When a believer is gripped by a new truth, he can very easily go to such an extreme with it, that other truths that are meant to balance the first truth, are ignored. This is true, especially in the matter of genuine Christian faith.

Under the Old Covenant, faith was not important. Only works were important. The Law of Moses did not say anything about having faith in God. But it gave 613 commandments – a big list of works, for man to obey, if he wanted to please God.

But when we come to the New Covenant, we read, “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph.2:8,9). Reading that verse all by itself, many believers swing to an extreme and say that works are therefore not important at all - because (as this verse says), works tend to make a person boast about what he can do.

But what does the New Covenant really teach? You cannot find the whole truth in just one verse of Scripture. When the Devil quoted one verse to Jesus in the wilderness saying, “It is written….” (Matt.4:6)”, Jesus said, “On the other hand, it is ALSO written…”. So we see that one verse in Scripture must very often be balanced by some other verse (or verses) in Scripture, if we are to understand the fulltruth accurately. If Satan tried to deceive even the Lord Jesus with one verse of Scripture, how much more he will try and deceive believers today with some lone verse of Scripture taken by itself. So we must be extremely careful in studying Scripture if we are to avoid being deceived. Like the birds, truth also has two wings - and you must use both of them if you want to fly straight. With one wing alone, you will either go astray completely, or go round and round in in circles and never make any progress!

We see this balance in Ephesians 2, where it says on one hand: “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; NOT as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” But so that no-one goes astray, (flying only on that “one wing”), it goes on to say immediately, in the very next verse: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus FOR good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Eph. 2:8-10). So: We are saved - NOT BY good works - BUTUNTO good works that God has prepared beforehand, for us to walk in. 

We see the same balance in Philippians 2:12, 13. There we are exhorted to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”. But then it goes on to say that “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” We have to work out what God first works within us.

In James 2:17,18, it says that “Faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself”. And then James goes on to say that “someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works’. But James (inspired by the Holy Spirit) says, “Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works”. So a faith that produces no “works of faith” is a dead faith. That is the difference between a dead faith and a living faith.

Genuine Christian faith will always produce works of faith – that is, works produced in dependence on the Holy Spirit. Because that is what faith really is: Dependence on the Holy Spirit, like the branch depending on the tree to produce fruit. So, if we really have the balance of truth that is found in the New Testament, then it will be seen in the Christlikeness of our lives – both in our home-relationships and in our places of work – produced through the power of the Holy Spirit, by faith (that is, by our dependence on Him).

Faith without works is a dead intellectual belief – and is not the real faith produced by the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart. Real Christian faith is a total dependence on God, that always produces the fruit of increasing Christlikeness in a person’s life. On the other hand, works without faith is a man trying to please God by his own human efforts, resulting in self-righteousness – which Scripture calls “filthy rags”. (“All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” – Isaiah 64:6).

What I have shared in this article is a very important truth – because our eternal destiny is dependent on it – and so we cannot afford to be mistaken in this matter. So don’t let the Devil deceive you with a false “faith” which is merely an intellectual belief that does not produce the life of Christ in us.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Amen.