I occasionally have the privilege of explaining the relationship between salvation by faith and salvation by works to someone. The topic resurfaced (again) surfaced in my monthly meeting with a friend who still holds some of his pre-Christian reincarnation thinking. He thinks the works he does in this life will earn a better status in the next, and the works in that life will improve his spiritual "stock value" for the next life. And on and on.
Before going to bed that night on the night of our last meeting, I prayed for insight into how to help him better. In the awakening process of the following dawn, the Spirit answered my prayer. It's the subject of this web page.
The Spirit's teaching was elegantly simple: It’s both.
Salvation is by faith and by works. The New Testament teaches that:
People receive salvation when they believe in Jesus, but that doesn’t instantly make them objectively or morally righteous.
Through their new relationship with Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus coaches them on using spiritual practices, such as doing acts of charity to the poor, to grow them in Christ-likeness in other ways. (I wrote about this process in Beyond Conversion 1.) But no matter how long they live, they can never earn enough righteousness to qualify for eternal life in Heaven.
Now, here’s the really good news: Jesus is their righteousness. When God looks at followers of Jesus, he doesn’t see us as having qualified on our own, but he accounts us as righteous based on our ongoing trust in Jesus, the One who is perfectly righteous and holy.
Regardless of when we die along life’s road, Jesus is the believer’s righteousness, so the believer enters into the eternal presence of Jesus until the return of Jesus - when things get even better (but I'll leave that part for another time).
Romans 10:9-10, If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
2 Corinthians 5:21, God made him who had no sin (Jesus Christ) to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Phil 2:12-13, Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
James 3:13, If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
1 Corinthians 1:30-31, You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
(all from the writings of the Apostle Paul)