Jesus the Christ

Jesus the Christ
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. -Acts 1:9-11

February 26, 2012

Justification by the Law or by Faith


   It seems like Paul's writings in Romans and James' writings in James of the New Testament seem to contradict each other: Paul teaches that we are not saved only by following the Law, or the commandments.  He explains that it is as if you are relying on your own merits to save you; "If I follow the law perfectly, never sin, I can save myself instead of needing a Savior."  Most of us can probably readily admit that no one is perfect and even if someone sins very little, they are still breaking the same Law as someone who sins a lot.  They are still not worthy to live with God again, who can have no unclean thing before Him.

   So, when James says in James 2:17 that "faith without works is dead," there seems to be a lot of confusion.

 
    My religion teacher explained that it is confusing because James and Paul are using different terminology, not because they seem to be disagreeing with each other, one focused on works saving us and the other on faith.  It is true that without faith in Christ, we cannot be saved.  His Atonement is what made it possible for all of us to be clean from our sins, and there is no way we can keep ourselves perfect and not need that Atonement; we all sin.

    James isn't contradicting that; he is saying that if we are really being faithful, if we really have faith in Christ, that faith will spur us to action.  If we say we have faith and then don't perform any good works, don't act like the Savior wants us to, then what's the point of our faith?  Our faith in Jesus Christ is a starting ground and its true existence is made evident by our actions.  He explains that devils have faith, they know that there is a God, but their faith won't save them because their actions are so contrary to that belief.

   I think it's all about not being a hypocrite.  If you really believe in Christ, then you are expected to show that by your actions, or your faith doesn't mean anything.  There are people out there who need to be loved and we ourselves are trying to better ourselves, so we should make sure that when we say we have faith in Christ, we can back up that statement by our actions.
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  1. UnknownFebruary 28, 2012 at 3:00 PM

    Rachel, you keep picking just the topics I need to hear! After Sarah's wedding, your dad was talking (I think I'm remembering this correctly) about when he got called as an area authority. Whoever was interviewing him asked him "Would you hesitate to bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ when prompted by the Spirit in any circumstance?"

    I have since thought a lot about that question. I think that if we can answer that question yes and really do the work that it implies we will do, then we have faith. I think the question gets at whether or not we believe that Christ is the solution to all circumstances. When we believe that, we act in faith and perform works beyond what we can do with our own knowledge.

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