Rex Banks

Those who know something of the history of Christian thought and dialogue will readily understand why it is that any discussion of the role of grace, faith, works and law in salvation tends to arouse strong feelings and produce defensive postures. Memories of John Tetzel, the Catholic system of "indulgences" and Martin Luther's revolt cast deep shadows over any such discussion making free and open dialogue difficult, while issues like antinomianism ("against law") and doctrines such as Calvinism's "irresistible grace" also tend to drive believers into competing theological camps. The fact is that it's just not possible to make the mind a tabula rasa and to bring perfect impartiality to the study of the text, and we fool ourselves if we think that the past has no influence upon our present perception of truth.

On the other hand, although past experiences, teachings and traditions do indeed exert an influence upon us, they need not function as a mental straitjacket. Clearly those of us who are convinced that Scripture is a divinely-inspired message designed to communicate saving truth, will also be convinced that our traditions and presuppositions are not insurmountable barriers to understanding that truth. In fact by openly acknowledging that our perception of truth can be influenced by such factors, and by striving to identify our own biases, we make it less likely that we will read our own theology into the text and more likely that the voice we hear when we study Scripture will be the voice of the Lord. In offering the following comments on the subject of grace, faith works and law I will make every effort to heed my own advice in this matter.

Salvation by Grace

The unambiguous and pervasive teaching of scripture is that salvation is a gift of God, unearned, unmerited and undeserved (Rom. 5:2; Eph. 2:8). Since all have sinned (Rom. 3:23) and since a perfectly holy God cannot fellowship sin (Hab. 1:13) it follows that all accountable people who are saved are saved, not on the basis of sinless perfection, but because their sins have been removed - and the power to remove sin resides solely in the blood of Christ (Matt. 26:28; 1 Pet. 1:19) Every sin which has ever been forgiven has been forgiven on the basis of the redemptive power of Christ's sacrificial death. This one time sacrifice (Heb. 9:28) is all- sufficient and one hundred per cent effective. This is not the place to discuss the "sin against the Holy Spirit" or the "sin unto death" but it is the place to emphasize that nothing, absolutely nothing generates power to forgive sin apart from the blood of Christ. At the risk of labouring the point consider the following illustration:

A four-wheeled vehicle travels along a track at 100 km per hour. The road is perfectly flat, there is no wind assistance and all the power (one hundred per cent of it) moving the vehicle along is generated by the engine. Now, it is true that without wheels the vehicle would not move at all, but this does not alter the fact that the wheels themselves generate no power. Clearly without wheels the vehicle will not move, but the point is that the power to propel the vehicle is produced solely and completely by the engine. Nothing adds to or supplements the power generated by the engine.

Now Scripture teaches that the power to remove sin is generated solely and completely by the blood of Christ. Nothing adds to or supplements the redemptive power of the blood, and it is this power which has removed the guilt of every sin which has been forgiven sin and every sin which will be forgiven. Consider forgiveness in the pre-Christian era. Paul tells us that God "passed over the sins previously committed" (Rom. 3:25) meaning that in the pre-Christian era God forgave sin (e.g. Num. 14:19, 20) and Paul goes on to explain that because God forgave sin in the pre-Christian era, He set forth Jesus as a propitiatory sacrifice "to demonstrate His righteousness". (Rom. 3:25) In other words, God demonstrated in Christ's death that He was perfectly just in having passed over sin in the pre-Christian era, because in the fulness of time Jesus became the perfect sin offering.

The Hebrew writer also tells us that Christ's death took place "for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant" (Heb. 9:15) meaning that the source of the power to remove the sins of men like Abraham and David in the pre-Christian era is the same as that of the Christian era - the blood of Christ. Salvation is a gift made possible through the redemptive power of the blood of Christ, and it is this power which has made salvation available to man since the Fall, not simply during the Christian era.

