Works of Faith: Not the Root of Salvation, but the Fruit of Salvation!

(This is an except from the sermon I am preparing for this Sunday. The purpose statement that I have put before the church that I pastor is Teach, Disciple, Send- based on Matthew 28:19-20. This sermon is part 1 of the final pillar of that purpose: Send.)

Your faith is not dependent on the works that you accomplish. God is not watching everything you do with a clipboard, waiting for the balance on your account to become negative so that He can cut you loose. Our salvation is justified by our faith in Jesus and His sacrifice on our behalf; it is justified by works, just not ours- it is justified by Jesus’ work on our behalf. In the grand scheme of salvation, ours is but a very small part to play.

We were drowning in an ocean of our own sins when Jesus came along in a ship called HMS Salvation and extended to us an invitation to rescue us and bring us to His Father’s house. Now, our part in the process: we must accept His invitation of rescue! We must accept salvation. We can neither brag nor complain about our place; we were drowning in sin because of our own choices and sins. If we are saved, it is because of the grace that Jesus extended to us; if we remain unsaved, we cannot complain that we end up in hell- eternal separation from God will have happened because we refused Christ’s offer of salvation.

The works of faith that James is referring to, that we are looking at in this first part of our Send pillar, come later. They have nothing to do with us accepting salvation. We didn’t strike some bargain with God- salvation in exchange for some future works of service. God extended grace to us when He had no use for us- He loved us and wanted to save us. That’s it.

Now anything that we do in service of the Kingdom is an outward expression of our thanks! It is the outward proof of our faith in Jesus and His gift of salvation to save us from our own sins. James is not saying that we are saved by faith plus our works- He is stating to us that to have an authentic faith is to do active, authentic work in service of the one that justifies and saves us.

Our works are the fruit of an authentic faith. A faith that is fruitless is dead and, as Jesus says in Matthew 7:19, at risk of being cut down and cast into the fire. In other words, not the root of salvation, but the fruit that grows out of it!