Among all the doctrines that define Christianity, few have caused more division than the age-old question – what is needed to be saved?

It is understandable why such a question is critical to the faith of billions across the history of Christianity. Everyone wants to avoid the weeping and gashing of teeth when judgement is proclaimed. How can one save themselves from such a painful fate? That is the question.

Contrary to what most Christians believe today, the answer to this question has not been consistent over the ages. One could earnestly, honestly comb through the Scriptures and arrive at different answers, just as the early church fathers did.

For, impelled by the desire of the eternal and pure life, we seek the abode that is with God, the Father and Creator of all, and hasten to confess our faith, persuaded and convinced as we are that they who have proved to God by their works that they followed Him, and loved to abide with Him where there is no sin to cause disturbance, can obtain these things. – St. Justin (110-165 AD) in First Apology, Chapter VIII

[For] this is perfect and pure boasting in God, when one is not proud on account of his own righteousness but knows that he is indeed unworthy of the true righteousness and is justified solely by faith in Christ. – St. Basil of Caesarea (329-379 AD) in Homilia XX, Homilia de Humiliate

Let this suffice concerning the inner man, his liberty, and the source of his liberty, the righteousness of faith. He needs neither laws nor good works but, on the contrary, is injured by them if he believes that he is justified by them. – Martin Luther (1483-1546) in The Freedom of a Christian, pg 23

Today, there exists two primary answers. Faith in God is certainly one component in order to be saved, and it is fairly obvious why – one cannot experience forgiveness if one doesn’t believe in God and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. No controversies there.

The red-hot question is: Is it by faith alone, or by faith and works?

Doesn’t Scripture say…

Virtually any Christian (especially Protestants) today will cite one of the following verses in order to support how the scriptures clearly, explicitly, undeniably, point towards justification by faith alone. These verses are Romans 3:27-28, Galatians 2:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9.

Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. Through what kind of law? That of works? No, rather through the law of faith. For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. (Romans 3:27-28 NRSVUE)

yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. (Galatians 2:16 NRSVUE)

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 NRSVUE)

My critique is very few actually read the full context of the verses!

For the verses in Romans and Galatians, Paul is explicitly condemning a very specific kind of works (“works of the Law”) and not all kinds of good works. In Paul’s context, He was combating against the legalistic practices of the Jews who have come to believe in Christ. Coming fresh out of Jesus’s crucifixion, it was still unclear whether there was a requirement to follow the laws in the Torah to be saved. Paul’s take is an explicit and passionate NO.

This “works of the Law” isn’t remotely analogous to the idea of good works that a modern Christian thinks of today. Most of us aren’t of Jewish heritage, nor even know what kind of laws go into the Torah (for example, don’t you know you’re not supposed to put cow’s cheese on your beef burger?). For better or worse, the ship has long sailed regarding the need to keep the Torah, and most practicing Christians are in agreement that following Christ does not require keeping the Law.

That leaves out Romans 3:27-28 and Galatians 2:16. What about Ephesians 2:8-9?

This is the one verse in the entire NT that seems to imply that no amount of good works is needed for salvation. There is another part of the NT that defendants of sola fide like to point out that supports justification by faith alone, and that is the story of the confessing criminal on a cross next to Jesus. Found only in Luke, the story as told by the author seems to depict that the criminal was indeed saved despite having no capacity to do any good works (it’s pretty hard to do anything while being crucified). Thus, salvation clearly comes by faith alone. End of story.

From there, Christians continue to make sense of the rest of the Scriptures such as James 2:24-26 by adding good works as a feature that naturally accompanies true faith (even though I personally disagree, see here). For example, John Calvin (founder of Calvinism) was quoted to have said “It is therefore faith alone which justifies, yet the faith that justifies is not alone”.

My view is that sola fide is likely not a doctrine that Jesus historically taught. Here’s why.

Rethinking sola fide from the gospels

I don’t think the verse from James is sufficient on its own to refute sola fide. In the case of James 2:24-26, his portrayal of “faith” is more of a mental assertion that God does exist, but doesn’t go on to establish a relationship with him, or to obey His commandments. An intellectual acceptance of God alone is clearly insufficient for salvation – even the demons do that! I don’t think anyone today will be against such a declaration.

