Why do I feel I need to work for my salvation?
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
What is Grace?
It is an unmerited divine favor.
What is faith?
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Assurance: A legal document to effect a transfer of property and to to show the legal right to posses it.
Illustration: Deed of a house
Conviction: Evidence that makes someone fully agree, understand, and realize the validity of something.
Faith: is the legal right of possession of the things hoped for, the evidence of things not seeing.
Faith: putting our trust in God and having confidence that He will fulfill His promises.
Transition:
One of the promises God gives us is Salvation.
Salvation
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Outward Expression
No one is saved just by confessing, the state of our heart is important also. It is a public declaration to Christ and commitment to Him.
Inward Transformation
It is a faith that involves everything you are “heart”. It involves your will, emotions, your intellect, and your morality.
Not just believe, but believe in what?
He was raised from the dead
The resurrection is the center of what we believe as Christians. You remove the resurrection and our faith goes down with it.
How do I demonstrate my faith in Christ?
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
Here James gives us two questions
1. What good is it?
Illustration:
If we actually believe that God is truly God, that He has saved us through faith in Christ, why we would no obey Him? Our good actions do not save us, but what we do proves weather or not we really have saving faith.
ILL:
What good is it if you have all the ingredients to make a meal but you do not know how to cook?
Let’s look at the word, “works”
“works” = Refers to a response to obeying God’s Word
Good vs Bad deeds
Bad deeds
16 There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
Good Deeds
16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
What is a good deed?
35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.
V. 17
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Faith without works is a dead faith
The Letter of James D. Saving Faith Reveals Itself in Works (2:14–26)
James is not really contrasting faith and works, as if these were two alternative options in one’s approach to God. He is, rather, contrasting a faith that, because it is inherently defective, produces no works and a faith that, because it is genuine, does result in action.
18 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.
Faith is not equal to works
Works is not equal to faith
Faith + Works = Alive faith
Faith - works = Dead faith
Faith must be evidenced by works
16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Can that faith save him?
“That kind of faith can’t save anyone” NLT
Do I have to work for my salvation?