Calvary University

Faith or Works?

The Requirements for Salvation

Ardon W. L. Leyba

February 11, 2024

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There are many theological debates about how we receive salvation, but a particularly

important debate to Christians is whether we are saved by works, faith, or some combination of

both. The place where we spend our eternity will be decided by if we have received salvation or

not, which makes it extremely important for us to know how we are saved. Many Christians

believe that faith is the only requirement for salvation, but what if this is not the case? If they had

been relying solely on their faith to save them, but works are a requirement for salvation, they

would not inherit eternal life. Not knowing if we are saved will have an infinite impact on us, as

we risk spending an eternity in the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 13:50, NASB;

Schriener 11). Knowing how we are saved will help us know if we are saved, which is why it is

so important to find the answer to this debate of “Faith vs. Works.” We will find the answer by

gaining a clear understanding of what each side of the argument believes and looking at what

both the Old and New Testament say about the requirements for salvation. To accurately

represent each side of the argument, we must gain an adequate understanding of what each one

claims.

Both sides of the debate hold different views of how we receive salvation, but they both

believe that God’s grace is the ultimate factor of our salvation. This view is biblical because we

would not have any chance of salvation without the death and resurrection of Christ, as Romans

5:8-10 tells us, it is by Christ that we have been justified in the sight of God. Those who take on

the faith side of the argument believe that no amount of works will earn us salvation, and that

salvation is a gift that comes completely from the grace of God. All we must do is accept this gift

by placing our faith in Christ’s atonement for our sins and we will be saved. Those who believe

in salvation by works also believe that the primary factor of our salvation is God’s grace. Tim

Staples is a Catholic apologist for CatholicAnswers.com who spent eight years academically
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studying philosophy and theology. He believes that works are a requirement for salvation, but he

also recognizes that, without God’s grace, no amount of works could save us. In his article that

supports the need for works in our salvation, he states, “It is the grace of Christ alone that saves

us by our cooperating with that grace in fulfilling the ‘law of Christ.’” Staples says that we are

saved by the grace of Christ, and we receive His grace through our works. He is not the only one

who holds this view on salvation, as most who believe in a works-based salvation share it. Both

sides agree that grace is the primary factor of our salvation, they only disagree on how we

receive God’s grace. A faith-based salvation relies only on one’s faith to save them, whereas

those who believe in a works-based salvation typically believe that both faith and works are

required for salvation.

It is uncommon for someone to believe that we are saved only by works, as there are

many verses in scripture that prove salvation by works alone is unbiblical. One of the most

straight forward verses, Hebrews 11:6, tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please Him,

for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek

Him.” This verse says that faith is necessary for salvation. Without it, even if we do an

abundance of good works, we cannot please God. In the Old Testament, we see that Abraham

was justified by his faith before Christ’s first coming (Rom 4:1-3; Genesis 15:6). His justification

shows that faith has always been a requirement for salvation, even if the way we had faith was

different. Those who lived before Christ’s coming needed to have faith that he was coming, and

we need to place our faith in the fact that he did come. This shows that faith is required for

salvation, even if works are also required. The question that remains is whether works are

required on top of our faith.

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When looking at works in the Bible, we see there are two different kinds of works. The

first of which is works of the Law. These are the works that were required of the Israelites in the

Old Testament. The second kind of works we see in the Bible is good works. These works are

usually actions that would be considered morally or ethically right, such as giving to the poor or

mowing a neighbor’s yard. Not everyone believes that both kinds of works are required. There

are many different views on what kind of works are necessary, and to what extent they are

required. To find out if either kind of works is required to receive salvation, we will evaluate

both the Old and New Testaments.

In the Old Testament, there were 613 laws that the Israelites had to obey after their escape

from Egypt, but these Laws were not what justified them. Galatians 3:23-25 tells us “Therefore

the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (emphasis

added). Even though the Israelites had to follow these laws they were still justified by their faith.

As mentioned earlier, Abraham is an example of someone from the Old Testament who was

justified by his faith rather than works of the Law. These Laws were put in place to show us

God’s standard of absolute righteousness and convict us of inability to reach it (Cole). They were

abolished when Christ came and died on the cross, and now we are under the law of Christ

(GotQuestions.org). Romans 10:4 tells us, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to

everyone who believes.” Now that the end of the Law has come, we are no longer required to

perform the works of the Law. The only works which may be required for salvation would be

good works, which are talked about primarily in the New Testament.

