Chief Theme Of The False Teachers
Almost every time I hear somebody quote Ephesians 2:8, 9, he will talk about how man is not saved by works. This he says to get rid of baptism. But there's one thing he doesn't seem to know: Baptism is the one command of Jesus Christ which is not called a WORK in the New Testament.
Faith, or believing, is called a work in John 6:27-29. And certainly believing is in the active mood, because one must do his own believing.
If Jesus fairly represented the men of Nineveh (Matt. 12:41), and He did, repentance is a work, because Jonah 3:10 says that God saw their WORKS, that they turned from their evil way. That without a doubt is repentance. And I say that since Romans 3:9-18 is true, as well as Acts 17:30 that no human can be saved without works.
Baptism is the only commandment known to me in which the obedient is passive: the Holy Spirit through Peter said: "Be baptized;" but He did not use the passive form in speaking of repentance in the same verse: Acts 2:38. And then, there are the verses in James 2:21-24 that show that we are justified by works. Since James 2:24 is the ONLY verse in the Bible that mentions "faith only," and it says we are NOT justified by it, I am thoroughly convinced that those who spend their lives teaching that man is justified by "FAITH ONLY" are mistaken.
Look up any Old Testament or New Testament example, and you will find that God's grace and power have always been the POWER, but that man had to show his faith. Abraham did not believe that it was GOOD for him to kill his son and burn his dead body as a burnt offering. He attempted to do this solely because God commanded it. Hebrews 11:17 says, "By faith Abraham . . . offered up Isaac" So James 2:21-24 speaks of the work of faith; not works to benefit the people of the earth.
— Dora, Alabama