Salvation Through Faith

In our illustration above, we tried to make the point that in order for some processes to occur, certain factors must work together. A vehicle without an engine cannot travel along the road at 100 km per hour, but on the other hand the most powerful engine is unable to move a vehicle which has no wheels. We also used this illustration to make the point that although wheels are absolutely essential for locomotion, they themselves generate no power whatsoever. The crucial point here is that although both engine and wheels are necessary, a distinction must be made between the nature of the contribution which each makes to this process. Wheels are not essential to locomotion because the vehicle's engine is unable to produce the necessary power to propel it, and that therefore more power is needed than the engine can produce. This is not the situation. Rather wheels are needed because something more than raw power is required to propel our vehicle along the road at 100 km per hour.

Similarly, while the blood of Christ is powerful enough to deal with humanity's sin problem, the Bible teaches very clearly that something more than power to remove sin is required for that removal of sin to take place. Scripture frequently refers to this as "faith." Thus we read: "By grace you have been saved through faith..."(Eph. 2:8) and "we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace..." (Rom. 5:2) Clearly then faith is as essential to salvation as grace. However while this is the case we must also keep in mind that faith and grace play different roles in salvation. Faith does not generate power to remove sin anymore than wheels generate power to propel a vehicle along the highway. Faith is essential to salvation, not because Christ's blood by itself lacks power to remove sin, but rather because faith acts as the channel through which God's grace flows into the lives of those who acknowledge Christ as Lord. Grace and faith are both essential to salvation, but whereas the former is the sole ground, source or basis of salvation the latter is the condition of salvation. In making this distinction we are not merely playing with words, splitting hairs or quibbling, because the failure to do so can lead to confusion about the divine and the human roles in salvation.

Now when we speak of the human role in salvation we are speaking of the role of faith in salvation, because (saving) faith cannot exist apart from receptive hearts, willing minds and yielding spirits, and in turn such hearts, mind and spirits cannot exist apart from human effort. In a word, (saving) faith involves human effort, human resolve, and human choice. Grace, the very source, ground or basis of salvation, is wholly from God and wholly free of human involvement, but faith, the condition of salvation, is the fruit of an appropriate human response to the gift offered and as such requires something of man.

Calvinism's "Irresistible Grace"

Now, the Calvinist is firmly opposed to the notion that faith involves human effort, viewing such an idea as an affront to the sovereignty of God. Calvin taught that man is born totally depraved having inherited both the effects and guilt of Adam's sin, and he also taught that God's grace is available only to the "elect." By the elect Calvin meant those whom God, before the foundation of the world, predetermined would be saved. Atonement according to Calvin is limited, and the benefits of Christ's death are not available to any apart from the elect. What's more, the elect have no choice with respect to grace since it is poured forth upon this group by a secret and special operation of the Holy Spirit whose activity in this matter cannot be resisted. Allegedly such a special and direct operation of the Holy Spirit is necessary because man, in his depraved state is incapable of making any response to God. However because of this direct operation upon the heart of the elect, members of this group are incapable of resisting the grace extended to them. Thus faith is in no way dependant upon human effort or human choice. The following statements (my emphasis throughout) from the Canons of Dordt set forth this teaching that faith does not involve human choice in any way:

"Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform." (Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Article 3: Total Inability)

"In this way, therefore, faith is a gift of God, not in the sense that it is offered by God for man to choose, but that it is in actual fact bestowed on man, breathed and infused into him. Nor is it a gift in the sense that God bestows only the potential to believe, but then awaits assent--the act of believing--from man's choice; rather, it is a gift in the sense that he who works both willing and acting and, indeed, works all things in all people produces in man both the will to believe and the belief itself." (Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Article 14: The Way God Gives Faith)

"Election [or choosing] is God's unchangeable purpose by which he did the following: Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will, he chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were neither better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the common misery. He did this in Christ, whom he also appointed from eternity to be the mediator, the head of all those chosen, and the foundation of their salvation. And so he decided to give the chosen ones to Christ to be saved, and to call and draw them effectively into Christ's fellowship through his Word and Spirit. In other words, he decided to grant them true faith in Christ, to justify them, to sanctify them, and finally, after powerfully preserving them in the fellowship of his Son, to glorify them." (First Main Point of Doctrine: Article 7: Election)

