If works are not required, then you don't believe in repentance. Because if it was as simple as professing your belief in Christ, repentance would he a waste of time and effort. Not to.memtion the scriptures in the bible that talk about the necessity of works.
Scott, I think what Mike is saying is that works come naturally out of a
convicted heart.
James said "Faith without works is dead". He further explained what he was saying by adding: <sup class="versenum" id="en-NKJV-30308">18</sup> But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works" This shows that faith PRODUCES works not the other way around.
He then goes on to give two examples 1) Abraham - when told to sacrifice his son and 2) Rahab who had the spies ask for her help.
The thing to keep in mind is that NEITHER of these examples did works that were REQUIRED of them.
Both of them produced works out of faith even though those works were not REQUIRED of them.
God didn't REQUIRE that Abraham to sacrifice his son, as a matter of fact human sacrifice had never been asked of anyone by God. He wanted to test Abraham's heart in a way that it could be written down for the generations to come and there could be no doubt about his level of faith.
The test consisted of Abraham's belief in God's promise that Abraham's descendants would outnumber the sands of the seas. Isaac had been a miracle baby in their old age (and was probably around 13 or so by this time). Asking Abraham to sacrifice him was asking him to trust that either God would save Isaac (or resurrect him) or provide another son to fulfill the promise. Once we take into consideration what a nightmare Sarah would have been to live with if Abraham had came home and told her he just sacrificed Isaac, then you start to realize just how much faith it took to lift up that knife.
Rahab had no requirement whatsoever. She wasn't even an Israelite. Her works were 100% voluntary based on the faith that God was with the Israelites and he would save her family from destruction. Her works were purely an out pouring of her faith.
Disagreement on what is "required" for salvation is a tool of the devil to make people like Lou and Johnny hate "organized' religion and keep them from digging deeper into his word for the simple truth. What does God require?
Micah 6:8
"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?" (NKJV)
Jesus added that all the law and the prophet "hang" on two commandments 1) Love God 2) Love your neighbor as yourself.
That is the "simple" gospel.
We have a God who cared enough about us to make us in his image. Monkeys don't build skyscrapers or write novels. He made us in three parts like him. Body, Soul and Spirit.
That makes us different from anything else on earth. When Satan (using the free will that God allowed him) began a war for the souls of men by manipulating their free will into Satan's will God had mercy on us and came to live with us in the form of his Son.
He went from birth to death just like we do. He suffered the same desires, pains, and joys that we do. Yet, because he knew what lay ahead, his desires stayed within the will of God even as Satan pummeled him with temptations.
As innocent as he was, we humans, (under the command of Satan's influence) murdered him and despised him. We despised him because his gospel was too simple. It consisted of two things. 1) Love God 2) Love your neighbor. And out of those two things obedience and WORKS would spring forth turning Christians into the salt that savors (flavors) the earth.
This simple gospel is too much for us because Satan would have us believe that there is no way God would only require us to live our lives based on those too things. HE MUST WANT MORE! He must want us to perform weekly rituals and he must want to control our lives via strict rules we have to live by. These are the lies that Satan has sown into the church and has produced the Tares that turn curious non-believers into haters of the church.
He wants us to control our OWN lives. Love God. Love you neighbor. We don't need a rule not to steal because stealing does NOT show love for our neighbor. We can go down the line listing sin after sin that does not show love for our neighbor. It's pretty simple. All we have to do is give our actions the love test to determine if we are doing his will.
How did the church survive almost 1200 years without the average person having a bible to study? Because the simple Gospel can be summed up in seconds. All a person needs is one other person to inform them of what God has done for us and what he desires of us.
Once a person realizes the shame of knowing that they have walked this earth without acknowledging God, and that they were a part of the humanity that murdered his son who he sent to save us, then repentance causes a desire to do Good works.
Hearing comes by the word of God. (written or verbal) Faith comes because of hearing.
Both Repentance AND Works come because of faith.
Confusing enough?
