The Scrolls is a weekly Bible study written by pastors and other leaders at Central Bible Church, based on that week’s sermon topic. Use The Scrolls as a personal Bible study tool, for family devotions, and for small group discussions. You can read part of it below. The downloadable PDF also includes discussion questions, more in-depth commentary, end notes, and a kids’ page designed for families to study the topic together. This lesson goes with the sermon "Proving Faith."
Salvation, is all about grace. We cannot earn our salvation through our own efforts. Salvation is a free gift from God. We can do nothing to earn this grace from God. Yet historically there have been debates throughout the centuries of church life on how we receive God’s grace.
For hundreds of years, the Catholic Church has taught that grace comes through the practice or receipt of what are called “sacraments.” The number of sacraments has fluctuated over time. Finally in 1549 at the Council of Trent the Catholic Church approved seven sacraments that promised to dispense grace in small amounts as believers participate in sacred services provided by the Church. The Catholic Church’s teaching is that if you faithfully participate in these activities, most often administered by a priest, you will accumulate grace for entrance into eternity. Some of these sacraments would include the forgiveness of sins and preparation for death.
Over time, the Catholic Church has taught that grace could also be dispensed in additional offerings, vows or prayers to certain saints. Instead of receiving God’s grace once and for all in a faith expression of conversion (Rom. 10:9-10), the Catholic Church has taught that grace is dispensed through a “drip system” of sacraments and ceremonies that would be pursued for a follower’s lifetime. The hope for most Catholics is that enough grace would be accumulated in a lifetime of sacraments to allow for entrance into heaven after death. This Catholic distribution system of grace reached a point of significant abuse in the 1500s when the church started selling indulgences that promised to dispense mercy and grace for a fee or donation. Reformers like Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin separated from the Catholic Church and taught a more biblical “Grace Alone through Faith Alone” understanding of salvation where grace came to believers through faith directly from God without the assistance of priests, rites or indulgences.
Today, the Free Church (also known as the Protestant Church) invites people to participate not in sacraments that are claimed to dispense grace, but in ordinances (baptism and communion), preaching and worship, prayer and service, community and volunteerism, among other activities, not to get grace but to express gratitude for God’s saving grace that comes through faith alone in Jesus Christ as a free gift. Ordinances point back to the death and resurrection of Christ who offers us grace (John 1:17) through his sacrifice as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Faith alone in Jesus offers forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38) and grace for salvation (Eph. 2:8-9).
“Good works” or “deeds” (James 2:14-26) do not get us any extra grace or any special considerations from God. We do not have to pay God back for his grace, nor do we have to accumulate grace by frequent interaction with sacraments or services of the church. We may be rewarded by God for good things we do, but doing good things for God does not earn us access into heaven and eternity. We do “good works” or “deeds” to show our love for God and our love for our neighbors without receiving extra grace along the way as the result of our service. The book of James challenges us repeatedly to extend love and compassion to those in need (James 1:27; 2:5-9; 2:15-16; 3:13-18; 4:10-11; 5:13-20). This service to others is not to obtain grace but to extend grace to others who are in need.
From the pages of the Bible, we understand that grace is provided to us immediately upon faith in Christ. God is gracious to us continually and we do not have to do “deeds” or “works” to experience God’s grace. We do not expect to earn any grace or mercy from faithful service or devotion. We do “good works” or “deeds” because we are already children of God through faith and not as a means to become or remain children of God. “Good works” do not result in salvation. Rather, salvation through God’s free gift of grace produces in us righteousness that leads to good works. We do good works because we have experienced God’s goodness as his followers. We do not do good works to become his followers. Good works serve as “proof” of the faith that we already have.
Central Message of the Text:
God alone can completely examine our faith and offer us his righteousness through faith in him alone; we as people can only see the faith of others through their good works. Do good for others not to receive salvation but because you have already received God’s gift of salvation.
Family Talk:
Long before that famous movie with the “cup song” came out in 2012, Rich Mullins and his Ragamuffin Band added the cup routine (developed in 1931 by The Carter Family) as rhythmic accompaniment to their a capella performance of the song, “Screen Door.” It’s an old song with lyrics you may remember hearing: “Faith without works is like a song you can’t sing. It’s about as useless as a screen door on a submarine.” (Side note – our kids are really missing out on some solid 90’s Christian music; please play some Rich Mullins or Caedmon’s Call for them today.) I remember hearing “Screen Door” early in my faith, and the catchy tune has stuck with me. Most of our preschool and elementary parenting surrounds a child’s “works.” Are they obeying authority figures? Are they following the royal rule of loving others by demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit? How are they acting at school or on the field? Often, we consider our greatest parenting task to be behavior modification. We need to fix that lazy attitude or mean spirit. Unfortunately, when we’re only focused on our child’s behavior, we gloss over and miss the heart of the matter. It’s useless to correct behavior if we aren’t going to look at the heart. We should want our kids to show patience because their heart is tender toward others. We should want our kids to practice kindness as an overflow of what’s in their heart. This week, rather than correct behavior, go deeper and consider the heart. Ask genuine questions about motive and don’t forget to pray with them. We’re praying for you!