There is still great debate among Christians about the issue of work vs grace. Some even put work for the reason for our salvation. In other words, they argue that our own righteousness plays a great role for our salvation. They also argue we need to do certain things like providing for the needy to remain saved.
There main scripture to support their argument is the Book of James. The Book of James in deed mentions about faith accompanied with work. It doesn’t say anything about work accompanied by faith, which leads us with the main concept about work and grace. It doesn’t mention about our salvation but it describes the fruits of the Spirit.
James 2:14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James never intended to explain about how one gets saved. However, he did mention about investing our Christian life in to ministering other people both physically and spiritually. It has the same meaning when Jesus gives an example to the disciples who looked so religious but never cared for other people.
He says to them, "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:22-23). Jesus also teaches us if we don’t forgive others as we are forgiven, then we will lose our salvation.
Matthew 18:21-35Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.
He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time.
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened.
Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
If someone thinks that he has contributed any human work for his salvation, he is deceived. There is no human work other than the work of Jesus Christ that put us where we are now, being children of God. Only Jesus has the power to grant us entrance to the Holy of Holies.
Only him restored our identity. I
is completely worthless to do all we have to do thinking that it will buy us any privilege in to the presence of God. As one man simply put it, we all were in dark room where there is no electricity but with lots of switches.
Unless Jesus, who is the main power of electricity, provide us with light and shines his face for us, we may play with the plugs as much as we want, we will not have any light. All people are wicked and crooked in the eyes of God with out Jesus. We were all sinners.
Romans 3:23 All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his life's blood, so by faith in him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past he was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when he accepts people who have faith in Jesus.
What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! It is because of faith. We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law. Paul also mentioned that if our works have in any way any significance for our salvation, then Christ died in vain.
In conclusion, we didn’t contribute in any form or way to be saved. Jesus only saved us from the pit of destruction. We paid the full price that sin has placed for us to be saved. We all were slaves under the power of the devil, Jesus had to die the death of the sinner to release us from the pain of darkness.