Can Faith Alone Save You?

Last updated on: September 29, 2016 at 2:02 pm by Jack Wellman

Can Faith Alone Save You? 2016-09-29T14:02:17-05:00 Jack Wellman

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Can faith alone save a person? Is that all there is to being saved?

Public Profession

Whoever has been saved won’t be able to keep it a secret, and in fact, a silent, underground Christian is an irreconcilable thing as far as the Bible is concerned. The words of Jesus plainly show that no one can be saved and keep silent about their profession before others as He said, “everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 10:32), however “whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 10:33). Elsewhere, Jesus said “the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God” (Luke 12:9), but even more so, “whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26), so it’s not just denying Christ but denying the words He spoke. Denying Christ is a sin of omission by omitting to share the faith with the lost as we’ve been commanded to do. The Apostle Paul added “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16), so if someone denies Him by their silence and denial of His words as revealed in Scripture, cannot claim to be a true follower of Christ, because they cannot help but speak of Christ. Paul said it the “necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1st Cor 9:16)!

Saved by Faith

We are not saved by our works as Paul said, but it is only “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9). Works can’t save us anyway, but just because we’re not saved by works doesn’t mean we will do no works. In fact we’re saved to do good works as it says in Ephesians 2:10 where Pau wrote that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” The way God looks at our human works is described by Isaiah that “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isaiah 64:4), “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom 9:16), and “by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1st Pet 1:5), however just because we cannot be saved by works doesn’t works are not important. Yes, we are only “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24) but it is faith that produces works as a byproduct of God’s Spirit, but it is only in “Him we have redemption through His blood” (Eph 1:7) and only in Christ “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:14).

Works and Salvation

James wrote that a faith without works is a dead faith, or not really genuine, saving faith. James asks the rhetorical question, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him” (James 2:14)? No, of course not, as he wrote, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). It’s not just enough to say you believe because even the demons believe and that certainly doesn’t mean they’re saved (James 2:19). James used Abraham’s example by writing. “Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar” (James 2:21), so “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works” (James 2:22). James is not saying that works save us but saved people do works or their profession of faith is false as “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (James 2:23). We are not saved by works but for works, as Paul wrote, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10), so we’re not saved by works but saved to walk in or do these works for God’s glory. That’s a huge difference…the difference between a person being saved and being a false convert.

Expressing your Faith

The Apostle Paul wrote that he was not ashamed of the gospel (Rom 1:16), meaning he publically expressed it by his missionary work and evangelism to the areas of Asia-minor and places around the Mediterranean Sea. That’s clear by his writing where he wrote that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” because it’s “with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Rom 10:9-10). Anyone that’s been saved won’t keep it to themselves and they are not supposed to because the disciples understood that the Great Commission was that they were to go to the nations around them and to make disciples of others by teaching them the very same things that Jesus taught them (Matt 28:19-20), and so words are absolutely necessary.

Conclusion

We have seen that we’re not saved by good works, but saved to do good works, and that’s a major difference. Not being saved by works doesn’t mean we don’t do works. Our faith should produce good works as a byproduct of the Holy Spirit and out of a devotion to Christ for what He has done for us, so although we’re not saved by works, we’re saved to do works and for the glory of God. We’re saved by faith alone but by a faith that’s not alone.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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