{"id":618,"date":"2003-10-11T21:26:37","date_gmt":"2003-10-11T21:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=618"},"modified":"2019-02-10T21:30:07","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T21:30:07","slug":"doesnt-romans-51-teach-we-are-saved-by-faith-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-romans-51-teach-we-are-saved-by-faith-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Doesn&#8217;t Romans 5:1 teach we are saved by faith alone?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Doesn&#8217;t\u00a0Romans 5:1\u00a0teach that we are saved by faith alone?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Romans 5:1\u00a0says, &#8220;<em>Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/em>&#8221; This proves that justification requires faith, but your stated goal was to prove that justification was by faith\u00a0<strong>alone<\/strong>. There is no indication of exclusiveness in this verse. James tells us clearly that it is not exclusively faith when he said, &#8220;<em>You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only<\/em>&#8221; (James 2:24). Now you are in a pickle. Do you claim that James is wrong and, therefore, uninspired? Paul&#8217;s statement in\u00a0Romans 5:1\u00a0and James&#8217; statement in\u00a0James 2:24\u00a0do not contradict as they are written. The contradiction only occurs when you try to make Paul&#8217;s statement exclusive.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, even for &#8220;faith alone&#8221; people, they cannot fully subscribe to the statement. I know of no one who actually claims that salvation comes from man&#8217;s faith\u00a0<strong>alone<\/strong>. After all:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jesus said, &#8220;<em>For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned<\/em>&#8221; (Matthew 12:37). Oops! That isn&#8217;t faith.<\/li>\n<li>Paul said, &#8220;<em>for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified<\/em>&#8221; (Romans 2:13). Oops! There is that nasty four-letter word &#8220;work&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>Paul said, &#8220;<em>being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus<\/em>&#8221; (Romans 3:24). Here justification is through the redemption which is in Jesus. Faith is involved (verse 25), but it is not faith\u00a0<strong>alone<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Paul said, &#8220;<em>Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him<\/em>&#8221; (Romans 5:9). Here we clearly see that it is not faith\u00a0<strong>alone<\/strong>. Notice that it is just a few verses past\u00a0Romans 5:1. Jesus had a hand in our justification, so justification is not by man&#8217;s faith\u00a0<strong>alone<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Romans 5:16-18\u00a0&#8211; Justification came by the act of one man, Jesus the Christ.<\/li>\n<li>Romans 8:30\u00a0&#8211; Those God called are justified.<\/li>\n<li>I Corinthians 6:11\u00a0&#8211; &#8220;<em>Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.<\/em>&#8221; Notice the word&#8221;washed,&#8221; this calls to mind\u00a0Acts 22:16. By baptism, a person is sanctified and justified.<\/li>\n<li>Titus 3:7\u00a0&#8211; We are justified by God&#8217;s grace.<\/li>\n<li>James 2:21\u00a0&#8211; We are justified when our faith is demonstrated by our works. &#8220;<em>Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is not faith\u00a0<strong>alone<\/strong>, but faith working in harmony with working obedience. You see when Paul talked about faith in Romans, his concept of faith was one that worked. He started the letter with, &#8220;<em>Through Him we have received grace and apostleship\u00a0<strong>for obedience to the faith<\/strong>\u00a0among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ<\/em>&#8221; (Romans 1:5-6). And he ended his letter on the same note. &#8220;<em>Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now has been made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures has been made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God,\u00a0<strong>for obedience to the faith<\/strong><\/em>&#8221; (Romans 16:25-26).<\/p>\n<p>The Bible doesn&#8217;t teach that salvation is exclusively by faith. That was a doctrine that originated with men. The Bible has always taught that salvation occurs when faith is joined by obedient action to the commands of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Doesn&#8217;t\u00a0Romans 5:1\u00a0teach that we are saved by faith alone? Answer: Romans 5:1\u00a0says, &#8220;Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.&#8221; This proves that justification requires faith, but your stated goal was to prove that justification was by faith\u00a0alone. There is no indication of exclusiveness in this&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[53,120],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-faith-alone","tag-romans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39149,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/justification-by-works-in-james\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":0},"title":"Justification by Works in James","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford Earlier, I wrote about Paul's discussion of justification by works in the first four chapters of Romans. In it, he says that justification by works requires perfect obedience to God, which no one but Jesus has achieved. Thus, Christians must seek salvation by faith apart from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/abrahams-sacrifice-of-isaac-226x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15877,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-and-works-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":1},"title":"Faith and Works (Sharp)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Keith Sharp The doctrine of salvation by faith alone is fundamental to Protestant theology. The old Methodist Discipline stated, \u201cWherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.\u201d The Standard Baptist Manual, by Edward T. Hiscox teaches, \u201c... the great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7082,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-justification-by-faith-alone\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":2},"title":"Isn&#8217;t justification by faith alone?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Isn't justification by faith alone? Answer: It is common for people to approach the Scriptures with blinders on, seeking to prove their point by selective use of passages from the Bible. I find it amazing that when I state that justification is\u00a0not by faith alone that people turn this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42364,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-justification-through-faith-is-a-sinner-forgiven-when-he-prays\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":3},"title":"Is justification through faith? Is a sinner forgiven when he prays?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Mr. Hamilton, I was reading your article on\u00a0the NIV\u00a0and I found it very informative! I just want to start off by saying thank you I had no idea there were a few discrepancies I needed to be aware of. With regards to this, I had a question. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61195,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/works-in-the-book-of-romans\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":4},"title":"Works in the Book of Romans","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Irvin Himmel via\u00a0Truth Magazine\u00a0XXIII: 2, pp. 43-45, January 11, 1979 Frequently Paul mentions works or deeds in his epistle to the saints at Rome. Whatever he means by \"works,\" the term expresses something opposed to grace and faith. He insists that justification does not find its source in works.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28534,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-comparison-of-romans-4-and-james-214-26\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":5},"title":"A Comparison of Romans 4 and James 2:14-26","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jim Sasser Recently, we have been listening to a speaker on this radio station discussing the 4th chapter of Romans as compared to the 2nd chapter of James. It was obvious, from some of his statements, that he was trying to make Paul teach salvation by faith only and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}