Authentic Faith Produces Good Works, Not the Other Way Around!

Above is a quote by Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke about faith and good works. If you are truly saved and you have faith, it's certain to produce good works. James 2:14-26 warns that faith without works is dead. Just to clarify what it means, James does not mean that salvation is by faith and by works. Instead, if one has true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, when one has authentic faith then it's bound to produce good works as evidence of salvation. A sham faith is devoid works while a true faith is not devoid of works. Many people today just want to be saved from the consequences of their sins rather than from sin themselves. If you are truly saved then there ought to be a growing difference from sin to the Savior. I cannot imagine anybody getting saved and still staying the way they are, that is not biblical (1 Corinthians 6:11). The idea that God's grace is a license to sin is so contrary to Scriptural teaching that God's grace gives strength against sin and teaches righteous living, not a license to sin nor an encouragement to sin (Titus 2:11-14).

The works salvation crowd is guilty of forcing the horse to push the cart. Hebrews 9:14 states, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Any act of goodness done to try and please God is just a dead work, it is not good in His sight. It is a good work by human standards but God's standards are much higher. As Charles H. Spurgeon says, "It is not enough to do the correct thing, it must be done in a right spirit, and with a pure motive. A good action is not wholly good unless it be done for the glory of God, and because of the greatness and goodness of His holy Name." Doing acts of goodness is certainly good humanly speaking but if it was not pursued for God's glory then it's not wholly good but it's a dead work, not a good work.

The genuine change comes after salvation and not before salvation. The idea of good works producing faith is like expecting fruits before the tree has been grown. The idea that true faith may leave a person indifferent and still enjoying sin is just as much as a grievous error. Instead, what it means that salvation is by faith alone but not by a faith alone is simple. When God saves a person, He does not merely save them but saves them from their sins, He works to sanctify them and if a person truly has faith, works will be the result of salvation not the cause. The cause of salvation is faith, the effect of salvation is doing good works. Again, did I say that good works save because there's a huge difference between salvation by works and salvation resulting to good works.

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