confusion over the relationship between faith and "works"—our actions and choices—in securing eternal salvation have existed for millennia. Almost all those disagreements are rooted in two major misunderstandings: that people can or should try to earn the forgiveness of a holy God, and that expecting to see works as a result of salvation is exactly the same thing as saying that salvation is the result of good works. The uncanny valley between those two ideas is the question of exactly how works fit into the Christian life. Is pure intellectual belief enough? Is sincere effort? Is deep, committed effort? Does it matter?
The answer is relatively simple: a truly saved person exhibits good works, because that's part of what salvation does. Good works don't earn salvation. Saved people are changed people. Confusion arises when any of those ideas are skipped or misunderstood.
Consider a person who says, "It's possible to love someone, but never say nice things to them, or help them. You can truly love a person and never really show it." In the most obscure, abstract way, it's "sort of possible" to have some love, but never show it. However, a love which never "does" anything isn't much of a love at all. In fact, "doing nothing" probably means that person doesn't love the other person. It's the same with faith and works. Works are not required to have saving faith, but saving faith is expected to lead to good works. A person with no works has a "dead" faith, which likely means they have no faith, to begin with.
When the book of James says that "faith without works is dead", it refers to nothing more complex than common sense: that saving faith naturally produces good works. It's why James 2:18 says we show our faith from our works. Christ told the thief that he would be in paradise, so his was a saving faith (Luke 23:43). The fact that the thief didn't have the opportunity to live out the works which would have come from that faith is irrelevant to his salvation.
As a new creature, we are expected to do good works. Being a true believer should result in positive changes (Ephesians 2:10). It should result in certain traits that others can see (Galatians 5:22–23; Titus 1:16). But those good works are not what save us.
A parallel for this is a virus. A doctor can examine a patient and say, "You have the flu. I know this because you are congested, coughing, sore, and running a fever." The doctor is saying that the symptoms prove the infection. The doctor is not saying, "cough, stuff your nose, feel sore, and get warm, and you will contract the flu." Also, remember that it's possible for a person who has just been infected with the flu to show no symptoms at all. It's even possible for a person to show some symptoms and not be infected, at all. Even if it's not infallible, looking for symptoms is the most reliable way to know if someone else is suffering from that virus.
Good works and salvation share a parallel relationship. Doing good is what happens when you "contract" salvation. The normal, typical, natural result of salvation is good works; a person showing zero "symptoms" of salvation has no good reason to think they are saved. Also, one cannot force themselves into salvation by doing good works. Like physical symptoms, works are not perfect indicators; human beings are limited (1 Samuel 16:7; John 7:24). They can be faked or misunderstood (Matthew 7:21–23).
It should also be noted that any salvation which must be "kept" by works is not salvation by grace through faith (Romans 6:11). Mixing of grace and works is something the Bible says is impossible (Romans 11:6). True salvation cannot be lost once it has been gained (John 10:28–29). The claim that eternal security is an excuse for people to go back to sinning is called "slander" by the Bible itself (Romans 3:8). It's a false charge that's been debunked for more than 2,000 years (Ephesians 4:30; Romans 8:38–39).
So, if we're saved by grace, why do we—or why should we—do good works? Because that's what true salvation does. It sets our hearts into alignment with God. Even if we're not perfect, the natural arc of our lives will be towards obeying and honoring Him. A lack of works isn't infallible proof of being lost, any more than exhibiting works is infallible proof one is saved. But both are very good indicators, in most cases.
-- Editor
