Faith or Works?

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6 ESV

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 ESV

Slowly but surely some once thriving churches are moving the faith goalposts, perhaps in an effort to reverse the slow haemorrhage of members and adherents. The outcome, at least in appearance, is that the once dearly held foundation of salvation by faith alone, is being replaced, at least in part, by a gospel of works. It is therefore quite easy to convince folks that they are not doing enough for the Kingdom, and put them on an unnecessary guilt trip to do more.

This comes across in many ways, and always sounds good. But listen for the buzzwords. Words like ‘community’ (that’s a favourite), and ‘social’ which come into almost every sermon and message from the pulpit. I am the first to accept that works are important, and a necessary part of our Christian character, but… should works not be secondary to our salvation based on faith, first and foremost?

The natural end result of a works based church is a ‘social community’ of good people who have not necessarily fully accepted or seen the light of the gospel, and therefore are no different or better than the outsiders who would never darken the church doors. There are a multitude of non believers and atheists who do a lot of good works. Do we aspire to that model? The apostle Paul sums it all up nicely in these words:

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.                      Ephesians 2:8,9 ESV