Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:
The thief on the cross had no works. He simply acknowledged the Lord, his own sinful condition and asked for mercy in his own way.
Deathbed conversions have no works, yet if they are repentant and place their trust in Jesus, they are saved.
Jhn 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
When Paul talks of Faith, it's implied that it's a trusting faith. Paul exhorts us to do good works, yet he doesn't place his faith in those works. In fact, Paul places his faith in Christ to do good works though us.
In Roman's 7 & 8 Paul talks openly about still struggling with his old nature as a Christian, yet he concludes in Roman's 8 that nothing, not even anything in this life or death, can separate us from the love of God.
James also is focused on faith. He starts out in James 1 talking about faith and increasing faith. However, James has people in his church saying, "I believe" but James isn't seeing it in their lifestyles. And in Chapter 2, James starts questioning their faith. James equates such faith to mere mental assent saying "even the demons believe". James knows that true faith eventually produces works and says "I will show you my faith by my works."
One of the spiritual diagnostic questions I was taught as a youth is to ask, "If you died and God met you at the gates to heaven and asked 'why should I allow you into my heaven', what would you answer?"
I've asked this of enough Catholics (I'm Southern Baptist) to know their response is likely to be "I hope I've been good enough." And that is the WRONG answer.
The right answer is "because your Son paid the price for my sins." Catholics know this, and when you remind them, they invariably, say, "Yeah, that makes sense." But it seems to me that the way they answer indicates they lose sight of that and don't have the confidence in their salvation that they were meant to have.
It's certainly not wrong to have a focus on good works, we should be about our Father's business. But our faith for salvation should be in what Jesus did. And because of that faith, the fruit of the spirit should be growing in our lives, we should be ever more prepared to do good works, and we should eventually see a harvest.
Great post. Another great verse “For it is by grace you are saved and not of yourselves lest any man should boast.” Eph. 2:8. Such verses are all over the NT with the emphasis on salvation by grace and faith, not works.
I agree with JLLH. That was a fantastic post. Thanks, DannyTN