Saved – By Faith Or By Works? (1)

We lost the perfect relationship with God in the Garden of Eden; the sin is now a barrier between us and our Creator. What do we need to restore this relationship? What do we have to do? Good works or Just to have faith? See what the Creator has to say about this in the Bible.When the sin entered in our world, the first couple who lived on Earth found an original way to mend the disaster - "they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves". From that moment on, almost 6000 years later the human race is still "sewing leaves" to restore the relation with their Creator. In our days I heard many priests saying: "If you want to be saved you have to go round that monastery for x times-on your knees or you have to live separately from the world on the top of a mountain, or to do more good works than bad works so the balance will incline towards the good ones…" In a confused world, what is our reference point? Where is the truth? Let see what the One who is in charge to know the answer says in his Word.

In the Garden of Eden, just after Adam and Eve sinned, God brought the solution: "the woman seed"; God said: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel". Their faith had to be in God’s promise that the woman seed will destroy the devils seed. Here is the first oath of God – the salvation will came from woman’s seed and they have to believe this. So it is about faith.

Let’s travel 2000 years after Adam and Eve - we are in Abraham’s time, a well known character of Old Testament. God said to Abraham: "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you … Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your seed be. Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness."

Abraham left his country indeed but this "good work" was not considered righteousness; he was considered right by his faith ("What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness." (Romans 4:1-5).

Another example with Moses in the desert; Israel was next to Edom’s territory and they grew impatient on the way - they spoke against God and against Moses. God sent venomous snakes among them to punished the people, and many Israelites died. They asked forgiveness and LORD said to Moses: "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived".

What do we observe here? They didn’t have to fight against those snakes or to run or to do anything else but to have the faith that if they look to that bronze snake they will be saved. Again, they were saved by faith. But here is more than just that.

Jesus said: "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life". What happened on Moses time is a prophecy of Jesus’ Sacrifice. Today we are doing the same thing that Israel did: we are looking by faith to the One who was lifted up, for whoever believes (it’s again the faith) in Him will not die in sin but may have eternal life.

Of course your faith will also be seen trough what you act like, if you are a good apple tree you will produce good apples, but if you are a wild apple tree, your fruit will never be those of a veritable apple tree. So because the essence is good, the fruit are good and not the other way around…
By Claudia Miclaus