Is Faith Really All You Need?

Now, Contending for the Faith. In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: “Dear Dave and Tom, My evangelical friends keep telling me that it’s only by faith that I can be saved. That’s a problem for me, a person who grew up Roman Catholic. It’s not that I’m a practicing Catholic now, but the idea that it only takes faith is hard to swallow. What do you mean by ‘faith’? Maybe that’s where I’m missing something.”

Tom: Dave, I can relate to this…having grown up Roman Catholic, that was a difficult thing when I met evangelicals and they tried to communicate that to me, that it was by faith and by faith alone that I could have—and the only way I could have—eternal life. But, I was so used to having to do things. I had to do this, I had to that, never thinking that what I thought I was doing could never pay the full penalty for sin. Or pay off any part of the penalty.

Dave: Well, first of all, is this biblical? Well, the Bible says, “By grace are you saved through faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Romans:4:5But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
See All..., “Now to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

Tom: But, Dave, what about James?

Dave: “Faith without works is dead.” So, if what you say is faith doesn’t produce something, well, you can’t prove it at least, and that’s what James is talking about. “I will show you my faith by my works. You show me your faith without works.”

Tom: But not before God.

Dave: That’s right. You can’t show faith to someone else without works, but God knows the heart. So, James is not contradicting Paul. But Tom, let’s think about this for a moment.

God is offering salvation to me. How am I going to get it? Can I get it by works? Can I do something that will merit salvation? What is salvation? Salvation is forgiveness.

Tom: Mmhmm.

Dave: It’s a gift. You cannot work for a gift. You cannot merit a gift. You cannot earn a gift. Okay? By very definition—otherwise it’s not a gift. So, what can I do? Christ says, “Come unto me, I will give you rest. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

So, what do you do? How do I come to Christ? I can’t reach Him in heaven. I reach out to Him by faith. I believe in Him. Now, I love the way David puts it in Psalm:110:12
See All..., “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?”

God has been so kind. I can look back—I was talking to the Lord about it this morning. I can look back at my life—in fact, I was confessing to the Lord, so many times I’ve said, “Oh God, thank you for this miracle you’ve just worked.” And, then, I even forget—there’s been hundreds of them, and I forget. But what am I going to do? “Well, Lord, I’ll pay you back. I’ll do something,” you know.

David says, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.” He says, “What can I do? I can just take—receive what you give me. That’s all I can do, because there’s no way that I could earn this, that I could deserve it, that I could merit it, be worth it, or anything.”

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: So, when the Scripture says, “By grace are you saved…” the grace of God, through faith, “…not of yourselves,” (salvation is not of anything that I can do). “It’s the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” It says what we’ve been talking about. Now, Tom, if I were a multi-millionaire and I write out a check. Tom, I just want to give you $5 million. Now, how are you going to take that $5 million? Well, Dave, I’ll loan you my car on the weekend or something, or I’ll come over and mow your lawn, or let me give you a dime for it, or whatever. What do you have to do to get this $5 million? I’m holding it out, saying “Tom, here it is, take it.” You take it by faith. You put it in the bank. You believe it’s real.

But we have a lot of people—you would know this from being an ex-Catholic, they’re pleading with God for salvation.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: They’re trying to earn their salvation; turn over a new leaf; go to church; pray…

Tom: Sacraments

Dave: Yeah, all kinds of things. So, Tom, I’m holding out $5 million to you. And you’re running around here trying to do something to earn it. You have not believed my offer. And, those who try…

Tom: Basically, I’ve rejected your offer and tried to put myself doing something in the place of just receiving.

Dave: Exactly. So, whoever sent in this question has got a hard time as an ex-Catholic believing that it’s by faith. Well, it certainly is not only biblical, but it’s logical.

Tom: And, Dave, it’s a person’s only hope. One of the things that was communicated to me—the penalty for sin is an infinite penalty.

Dave: Mm-hmm.

Tom: And I’m under that penalty. I’m condemned.

Dave: Right. Exactly.

Tom: Separated from God forever.

Dave: Exactly.

Tom: What can I do? There’s nothing I can do. Can I pay off some of it? Let’s say I could pay 1 percent. What’s 1 percent of infinity? What’s 1 percent of eternity, separated from God? You can’t do it, Dave. Our only hope is faith.

Dave: Our only hope is in what Jesus Christ paid for, and having paid for it, it’s an insult if we try to pay for it, too. We’re denying that He finished the work, and He said, “It is finished.”

Tom: Dave, just acknowledging, just intellectually saying, “Oh, I believe.” What does the Scripture mean when it says, “When you believe with your heart”?

Dave: Well, it’s not just believing that God is offering me a pardon and forgiveness. I have to understand on what basis. He can’t do it except on a righteous basis. It’s a matter of justice. So, I believe in my heart.

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart God raised Him from the dead”—there’s a lot involved in this. But it’s by faith that I believe who Jesus really is, and I believe that I’m a sinner. I believe, as you just said, I’m under His judgment. It would take me forever to pay it off. I believe that He paid the full penalty. He rose from the dead. I believe that He’s God, who became a man, and I know that I need this—my only hope. And that’s what it means to have faith to believe in Him.

Tom: Mm-hmm. Put your trust in Him.