You want “
Perpetual Belief Alone Salvationism” to be true but you set up a contradiction by saying that a genuine saving faith will always produce good works to some degree. This sounds like Calvinism but in reverse order. As if we no longer have free will and we are turned into robots whereby our programming will force us do good works no matter what. Why all the warnings in Scripture to be fruitful or to do good works if it was all just automatic to having faith? Again, I am not denying that God’s grace and mercy can help us to be fruitful like in 1 Corinthians 15:10, and Luke 7:36-50. But we are also told to affirm works constantly to others (Titus 3:8) so that they will not be unfruitful (Titus 3:14).
Your belief is a contradiction (i.e., it is confusion).
Hand #1. (On the one hand you say): “Works do not save.”
Hand #2. (On the other hand you say): “Works will always be present to show a true saving faith.”
In order to TRULY BELIEVE Hand #1, you have to claim that you can have no works and still be saved by a belief alone without works. That is the only consistent way for your statement by Hand #1 to actually work.
If you hold to Hand #2, then you must claim that works is a part of the salvation equation because you cannot ever have a faith lived out without any kind of works. Therefore, you would have to believe like I do in that works are necessary as a part of God’s plan of salvation. Why? Because you are saying that a true saving faith (belief alone) will always have works or fruit to show itself to be true.
This is why your belief is a contradiction and it is confusion.
But God is not the author of confusion. I am able to easily reconcile both the grace through faith without works verses by the apostle Paul, and being justified by works verse by James. This is something that your belief cannot allow. The way to reconcile Paul and James is to understand that….
#1. Paul is talking about Initial Salvation and he is fighting against the false heresy of “Circumcision Salvationism” as mentioned in Acts 15. For if a person thought they had to be initially saved by circumcision instead of faith in Jesus, they would be making a work the entrance gate and foundation of their salvation. This would then be “Works ALONE Salvationism” that did not include being saved initially and foundationally by God’s grace.
#2. James is talking about Sanctification or the next step in our faith involving God’s plan of salvation. Just look at 2 Thessalonians 2:13, Romans 8:13, Galatians 6:8-9, and 1 Timothy 5:8. It is inescapable, unless somebody just simply does not like what the Bible says in these verses and they do backflip twists through hoops of fire to either avoid or change them.
It also helps if you accept all the conditional statements in the Bible like “IF,” etcetera.
Salvation is conditional and Jesus and His followers warned about how sin can destroy our souls in the afterlife if we do not confess and forsake such sins. This is pretty basic to even believing the Bible at face value. But a sin and still be saved type belief is more comforting these days. So folks are just not able to see it.
