Replies

Nowhere does the bible say we are saved by “faith alone.” In fact, those words exist only in the Letter of James.

Oh???

John 6:27-29

27. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."
28. Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
29. Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

I think you were replying to someone else. Faith - if there are no works that spring from it - is a dead faith. You cannot just say, “I have faith” and then go live the rest of your life ignoring God, and then claim to be one of His own.

However, if you are sincere in turning to Jesus, and accept grace through faith, then at that moment, ALL your sins are forgiven - including future sins. You are a new creation - a child of God.

Like a child, you will often do what is wrong - and like a child, you remain a part of the family.

I like what the Baptist agreed on in the 1600s as a summary of what good works are & do:

http://www.grbc.net/about_us/1689.php?chapter=16

A sample:

“16.3 Their ability to do these good works does not in any way come from themselves, but entirely from the Spirit of Christ. To enable them to do good works (besides the graces they have already received) they require the actual influence of the Holy Spirit to cause them to will and to do his good pleasure. Yet are they not on this account to become negligent, nor to think that they are not required to perform a duty unless given a special impulse of the Spirit; rather, they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them.”

There are no good works, apart from the Holy Spirit. No number of ‘good works’ can save us. But once saved, the Holy Spirit leads us to do good works.