Is it by "Faith Alone"?

[JohnVIII]

Salvation is by grace through faith, but is it through faith alone? If it is by faith alone then we don’t need the Church, we don’t need the Sacraments, good works would be optional, and in short we wouldn’t need a great deal of things that our Lord Jesus Christ gave to us - and for what reason, was at all vanity?

This is typical of word-twisting Scriptures to fit ones’ argument.
Protestants used the same word-twisting in the issue about ‘faith alone’:
Romans 3:28 says: For we hold that man is justified by faith apart from works of law.

So there is no ‘faith alone’ there.

I’m going to play the devil’s advocate and put forth a Scripture that I thinks comes the closest to teach that it is by faith alone.

Romans 1:17 (New International Version)

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Romans 1:17 (New American Standard Bible)

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

A fundamentalist protestant, I’m sure, would like to interpret this to mean that salvation is “by faith from first to last”, or in other words by faith alone. But this is not what it’s talking about. This was the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, it’s merely pointing out that the one primary commonality between Old Testament saints and New Testament saints is not the types of rituals that were practiced but their faith in God.

 

[Roman_Catholic_1]

Define “faith alone”

God bless

 

[Trishie]

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter” [Matthew 7, 21]. Faith increases as a result of our obedience to the will of God, and obedience is achieved by doing good works and trying hard not to neglect them. [2 Corinthians 10,15]. “It is not those who call me ‘Lord, Lord’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my father in heaven.” [Matthew 7:21]
“Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.” [Galatians 6:7-9] "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Phil 2:12-13] "It is not those who call me ‘Lord, Lord’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my father in heaven.” [Matthew 7:21]

Take the case, my brothers of someone who has never done a single good act but claims that he has faith. Will that faith save him? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty’, without giving them these bare necessities of llife, then what good is that?: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead.
This is the way to talk to people of that kind:'You say you have faith and I have good deeds; I will prove to you that I have faith by showing you my good deeds–now you prove to me that you have faith without any good deeds to show.
You believe in one God–that is creditable enough, but the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Do realise, you senseless man, that faith without works is useless. You surely know that Abraham our Father was justified by his deed, because he offered Isaac on the altar? There you see it; faith and good deeds were working together; his faith became perfect by what he did. This is what scripture really means when it says: Abraham put his faith in God, and this was counted as makinh him justified; and that is why he was called the friend of God. You see now that it is by doing something good, and not only by believing, that a man is justified." [James 2: 14-24]

 

[JonNC]

Salvation is by grace through faith, but is it through faith alone? If it is by faith alone then we don’t need the Church, we don’t need the Sacraments, good works would be optional, and in short we wouldn’t need a great deal of things that our Lord Jesus Christ gave to us - and for what reason, was at all vanity?

Justification must always be followed by sanctification. We are justified by Grace through faith. We can do nothing to justify ourselves. But following that justification we by necessity must do as Christ commanded.

We need the Church because it provides the means of Grace - word and sacrament.
We need the sacraments for forgiveness of sins.
We must do good works because Christ commands it.

Jon

 

[c659smith]

If one is saved by faith alone then what happens to love for Christ said love is the greatest.
If faith got you to heaven and heaven is the ultimate goal than how could love be the greatest.

 

[Chancellare]

Justification must always be followed by sanctification. We are justified by Grace through faith. We can do nothing to justify ourselves. But following that justification we by necessity must do as Christ commanded.

We need the Church because it provides the means of Grace - word and sacrament.
We need the sacraments for forgiveness of sins.
We must do good works because Christ commands it.

Jon

You have a good summary there.
If we add them all up, then Faith alone is not sufficient and we should not stop there?

 

[SemperReformada]

You have a good summary there.
If we add them all up, then Faith alone is not sufficient and we should not stop there?

I’m not a theologian, which will probably be painfully obvious but faith is what initiates you into Christianity and that faith must be accompanied by works but it’s not the works which initially bring you into the Christian family.