Throughout the New Testament, we see numerous passages of scripture defending the

claim that salvation is by faith alone. From Paul’s letters, to even Jesus Himself saying, “Truly,

truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and
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does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life,” almost the entirety of the

New Testament claims that we are saved solely by faith alone (John 5:27). Charles Bing, the

founder of GraceLife Ministries, notes that the Gospel of John is the strongest supporting book

of salvation by faith alone as it defends the belief 98 times, which is 48 more times than the

entire rest of the New Testament. This makes the belief of salvation by faith alone one that is

supported 146 times in the New Testament. There are only a few passages in the New Testament

that could possibly be in favor of a works-based salvation.

The majority of the New Testament teaches that we are saved by faith alone, but there are

a few passages that seem to contradict these teachings. Perhaps the biggest and most widely

debated of these are the letters of James and Paul. In many of Paul’s letters, he affirms the fact

that we are saved by faith alone, but James seems to believe otherwise. In James’ letter, he states

that “man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (Jas 2:24). Many people dismiss these

letters by saying that James and Paul simply disagreed on this topic (Ellison). We, however,

cannot dismiss these letters if we expect to find a concrete answer to the debate of “Faith vs.

Works.” If they disagreed about whether works are required for salvation or not, how would we

know who was correct? Mark Ellison is a historian who studies ancient scripture and early

Christianity for Brigham Young University, and he says that we often try to interpret these

passages with the wrong questions in mind. According to him, we often ask, “Who is right, Paul

or James?” when we should be asking questions like, “What circumstances caused Paul and

James to write about this topic?” Asking the wrong questions often leads us to find the wrong

answers. If we want to find the right answer to this question, then we must be asking the right

questions. Both writers wrote their letters for different purposes, so it is important to look at why
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they wrote their letters (Ellison). Figuring out why they wrote their letters helps us understand

that they are not disagreeing with each other.

Starting with Paul, we see that he wrote his letters with multiple purposes, to many

different churches. Some of his letters pointed out issues in the churches, while in others, he

congratulated their efforts of keeping a strong relationship with God. Even though each letter has

a different purpose, Paul has one main goal in all his letters. He attempts to give wisdom to each

of the churches that he wrote to, teaching them how to walk closer to Christ. One issue with his

teachings is that many of them were either misunderstood or purposefully distorted by Jews

(Ellison). Understanding this helps us figure out why James wrote his letter.

James did not write to a specific church in his letter, he states that he wrote to “the twelve

tribes who are dispersed abroad” (Jas 1:1). These twelve tribes are the Jews that had been

distorting Paul’s teachings. Ellison states, “It seems that James wrote not to counter what Paul

had taught or written, but more likely to counter distortions of Paul’s teachings like the ones we

can see were in circulation during the time Paul and James ministered as Apostles.” If Jews had

taken Paul’s teachings and distorted them to say that once we have been saved by faith, we can

live however we want, it would make sense for James to combat these beliefs. Even Paul

disagreed with these distortions of his teachings. In Romans 6:14-15, Paul says, “For sin shall

not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin

because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!” Both James and Paul agreed

that our faith saves us, and that works are evidence of our faith, but there are still other, smaller,

seemingly contradictory passages about the requirements for salvation in the New Testament.

One of the statements Paul makes in the book of Romans seems to completely contradict

everything else he has said about how we receive salvation. In Romans 2:13, Paul states, “or not
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the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.” How

could Paul state this, when throughout the rest of the book of Romans, he firmly endorses

salvation purely by faith? This is another reason why it is important to acknowledge the context

of these writings, they show us that Paul was not contradicting himself. In this part of Romans,

he was addressing the Jews who called themselves better than Gentiles because they could keep

the Law (Slick). He is saying that if one can keep the whole Law, then they will be justified by it,

but there is one problem (Slick). None of us can keep the whole Law, as Paul states in Romans

3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This is why we needed a perfect

savior who was able to keep it all for us (Slick). 1 Peter 2:22 tells us that Christ has “committed

no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.” Christ is the only person who could follow the

entire Law, so we are justified on his part by our faith in Him.

Throughout scripture, we see the importance of placing our faith in Christ, but we also

see that a works-based salvation is unbiblical. There are many passages in the Bible that support

salvation by faith alone, and the passages that seem to support a works-based salvation can be

proven to be false by simply looking at the context of why they were written. There are only two

things that play a factor in our salvation. They are our faith, and God’s grace. God has blessed us

with the free gift of salvation through His Son’s death and resurrection, we just need to place our

faith in Him to receive it.

