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63 Old Testament Passages Contrary to “Faith Alone”

63 Old Testament Passages Contrary to “Faith Alone”

Last updated on: May 1, 2026 at 10:38 pm by Dave Armstrong

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63 Old Testament Passages Contrary to “Faith Alone” 2026-05-01T22:38:40-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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Photo credit: Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630), by Rembrandt (1606-1669) [public domain / Wikipedia]

1 Samuel 26:23 The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; . . .

2 Samuel 22:21-25 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me. [22] For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. [23] For all his ordinances were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. [24] I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. [25] Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. (cf. Ps 18:20-23)

2 Chronicles 34:21 . . . great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book.”

Psalm 7:10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

Isaiah 1:27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.

Isaiah 3:10-11 Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. [11] Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have done shall be done to him.

Isaiah 10:1-3 Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, [2] to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! [3] What will you do on the day of punishment, in the storm which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?

Isaiah 26:2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in.

Isaiah 32:17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever.

Isaiah 33:15-16 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil, [16] he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure.

Isaiah 48:18-19 O that you had hearkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; [19] your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.”

Isaiah 56:1 Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.

Isaiah 56:4-5 For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, [5] I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off.

Isaiah 57:1-2 . . . For the righteous man is taken away from calamity, [2] he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness.

Isaiah 59:18 According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies; . . .

Jeremiah 4:14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

Jeremiah 5:7-11 “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of harlots. [8] They were well-fed lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s wife. [9] Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? [10] “Go up through her vine-rows and destroy, but make not a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not the LORD’s. [11] For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly faithless to me, says the LORD.

Jeremiah 5:28-29 they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of wickedness; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. [29] Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?”

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

Jeremiah 6:19 Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing evil upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not given heed to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

Jeremiah 7:9-11 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Ba’al, and go after other gods that you have not known, [10] and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, `We are delivered!’ — only to go on doing all these abominations? [11] Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the LORD.

Jeremiah 7:23 But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.”

Jeremiah 8:9-10, 12 . . . they have rejected the word of the LORD, . . . [10] Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest every one is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest every one deals falsely. . . . [12] Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD.

Jeremiah 9:13-16 And the LORD says: “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accord with it, [14] but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Ba’als, as their fathers taught them. [15] Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them poisonous water to drink. [16] I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.” (cf. 11:6-8)

Jeremiah 17:10 “I the LORD search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” (cf. 32:19)

Jeremiah 18:11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: “Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.”

Jeremiah 21:12 O house of David! Thus says the LORD: “‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil doings.’” (cf. 4:4; 21:14)

Jeremiah 22:3-5 Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. [4] For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their servants, and their people. [5] But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. . . .

Jeremiah 25:8-9 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, [9] behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, says the LORD, and for Nebuchadrez’zar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about; I will utterly destroy them, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting reproach.”

Jeremiah 26:13 Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will repent of the evil which he has pronounced against you.

Jeremiah 31:16 . . . your work shall be rewarded . . .

Jeremiah 32:23 . . . But they did not obey thy voice or walk in thy law; they did nothing of all thou didst command them to do. Therefore thou hast made all this evil come upon them.

Jeremiah 34:17 Therefore, thus says the LORD: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, says the LORD. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Jeremiah 36:3 “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Jeremiah 38:20 Jeremiah said, “. . . Obey now the voice of the LORD in what I say to you, and it shall be well with you, and your life shall be spared.”

Jeremiah 40:3 . . . Because you sinned against the LORD, and did not obey his voice, this thing has come upon you.

Jeremiah 42:21-22 “And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in anything that he sent me to tell you. [22] Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

Jeremiah 44:23 “It is because you burned incense, and because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies, that this evil has befallen you, as at this day.”

Ezekiel 36:19 I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries; in accordance with their conduct and their deeds I judged them.

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Hosea 4:9 . . . I will punish them for their ways, and requite them for their deeds. (cf. 12:12)

Hosea 5:7 They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. . . .

Hosea 6:7 But at Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.

Hosea 8:13-14 . . . Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins; . . . [14] For Israel has forgotten his Maker, . . . I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his strongholds.

Hosea 9:15, 17 . . . Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; . . . [17] My God will cast them off, because they have not hearkened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Hosea 10:10, 13, 15 I will come against the wayward people to chastise them; and nations shall be gathered against them when they are chastised for their double iniquity. . . . [13] You have plowed iniquity, you have reaped injustice, . . . [15] Thus it shall be done to you, O house of Israel, because of your great wickedness. In the storm the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.

Joel 3:4 . . I will requite your deed upon your own head. . . . (cf. 3:7)

Amos 2:4-5 Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; . . . [5] So I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

Amos 3:2 “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

Amos 3:10-11 “They do not know how to do right,” says the LORD, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.” [11] Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “An adversary shall surround the land, and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”

Amos 3:14 “. . . the day I punish Israel for his transgressions . . . “

Amos 5:14, 24 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, . . . [24] “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Obadiah 1:15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you, your deeds shall return on your own head.

Micah 3:4 Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.

Micah 3:8-12 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. [9] Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, [10] who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong. [11] Its heads give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for hire, its prophets divine for money; yet they lean upon the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us.” [12] Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Micah 5:15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance upon the nations that did not obey.

Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:12-13 Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. [13] Therefore I have begun to smite you, making you desolate because of your sins.

Zephaniah 1:17 I will bring distress on men, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; . . .

Zephaniah 2:3 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the wrath of the LORD.

Malachi 2:9 . . . I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my ways . . .

Malachi 3:5, 7, 18 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.” . . . [7] From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. . . . [18] Then once more you shall distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

Malachi 4:1 . . . the day comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, . . . (cf. 4:4)

*****

Photo credit: Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630), by Rembrandt (1606-1669) [public domain / Wikipedia]

Summary: The Old Testament is inspired Scripture, too, & it teaches exactly as the New Testament does: faith alone is a falsehood, & works play a role in salvation, alongside faith, by grace.

[9 pages]

Salvation & Justification

Faith Alone

Faith and Works

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