Jesus, especially in the gospel of Matthew talks at length about how you have to live a holy life to be forgiven and saved. While Paul says you just have to believe in Jesus. How do you reconcile this? And do you see any inconsistency with the Evangelicals who say 'saved by faith not works,' when Jesus himself said a lot of things like, forgive or you won't be forgiven, visit the sick, etc..... or else you won't be saved. Jesus believed works mattered. How do you resolve this?
Anonymous2013-02-14T14:43:21Z
Favorite Answer
Peter said this of Paul: 2 Peter 3:15-16 "And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."
Note that Peter does not say Paul is wrong but rather that people wrest (twist) what Paul says.
To understand Paul's perspective as to works one must understand that Paul is dealing in his letters with men who were failing to appreciate that the offer of salvation was given to them undeservedly out of the kindness of God's grace. These persons saw themselves as special because of their works and thought that this was why God chose them. Because they thought they were special their eye was dark and critical of others. They actually believed they were better than anyone else lest of course the other person would kiss up to them by agreeing with them. That is why Paul is emphasizing grace as the thing that is saving us. Yet if you comb his letter to pick for evidence that he taught works to be required, you will find plenty of that evidence. Paul merely meant that we ought to not boast that our works earned us salvation because such boasting in our works is opposite to a repentant and humble spirit. We must appreciate that we were all sinners totally undeserving of salvation but for the loving-kindness which God has shown us through grace.
James is the flip-side of that same coin. James emphasized works because he was having to deal with people who thought works completely unnecessary.
Can you now see how important it is to take time to gather the background information? Paul is dealing with those whose imbalance led them to think too highly of themselves by works, whereas James was dealing with those whose imbalance was to think that God's grace meant they needed no works. Paul and James perfectly compliment each other in their teachings when correctly understood.
The book of James clears this up. In essence, good works are evidence or signs of salvation- not a list of tasks to earn your salvation. Salvation is a gift that cannot ne earned. However, if you truly believe that you have been saved by Jesus and the Holy Spirit lives in you, then you will be convicted. There will be changes- certain actions of yours (that seemed fine in the past) will now be repulsive. If you love, believe, and are comitted to Jesus you will obey His commands. Will you be sinless? No. But there will be change.
Faith and works go hand in hand. James makes the statement “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). Faith without works is dead faith because the lack of works reveals an unchanged life or a spiritually dead heart. There are many Scriptures that make it very clear that true saving faith will result in a transformed life which is demonstrated by the “works” we do. How we live reveals what we believe and whether the faith we profess to have is a living faith.
Jesus says that He is the Way to God, and that you are saved by following Him. It doesn't get any simpler than that. Paul said the same thing: Follow Jesus. They both taught that if you are following Christ, you will naturally and instinctively prove it by bearing fruit. That fruit is what you do and your attitude while doing it. If you do not bear fruit, you will be cut off. But you can't begin bearing fruit until you have grown from the vine.
Works follow salvation, not the other way around. Jesus and Paul both preached on this fact.
You are focusing on one sentence out of one letter written by Paul but disregarding everything else. That is not how it works! To rightly divide the word you must take into consideration the whole word - if you do that you will see that there is nothing to reconcile.