Salvation: By Works or Grace? | Simplex Complicity

Today I wanted to do a new entrance in my series where I attempt to explain complex ideas quickly... Simplex Complicity.

Today we discuss the biblical idea of salvation. We ask whether the works, deeds and words can add up to earn salvation or if salvation is pure grace, a freely given gift of God.

I hope you enjoy this post. God bless.

Grace vs. Works?

Saved by Grace or Works? The Biblical Evidence

The text is very clear, that both our faith in the freely given gift of Christ leads to salvation, but simultaneously, it also is crystal clear we need to act in faith, by doing God's work. Showing God's love, and light to this dark place, and that to walk in sin, after baptism, after confessing Christ, is to lie to yourself, and the world about who you serve.

We can only serve one God and serving Christ requires:

• We admit his divinity
• We accept his Lordship
• We strive, through His Holy Spirit, to do God's good work in this world.
• And so it would seem that we are saved by grace, but also that true salvation necessitates good fruit, loving sacrifice, and service for God's glory.

Here are some of the biblical references I called upon in researching this position. I encourage you to read the quotes provided, and also to dive deep into their full context. The bible is a gift, we are invited and encouraged to read it ourselves, not just rely on others to explain it for us. I hope and pray you take God up on that offer.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)

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.

Galatians 2:16 (ESV)

16 yet we know that a person is not justified[a] 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.

Galatians 5:1 (ESV)

Christ Has Set Us Free
5 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:13-15 (ESV)

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Galatians 5:16-24 (ESV)

Keep in Step with the Spirit
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy,[a] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do[b] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Romans 3:23-26 (ESV)

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:31 (ESV)

31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Romans 6:1-2 (ESV)

Dead to Sin, Alive to God
6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 6:15-18 (ESV)

Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,[a] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.