IS OBEDIENCE NECESSARY FOR SALVATION?

IS OBEDIENCE NECESSARY FOR SALVATION?

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There is a lot of confusion about what causes salvation. Some feel that it requires works (obedience). However, there are many verses that emphatically claim that works cannot be a cause of salvation:

∑       For 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Salvation is by grace through faith. It is given as a free gift so that no one can take credit for it and boast. The works are the inevitable result of salvation, not its cause. “Works of the law” are explicitly ruled out as a cause of salvation:

∑       Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:27-28; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5; John 6:28-29)

Despite the many verses that claim salvation is granted by faith without works, we remain confused by the many verses that seem to claim that salvation is also a matter of works. Here are several:

∑          “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)

∑          "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25:46)

∑          “You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:14)

∑          The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:4)

How are we to reconcile this paradox? For one thing, faith and works (obedience) are inseparable. If I trust in my doctor, I will do what he tells me to do. If I trust in Christ, I will even more so do what He tells me to do. In view of this, a faith without obedience is not a true faith but an imitation. This is why John wrote:

∑       If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7)

John has described a person lacking in a real faith. Only those who have a real faith will walk in the light and receive Jesus’ cleansing and salvation.

Because faith and works are so intimately connected, James wrote about those who speak superficially about faith:

∑       But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (James 2:18)

It is easy to say, “I have faith.” However, since we cannot directly see faith, it is our works that more clearly demonstrate our faith and trust in the Lord. If we refuse to do what He tells us to do, it proves that we don’t trust in Him. Jesus explained this same principle:

∑       “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15-20)

The false prophet is not known by his profession of faith. Instead, we can tell the real thing by his fruits. In the same way, a real apple tree will bear apples. The apples are not the cause of the apple tree but their effect. Likewise, obedience is not the cause of faith or salvation but its effect. It is not the root but the fruit. Instead, the apples serve as evidence that they come from an apple tree, as good deeds serve as the evidence of faith and a saved life.

Likewise, an apple tree will not bear strawberries. If it does, then it wasn’t an apple tree. A faith, which fails to bear the fruit of obedience, in some form, is not a true faith. For example, if someone claims to have faith but refuses to confess their faith or to be water baptized, it is likely that they lack faith. Also, if they claim to have faith and refuse to repent of their adultery and thievery, it is also unlikely that they have faith. Therefore, to judge them by their faith is ultimately to judge them by their faith, because of their very close association.

As a college student, I joined a sensitivity group run by a campus pastor. However, it soon became plain that he was stalking the female participants for sex. When confronted, he admitted it and added that he and his wife had an open marriage. His works made it clear that he lacked a saving faith.

Scripture says that this pastor will be judged by his works (Matthew 25:46; John 15:14; 1 John 2:4), because they reflect his faith and the state of his heart. This doesn’t mean that his works will damn him. Instead, it is his lack of faith/repentance that will damn him, and his works simply testify to this lack.

In conclusion, I have to add that our obedience is far from perfect. In fact, our failures continue to humble and cause us to confess our sins. However, our Savior is always faithful to both forgive and to cleanse us.

Abraham had been a spiritual failure. He consistently passed off his wife Sarah as his sister so that it would go well for him (Genesis 20), when other men would take her. Nevertheless, the Savior would never let go of him, and transformed him into a man of faith (Hebrews 11:8-10).  

ARE WE TRULY TRUTH-SEEKERS?

Are we seekers of the truth? The men of Jerusalem thought that they were. After the destruction of Jerusalem and three successive exiles to Babylon, those who remained in Judah came to the Prophet Jeremiah and asked him to seek the counsel of the Lord. They were afraid that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would return to destroy this small remnant for killing his governor, Gedaliah. Should they remain in Judah or flee to their ally, Egypt?

Ten days later, Jeremiah returned with the Lord’s verdict. He would protect them only if they remained in Judah:

∑       “hear the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die. All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them. (Jeremiah 42:15-17)

Sadly, even though they sought the Lord’s counsel, they refused to obey it and fled to Egypt. To justify their disobedience, they accused Jeremiah of lying. Any leader justifies his sin by clothing himself with the appearance of righteousness. This had also characterized the history of Israel – ostensibly seeking the truth only to reject it.

Is it bad enough to reject the Word of God. However, to seek it and then to reject it is even worse, as Jeremiah explained:

∑       “For you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and whatever the LORD our God says declare to us and we will do it.’ 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. 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 42:20-22)

The world is no different. We claim that we are “truth-seekers,” but when we are confronted with a truth that doesn’t affirm our interests and beliefs, we reject it. We deny that we have freewill because it doesn’t conform to our materialistic paradigm. We try to explain the wonder of consciousness as a material phenomenon because we have rejected anything beyond the material. We try to squirm around the incredible fine-tuning of the universe by proposing the existence of a multiverse, without the slightest shred of evidence. We try to explain the wonder of life by the naturalistic tale of self-organization, again without any evidence and in the face of counter-evidence.

Are we any less guilty than the Israelites who rejected the Word of God? Is rejecting the evidence of God a matter of moral culpability? I don’t see why this shouldn’t be! Nor does God (Romans 1:18-32).