Are We Saved By Works?
There are at least four types of “works” recorded in the Bible:
(1) Works of the Flesh (Gal. 5:19-21)
(2) Works of Personal Merit (Titus 3:5)
(3) Works of the Law of Moses (Rom. 3:20)
(4) Obedient Works of Faith (Heb. 11:1-40)
It should be obvious that we are not saved by works of the flesh. These are inherently evil and will keep us out of heaven (Gal. 5:19-21).
It is also true that we are not saved by personal, meritorious works (i.e., things “which we have done,” Titus 3:5); as if we could earn our way into heaven. How silly...
Additionally, we are not saved by the works of the Law of Moses.
- One would have to keep that Law perfectly (cf. James 2:8-11), and thus salvation would come through perfect keeping of the Law, and not by God’s grace. Thus, Christ would have died in vain (Gal. 2:16-21).
- Also, consider that Christ fulfilled the Law of Moses. It was “nailed it to the cross,” so to speak (Col. 2:14), and is now a dead Law (Rom. 7:1-6). Thus, to attempt to work the works of that Law is to try to resurrect something that God Himself has put to death in Christ and has buried. We are “under law to Christ” now (1 Cor. 9:21), “the law of faith” (Rom. 3:27) – not the Law of Moses.
However, we cannot be saved apart from obedient works of faith. James puts it this way: “...Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (Jas 2:18). “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (v. 24). “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (v. 26).
Without obedient works of faith Noah and his entire family would have perished in the global flood (Gen. 6–8). Instead, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Heb. 11:7).
So, is it true that no works accompany salvation? What saith the scriptures, my friends?
Aaron Veyon
