Does The Bible Teach We Are Saved By Faith Alone?

Does The Bible Teach We Are Saved By Faith Alone?

At last count, I believe I must have made around 40 videos or so, directly and indirectly, dealing specifically with the absolute and fundamental Biblical truth, how man is saved totally from all his past, present and future sins, simply by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ alone!

The moment the saved man or woman of God comes to realize this tremendous and precious truth should hopefully result in them being able to completely rest in Christ and forsake any works righteous system that they may have once subscribed to.

In fact, I would say that the very moment the penny or denarius drops, the entire Roman Catholic system collapses, along with the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and pretty much 95% of all Christendom. Because these systems are only able to exist and function by keeping their members in spiritual darkness and bondage to a works-based system, via their ‘priestly mediators.’

However, as the old proverb goes, “you can take the horse to the well but you cannot make the horse drink from the well.” In other words, for those that have been blessed to understand this almighty truth from God, doesn’t mean we will always be successful in articulating this to unsaved religious people.

For the word of God tells how the heart of the unregenerate is desperately wicked, and therefore those that love their works and religion more than Jesus, are seldom going to be able to receive it, and therefore they become the unenlightened ones, found in Scripture, where Christ only addressed them through parables.

It’s not rocket science to understand that just by calling on the name of the Lord and sincerely trusting in Him for what He accomplished on the cross, in our place, is all that one needs to do in order to be saved. Yet tragically, while some brethren rejoice in this and use their unique liberty in Christ to get busy and serve Him, others fret and fear that somehow, if they don’t ‘do this thing’ or ‘that thing,’ or maybe if they haven’t quite been ‘good enough’ that somehow they won’t quite ‘make it’ to Heaven, are in essence denying what He achieved for us and are actually choosing to be ‘sub-saviours’ themselves!

One really cannot underestimate the seriousness of failing to believe and rest in the finished work of Christ. Ignorance of this simplistic sacrifice will be no excuse, for those that die trusting in their ‘good works’ instead of what the sinless Son of God did for them, all of those years ago, outside of Jerusalem.

Also, those who hold to the necessity of water baptism, church membership, confirmation, first communion, speaking in tongues and even lordship salvation, to be saved, would be most wise to carefully study the verses below, and realize how dangerous and hurtful these work-based systems are, to those that love the Lord and were saved, without experiencing any of the above.  

The following verses prove, that sinners are saved eternally the moment they bend the knee, and cry out to King Jesus, to rescue and redeem them.

ROMANS

1:16 – Anybody can be saved by believing the gospel alone
3:22 – All fall short of God’s grace, therefore any ‘good works’ we do, can’t save
3:24 – Justification by faith alone, offered to all
3:25 – Saved by the precious blood of Christ
3:28 – All saved by faith alone, without the law
4:4 –  Grace is a free gift, otherwise God would be in debt to the sinner
4:10 – Abraham saved before circumcised
4:24 – Inputted righteousness for anyone who believes in the resurrection
5:1 –  Peace with God through justification by faith alone
5:15 – Grace through faith is a gift

1 CORINTHIANS

1:17 – Preaching the gospel saves, not baptism (see Rom. 10:16-17)

2 CORINTHIANS

1:22 – Believer sealed by God
1:24 – Safe by faith alone

GALATIANS

2:16 – No flesh can be saved by keeping the law
2:21 – If one could be saved by works, Christ died in vain
3:1 –  Foolish people trust in their works
3:3 –  Saved by faith, baptized by the Holy Spirit, not by water
3:6 –  Abraham received forgiveness by faith alone
3:13 – Christ redeems us from the law
3:22 – Faith in Jesus given to all who believe

EPHESIANS

1:6 –  We are received by Him through His grace alone
1:7 –  Saved through His blood, not water baptism or works
2:15 – Through His death, He abolished the law
2:19 – We are fellow citizens, priests (1 Pet. 2:5) and sons (Rom. 8:14-15)

PHILIPPIANS

1:6 –  God not man completes our salvation
2:12 – Work out your salvation, sincerely believe in Christ (see 1 Cor. 15:2)
2:13 – For God does the work to save the sinner (see Eph. 2:8-9)

