One gets the impression that a lot of people don’t really understand the religion they profess. Fwiw, I expect that’s been the default for the entire history of humanity.
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Titus 3:4-7
Surveys are usually kind of ham-handed and don’t allow for any kind of subtlety. If the choices offered don’t fit your belief, you pick the one closest or you give up and don’t answer. I hate surveys, especially if they are written by people who don’t get the subject they are studying.
As for “works”, its really not that complicated. If you are walking with God, if the Spirit is resident in your life, there will be evidence of it in your character and in that piece of the world that surrounds you. Over time, as you walk it out, you and the space surrounding you will be different because God is alive in you.
You also have people who strongly believe in Modalism, dispensations in terms of the nature of God and other heresies but that is mainly due to Televangelists and prosperity teachers.
Uhm.....nope.
See one of the 3 great parables in Mathew 13 “Pearl of Great Price”
Well...
“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” (Matthew 16:27)
Now, to be completely clear: People are ONLY saved by grace, but they receive that grace through faith and God’s works begun within them.
What's the difference between the two?
Salvation comes through faith and confession. You are saved FOR good works, but you don't have to perform works. The works are the treasure you store up in Heaven. Who wants to go to Heaven broke? If you truly love the Lord, works will follow. If they are empty works, they don't even count. The thief went to Heaven with Jesus just because he confessed Christ, but had he lived, he would have been expected to get baptized and do something for Christ. I can't imagine a person that is saved not wanting to do something to glorify his Savior. If you don't, I have to question your salvation and if you even understand what Christ did for you. Confessing Christ is NOT fire insurance. It calls for you to love Him as He loved you. The "pew sitters" left behind will have to face the Beast and get their heads removed to show their love for Christ. Wouldn't it be easier to pay someones light bill or mow their lawn while they recoup from surgery? Maybe help a lady with her groceries or fix a child's bike? We come to the Lord as we are, but He expects us to change. It's called sanctification. If you think you can have an experience some night with God and stay on your booze and dope while living with your girlfriend, or worse yet your boyfriend, you didn't understand the covenant you made with Him. You are expected to leave the world behind and live for Him. That requires some works. If you confess Jesus is Lord with your mouth, I believe you are saved, but if you don't leave the world behind, He make take you home early.
WRONG.....
Let us see: Ten virgins, five wise, five foolish. Yeah, that fits.
NOT NEEDED FOR SALVATION.
ARE THE NATURAL RESULT OF BEING SAVED.
If good deeds are required for salvation why did Jesus need to die on the Cross? Just start doing good deeds.
I do not work to be saved, I’m saved and as a byproduct I can work.
There is, however, an apparent distinction between works.
Guess what is the work that is specified? The one that matters for salvation?
John 6:29 “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.”
All others, if they are genuine, arise because of obedience to the Holy Spirt whom God gives to all the Saints.
... So here’s the thing, when someone “works” in their own strength rather than from obedience those works may seem good but they are counterfeit. Which is to say that I’m persuaded that these are the works which will be burned up when tested by fire (wood, hay and stubble).
To be in that judgment where your works are judged IS to be among the saved. Works that are judged are works that were done because of aforementioned fact and are not the “work of God” (rather that one is always reckoned imperishable).
The imperishable are those which God prepared in advance for us to walk in them, these are matters of obedience.
The perishable, as I’ve indicated, I’m here saying are the things we just did. As an old preacher was to have once asked a young pup: “Were you sent or did you just went?” The imperishable is the former (the “sent”), the perishable the latter (the “just went”).
Now if blood bought saints can have works that will not survive judgment, and scripture plainly says it will happen no matter how I try to figure things, then what of the unsaved? What of those who fool men, and even themselves, that they are Christians?
Certainly they can ape works like those given to the Saints that they should walk in them, so of course the can counterfeit fleshly works too! They may even excel at these.
Remember that Scripture says that faith without works is dead. But what are the works approved of? Those arising from obedience if I’m not far off! So faith where the “saint” does not obey the Holy Spirit is dead.
This would include openly carnal Christians but need not be limited to them. Stealth carnality is what I’m suggesting. But that is for Christ to judge, isn’t it?
... and of course someone who is unsaved, they do not obey the Holy Spirit in anything while they remain so, for they do not have Him that they could obey Him.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
NOTICE it is in past tense.
Forty four years ago the shackles of LEGALISM were broken over me from a group which required works, works, and more works. I tasted the Liberty we have in Christ Jesus.
My mom, who spent fifty years in that church, was on her death bed, she cried to one of her preachers that she was afraid SHE HAD NOT DONE ENOUGH to be saved.
They assured her she “HAD DONE ENOUGH!”
I wanted to scream! “IT IS NOT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE FOR CHRIST, IT IS WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR YOU that saves you!”
Good so many have actually read the Bible...
Protestants aren’t necessarily Christians.
Although Christians believe that faith IS required for salvation, good deeds are not. Actually, it’s the exact opposite. “All our righteousnesses (good deeds) are as filthy rags”.
A true Christian will, however, do good deeds after salvation. If he doesn’t, he needs to question his salvation.
Good works DO save us. Only the good works of Jesus Christ, though.
James 2:14-26New International Version (NIV)
Faith and Deeds
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[a]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[b] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.