Saved by Grace Through Faith Alone

~Brandon James Scott Scholl

This is a topic that is highly debated between numerous people. It’s something that is mentioned in the bible numerous times. However, what does the bible actually mean when it mentions and talks about it?
The dictionary defines grace as favor, a pardon, or a privilege; Something that we cannot earn. Now, the fact that we cannot earn grace means that there is nothing that can be done, as far as a work, to have salvation.
The bible says something on this topic.

“Eph 2:7 So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
~Ephesians 2:7-8

This section of Ephesians basically sums it up, definition and all. Grace is something that we cannot obtain or work for but it says that it’s a gift from God. “Not a result of works, so that that no man can boast.”

This means we do not do ANYTHING to gain that salvation. We aren’t saved by works or anything that we can do. As much as people like to argue that and say we must do works to keep that salvation they’re wrong. If it were true then that means that Christ dying on the cross didn’t have to happen in the first place. If we have to earn our salvation then none of us would ever get into heaven. It is impossible to keep the commandments that God put in place because of our sin nature and the Bible even says that we’ll fall short. (Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”) Saying that you need to do works to be saved and that Christ didn’t have to have died in the first place because we are able to earn it.
Here’s an example. Let’s say that you are in a building and you want to sit down on the chair in front of you. So, you go over and sit down in this chair. Now, you have faith that the chair is going to support you and be there when you sit down on it. Your action of sitting down is a by-product of that faith. In other words, a physical manifestation of your faith.

In James 2:24 it says that a man is not justified by faith alone but also by works. However two scriptures down in 26 it says, “James 2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” This is referring to people who can claim to have all the faith in the world but don’t do anything, those people don’t have real faith at all. The thing is, people will claim that if you don’t do works then you aren’t saved. The thing that you have to understand though is when you are full of that faith, works are a come naturally. It’s something that you cannot contain or hold back. It’s a reflex that you have when you’re full of real faith. The problem is, however, is people will read something like this and they’ll start to complain and explain that because a few words are put together then it means it exactly that way. There are times that this can be true, but only if it’s within context. The problem here is that people will take James 2:24 and use it to say that you MUST do good works as well. However, they completely disregard the 26th verse after that and they’re essentially pulling James 2: 24 out of scripture.

I’ll leave you with this quote: “Don’t act like a Christian, be a Christian.” ~Sonny Poirer