Studies

Faith, Good Works and Grace - The Balance

FAITH:

Hebrews 11:6
~ Without faith it is impossible to please God. A good definition of faith is:

• Believing the facts of the bible.
• Trusting the promises.
• Obeying the commands.

James 2:14-26
~ You can have a living faith or a dead faith. Faith ALONE cannot save you !
( Faith & deeds are like breathing IN & OUT, you must do both to live. Neither one can stand alone.)

GOOD WORKS:

Ephesians 2:8-10
~ Again the bible makes the point that good works in itself cannot save us. It is definitely by God's grace and love that we are saved.

~ That does not mean, however, that Christians have no responsibilities. God has prepared GOOD WORKS for us to do as His disciples:

• Helping the poor.
• Making disciples.
• Caring for each other etc....

Titus 3:8
~ Christians need to be DEVOTED to doing what is good.

1Timothy 6:17-19
~ Christians need to be generous and RICH IN GOOD DEEDS.

GRACE

Titus 3:3-7
~ We are saved not because of our own righteous deeds, but by God's mercy.

• Grace puts us in a position where it is JUST-AS-IF-I'D (justified) never sinned.

1 Corinth.15:9-11
~ Grace must have an EFFECT on your life. It should motivate to work very hard at serving God because of your gratefulness.

Titus 2:11-14
~ It is because of grace that we STRIVE to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.

Matthew 18:21-35
~ God's grace MUST teach us to forgive those who sin against us. BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO ABUSE GOD'S GRACE !

Jude 4
~ Some people use grace as a license to sin.

• Their condemnation was written about long ago !

Hebrews 10:26-31
~Some people insult the spirit of grace by deliberately continuing to sin.

• Doing this is trampling the son of God underfoot & treating as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant.
• There is no forgiveness for such people.

CONCLUSION:

We are saved BY God's grace, THROUGH our faith in the blood of Jesus, AT baptism (1Peter 3:21), IN ORDER TO do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.