 

[JonNC]

You have a good summary there.
If we add them all up, then Faith alone is not sufficient and we should not stop there?

Grace through faith alone is sufficient for justification, as Romans 3:28 says. But Christ sends the Holy Spirit who helps us grow in grace. If we refuse or reject Christ’s commands, how long can the Holy Spirit stay within us? Our faith becomes dead, and we lose our justification.

Jon

 

[dianaiad]

Grace through faith alone is sufficient for justification, as Romans 3:28 says. But Christ sends the Holy Spirit who helps us grow in grace. If we refuse or reject Christ’s commands, how long can the Holy Spirit stay within us? Our faith becomes dead, and we lose our justification.

Jon

Interesting discussion…and it revolves around what faith actually is.

Now me (and please bear with me here…), I think that there is a difference between ‘belief’ and ‘faith’. Isn’t there a scripture in the NT that says something about even the devils believing…and trembling? Something like that, anyway.

“belief,” I think, is a passive thing. One can believe…but believe the opposite just a little more. For instance, I believe that it may possibly rain tomorrow, but I believe a bit more strongly that it will not.

So…I will leave my umbrella at home, and that is faith. Not an acknowledgment of possibility, but an active willingness to behave as if what I believe to be true IS true.

I may believe that this bridge will hold me up, but if I don’t actually cross the thing, but choose the ferry instead, I’m not putting much faith in the bridge, am I?

If I believe in Christ, but fail to try do what He asks of me, do I have faith that what He has said is true? I would submit that, no, obviously I don’t.

So in a way, those who claim that faith alone is required are right; but it must be an active faith, a ‘live’ faith…for faith–without the works that indicate that we truly do believe–is indeed dead faith; at most, a minor belief.

 

[Prime]

If we refuse or reject Christ’s commands, how long can the Holy Spirit stay within us? Our faith becomes dead, and we lose our justification.

Jon

Therefore justification by faith alone can be lost if not coupled with good works?

 

[JonNC]

Interesting discussion…and it revolves around what faith actually is.

Now me (and please bear with me here…), I think that there is a difference between ‘belief’ and ‘faith’. Isn’t there a scripture in the NT that says something about even the devils believing…and trembling? Something like that, anyway.

“belief,” I think, is a passive thing. One can believe…but believe the opposite just a little more. For instance, I believe that it may possibly rain tomorrow, but I believe a bit more strongly that it will not.

So…I will leave my umbrella at home, and that is faith. Not an acknowledgment of possibility, but an active willingness to behave as if what I believe to be true IS true.

I may believe that this bridge will hold me up, but if I don’t actually cross the thing, but choose the ferry instead, I’m not putting much faith in the bridge, am I?

If I believe in Christ, but fail to try do what He asks of me, do I have faith that what He has said is true? I would submit that, no, obviously I don’t.

So in a way, those who claim that faith alone is required are right; but it must be an active faith, a ‘live’ faith…for faith–without the works that indicate that we truly do believe–is indeed dead faith; at most, a minor belief.

Well said. My pastor last week spoke about passive faith and active faith. Passive faith is the faith that comes through Grace. It is the faith brings us justification. Active faith is the faith that requires us to act according to Christ’s commands. It is sanctification.

Jon

 

[JonNC]

Therefore justification by faith alone can be lost if not coupled with good works?

Yes, assuming an opportunity to act on our faith out of joy in our justification. More specifically, if not coupled with sanctification - good works, participating in the sacraments - in other words, growing in grace.

Jon

 

[emarc]

Well said. My pastor last week spoke about passive faith and active faith. Passive faith is the faith that comes through Grace. It is the faith brings us justification. Active faith is the faith that requires us to act according to Christ’s commands. It is sanctification.

Jon

Faith, active or passive comes through Grace. Amen.
God bless.

 

[JonNC]

Faith, active or passive comes through Grace. Amen.
God bless.

Amen

 

[c659smith]

Amen

In a parable Jesus was asked by a rich man how he can get to heaven and the rich men had faith but Jesus stated it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven.