Placing our faith in His Son is one of the most important things we will do in our lives

because it is the sole factor that determines where our bodies will remain for eternity. God gave

us free will to make the choice to be with or without him for eternity, so it is extremely important

that we make the right choice. John Piper, a reformed Baptist, does an amazing job of reminding

us that our faith is infinitely important by stating,

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I use the word infinite carefully. I mean that, if we don’t have such faith, the

consequences have infinite significance. Eternal life is an infinite thing. And thus the loss

of it is an infinite thing. Therefore, any human concern that has only to do with this

world, no matter how global, no matter how painful, no matter how enduring — if it has

only to do with this world — compares to the importance of saving faith as a thimble to

the ocean” (Schriener 11).

Because our faith is infinitely important, it is extremely important that we do not have a dead

faith. Having a dead faith will result in us unknowingly separating ourselves from God for

eternity. We can know our faith is not dead by our works, even though they are not what grant us

salvation.

Works may not be what grant us salvation, but they are still an important aspect of a

Christian’s life. Matthew 7:17-20 tells us, “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree

bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will

know them by their fruits.” If our faith is true, then it should be producing works. An apple tree

does not need to manually produce apples, it does it naturally. The same should be true for our

faith. If our faith is genuine, then good works should come from it naturally. They do not need to

come immediately, just like a freshly planted sapling does not immediately produce apples, but

as one matures in his faith, good works are evidence of a saving faith. Our faith is what grants us

salvation, and works are the result of our faith.

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Sources Cited

Bing, Charles C. “The Condition for Salvation in John’s Gospel.” Faithalone.org, Mar. 1996,

faithalone.org/journal-articles/the-condition-for-salvation-in-johns-gospel/.

Brigham Young University. “Mark Ellison.” Byu.edu, 2015, religion.byu.edu/directory/mark-

ellison.

Ellison, Mark D. “Paul and James on Faith and Works.” Byu.edu, 2012, rsc.byu.edu/vol-13-no-3-

2012/paul-james-faith-works.

GotQuestions.org. “Do Christians Have to Obey the Old Testament Law?” June 2023,

www.gotquestions.org/Christian-law.html.

Schreiner, Thomas R. Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification, United States, Zondervan,

2015.

Slick, Matt. “Does Romans 2:13 Mean That We Are Justified before God by Keeping the Law?”

Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry, 16 Mar. 2013, https://carm.org/roman-

catholicism/does-romans-213-mean-that-we-are-justified-before-god-by-keeping-the-

law/.

Staples, Tim. “Are Good Works Necessary for Salvation?” Catholic.com, 2015,

www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/are-good-works-necessary-for-salvation.

The Lockman Foundation. New American Standard Bible. Zondervan, 2020.

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Annotated Bibliography

Bing, Charles C. “The Condition for Salvation in John’s Gospel.” Faithalone.org, Mar. 1996,
faithalone.org/journal-articles/the-condition-for-salvation-in-johns-gospel/.
In his journal, Charles C. Bing makes the argument that we are saved by faith alone. He

stresses the importance of using the Gospel of John when talking about the requirements of

salvation because it so clearly indicates that we are saved by faith alone. His argument remains

biblical by backing his different claims with scripture references.

Charles Bing presents a strong argument for salvation by faith alone and shows that

multiple passages in the New Testament also support salvation by faith alone. I used his journal

to show that the majority of the New Testament does not support a works-based salvation. I then

went on to the passages that may be seen as supportive of a works-based salvation and showed

how they were not.

Brigham Young University. “Mark Ellison.” Byu.edu, 2015, religion.byu.edu/directory/mark-

ellison.
This is the biography of Mark Ellison; it talks about who he is and what he has done. He

multiple degrees in different Christian religion sectors from multiple different universities.

Ellison has lived a life of studying God and his word, and now he teaches theological classes as a

professor for Brigham Young University.

Ellison did an amazing job deconstructing the letters of James and Paul to prove that they

do not disagree with each other. When I used his works to help combat the belief that Paul and

James disagreed, I used his biography to introduce him to my readers. This helped me show that

he was a reputable author.

