Faith Plus Works?
by Terry Wane Benton
Faith-only advocates have actually worked hard to convince themselves that if you include any activity in faith, such as obedience, you have added “you” and your effort to Jesus’ perfect and complete work. Yet, who is doing the believing? You are! How does faith come? It comes by you hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). If you don’t hear, give ear and your attention to hearing the word, you won’t have proper faith in the right person, and you won’t receive what He offers. So, there is “work plus faith,” no matter what!
Jesus said we have to “labor (work) for the food that does not perish” (John 6:27). He goes on to say that if we do not “eat His flesh and drink His blood we have no life in us” (John 6:53). Who does the eating and drinking? That would be us! So, there is labor (work) involved in faith-building. That is work plus faith! Work is part of the process and cannot be avoided as part of the process.
The only kind of work that does not save us is perfect, sinless work. If you worked everything out perfectly without sin, you earned your own way and did not need forgiveness. That is the only work not involved in our fellowship with God. We all sinned and therefore need justification and forgiveness. Perfect works is already off the table. We have already blown that means of right standing with God.
The kind of work that is indeed involved in our forgiveness is “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; 6:16-18; 16:26) or “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). If it is not an active, working, obedient faith, it will not save (James 2:14-24).
You cannot read Paul and James in these verses and attribute a false doctrine of “faith plus works” to them. It is an obedient faith, but it must be that kind of faith, or it fails to be the right kind of faith. The men in John 12:42 “believed” but would not confess Jesus. Would confessing Jesus be “faith plus works,” so they needed to stay with faith only? You know that is not a saving faith. Confessing Jesus is not “faith plus works”. It is faith working through love. Faith working is based upon the work of coming to know Jesus, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and it never ceases to work obedience into one's life. Otherwise, it ceases to be real faith in Jesus.
So, those who try to put confession and baptism into a “works” category and then proudly proclaim that Peter was teaching “faith plus works” in Acts 2:38 are revealing a fatal flaw in their perception of faith and a wrong perception of what kind of “works” it is that has no part in our fellowship with God.
Active, obedient faith is involved, a work of labor to have the food that does not perish is certainly involved, a faith working or working faith is involved, an obedient faith is involved, a confessing faith is involved, a baptized faith is involved, but works of perfect law-keeping are not involved. The lack of works of law puts us in need of Jesus. Thus, it is not faith plus my works of perfectly keeping the law. The lack of perfect working of the law is why I put my faith (obedient faith) in Jesus.
