What Constitutes a Work?

Well I guess you could call it that. Most of Christendom says that eternal salvation and entrance into the coming kingdom of Christ are a packaged deal. However Scripture doesn't. HoG has laid some of this out.

We are born into the family so that we can understand the offer of the kingdom. The offer of the kingdom and eternal salvation are not the same thing, but again most of Christendom would have us believe they are.

 

So, HP, what are you hoping for?

Are you hoping that you're saved?

 

So, if you do a whole bunch of works, then you're saved, so you're hoping you've done enough. Right?

What happens if you come up a few works short? Or maybe a couple of days short of walking in the light?

 

Here's another:

Romans 4
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

Faith is not a work.

Abraham was declared righteous because he "believed", not because of his works.
Belief is not a work.

 

The phrase "work" is used in different contexts in the scriptures. We are instructed that we are to be workers in the harvest. We are to be involved in the work of the kingdom.

But in the context of the original post...

...I assume the request is what it is in connection with how we are justified in Gods sight.

In that context I would say that the scriptures teach us that a "work" is anything under the sun that we can conjure up that we do, or is needed, that we think is part of what God requires to be justified, or to stay justified, other than the one and only thing that He will accept, and that of course if faith, and faith alone.

"For it is by grace that you are saved (justified), through faith. And that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast. For you are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that you should walk in them"

The good works follow justification, but play no part in our obtaining justification. They also play no part in our staying saved. We are kept by Gods power, not our obedience or faithfulness...

"In Him you also trusted, (faith) after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, (faith) you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession,(us) to the praise of His glory"

Needless to say, handfuls upon reams upon scores upon multitudes of other passages confirm this great and so foundational truth.

Grace and peace,

Mike

 

Because the Bible says so?
Romans 4
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

Why do you want to make faith a work when the Bible says it is not?

 

From the BDAG, we get the following. I'll post all the pages of the word if anyone wants:

to engage in activity that involves effort, work, intr. work, be active intr. intr. = intransitive

Arndt, William ; Danker, Frederick W. ; Bauer, Walter: A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2000, S. 389



Look back to Romans 4:4: The one who is working, it's not a favor, it's a debt.

We don't earn being saved.

In both verse 4 and verse 5, "working" is a present, participle, and in both cases, it's in the middle voice and singular.

It's also found in Matthew 21:28, but it's an imperative; it's a command to do something: But what think ye? A [certain] man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.


Matthew 25:16 where "traded" is the same word: Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made [them] other five talents.

In fact, it's in 39 verses in the NT, and in all but one of them, it's in the middle voice, except for John 3:21, which is a perfect, passive, participle: Jn 3:21
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Matthew 26:10: When Jesus understood [it], he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.


Mark 14:6: And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

Luke 13:14, in which is also present tense, so should be "working": And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.


John 5:17: But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.


John 6:30: They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?

Want more?

 

Heavenly Pilgrim,

I said...

And you said...

Because faith is not a work, it is an attitude of the heart and mind. It cant be a work, since Almighty God contrasts it with "works", and He makes clear that we are not justified by works. God tells us that "it is by grace that you are saved, through faith", and He then says "not of works, lest anyone should boast".

Therefore faith can not be a work. God would be saying that 2 things are different from one another, when in truth they are the same. God does not lie.

And the passage Amy quoted deserves repeating...

Mike

 

In Romans 4 Abraham is justified "apart from works".

In James 2 Abraham is justified "by his works and NOT by faith alone".

In Romans 2 "it is the doers of the law that WILL be justified" Rom 2:13.

These statements are all literally true as they read from scripture.

The solution is that one group speaks to legal, corporate verifiable justificaiton (as we see in Dan 7 "Judgment passed in favor of the saints") and the other talks about past-tense subjective individual justification at the moment that a person believes.

In Christ,

Bob

 

Being faithful is much different that simply having faith.

Exercising faith is much different than having faith.

Take the example of the talents: One held his talent; the others used them.

They were all servants, they all had money, they all had faith; but, they exercised their faith to varying degrees, with the one doing nothing but holding onto it.