Ellison, Mark D. “Paul and James on Faith and Works.” Byu.edu, 2012, rsc.byu.edu/vol-13-no-3-
2012/paul-james-faith-works.
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In Mark Ellison’s journal, he covers a major apparent contradiction between the writings

of the apostles Paul and James. Many people believe that James disagreed with Paul’s beliefs on

the requirements for salvation, but Ellison does not. He takes a biblical approach to finding his

answer; and he concludes that James was not writing against Paul’s teachings, but against those

who had distorted Paul’s teachings.

In his journal, Ellison does an amazing job deconstructing the apparent contradiction

between Paul and James’ letters. His argument for the belief that works are not required for

salvation has helped me immensely in the process of writing my paper. Solving the “James and

Paul contradiction” played a big role in finding the answer to my question about “faith vs.

works,” and Ellison solved it.

GotQuestions.org. “Do Christians Have to Obey the Old Testament Law?” June 2023,
www.gotquestions.org/Christian-law.html.
In this article, the authors at GotQuestions.org explain how we are no longer under the

Law mentioned in the Old Testament. Instead, we are now under the law of Christ. They use

multiple scripture references to support their claims and prove that the Law of the Old Testament

was strictly for the Israelites. Christ abolished the Law of the Israelites when he came down and

died on the cross.

I chose this article to help me defend the claim that we are no longer under the Old

Testament Law. There are two kinds of works commonly brought up in the debate of “Faith vs.

Works,” and one of them is works of the Law. These were the works of obeying the 613 Laws in

the Old Testament. If I want to make the claim that no works can save us, then I must include the

works of the Law in my claim.

Schreiner, Thomas R. Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification, United

States, Zondervan, 2015.
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In his book, Thoms Schreiner explains the belief that we are saved by faith alone, or sola

fide. He takes his readers through the historical progression of sola fide, explaining how it was

founded. Then he takes a biblical approach examining the theological side of being saved by

faith alone. The book closes by talking about the new challenges that this belief must face today.

I chose this book to help my readers understand the importance of having a saving faith.

In the foreword, it talks about eternal life being infinite, making a saving faith infinitely

important. I thought this was an amazing way of getting readers to understand how important

salvation is. If a saving faith is infinitely important, then surely understanding if works are

required to be saved must be infinitely important as well.

Slick, Matt. “Does Romans 2:13 Mean That We Are Justified before God by Keeping the Law?”
Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry, 16 Mar. 2013, https://carm.org/roman-
catholicism/does-romans-213-mean-that-we-are-justified-before-god-by-keeping-the-
law/.
Matt Slick talks about Romans 2:13 where Paul seems to contradict all his other

teachings. Throughout Paul’s writings, it is clear that he believes works are not required for

salvation. Romans 2:13 is the one exception where Paul seems to state that works are required

for salvation. By using context, Slick finds out that Paul was not contradicting himself.

Along with the “James and Paul contradiction,” Romans 2:13 was another verse in

scripture that made me question if works were required for salvation. I didn’t understand why

Paul would say that works are required for salvation, and then say they aren’t one chapter later.

Slick helped me understand why Paul made these seemingly contradictory statements.

Staples, Tim. “Are Good Works Necessary for Salvation?” Catholic.com, 2015,
www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/are-good-works-necessary-for-salvation.
In Tim Staple’s article, he makes the claim that we are saved by grace through a

combination of both faith and works. Staple backs up his argument using multiple different
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scripture references as an attempt to keep his claim biblical. He argues that Paul never said good

works aren’t necessary for salvation, and that there’s a difference between doing works before

and after being justified by Christ.

With staple’s article, I was able to show that both sides of the “Works vs. Faith” argument

seem to agree that the major factor in our salvation is God’s grace. Without God’s grace, there

would be no way for us to receive salvation. It is Christ’s death on the cross that saves us from

eternal suffering in hell.

The Lockman Foundation. New American Standard Bible. Zondervan, 2020.

The Bible consists of 66 books written by several different authors, each one inspired by

the Holy Spirit. These books are the religious texts that Christianity bases its beliefs on. They are

divided into two parts, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. The Old Testament consists

of the literature written before the coming of Jesus Christ, who is the protagonist of the Bible.

The New Testament consists of literature, mostly letters, that was written after the coming of

Jesus.

I chose the Bible because it is the source of my question, but I also want a biblical answer

to my question. It is important that we look for biblical answers to our questions so that we are

not mislead into believing worldly ideas. I especially don’t want to fool my readers into

believing worldly ideas that are presented as biblical. By using scripture to back up my claims, I

will be able to ensure my answer is biblical.