Now once again the reich man had faith but that** faith alone ** was not good enough to get him into heaven. Why?

For Is faith alone works why would Jesus say this?

 

[catholic1seeks]

True faith is developed in hope and love.

Faith *as a mere intellectual assent *(James 2) is what the Council of Trent condemned as the only necessity for salvation.

From Catholic Education:

For everything is at stake here. The question is nothing less than how to get to heaven…

It certainly doesn’t look like a misunderstanding. It looks like a flat-out contradiction: the Catholic Church taught that we are saved by faith and good works, while Luther taught that we are saved by faith alone (sola fide). But appearances may be deceiving.

The terms of the dispute are ambiguous or used in two different senses…

When Luther taught that we are saved by faith alone, he meant by salvation only the initial step, justification, being put right with God. But when Trent said we are saved by good works as well as faith, they meant by **salvation the whole process **by which God brings us to our eternal destiny and that process includes repentance, faith, hope, and charity, the works of love.

The word faith was also used in two different senses. Luther used it in the broad sense of the person’s acceptance of God’s offer of salvation. It included repentance, faith, hope, and charity. This is the sense Saint Paul uses in Romans. But in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul uses it in a more specific sense, as just one of the three theological virtues, with hope and charity added to it. In this narrower sense faith alone is not sufficient for salvation, for hope and charity must be present also. That is the sense used by the old Baltimore Catechism too: faith is “an act of the intellect, prompted by the will, by which we believe what has been revealed on the grounds of the authority of God, who revealed it”.

This “faith”, though prompted by the will, is an act of the intellect. Though necessary for salvation, it is not sufficient. Even the devils have this faith, as Saint James writes: “Do you believe that there is only one God? Good! The demons also believe — and tremble with fear” (James 2: 19). That is why James says, “it is by his actions that a person is put right with God, and not by his faith alone” (James 2:24). Luther, however, called James’ epistle “an epistle of straw”. He did not understand James’ point (applied to Abraham’s faith): “Can’t you see? His faith and his action worked together; his faith was made perfect through his actions” (James 2:2 2).

**Faith **is the root, the necessary beginning. Hope is the stem, the energy that makes the plant grow. Love is the fruit, the flower, the visible product, the bottom line. The plant of our new life in Christ is one; the life of God comes into us by faith, through us by hope, and out of us by the works of love. That is clearly the biblical view, and when Protestants and Catholics who know and believe the Bible discuss the issue sincerely, it is amazing how quickly and easily they come to understand and agree with each other on this, the fundamental divisive issue. Try it some time with your Protestant friend.​

catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0027.html​

 

[JonNC]

In a parable Jesus was asked by a rich man how he can get to heaven and the rich men had faith but Jesus stated it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven.

Now once again the reich man had faith but that** faith alone ** was not good enough to get him into heaven. Why?

For Is faith alone works why would Jesus say this?

The rich man had a dead faith, unwilling to act on the faith the Holy Spirit allowed him to discern. The faith was a gift, by the grace of God, a gift he chose to reject by being unwilling to act as Christ commanded. IOW, he rejected the Holy Spirit.

Jon

 

[JonNC]

True faith is developed in hope and love.

Faith *as a mere intellectual assent *(James 2) is what the Council of Trent condemned as the only necessity for salvation.

From Catholic Education:

For everything is at stake here. The question is nothing less than how to get to heaven…

It certainly doesn’t look like a misunderstanding. It looks like a flat-out contradiction: the Catholic Church taught that we are saved by faith and good works, while Luther taught that we are saved by faith alone (sola fide). But appearances may be deceiving.

The terms of the dispute are ambiguous or used in two different senses…

When Luther taught that we are saved by faith alone, he meant by salvation only the initial step, justification, being put right with God. But when Trent said we are saved by good works as well as faith, they meant by **salvation the whole process **by which God brings us to our eternal destiny and that process includes repentance, faith, hope, and charity, the works of love.

