We all know the truth of the gospel and often preach the good news of salvation. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are rescued from God's Holy wrath by His grace alone. We deserve death and hellfire judgment because we are sinners. Our sin separates us from God. It is solely by the grace of God that a sinner can be made right in the eyes of God.  Salvation is God’s gift made possible by the sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are saved by God’s grace alone.

And this salvation is received through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.   “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Galatians 2:16. Our good works or merits cannot save us. The only way to be saved from sin, the devil and eternal judgment is to put your faith alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, to be your Saviour. This is the gospel, and we can believe in no other gospel.

But there is another side of the coin of faith and grace that we often overlook. The epistle of James proclaims this truth “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Saving faith doesn’t stand alone. It must produce good works. The Word of God in Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”. Often, we recite and remember the first part of the verse and forget about verse 10, “we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” While it is true that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and through Christ alone, who died for our sins on the cross, we must produce good works. We must go on to show evidence of our faith in Christ by good works. 

We should check ourselves. It is easy to proclaim we believe and have faith in Jesus. Ask yourselves, “Am I a genuinely born-again Christian? Am I following Christ sincerely and wholeheartedly? Do I love the Lord and obey His word? Do I have a fear of the Lord?” There are many pseudo-disciples of Jesus Christ. They claim to follow Christ, but in heart they are self-seeking, follow after the worldly lusts and living a carnal life. How can a person claim to be a Christian but follows after his own plans and ambitions with no interest in God and His kingdom?

Jesus said, ‘We cannot serve God and money or the world.’ Our Lord Jesus warned the pseudo-disciples in Matthew 7:21 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”  This proves that not everyone who professes to know Jesus or calls himself a believer is a Christian. Many will falsely profess Christ. The way to validate our faith is through good works. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (v.10). God’s Word tells us after we are saved in Christ, we must be able to show our faith in Christ by our works.

We have the example in the Old Testament (Numbers 32).  Joshua and Caleb, who truly believed God's Word and were ready to enter Canaan, the Promised Land by faith. They put their faith into action and believed in God. But there were the other ten spies steeped in unbelief. They were pessimistic. They despised God’s promises to bring them into the Promised Land. They kept saying in unbelief, “Not possible. We will be swallowed up”. We are like grasshoppers fighting the Giants in the Land”. As the result of their sin of unbelief, God said in Numbers 32:11-12 – “Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they have wholly followed the LORD.”

If we say we have believing faith in God, the next thing is to exercise that faith in our life situations. Jesus chided the disciples when they cried, “we perish” in Luke 8:22-25. He asked them this penetrating question. “Where is your faith?”. Or why is your faith not put into action in the raging storms of life? Fear and unbelief had overtaken their faith in the Lord. If Jesus examines us today and asks the same question “Where is your faith?" How will you answer?  Will He see that: we are walking worthy of the Lord, we are rooted and built up in Christ and His Word, we are fruit-bearing Christians, we are training our children in the way of the Lord, we are restoring broken relationships and forgiving others and we are proclaiming the gospel to others?

The Lord has put us together to edify one another in the most holy faith. In obedience to His Word, we must do good works for His glory. We must work together to serve the Lord by praying for one another, by encouraging one another to put God first. We should care for each other through love and fellowship and also must get involved in the various ministries of our Church. Our role is not just growth and unity, but our purpose is also to mercifully, carefully and proactively “snatch other from the fire and saving them” through our words of warning and merciful acts. In humility, we realize how easy it is for us to be caught up with the things of the world that we start to stray from God, live for self, indulge in a worldly lifestyle, and sin against God. But let us not forget that God has provided us with the means of grace in His Word, and we must be an example of the believers. (I Timothy 4:12).  In response to God’s Word, we humble ourselves, repent of our sins and seek the Lord’s cleansing.

We all are the recipients of God’s agape love, and indeed we love God because He first loved us. When we take heed to God’s Word, He will bless us. We consecrate our lives unto God to serve Him in purity, humility, and unity. May the Lord continue to use us to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ in obedience to His Word. “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9). We always are grateful to God for our salvation and the glorious truth of the gospel that our spiritual life starts with Jesus “by grace…through faith” and also ends with the same truth. Certainly, Jesus saved us “not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” But a saved Christian must produce evidence of faith in good works. May the Lord grant us working faith that puts faith in action. For “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20).

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