Romans 12:2 And fashion not yourselves like unto this world: But be ye changed in your shape, by the renewing of your wits, that ye may feel what thing that good, that acceptable, and perfect will of God is.
Legalism vs License vs Liberty
Stephen was the first martyr for this particular issue. Thereafter Philip and Peter continued teaching this 'new faith'. In Galatians, Paul traveled to Jerusalem in order to preach to the Jews who were suspicious of this new faith being taken to Gentiles. Paul's mission was to challenge the very heart of the church that was sending out anti missionaries who were saying it wasn't enough to just believe and that you had to be circumcised. This was a salvation issue and at the heart of it was whether salvation was by works or by faith or by a mixture of both.
It's important to note that most of the religions of the world are salvation by works. How many of the commandments do you have to keep in order to be a Christian?
What Paul is fighting for is Christian freedom. Legalism makes the whole thing a matter of rules rather than relationships. License makes the whole thing about the swamp of the flesh. Legalism places us into bondage of others. License places us into bondage of ourselves. Both place us under the wrath of God. Galatians chapters 1 and 2 talk about liberty. Chapters 3 and 4 talk about legalism. And chapters 5 and 6 talk about the license. Paul is actually fighting on two fronts to keep the truth.
Rules and regulations do not bring revival. Beware of legalism. Sin will cost you your salvation, you are not free to sin, beware of license. The works of the flesh (such as promiscuity, occultism, drug use, quarreling, rivalry, jealousy, envy, prejudice, etc.) will cost you your salvation.
"For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap" -Paul
Paul warned believers and he warned them again that if they continue in the works of the flesh, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. He warned that if we wallow in sin, we will not inherit the kingdom.
1 Corinthians 6:9 Do ye not remember how that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Liberty is the freedom not to sin. Isn't that a lovely freedom? You are free in Christ not to sin.
"We have been given the Grace to say no" Paul in his letter to Titus.
James
In Galatians chapter 2 and Ephesians chapter 2 - The phrase 'not by works', is referring to the Jewish commandments contained in ordinances. Ordinances such as things like food laws and circumcision.
The word Works
I think the problem is the word works. I think people misuse it. My New Testament says that faith without works is dead, it can not save. I think it is better translated - faith without action is dead. Faith is an active thing that we do. Repentance is an active thing that we do...call them works if you like but to say that's salvation by works is a complete distortion. The classical text for salvation is "for by grace are we saved through faith" and grace is what God does and faith is what we do and both are essential. Now, we are not saved by our faith, we are not saved by what we do, we are saved through what we do. In other words we can not be saved without that. We can't be saved by grace without faith and faith is our part and grace is His part and when we believe grace saves. God is always responding to us and he wants us to take certain steps. For instance, God can not forgive a person unless they repent first. That's the teaching of scripture. We cannot forgive each other unless someone has repented. Jesus said if your brother sins against you 7 times in a day forgive your brother 7 times, if he repents. God expects us to admit we have sinned, to cease from sin, to turn away from it, to renounce it, to put right what we can if at all possible....all this is repentance and God forgives when we repent. Repenting and believing are what we do to make it possible for grace to save us. To call this salvation by works is a complete misunderstanding. Never are faith or repentance called works in the New Testament. They are actions and they are actions that we do...these actions don't deserve salvation and they do not bring salvation but they make it possible for God to show his grace towards us. So many people believe that grace operates first but that's not the case. The New Testament says grace is available for everybody but unless we repent and believe that grace is useless. Having faith in Christ and believing in Christ are actions.
Let us take a look at what believing in Christ means,
Believing in Christ
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Believing in Christ is an action, and it is an action that leads unto righteousness. Believing teaches repentance.
Hebrews 12:14 states "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord". Here we see more action, here we are called to be holy. Verse 15 shows us how sin leads man to fail in the grace of God. Verse 17 shows us that there is no salvation where there is no repentance: "For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."
We have to be born again, we can want God to save us with all of our being but without repentance, without these faith testifying actions, there is no salvation. When we put on the armor of God by seeking His will and reading his word there is a change in us. God changes who he saves and if there has been no change on our part then there has been no salvation.
Jude 1:4 shows us that people pervert the grace of God by denying (or disobeying) Christ and are ungodly people.
" For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."
Let us take a look at what the Grace of God teaches us,
The Grace of God
Titus 2:11 "For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation unto all men, hath appeared and teacheth us that we should deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and that we should live honestly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
The Grace of God teaches repentance.
In 1 Peter 4 it says "Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he which suffereth in the flesh ceaseth from sin, that he henceforward should live as much time as remaineth in the flesh, not after the lusts of men: but after the will of God.
^^Ceasing to sin is not salvation by works and is the only way to be saved^^
Elijah, Isaiah, Joel, Jonah, Jeremiah, Micha, Amos, Malachai, the Disciples, and Jesus all preached repentance. We are either saved or unsaved, clean or unclean, righteous or unrighteous, holy or unholy, a child of God or a child of the devil. Whether we have faith or not is magnified by who we are and what we do. Having faith in Jesus isn't a thought or a proclamation, it's action....these are required "works" to put us into the position to be saved. These are not works of the law these are faith testifying works, or actions. Faith IS action. It is imperative for the Christian to be able to define the word works and use it properly. The entire OT and NT requires us to do things for God with our actions. Our belief is shown in our actions as well as with our faith. We will also be judged on our actions. All of the whole of all the scriptures teaches us this. We can not take singular statements of Paul or any other author to take a detour from the narrow path. Being born again is an entire transformation of our character, behavior, and actions and is the only way to be saved. Faith and action are always hand in hand.
Proverbs 19:27 Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
Let us look at Matthew 7:21 for example. Jesus said "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Would doing the will of the father be considered salvation by works of the law? I don't believe it does. We see here that faith without works is dead. Here are individuals who have faith as they call Jesus the Lord but it isn't enough. That faith, if true, carries faith testifying action and with Matthew 7 that faith testifying action is doing the will of the father. If we head to verse 23 Jesus says "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." These are people who have faith but no faith testifying action...but going even further... it also shows that people who have faith with bad behavior - their faith is in vain and even though they called on the name of the Lord they did so in vain and will be unsaved. Matthew 7:21-23 shows us that individuals who have faith with good and bad behavior are told to depart from the Lord. People of real faith do not continue on living in sin. If we say we have faith and our actions are accompanied by sin then we don't really have any faith.
Jesus stated that if we love him we keep his commandments, would we consider that salvation by works? Would repentance and being born again, living a holy life, obedient to Christ be salvation by works of the law? They are not but these actions are required in order to place ourselves under God’s grace. Again, God freely offers his grace to everyone who responds to the Gospel and receives it. Jesus said in John 10 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life". Would Jesus give eternal life to people who call on his name but choose not to follow? No. Hebrews 5:9 shows us that Jesus is the author of salvation to everyone who obeys him. In Luke 6:23 Jesus said, "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." These are actions. Our actions are what testify of our faith...faith without action testifies of a lack of faith and faith with bad actions testify of a lack of faith. These actions are NOT works of the law. Just acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God is not enough. Believing and having faith are actions that we do.