Is "Saved By Faith" An Incomplete Doctrine?

Are we saved by faith alone? This is one of the most controversial doctrines created in the Reformation. This theology is only 400-500 years old. This is not what the Church taught in the first 1,500 years. There are two important passages that the Reformers used to justify the faith alone doctrine.

Today, I’m going to focus on Galatians 3:15-16. St. Paul wrote, ““We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

The important grammatical structure is found in “through faith in Christ Jesus.” This is not what the Greek says. Here, the bias of the protestant translators comes into play. Remember, all translation is imperfect and is influenced by a theological bias. The verb is genitive. It’s a verb that takes on a noun. The genitive case is used to express various relationships, including possession, description, and adverbial functions, which can be connected to verb actions. 

The translation should have said, “through the faith of Christ Jesus.” It was His faith on the cross that saved us. The Apostle then adds that this wasn’t enough… “even we have believed in Christ Jesus.” Here, faith and belief equal trust.

The point… We respond to His faith with faithfulness. We respond to His love with love. We are justified on a personal level because we are becoming one with Christ. We are participating as “partakers of the divine nature, have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Peter 1:4).

So, what is salvation?

It’s the surrender and denial of self to Christ daily. It’s not being saved from something but to someone (i.e., Christ). It’s acting more like Him in all our ways that we might inherit the Kingdom of God after we have endured and persevered through this life in Him, regardless of the consequences.

So, salvation isn’t so free after all. While His gift is free to those who accept it, it comes with a price. Still, the reward for the price is so much greater than anything we could ever imagine!!!!