Putting Faith to Work

DEVOTION

ROMANS

PUTTING FAITH TO WORK

Rom 4:1-8

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about — but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."   4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, those sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

NIV

We continue with this very long explanation about salvation is through faith rather than works. There has been ever since the beginning of the church this discussion about faith and works. James certainly added to the discussion when he said that faith without is dead. But Paul and James use Abraham as the example, Paul saying because he believed God, and that was prior to his circumcision. That believing God was credited to him as righteousness. James says Abraham believed God when he offered Isaac and is belief was credited to him as righteousness, but that event was well after he and Isaac were circumcised. Without complicating the situation, we could say according to James as a believer who has faith in God, we will be about doing good things for the kingdom of God. That is we abide the principles of kingdom living. According to James unless we do works we are not justified by faith alone. Paul says that it is not by works but by faith, if he were justified by works he would have something to boast about. Salvation is a free gift of God, no one can boast about his works which justified him. So how do we come to this agreement between James and Paul? Are they saying something different? If so the God’s word contradicts itself and we know that simply is not true. The argument of James is that even the demons believe there is one God. The demons therefor have faith, but they surely are not justified. The demons do not do whatever God ask of them. Abraham did. Just like Noah, he did everything the Lord commanded him to do. The writer of Hebrews cites that Abraham believed God and left his home to travel somewhere he did not know. That by faith even in his old age he believed God when he told him he would have an heir, a son, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. That was before offering Isaac, before Isaac was even conceived. So what is this faith and works thing? We are saved by faith, because we believe God. But unlike the demons who believe there is one God, we prepared the work of repentance. That is because we have faith in God we did the work of repenting, something the demons never did or seems ever will. You cannot have faith, without repentance, and you cannot repent unless you have faith. They are hand and glove, two sides of a coin, you cannot have heads without tails. We cannot put any trust in works if it define as “Good deeds”. We can only be declared righteous by faith in Jesus Christ, both for salvation and for daily living. It is the shedding of his blood by which we are saved. We cannot say that once we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, that in order to be saved we now have to do good works. That theology would not work. That is saving Jesus is not enough, that our salvation requires works. However, perhaps what James was saying that once we believed God and repented of our sin, because we love him we would want, we would desire to be about sharing our faith, helping others to find Jesus. It is not about doing good works in the church. Still the point God is making through Paul is we are saved because we believe God, we turned from our wicked ways, that is work by the way, and turned to God, we follow God, which is work also. In accepting Jesus we recognized we were sinners and needed to repent, to ask God’s forgiveness, that too is work. It is difficult to admit we are wrong, it requires work. Even in our marriages we commit to one another but it takes work to be one with each other, it does not just happen. This is the commitment we made with God. We committed to follow him. That takes some work, it does not just happen. When we say we believe God, than we have to believe God. That means we have to do whatever he asks of us. That is putting our faith to work. If we say we believe God for salvation and nothing else, we are missing out. We have to believe God for our daily lives. He is the God who heals, who provides, who leads, who protects, who gives us life itself. So our faith is being put to work when we trust God for every aspect of our lives. That is putting faith to work.