The following is a very CONDENSED version of this Chapter. DO NOT quote from this and claim that it is from the book Atonement and Reconciliation. If you must quote from this summary, please reference it as, “Online condensed version of Atonement and Reconciliation.”
There is an endless debate regarding the role of works in salvation. There are six verses that strongly reject works, all written by the same author, Paul, who also states in a multitude of passages that works actually do matter.
Grace is the word “charis” in Greek, similar to our word “charity,” simply meaning “favor.” A favor is not based on an obligation toward the recipient, as this would downgrade the favor into a payment. The one who performs the charity or favor has the right to grant or withhold based on his own criteria. I may give financial help to someone who has shown himself to be disciplined and responsible while withholding help from another who has a pattern of being irresponsible. This illustrates how works can be done by the recipient of charity, yet without there being any debt involved. Works are not necessarily the opposite of grace, as grace is simply the granting of a favor, a charity.
Work involves actions, deeds, or behavior. Many proponents of PSA reject all works to such an extent that salvation becomes completely passive. But as we read in Romans 10:14, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?” The gospel message must be heard, which requires active mental participation – work. Then the gospel message must be thought about – more work. After attentively hearing and carefully reasoning through the gospel message, the next step is to choose to believe it, and this can at times be an enormous struggle based on a person’s history or circumstances, and this involves even more work. In short, embracing the gospel, even though it is God’s favor, can at times require significant mental, emotional, and internal struggles for a person to believe. All of this is a type of personal work, not in the sense of incurring any merit or debt, but because there is a personal cost involved.
There are numerous Bible passages that very clearly state that works are related to salvation. The solution to the confusion is to understand the context in which Paul is using each of the anti-work passages to ensure that they are not being misapplied. In seeking to resolve this apparent contradiction, we should first list all the verses which deny that works are related to salvation, examine them within their historical and textual context, and then compare them with Paul’s verses which seem to teach that works actually do relate to salvation. Here are the few verses which seem to explicitly state that works do not apply to salvation:
Paul is against works:
- Romans 3:28. (The works, in this case, are explicitly stated as being “works of the law,” not all works.)
- Romans 11:6. (The greater context here is about God favoring one people group over another people group for a given function or purpose. This is not a passage about judgment or salvation.)
- Galatians 2:16. (These are specifically “works of the law”, not all works.)
- Ephesians 2:8-9. (The works here are contrasted with boasting, showing that God favors us as a gift, not as a merit on our part that we can use as bragging rights.)
- Titus 3:5. (Here, self-centered, self-righteous works are the focus. God grants us mercy and has no obligation toward us based on any self-righteous merit that we may imagine.)
- 2 Timothy 1:9. (Here our calling, our purpose is the focus, and this is not based on any merit from our works.)
All six of these verses were written by Paul the apostle, and no other Bible writer makes these specific claims regarding works. Here is Paul again:
Paul insists on works:
- “He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” Romans 2:6-13.
- “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” Romans 8:13.
- “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance” Acts 26:19-20.
- “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” Galatians 5:18-21.
- “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” Galatians 6:7-8. See also texts such as Romans 8:13, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, 2 Cor. 5:10.
If read out of context, Paul will seem to contradict himself, even in the same book, like Romans. There is an enormous difference between believing that salvation can be earned as a merit by means of keeping a list of rules, and the fact that those who receive salvation are mercifully favored by God for obeying His rules. Any healthy relationship involves doing good things to please the other party, not in a this-for-that arrangement, but out of a heartfelt desire, with “faith working through love” Galatians 5:6.
God favors those who believe in Him, and true belief, genuine faith, includes works, just as love includes works – not to earn anything, but because of love. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to [or, favors] the humble” James 4:6. Faith and belief are synonyms for one side of a coin, while works is the other side. Works without faith do not count, and neither does faith with no corresponding work, as that cannot be genuine faith. Many want to define faith as simply believing and trusting in God. But that is very generic. Will not those whom Jesus orders to depart from him also have at least this generic degree of affirmational intellectual faith, trusting in the name of Jesus? Yet it was not enough because that faith had no impact on their lives: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” Mat. 7:21-23 .Obviously, Jesus does not accept mere intellectual belief. Faith must be functional. Faith must sprout and have its expected fruit, which is to live according to this faith, which includes stopping sin and lawlessness. There is a big difference between having a living faith that impacts how one thinks and lives, versus a paper faith that matches a doctrinal statement, regardless of how biblically accurate that doctrinal statement may be. According to Paul, we do not earn salvation by means of works of merit, but just as there can be no genuine faith without corresponding works, neither can there be any salvation in the absence of works, as that would demonstrate faithlessness.
Conclusion – Godly works are evidence of a life-changing faith. These are not done as meritorious deeds intended to obligate God to grant eternal life. Any work done with the intent to make God a debtor, obligating Him to grant eternal life, is of no eternal value.
Atonement and Reconciliation 