Is believing/faith a work ?

dwight92070 said:
But to accomplish this, He used the free will decisions of Judas, Herod, Pilate, the Jews and the Gentiles.
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Correct they weren't forced, they did it freely, so they are culpable, yet God decreed, predestined they make those decisions, in other words it was impossible for them not to freely make them decisions because God determined they do so.
 
civic said:
regeneration or the new birth is not even in the narrative.
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Its implied by the analogy of scripture, men dead in sin don't make themselves alive from sin, that's a Divine Work Eph 2:5

5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)

All three of the Lk 15 stories Illustrate the Salvation of Gods elect, sheep and God is to be Glorified in all three.
 
Acts 16:30-31 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

Trusting completely in what Jesus has done to save you through His life, death and resurrection.

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” John 1:12
Responding to the Gospel is a personal journey of faith, which begins with a sincere conversation with God inviting Jesus into our lives.
 
Darby said:
Acts 16:30-31 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
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What does it mean to "believe"?
Darby said:
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9
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Is that the only thing that Scripture says is required to receive salvation?
Darby said:
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” John 1:12
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What does it mean, and what does it take, to "receive" Him?
 
Many tell us that in order to get saved you must accept Christ, now understand, if we call ourselves accepting Christ to get saved, that would be a work, since its an action we do. The word for work ergon:

  1. an act, deed, thing done: the idea of working is emphasised in opp. to that which is less than work

So accepting Christ is an act on our part. But the scripture teaches Salvation without works See Eph 2:8-9; 2 Tim 1:9

Yes, if we must perform any act to get, or keep salvation, its no longer salvation by grace, but of works. 23
 
When the Jailer in Acts 16:30 asked what must I do to be saved,

And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

He wasn't asking about what qualifying action he can do to get himself saved, for he never used the word get as in get saved, but he used the word be, as be saved. The words be saved here are in the passive voice wherein the subject is the recipient of the action, for he was speaking from a frame of helplessness, hopelessness. Paul's response was not that he should do, act, or perform but to believe, that's promoting Faith and not works. Paul knew that believing was the Gift of God, that is, to believe in Christ savingly wasn't a natural inherent quality of the natural man, believing is having been given the Gift of Faith Eph 2:8. Paul testified to the fact that believing on Christ was something God gives here Phil 1:29

29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

That word given is basically the same word for grace charizomai derived from and the middle voice of charis translated 130 times in the NT as Grace.

So people believe because of Grace Acts 18:27.

So now even though technically believing is a doing, which technically is a work, nobody has the ability to believe until God by Grace, by Grace doing, its Gods Grace and Spirit working in the Spirit sanctified sinner causing the sinner to believe. No man by nature can truly believe in Christ as Saviour without first being saved by Grace and given the gift of Faith, so it is written 1 Pet 1:21

21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

Phil 2:13

13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

The do the Jailer needed to do to be saved, God needed to first worketh in him to do.

So thats how Salvation by works and Faith can be scripturally contrasted, when credit is given to Grace for a person doing the believing, and believing wasn't a natural freewill ability they had of themselves prior to regeneration.

But if we insist that believing was a condition we met prior to being saved by grace, and we did it as natural men, and as a result, God saved us, that's making believing, faith a work we do for salvation. 24
 
The born again believer was granted God given Faith by Grace, in order to believe in Jesus Christ for his or her Salvation, so believing in this regard is not a work of man but a Gift from God to him by Grace
 
Now understand, . If faith, repentance, gospel obedience, are the work of man, or the productions of natural man’s own efforts, then his salvation is the fruit of his own labour , his work,

However If faith, repentance, gospel obedience, are the gifts of God of His grace, then it is absurd , to consider them as conditions on the part of man and then his salvation is of grace. 25
 
Acts 16:30-32

30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

What the answer the jailer received simply shows is, the saved believe. He was not told to ‘Believe, and then you will be saved or get saved’. He was not told that his act of believing is what his salvation is reliant upon. He was merely told that the saved believe, and the rest of Scripture shows that this believing is a gift from God, and not something which can be self-induced by man. Salvation does not wait upon your believing, but on the grace of God. All a man can be told is believe and you will be saved. However, far from implying that salvation is conditioned on a man’s believing, all these words are saying is that only the man who believes will be saved. The man who has eternal life is the man who believes. The gift of eternal life is present only in the man who believes. The gift comes first, then the believing. Salvation is not by works, it is not by your belief, it is by the grace of God through the gift of faith. Grace gives faith to the man who has been chosen by God to believe. Believing is not a ‘Do this and you will then be/get saved’ proposition, for believing is a gift from God to the one He has chosen to save. Faith is given before belief, so that one will believe. One cannot savingly believe before grace gives the gift of faith. One cannot believe without the gift of faith being given first, just as one cannot be saved without grace. https://www.godsonlygospel.com/by-grace-alone-22
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Is making a decision a work ?

