Poll on faith without works

Are you saying that believing Is a work for man?

I don't know that He ever mentions that in His word. He sees and judges our hearts. Is there a passage of Scripture where God is looking for our works to judge our faith valid? I don't think so.

I don't think you can have "faith without works". Can you?
How could a person have faith and then NEVER do anything for god EVER?

What was your answer to the poll?

I don't think you get what I'm saying. This is often the case in this topic.

I'm not saying anyone can save, keep themselves saved, or somehow do any work to make themselves worthy of salvation it is only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ that we can be saved.

Like I said before, the work that we do is not really our own either... The only thing we can do is believe in the Lord and let him work through us, and he will and does...Works follow true saving faith...faith without works is dead.


The thief on the cross believed that Jesus was Lord and was saved. That is all it took to be saved. What else did he do? He confessed it with his mouth... testifying that Jesus was Lord...Saying Lord remember me when you get into your kingdom... in front of all that stood by.

So what actually happened there....He believed with his heart and confessed with his mouth, and he was saved.

Interesting perspective. So then confession of Christ is considered a work? What else would be works?

I actually tried to add this to my last post but went over the 5 minute period.

His confession was a testimony before those that stood by that day and still is today seeing it is recorded in scripture.

I agree.

What else would you consider to be works according to Scripture?

Are you asking if God saves a person who believes in Jesus Christ as Savior even though they have no works?

See I think that is the thing. Some people focus on this great list of works that they think if they do it will save them or keep them saved. A lot of things are just traditions of men. Like the Pharisees misunderstanding the main reason for the law and then adding even more statutes to it trying to keep it. No matter what they did, none of it was pleasing to God because they did not have faith in him and were not doing it out of love for him. They were doing superficial works hoping for some reward or praise of men.

The only thing that will save us is to have faith in Jesus. If we have faith in Him then our spirit is born again or regenerated and God gives us a new heart. We then are able to love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul and he will work through us.

There are many things that could be considered a work, and it is all through Jesus working in us and not of ourselves.

To me, a work could be as simple as loving and praying for others. Forgiving others...this is a work that God does through us. It is by his Spirit and love that we are able to love and forgive others.

I have felt before that I needed to forgive in order to be forgiven by God. It would seem to be as you say that forgiveness is a work that God does through you. Can it take time for God to make someone forgiving or some other good quality?

Forgiving someone is a choice. It might help to think about forgiveness in a different way. Forgiving someone is not ever saying what they did was ok, or is now ok. It is merely deciding that person does not owe you a debt anymore for what they did to you.

Yes, it is all work that God does through us.

Yes, it can take time.

We are able to have a relationship with God through forgiveness of our sins through faith in Jesus. We are forgiven through Jesus' atonement and faith in Him, and God sees us through Jesus. We are in Christ. He loves us and has made us to sit together in heavenly places with Him. Jesus is our advocate and he LIVES to make intercession for us. We can do nothing without Him or through our own selves.

We need to continue to renew our minds to this fact. We get closer to God through having a genuine relationship with Him. We learn more about this through prayer and reading and studying his Word. The more we put our faith and trust in God, love Him, and walk in the Spirit with Him, then the more he will work through us.

This can take time. It is a process and can even take more time for some than it does for others. The main thing is loving God with our whole heart, mind, and soul, putting our faith and trust in the Lord, putting him first, and having an intimate relationship with him. If we do that then all else will follow, in time.

Someone said that the thief on the cross had works because they said his believing was works.

The thief on the cross had testimony of faith. Millions is not billion have read about his faith!

Sounds like you're saying that if someone can't speak then they're hellbound. That doesn't really make sense either.

Yes. The work of God is to believe on the One whom He has sent.

But believing isn't works. Scripture says so. Eph 2:8,9 and Rom 4:4,5

When Jesus addressed the crowd in John 6 and said "the work that God requires is to believe on His Son", He was speaking tongue-in-cheek. The Jews were very works oriented. So He used that word on them.

But believing isn't a work. Rom 4:4,5 shows us that works EARN something; wages. Our belief doesn't earn us anything. God's gift of salvation is by grace, not by works.

No, I'm not saying that in the least. You are taking me wrong.

Someone said that the thief didn't have works. I only stated that he did have a testimony which was a work.

When we are saved there is a change in us, and works will follow.

What is the work of God...it's to believe upon him who he sent. It is as simple as that, in my opinion. If we believe we will be saved and works will follow through Jesus working in us not of us working on our own behalf trying to earn some reward, salvation, or anything else of that nature.