Is faith alone enough to save?

And the next two questions would be...

1. Was he baptized to show his new faith?</font>[/QUOTE] No. Not necessary for salvation.

Works aren't necessary. Faith and repentance are. Works are a result of genuine faith and repentance... to that end, the "work" of the thief was his testimony that has endured and blessed believers for almost 2000 years.

 

Good deal Scott.

In a matter of three posts, we have debunked a large number of doctrinal issues concerning salvation, baptism, and works!

Kudo's to you my friend.

 

Schedule me a jet and I'll let you buy me a steak.

 

maybe sometime we can do that....well without the jet anyway!!

 

I absolutely agree with you on this statement. Christ commanded us to pick up our cross and follow Him. Branches which did not bear fruit are cast into the fire. This is not works based salvation. A true born again experience literally does just that. It changes you completely to the extent that you will never want to return to your old way of life. Oh, every Christian will slip up and sin. The important thing is to recognize that sin, repent, and get back on the straight and narrow.

The key part of living a Christian life is to maintain a close relationship with Christ, to abide in Him. As the song goes, they can tell we are Christians by our love. MA 25 and Rev. 20 describe the eternal fate of those who don't abide in Him and demonstrate this love.

 

faith and living the life God wills for us

 

But he wasn't submersed under water to complete his salvation.

His testimony being placed within scripture wasn't his doing, so that wasn't a work that he did.

This person was saved by Christ without doing anything other than believing Christ was Lord, and receiving Christs' promise that he would live with Him eternally.
He didn't work for it, he didn't have the time to "show" works, he wasn't baptized after he was saved.

Why do people try to make the simplistic things difficult. Believe in Christ as Lord, accept Him as savior, and let Him wash away your sins, and accept His promise of eternity with Him.

 

Then I have to go back to my question:

Where was the thiefs "fruit"? How was the thief justified if he had no works to give evidence of "genuine salvation"??

Why make this harder than it really is?

 

You have to be careful when judging by appearances. There are many examples of people who trusted in God who did not act very "faithful" at times.

When Noah got drunk and lay in his tent naked.

When Jacob deceived his father and said he was Esau.

When Lot chose to live in Sodom for gain.

Samson. Wow. His whole life was a mess. He left his wife. He killed men to settle a gambling debt. He visited a prostitute on a regular basis.

When David committed adultery with Bathsheba. Then, he had his soldiers abandon Uriah in the heat of battle so that he was killed.

Solomon took hundreds of wives.

Peter denied Christ. He left the ministry and went back to his occupation of fishing.

Yes, Christians should try to obey God at all times. But the truth is, many people who truly love and have faith in Christ do not always live so well.

I am not trying to make excuses for Christians who do not seem to live as they should.

But you have to be careful how you judge. All of the men above had saving faith in God, yet at times did not behave very well. Many, like Samson would have been judged to be unsaved sinners by religious people.

 

Someone has said, "Faith alone is never faith alone."

Saving faith is more than mental assent. It is the gift of God which trusts, and from that trust produces God-glorifying behavior.

 

Here is a good web page that explains what faith alone is and isn't:

http://www.the-highway.com/Justification-Gerstner.html

 

Paul tends to be a very good arguer!

It seems that he goes to great lengths ("ad absurdum" at times) to make a point.

Paul wants to be sure that salvation is NOT localized to anything other than faith - thus his insistence on salvation by faith with an apparent minimization of the significance of works. His point is NOT that works are not important as markers of true faith; rather he wants to be sure to hammer home the point that those works cannot save a man.

 

A TRUE faith in Christ is all you need!

 

on another perspective, the only ones who will be saved are whom God will justify, or declare rigtheous in His sight. others will be left unworthy for God's acceptance.

and suprise! justification is recieved through faith alone.

"we are justified by faith... not by works..."