Yes to make a decision is a work, no not a physical activity you do with say your hands, arms, legs or body muscles and mass, but a mental work, labor. Let's take for instance a person who may be on a sodium restriction, and they're in a grocery store about to buy a can of soup. They observe many different soup labels on the shelf, so they began to read the nutrition contents as it pertains to sodium. They see a can with the label reading 110 mg sodium, a can reading 220 mg sodium, and one reading 550 mg sodium, which can of soup should they purchase? To say the least a decision has to be made. How is that decision derived? You must think, consider, weigh the pros and cons, which all are mental activities of the mind, its mental work, it takes mental exertion effort to do this. Now so it is when its being taught that a person, in order to get saved, they must make a decision for Christ! 25
 
Is making a decision a work ? 2

The Arminian freewiller gospel gives us a camouflage gospel of works parading as salvation by grace through faith. It provides the natural man room to boast in their supposed salvation, yet in their mind they deny such, but affirm that they ascribe their salvation to their freewill decision for Christ. However this is a deception, its a cloak for boasting , its still teaching that salvation is conditioned on man, on his works, will, or decision, his mental effort at the least. He can even boast and say he is saved because of his wisdom or making a wise choice. The true believer however has been God given Faith to realize that they have been saved by Grace alone, and what God only by Grace has done, that none of their salvation was conditioned on them. Eph 2:8-9

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works or[my decision], lest any man should boast.
 
Robert Harbach wrote:

If faith is a condition unto my salvation which I must fulfill, if faith must originate with me, then my salvation is by works — and that excludes me — for all my works are filthy rags! Faith must be the gift of God so that I can believe! If I may believe through grace, then, praise God, my deliverance is His work from beginning to end! This is Calvinism. It is unpopular, but it is right. It is despised but glorious. It alone can say, Sola Dei Gloria!

 
brightfame52 said:
Correct they weren't forced, they did it freely, so they are culpable, yet God decreed, predestined they make those decisions, in other words it was impossible for them not to freely make them decisions because God determined they do so.
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Correct they weren't forced, they did it freely, is true. But it is not that they were predestined it is that God had the foreknowledge to know what decisions they would make.
 
brightfame52 said:
Robert Harbach wrote:

If faith is a condition unto my salvation which I must fulfill, if faith must originate with me, then my salvation is by works — and that excludes me — for all my works are filthy rags! Faith must be the gift of God so that I can believe! If I may believe through grace, then, praise God, my deliverance is His work from beginning to end! This is Calvinism. It is unpopular, but it is right. It is despised but glorious. It alone can say, Sola Dei Gloria!
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Calvinism and Robert Harbach are both contrary to Scripture. This is truly pathetic.
brightfame52 said:
Is making a decision a work ?

Yes to make a decision is a work,
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Yes, making a decision is a work. But that is not the question we should be asking. The question we should be asking is, "Is it possible to receive salvation without taking any physical or mental action?"
And the answer to that is, "NO!!!"
Rom 10:9-10 is very clear that the physical action of confessing Jesus as Lord "with the mouth" (a physical action following a mental action) RESULTS IN receiving salvation.
1 Pet 3:21 is very clear that the physical action of being immersed in water RESULTS IN the Holy Spirit removing our sins by the power of the blood of Jesus.

Clearly, these actions are not the source of salvation (the source of salvation is the blood of Jesus), but they are essential to it being received.
 
Doug Brents said:
Calvinism and Robert Harbach are both contrary to Scripture. This is truly pathetic.

Yes, making a decision is a work. But that is not the question we should be asking. The question we should be asking is, "Is it possible to receive salvation without taking any physical or mental action?"
And the answer to that is, "NO!!!"
Rom 10:9-10 is very clear that the physical action of confessing Jesus as Lord "with the mouth" (a physical action following a mental action) RESULTS IN receiving salvation.
1 Pet 3:21 is very clear that the physical action of being immersed in water RESULTS IN the Holy Spirit removing our sins by the power of the blood of Jesus.

Clearly, these actions are not the source of salvation (the source of salvation is the blood of Jesus), but they are essential to it being received.
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brightfame52 said:
Is making a decision a work ?

Yes to make a decision is a work, no not a physical activity you do with say your hands, arms, legs or body muscles and mass, but a mental work, labor.
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What does God actually say about your claim...... look what HE tells people to do.

“Choose / Decide” (YOU say this idea is works right?) God specifys it.​


Deuteronomy 30:19​

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

God explicitly commands a choice. A command from God.

Joshua 24:15​

“Choose you this day whom ye will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Serving God is presented as a decision, not a work-payment.

​

Isaiah 55:6–7​

“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him… let the wicked forsake his way… and he will have mercy.”

Seek, call, forsake — all commanded responses.

​

Commands to Believe (faith is commanded, not injected)​

Mark 1:15​

“Repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

A command.

Acts 16:31​

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

If believing were a “work,” Paul would be telling the jailer to earn salvation.

​

John 3:16​

“Whosoever believeth in him should not perish…”

Universal offer tied to response.

John 20:31​

“These are written, that ye might believe… and that believing ye might have life.”

Life comes through believing, not through a prior gift that forces belief.

​

Commands to Repent​

Acts 17:30​

“God… commandeth all men every where to repent.”


A universal command. God doesn’t command the impossible.
This applies to every man, everywhere..... NOT just the elect.

Acts 3:19​

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”

Repentance precedes forgiveness.

Invitations that assume ability to respond​

Isaiah 1:18​

“Come now, and let us reason together…”

God reasons with them — not treats them as incapable.

​

Matthew 11:28​

“Come unto me, all ye that labour…”

An invitation that expects response.

Revelation 22:17​

“Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

Not “whosoever is pre-enabled,” but “whoever wills.”

Showing faith is NOT a “work”​

Romans 4:4–5​


“To him that worketh not, but believeth… his faith is counted for righteousness.”

Paul explicitly contrasts: working against believing.

So calling faith a “work” contradicts Paul directly.

​

John 6:28–29​


“What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered… This is the work of God, that ye believe…”

Meaning: the “work” God requires is simply faith — not meritorious labor, but trust.

It’s ironic language, not literal earning.

Throughout Scripture God commands people to choose, believe, repent, seek, come, and call.
 

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