"Moreover, Holy Scripture most especially highlights this eternal and undeserved grace of our election and brings it out more clearly for us, in that it further bears witness that not all people have been chosen but that some have not been chosen or have been passed by in God's eternal election-- those, that is, concerning whom God, on the basis of his entirely free, most just, irreproachable, and unchangeable good pleasure, made the following decision: to leave them in the common misery into which, by their own fault, they have plunged themselves; not to grant them saving faith and the grace of conversion; but finally to condemn and eternally punish them (having been left in their own ways and under his just judgment), not only for their unbelief but also for all their other sins, in order to display his justice. And this is the decision of reprobation, which does not at all make God the author of sin (a blasphemous thought!) but rather its fearful, irreproachable, just judge and avenger." (First Main Point of Doctrine: Article 15)

So there we have it. The non-elect cannot embrace saving faith and the elect cannot refuse it. Human choice is eliminated.

Now there are all sorts of problems with this teaching and in my view defenders of the Canons of Dordt, Institutes, The Belgic Confession and suchlike are forced to manufacture unnatural explanations for many passages of scripture. For example Peter tells us that God is "not willing (pres. mid. part. of boulomai, "to wish to desire to want" [Rienecker/Rogers]) for any to perish but for all to come to repentance". (2 Pet. 3:9) Calvin's comments on this verse are revealing:

"But it may be asked, If God wishes none to perish, why is it that so many do perish? To this my answer is, that no mention is here made of the hidden purpose of God, according to which the reprobate are doomed to their own ruin, but only of his will as made known to us in the gospel. For God there stretches forth his hand without a difference to all, but lays hold only of those, to lead them to himself, whom he has chosen before the foundation of the world."

Clearly this is not exegesis but eisegesis and commenting upon this verse Guy N. Woods points out that "Any theory which teaches that God does not will the salvation of all men is therefore palpably false". (Commentary on the New Testament Epistles vol 7) It is difficult to know what other language Peter could have used so as to be more clear on this point.

Paul agrees with Peter that God "desires all men (not simply the elect) to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth". (1 Tim. 2:4) He tells the Greeks that "God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent" (Acts 17:30) and reminds the Roman brethren that He has "shut up all in disobedience that he might show mercy to all". (Rom. 11:32) He tells us that " the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men ..." (Tit. 2:11) not simply to some men, and the Hebrew writer agrees that Christ died, not for an elect group, but rather for "everyone"

(Heb. 2:9). Stephen accuses his fellow Jews of "resisting the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51) but how is this possible if the elect are unable to do so, and the non-elect are incapable of responding? True the Holy Spirit opened Lydia's heart but He did so by means of the message spoken by Paul (Acts 16:13, 14) rather than by means of a miraculous, direct operation.

Where does scripture teach that the Holy Spirit directly, miraculously, and irresistibly opens the hearts of men? Jesus said that no person comes to Him unless the Father "draws" him, adding that individuals are drawn by teaching. (Jn 6:44, 45) Moreover it is the person who is "willing to do His will" who is promised enlightenment (Jn 7:17) while Christians who are failing to live right are urged "not to receive the grace of God in vain". (1 Cor. 6:1)

These are just a few of the many teachings of Scripture and the many passages which simply cannot be harmonized with the doctrine that faith results from a direct divine operation and is independent of human effort. Faith exist only where receptive hearts, willing minds and yielding spirits exist and Calvinism notwithstanding, such hearts, minds and spirits cannot exist apart from human effort. Thus Bultmann speaks of faith as "man's absolute commitment to God" adding that "this commitment is a movement of the will; it is indeed the radical decision of the will in which men delivers himself up". (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament vol 6) Man must chose to exercise faith. Human effort is involved.

The Nature of Saving Faith

Salvation then is grounded upon grace and conditioned upon faith. But are works and law related to salvation, and if so how? In order to answer this question we need to say something about the nature of saving faith.

The failure to let the writers of Scripture define their own terms has frequently caused confusion within the religious world, and it is clear that many believers do just this when they approach the study of saving faith. In the introduction to his New Testament, Martin Luther said concerning the book of James that he would "not have it in (his)... Bible in the number of the proper chief books" although he adds that there was "many a good saying in it." Luther described the book of James as "a right strawy Epistle" in comparison with certain other books, namely "Saint John's Gospel and his first Epistle, Saint Paul's Epistles, especially those to the Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and Saint Peter's first Epistle." Unfortunately Luther, like others struggled to harmonize Paul's doctrine of justification by faith with James' teaching about the role of works in salvation. Adam Clarke explains: "In short, it has been thought that James teaches the of justification by the merit of good works, while Paul asserts this to be insufficient, and that man is justified by faith."

