Complimentary Faith & Works (A Clarification)

So, this will be a little bit shorter of an entry than last time. I was reading through the last thing that I posted and I just wanted to make sure that I made one thing clear: our works are not what earn us our salvation. I know that in the previous entry I focused pretty much solely on making sure that we take our faith and put it into action, almost to the point of excluding faith from the picture.

So just to make it clear, our works do not earn us salvation. It’s by grace that we’ve been saved, and not our own grace, but the grace of God at work in us. A good way to try to express what I’ve been trying to get across between this post and the last one can be pretty well summarized in the lyrics of a song by Sanctus Real. The song is called “Deeds”, and its message is that if we’re relying just on our faith or just on our works, then we’re missing out on the big picture. The first verse addresses a works-only mentality, and the second verse a faith-only mentality. The chorus rings loud and true a few times throughout the course of the song: “If you don’t have faith, you have nothing at all, if you don’t have deeds your faith will fall. They can’t be true without each other. You can’t have one without the other.” At one point the words are slightly rearranged, stating “If you don’t have deeds you have nothing at all, if you don’t have faith your deeds will fall…”—both are necessary, and if we try to exercise one without the other, then our efforts can only go so far or be but so effective.

What good are our deeds unless they’re done for a purpose outside of our own self-glorification. It reminds me of when Jesus talked about the Pharisees in Matthew 6, who went out into the streets and said with a loud voice “Look at what I’ve done. I follow God, I give to the poor, and I’m pretty much a great person”—they’re looking for praise from others, and we’re told that they’ve received their reward in full. Honor for the sake of honor does nothing.

Likewise, what good is our faith if we keep it to ourselves? All of the belief in the world won’t bring change in the world unless it’s coupled with action. If we’re only praying, only trusting that God will do something, what’s going to get accomplished? If no one took a stand, nothing would change. And a single person can’t make it happen alone. Since I’m already kind of on the quoting lyrics thing, I’ll use the words from mewithoutYou’s song, “In A Market Dimly Lit”. “What good’s a single wind chime hanging quiet all alone? The music our collisions would make!”

I kind of touched on it a little further up, but our motives are important as well. What are some reasons that we can do what we do? Ultimately it comes down to we’re either doing it for ourselves, for the approval from others, or for the people that we’re coming in contact with on a daily basis. I realize that this isn’t a full explanation of belief and action, but it’s just intended to be a start for your own personal exploration and growth.

If we believe or do actions for our own personal well being, security, or glorification, then we’ve lost sight of our calling and likely, we’ve lost that sense of why we believe. Although belief can have benefits for us personally, if our motives are to save our own selves, then our motives are based on selfishness. Selfishness is sin.

If we do these things for the approval of others, then I’d argue that we’ve really missed the point, more so than if we do things for ourselves. If we believe for the purpose of being accepted by others, or if we do things for people because we want others to see how great we are, then we have cheapened belief to a tool for popularity and praise, instead of having that belief really take hold of us as we embrace it.

Lastly, we can choose to believe or act for others. Now, our faith will not save anyone else, let’s make that clear. We each have to believe on our own in order for it to be meaningful. Our actions, however, should be for others. Some of you may be asking, “but aren’t we supposed to do everything for God’s glory?”. I tell you the truth, whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for God and his glory.

Faith is necessary. Works are necessary. What’s the faith to works percentage split? Is it 50/50? Is it 30/70? How about 80/20? The two should be so integrally related that the split in reality shouldn’t be a split. It should be 100/100!

So yeah, I just wanted to touch up that last note a little bit. The book that I mentioned does cover both aspects, so just because I relied on some parts of the book for my last entry, don’t let it turn you off to the book. And for those of you who aren’t religious, the ideas in the book can still be fairly universally applied, as we all hold certain beliefs, and as belief is a natural precursor to action. Also, don’t worry, not all of the things I’ll write about will have a necessarily Christian theme—some will be more of a glimpse into who I am, some of my problems, some of my goals, and just how life’s treating me. I can’t say that they won’t be influenced by my beliefs, but if we’re friends, most likely you haven’t minded it too much before.

I love you all.

Chris Walton

P.S. – If you’re reading these as a Facebook note, a Myspace blog, or a blog entry on Xanga, I just wanted to let you know that there’s another way you can follow along if you’d prefer that. I’ve got a blogger account, and you can access these entries along with all future ones at http://xawakentheflamex.blogspot.com – even if I forget to update on some of the previous sites (facebook, myspace, xanga), you will still be able to find everything on the website I just listed.

P.P.S. – Don’t get too excited, this daily blogging won’t last forever. I’ve only got 13 more days at home, then it’s off to camp for the summer, and computer/internet access will be much more limited at camp. Plus, I’ll be busy all day and in the cabin most nights, so I just won’t have as much time to do this.