The word faith was also used in two different senses. Luther used it in the broad sense of the person’s acceptance of God’s offer of salvation. It included repentance, faith, hope, and charity. This is the sense Saint Paul uses in Romans. But in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul uses it in a more specific sense, as just one of the three theological virtues, with hope and charity added to it. In this narrower sense faith alone is not sufficient for salvation, for hope and charity must be present also. That is the sense used by the old Baltimore Catechism too: faith is “an act of the intellect, prompted by the will, by which we believe what has been revealed on the grounds of the authority of God, who revealed it”.

This “faith”, though prompted by the will, is an act of the intellect. Though necessary for salvation, it is not sufficient. Even the devils have this faith, as Saint James writes: “Do you believe that there is only one God? Good! The demons also believe — and tremble with fear” (James 2: 19). That is why James says, “it is by his actions that a person is put right with God, and not by his faith alone” (James 2:24). Luther, however, called James’ epistle “an epistle of straw”. He did not understand James’ point (applied to Abraham’s faith): “Can’t you see? His faith and his action worked together; his faith was made perfect through his actions” (James 2:2 2). **Faith **is the root, the necessary beginning. Hope is the stem, the energy that makes the plant grow. Love is the fruit, the flower, the visible product, the bottom line. The plant of our new life in Christ is one; the life of God comes into us by faith, through us by hope, and out of us by the works of love. That is clearly the biblical view, and when Protestants and Catholics who know and believe the Bible discuss the issue sincerely, it is amazing how quickly and easily they come to understand and agree with each other on this, the fundamental divisive issue. Try it some time with your Protestant friend.​

catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0027.html​

While I would quibble with what the Pope says about Luther in the part I underlined, the rest of this statement I completely agree with. He is right, when we discuss this issue without the polemics of the past, without the misunderstandings and errors of the past, we come pretty close to complete agreement.

Jon

 

[KLIBERA]

Can’t Be. Reason Being That There Could Be A Human Being That Believes Christ Ordered Him To Commit Genocide. Remember All The Parables-the Prodigal Son Etc. Why Then Would Jesus Describe The Beatitutdes Or The 7 Virtues?

 

[nbtb1348]

Salvation is by grace through faith, but is it through faith alone? If it is by faith alone then we don’t need the Church, we don’t need the Sacraments, good works would be optional, and in short we wouldn’t need a great deal of things that our Lord Jesus Christ gave to us - and for what reason, was at all vanity?

I’m going to play the devil’s advocate and put forth a Scripture that I thinks comes the closest to teach that it is by faith alone.

A fundamentalist protestant, I’m sure, would like to interpret this to mean that salvation is “by faith from first to last”, or in other words by faith alone. But this is not what it’s talking about. This was the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, it’s merely pointing out that the one primary commonality between Old Testament saints and New Testament saints is not the types of rituals that were practiced but their faith in God.

If you study the doctrine of grace you will see that works confirm that our faith is real, that it is the genuine article. But it is the grace of God, through faith, that produces genuine works. I serve God and have surrendered my life to Him, not in order to get to heaven, but rather out of gratitude for the fact that he has saved me forever out of His mercy and grace. Until he dealt with my sin through the cross, I could never serve him freely. Now I can.

God wants us engaged in good works. But the issue is, What is the source of those works. Look at what Paul writes in Romans 3 and 4:

"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law…But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

    “ Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

  And whose sins are covered;

     Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”

There are so many verses in the NT that describe this. “Whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord WILL be saved”

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast."–Eph 2:8,9

*“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”–*Rom 10:9

*"37When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”–*Acts 2:37,38

How many times does it have to be stated in Scripture? We are saved by grace through faith. If the faith is real, works will follow. If they don’t follow, it wasn’t genuine faith. But the works don’t save or keep you saved. They are simply fruit of the new life Christ places inside the person who TRULY repents and believes on the Christ of the cross and the resurrection!