Now the difficulty of harmonizing Paul and James disappears if we let these inspired men tell us exactly what they mean when they use terms like "faith" and "works."

In his Exegetical Fallacies, D.A. Carson emphasizes the importance of letting the writers of Scripture define their own terms when he speaks of the "the false assumption that one New Testament writer's predominant usage of any word is roughly that of all other New Testament writers." Carson points out that "very often that is not the case." Now this is very relevant to our present discussion because it is quite evident that James' use of the term "faith" is quite different from Paul's use of this term to speak of the condition of salvation in his epistles, and it is also evident that James' use of the term "works" is quite different from Paul's use of this term in many (but not all) instances. Let's say a word about Paul's use of the word "faith" to speak of the condition of salvation.

In his A Theological Word Book of The Bible, Alan Richardson has the following: "(faith) is the act by which (an individual)...lays hold of God's proffered resources, becomes obedient to what God prescribes, (emphasis mine) and abandoning all self-interest and self reliance, trusts God completely. This is the meaning which the noun 'faith' receives in St Paul's writings..." He adds: "Obedience... conformity to what God prescribes (emphasis mine) is the inevitable concomitant of believing..." What Richardson is saying in effect is that when Paul speaks of salvation by grace through faith, he uses the term faith in the sense of trust which always expresses itself in humble obedience to God's commands. Saving faith for Paul means trust which is inseparable from submission to the divine will. Thus he begins his great discussion of justification by faith in the Roman epistle by telling us that he was appointed an apostle in order "to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles." (1:16 cf. 16:26 [N.A.S.V.]) By obedience of faith is likely meant "the obedience that belongs to the very essence of faith". (Lenski) When he speaks to Felix of "faith in Christ" Paul speaks, not merely of mental assent to a proposition about Jesus but also of "righteousness, self control and the judgment to come". (Acts 24:24, 25) It is clear too that Paul assumes that faith includes baptism. (Act 19:1 ff) The Thessalonians are described as those who "believe" (1 Thess. 2:13) and they stand in contrast to "those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus". (2 Thess. 1:8)

Of course Paul is not the only New Testament writer who uses "faith" in this sense of "conformity to what God prescribes" and this is clear (among other things) from the fact that in the non-Pauline writings "believe/faith" and disobedience can be antonyms. Thus we read in John's Gospel "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey (apeitho) the Son shall not see life..." (Jn 3:36). Luke tells us in Acts 14:1 that "a great multitude believed, both Jews and Greeks" and adds "But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles..." Here the word disbelieved is from apeitho (to disobey) again.

Similarly the Hebrew writer equates "those who were disobedient" with those who were guilty of "unbelief" (Heb. 3:18, 19). Clearly then when Paul and other New Testament writers use the word "faith" to speak of the condition of salvation, they are speaking, not merely of mental assent to certain propositions, but also of a humble, obedient response to the gospel of Christ. They equate saving faith with with "conformity to what God prescribes." It is immediately apparent that James' does not attach this meaning to this term in James 2:14-26.

Thayer tells us that pisteuein "used in reference to God has various senses " and goes on to say that one of these is "the mere acknowledgment of his existence." Thayer then gives James 2:19 as an example of this meaning. James 2:19 says "you believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe and shudder."

Under pistis Thayer has:

"in the sense of a mere acknowledgment of divine things and of the claims of Christianity, James 2:14 ('what use is it, my brethren if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?'); 17 ('Even so faith, if it has no works is dead being by itself'); sq 20, ('...faith without works is useless') 22 ('You see that faith was working with his works and as a result of the works faith was perfected') 24, ('You see that man is justified by works and not by faith only') 26 ('For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead').