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is worthless? (James 2:19-20)

How about Ephesians 2:8-9? As eager as Christians like to say it was clearly Paul who wrote it (alongside Romans and Galatians), this isn’t a consensus by a long shot. Modern bible scholars suspect the Epistle to the Ephesians is probably a pseudepigraphic work for several reasons I will not discuss here. To put it more bluntly, Ephesians could be a forgery.

Instead, I am proposing to consider the issue whether Jesus taught justification by faith alone from a different angle – through the gospels themselves. One safe place to start is to summarize all of Jesus’s ethical teachings over the course of His ministry. His reported teachings differ massively across the four gospels, but I would discount the gospel of John for the purposes of this exercise because the last gospel starkly differs from the Synoptics in pretty much every place possible. This makes the historical attestation of the sayings of Jesus in that gospel much weaker than the Synoptics, though it remains a theologically rich and important piece of writing to inform Christian beliefs. 

So, relying on the Synoptics alone, what can we know Jesus taught? His teaching could probably be summarized very broadly into the two great commandments everyone knows today: Love God and love your neighbor. This is well-attested in all three synoptics – Mark, Matthew and Luke.

He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:26-28)

I think it is also worth noting that at least in the Synoptics, Jesus explicitly condemns those who fail to observe these two commandments. He isn’t teaching that these commandments are the fruits or results of someone who has believed in Him and is saved. His instructions are clear “do this, and you will live”. Those who neglect to live them out are akin to the goats that will face the eternal fire (Matt 25:41-46), akin to trees that will get burnt for not producing good fruit (Matt 7:19), and akin to the man who built his house on a weak foundation, leading to its collapse (Luke 6:46-49).

Based on these primary teachings, one can then examine whether faith on its own is sufficient to allow one to live up to those two commandments to warrant salvation.

Can you love God alone through faith? Possibly yes. One’s love for God is a private matter of the heart. While one may be inclined to do things as a result of that love, if we are strictly restricting the topic to whether one has a deep relationship with God, that relationship is probably what defines faith altogether.

What about loving one’s neighbor? Can that be done through faith alone? My take is a emphatic no. Loving one’s neighbors must involve some form of good works to demonstrate one’s genuine love, care and concern. Thoughts and prayers don’t always cut it, even though there is a time and place for them. Would you believe someone who says they have a heart for the elderly, the marginalized or the disabled, yet never volunteers to stand up or take care of them, or donate money to meet their needs, or worse, outright bends the system against them? Does having a deep relationship with God (aka faith in the above paragraph) automatically drives one to take action to express that love for one’s neighbor? I don’t think so either. And in my view, neither did the Jesus of the Synoptics.

To further support my point, Jesus was also very emphatic on meeting the physical needs of the needy in various places in the gospels – not just “sharing the good news” with them (see Matt 25:31-46; Luke 10:25-37). In fact, it is costly to think one can get away from neglecting the physical needs of the needy under the disguise of “providing them the greatest need of all, which is Jesus Christ”. Given that Jesus was a Jewish prophet and the need to physically provide for the needy is a consistent theme throughout the OT, I think it is almost certain that Jesus would have embodied similar teachings in His earthly ministry as well. Spiritual nourishment is no substitute for actual food on the table for the living, and it is the obligation of believers to make sure that the needs of the needy are met.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? says the Lord. (Jeremiah 22:16 NRSVUE)

Summary

In short, by reconsidering the issue of salvation from the accounts of Jesus’s teachings of the gospels:

• The Synoptics agree that Jesus taught a number of ethical teachings that can be summarized under the two greatest commandments: love God and love your neighbors.
• Everyone who desires to be saved must fulfil these two commandments.
• Faith in God is essential to do both; but good works is particularly essential to do the latter.
• Spiritualizing the latter command is not what Jesus taught – one must actually “do” good works to meet the physical needs of the needy.

And thus, my concluding statement is that Jesus never taught salvation can be achieved merely through faith alone – it must be accompanied by the believers’ deliberate effort to do good works in order to love one’s neighbors.

As this post is getting very long, the next post will elaborate on the common arguments used to oppose justification by faith and works. Stayed tuned on Part II.