COLOSSIANS

1:14 – Redeemed through His blood (see Acts 20:28)
1:20 – Reconciled to Him through His bloody cross (see John 6:53-56)
2:10 – Complete in Him now, no baptism or good works necessary
2:12 – One’s spirit already raised with Him (see John 5:24; Eph. 2:5-6)
2:13 – All sins are forgiven by His blood, no mass needed (see Rom. 6:10)

1 TIMOTHY

6:12 – Lay hold of eternal life, for one, already has it (see 1 John 5:13)

2 TIMOTHY

1:9 –   Not saved by our work, but by his grace (see 2 Cor. 9:15)
1:12 – God not churches can keep the believer safe (see John 10:28-30)

TITUS

3:5 – No works for salvation just grace, for those that call on His name
3:7 – Exonerated from all sin by His grace

HEBREWS

1:3 –    Jesus by Himself, without Mary, purged our sins (Mark 2:7)
7:27 –  Sacrificed only once, mass worthless (see John 19:30)
9:12 –  Secured eternal redemption for us, after entering the holy of holies
9:14 –  Purged by the precious blood of Christ (see 1 Pet. 3:18)
9:22 –  No salvation possible without the shedding of His blood
10:10 – Sacrificed once and for all by His sinless offering (Is. 53:10)
10:38 – Saved by faith alone, now live by faith (see Rom. 1:17)

1 PETER

1:2 –   The sprinkling of the blood (not water) saves us (see Rev. 1:5)
1:5 –   Kept and sealed by one’s faith (not works) (see Eph. 4:30)
1:9 –   Faith alone is salvation for one’s soul (see Tit. 3:5,6)
1:10 – Grace was prophesied (see John 1:17)
1:19 – Precious blood of Christ takes our sin away (see John 1:29)
2:6 –   Faith in the name of Jesus saves us (see Acts 16:30-31)

2 PETER

1:1 –  Imputed righteousness received by faith in the Lord (see Rom. 4:4)
1:9 –  Already purged from our sins (see 1 John 2:12)
1:10 – Make your calling and election sure (see John 6:29)

JAMES

2:21 – Abraham justified (not saved) in the presence of Isaac
2:23 – Saved before circumcision and potential sacrifice of Isaac

1 JOHN

2:12 –  Sins are already forgiven for His namesake (see Acts 3:16)
2:17 –  To be saved, one must do the will of God (see John 6:39)
3:2 –    Already sons of God (see Rom. 8:28-30)
3:23 –  Just believe on the Son of God to be saved (see Acts 4:12)
4:13 –  Confess Christ to be saved (see Matt. 10:32-33)
5:5 –    Belief in Jesus makes one an overcomer (see Rev. 2:7)
5:12 –  He that has the Son is saved, no works or baptism required

In a future article, I may need to return to this subject again and take a deeper look at the differences between the law (the gospels), the inter-testimonial period from law to grace (Acts) and grace (the epistles), but for now, I have focused exclusively on the epistles, with only some minor cross-references to the gospels.

Before I conclude this article, I wish to share two verses, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament, to hopefully explain how justification before God and justification before man works.

In Ps. 106:30-31, we read the following:

“Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed. And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.”

This verse vividly demonstrates how Phinehas’ quick action, which was seen before his people, justified him before man. He was already saved but his public actions mirror that of Abraham’s, who was justified by his faith in God, first before his servants and then ultimately, before his son, Isaac, who is a type of God the Son, with Abraham, of course, is a type of God the Father.

The next verse is even more profound, taken from Luke 7:36-50:

“And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house and sat down to meat. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.  And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”

This lady found there was already a believer in Jesus before she bravely walked into this house and publicly displayed her faith and love for the Lord. Her faith in Christ, which initially only God would have seen, resulted in her outward works, which man then saw.

Therefore when we examine both the above verses and take into account, the many others I have listed here, we see very clearly how man, first of all, has to hear the gospel, and believe it, which justifies him in the sight of God, which then results in Him being able and willing to do good works, which finally gets witnessed by the world.

So faith in Christ alone is what saves the sinner, never works, but the works, sooner or later, will follow.

When one takes all these verses together, and I can assure you there are many more, we see how God simply saves sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Therefore it’s wicked and deceptive to think and teach how sinners can be saved by their works too!