Clearly there is a world of difference between James' use of the term "faith" to speak of mere acknowledgment and Paul's use of the term "faith" to speak of trust which always expresses itself in humble obedience to God's command. It is because Paul uses this term in the way that he does that he can speak of salvation "through faith," and it is because James uses the term in the way that he does that he emphasizes that mere acknowledgment of certain facts does not meet the condition of salvation.

Salvation and Works

It is clear then that although they may express the thought differently, Paul, James and the other inspired writers all agree that humble submission to the will of God is an essential condition of salvation. It is in connection with this teaching that humble submission to the will of God is a condition of salvation, that we encounter another term which (like "faith") has caused a great deal of confusion in the religious world. The term in question is "works" and once again the problem is that many fail to observe biblical distinctions in the use of this word. In this context consider the following:

a) In James 2:14 - 26 the Lord's brother uses the term "works" twelve times to speak of humble submission to the will of God. Faith (mental assent) without "works" cannot save (v.14), it is "dead" (vs 17, 26) and it is "useless" (v.20). Abraham was "justified by works" when he offered up Isaac on the altar, because it was "as a result of the works, (that) faith was perfected" (vs 21, 22), and the case of Rahab reinforces the point (v.25). According to James "a man is justified by works (i.e. humble submission to the will of God) and not by faith (mental assent) alone". (v.24) In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (vol 2), Georg Bertram speaks of the Rabbinical conviction "that he who has learned the Torah and yet acts contrary to it blasphemes God" and adds:

"Christianity...demands a preaching of action...and contradiction between word and act is a denial of Christ:...Such contradiction is obviously assumed in James 1:25...and 2:17 ('Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself')". (emphasis mine)

Speaking of works and faith Bertram adds that "the author (James) maintains that the two belong together..."

b) It is clear that Paul also uses the term "works" sometimes to speak of humble submission to the will of God. He speaks approvingly of the Thessalonians' "work of faith" (1 Thess. 1:2; 2 Thess. 1:11) by which he means work which is the product of living active obedient faith, and stresses that (saving) faith works through love (Gal. 5:6). The Hebrew writer is adamant that the faith which gains approval (Heb. 11:39) is working faith, the kind of faith whereby Abel "offered," Noah "prepared an ark," Abraham "obeyed by going out" etc. (Heb. 11) Jesus speaks offaith itself as "the work of God" meaning "that which God requires of men" (Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John The New International Commentary on the New Testament)

Clearly then term "works" is used by James, Paul and other inspired men to speak of that humble submission to the will of God which, according to Paul is part of (saving) faith and which according to James is the means whereby faith is perfected.

c) However Paul also uses the term "works" in a negative way, and in fact this is his "predominant usage" (Carson) of this word. Bertram writes of "the Pauline understanding of the contrast between faith and works". (ibid [emphasis mine]) He tells us that "The works of law which are at issue for Paul have become a means of self-righteousness for the Jews...(These works of law) sprang from man's arrogant striving after self-righteousness...It does come about that the word work...acquires in Paul a completely negative sense whenever it is a matter of human achievement". (emphasis mine) The point is that what Paul calls "works of law" are works of human merit wherein a man may boast (Rom. 3:27-4:12; Eph. 2:8); they are works whereby man earns, merits or deserves salvation, and as such they are works which nullify the grace of God. Little wonder that Paul speaks disparagingly of such works, and emphasizes their incompatibility with the doctrine of salvation by grace.

Now this distinction between works which amount to humble submission to the will of God, and works which spring from "man's arrogant striving after self righteousness" is very important. When James speaks of works which make faith perfect (2:22) he has the former in mind, and when Paul speaks of works that make faith "void" (Rom. 4:14) he is speaking of the latter. When James says that Abraham was justified "by works" (2:21) he is speaking of works which amount to humble submission to the will of God, works whereby Abraham's faith was perfected. On the other hand when Paul argues that Abraham was not justified by works (Rom. 4:2 ff) he is affirming that Abraham performed no meritorious work of human achievement wherein he could boast about salvation. The power to remove Abraham's sins was generated completely by the blood of Christ, and Abraham's works simply amounted to that humble submission to the will of God which is inseparable from saving faith.

Jesus once told a parable which serves to illustrate the distinction which we are making here. On one occasion the apostles said to Jesus "Increase our faith" (Lk 17:5) and Jesus responded by stressing the great power of mustard seed faith (v.6). But the possession of great power can breed an independent, self-satisfied, self-congratulatory spirit, so Jesus proceeds to tell a parable about a slave who did all that he was commanded by his master, and then Jesus draws an important conclusion; namely the conclusion that having done all that he was commanded the slave deserves no thanks from the master. The Lord then applies the parable: "So you too (apostles [v.5]) when you do all the things which are commanded you, say 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done". (vs 7-10) The word translated "unworthy" is from the word "to use" with the negation (hence "useless" ) and it is also used of the "worthless" slave who is cast out into outer darkness". (Matt. 25:30) Thus in unambiguous language Jesus is telling His followers that after doing all that has been commanded, they earn merit and deserve nothing. It is important to note that Jesus does not say that nothing is required of His followers. This is not His point at all. What He does say is that all their best efforts are devoid of merit. Yes, saving faith is inseparable from humble submissive works of obedience, but all such works are devoid of merit and contribute nothing to the ground, source, or basis of salvation.

Salvation and Law

Clearly since the faith which appropriates grace is that faith which humbly submits to the Divine will and which manifests itself in non-meritorious works, it follows that people of faith are people who are amenable to the law of God. Among other things God commands Christians to be truthful, to be sexually pure, to refrain from idol worship, to forgive one another, to pay taxes, to worship in spirit and in truth and so on. Since law is basically "the expressed and binding will" of someone, it is clear that these and other commands of God are laws, and the mere fact that Christians are warned against sin throughout the New Testament and told to confess sin to God and to one another (1 Jn 1:9; Jas 5:16) proves that they are not lawless people, since "sin is lawlessness" (1 Jn 3:4). Clearly it is not possible to break a law to which one is not amenable. On "nomos" Thayer has:

"In the N.T. a command, law...3 of the Christian religion...the law demanding faith (Rom. 3:27)...the moral instruction given by Christ, especially the precept concerning love Gal 6:2..."

Thus Christians are said to be subject to "the law of faith," (Rom. 3:27) "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ" (Rom. 8:2), "the law of Christ" (1 Cor 9:21; Gal. 6:2) "the perfect law, the law of liberty" (James 1:25; 2:12) and the "royal law". (James 2:8)

Now it is one thing to say that Christians are amenable to divine law, and quite another thing to say that obedience to divine law constitutes the source ground or basis of salvation. It is one thing to say that humble submission to divine law is inseparable from saving faith, and quite another thing to say that such obedience generates power to remove sin. Let's illustrate this point by saying a word about the relationship of the Law of Moses to salvation in the pre-Christian period:

a) As we have seen, and the blood of Christ was the source ground or basis of salvation during the pre-Christian period (Rom. 3:21-26; Heb. 9:15) just as it is the source ground or basis of salvation in the Christian era.

b) Living active obedient faith was the condition of salvation during the pre-Christian period just as it is the condition of salvation in the Christian period. Thus David was saved by faith during the Mosaic period. (Rom. 4:1 ff)

c) In the pre-Christian period, saving faith was inseparable from humble submission to the divine law applicable at the time. During the Mosaic period, the law to which Israelites like David were amendable was of course the Mosaic law. During this period saving faith manifested itself in submission to the law given at Sinai, and the Psalmist speaks of the blessedness of those who "walk in the law of the Lord...who observe his testimonies....keep His statutes" and so on. (Ps. 119:1 ff) Faithfulness involved devotion to the Law of Moses, and such faithfulness was a condition of salvation.

d) The Mosaic Law was never designed to be the ground source or basis of salvation. This Law was given "four hundred and thirty years" after God's promise of salvation by grace through faith to "Abraham and to his seed," and the Mosaic Law did not "nullify" this promise. (Gal. 3:15-17) The Mosaic law could not offer salvation to man because like all law systems it had a fatal weakness. As W. Gutbrod explains:

"This (weakness) lies essentially in the fact that (law) can meet sin only with prohibition and condemnation. The Law is weak because of the flesh. (R.8:3) It is weak because of the fact of sin which it cannot overcome. Thus the weakness of the Law can also be expressed by saying that it has no power to give life Gl 3:21. On the contrary through sin it brings the death (R 7:9 ff; 1 Cor. 15:56)." (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament vol 4)

e) Under a system of salvation grounded upon law keeping, just one sin condemns an individual eternally, because such a system makes no provision for forgiveness of sin. Fortunately David and other Israelites who lived during the Mosaic era enjoyed forgiveness of sin (Ps. 32, Ps. 51, Rom. 4 6-8) on the basis of Christ's blood when they appropriated grace through living active obedient faith.

f) It is important to note this point: it is true that the Mosaic Law was powerless to remove sin, and it is true that Israelites like David were saved by grace through faith, but it is also true that saving faith manifested itself in faithful submission to the Mosaic Law while that Law was in force. Clearly perfection was beyond David and the Israelites, just as it is beyond us, but faithfulness was not, and this faithfulness expressed itself in humble submission to the Mosaic Law. Consider for example the sacrificial requirements of the Law. The Hebrew writer tells us in no uncertain terms that "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin". (10:4) Animal blood generates no power whatsoever to remove sin. However again and again we are told in the book of Leviticus that forgiveness of sin was predicated upon animal sacrifices. Why? Not because these sacrifices generated power to remove sin, but because the faithfulness which appropriates grace is inseparable from humble submission to that divine law to which we are amendable. In the case of David and Israel this law was the Mosaic Law.

Some students of Scripture point out that salvation based on grace is the antithesis of salvation based upon law keeping. This is certainly correct. These two systems are mutually exclusive. Under the first system salvation is a gift, while under the second system it is a wage. Under the first system salvation is possible because Christ's blood covers sin, while under the second system salvation is possible because of sinless perfection. Paul spoke despairingly of those who were "seeking to establish their own ...(righteousness)" (Rom. 10:3) and repeatedly affirmed that law keeping is not the source of salvation. (Rom. 6:14, 15; Gal. 4:21; 5:18) He argued that Christ set us free "for freedom" (Gal. 5:1), meaning freedom from a system which conditions salvation upon flawless obedience (an impossibility). Unfortunately many take Paul to mean that obedience to divine law plays no part in salvation and this is a mistake because, as we have seen, saving faith, the condition of salvation, is obedient faith. Saving faith engages in non-meritorious works and saving faith submits to the expression of God's will in divine law. The faith which does not do so is the faith spoken of by James, faith which is incapable of taking hold of the gift of salvation. (2:14-26)

Concluding Comment

We have made a distinction between the source of salvation (grace) on the one hand and the condition of salvation (saving faith) on the other and we have argued that while grace is wholly of God, saving faith does indeed involve human effort. Faith engages in non-meritorious works of obedience and saving faith strives to submit to divine law. When Paul warns about the danger of boasting in connection with salvation (Rom. 4:1 ff; Eph. 2:8, 9) he is making the point that no-one can boast of having earned salvation: this would require sinless perfection, 100% obedience 100% of the time, and it is an impossibility.

Paul is not saying that human effort plays no part in salvation. It requires an effort of will for the alcoholic to turn from drunkenness, but saving faith requires it. It is not easy to forgive enemies, to resist immorality and suchlike but again saving faith requires that we engage in such works of faith while constantly confessing sin and requesting forgiveness for our failures.

Works of faith include repentance, baptism, worship, visiting orphans and widows and such like but while human effort is involved these are not works of merit wherein one may boast. For example, Paul tells us that God "saved us...by the washing of regeneration (baptism) and renewing by the Holy Spirit" (Tit. 3:5) making it clear that baptism is an expression faith, but in the same verse the apostle tells us that salvation is not based upon "deeds which we have done in righteousness" but rather upon "His mercy." Like other works of faith, baptism involves a surrender of the will by one who is ever conscious of the fact that he remains an "unprofitable servant." Understanding that salvation is an unearned, unmerited gift and that acceptance of this gift involves human choice, should produce a grateful humble spirit, a consciousness of frailty which leads to confession of sin, and a resolve to increasingly submit to His will.

Home|Contents