Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word. This week's question:

Salvation is heart's desire for those that search the scriptures and our Lord tells us that they do have the key to everlasting life, but not all that search them will find it as Jesus tells the Jews that are listening to Him about the Old Testament Scriptures,

John 5:38-42 "You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; It is these that testify

about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life, I do not receive glory from

men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.

We begin our search to find our answer by turning to Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to ME 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter." So we see that we must "do" the will of the Father which is an activity. Again, in
1 Peter 1:17 "If you address the as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stray on the earth." Try Colossians 1:10 "..so that you will walk in a manner worth of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." Titus 3:8 "This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men." Titus 2:7 "..in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds , with purity in doctrine , dignified,"

Those at Thessalonica had a (1 Thessalonians 1) "work of faith and a labor of love" (Verse 3) and Jesus told Saul to go to Damascus before Ananias and he would be told what he "must do" (Acts 9:1-18) and he was baptized by him three days later to have his sins washed away (Acts 9:22). Just as Jesus "learned obedience" to the Father on the cross, "He became to all that obey Him the source of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5:8-9), so we must be obedient for our salvation to Him, which we learn by His word. And again in James chapter two we see that "faith without works is useless" (verse 20) and Abraham was justified by his works when he offered up his son on the altar (verse 21) as was Rahab the harlot justified by her works when she sent the messengers another way (verse 25), and as a last verse we see that "faith without works is dead" (verse 26). So one would almost say that works will justify us alone.

So, to finalize our answer to our question "What about: 'works only'?" we turn to,

Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the

gift of God; not as a result of works, so that one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in

Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them.

And there is our answer to our question. Salvation is a free gift of God, and not as a result of works so that we may boast, "See what I did as I have done enough works to purchase a ticket into heaven!". There is no work upon this earth that we may do that would merit the gift that awaits those who both live by faith and do His blessed will. The master tells the slave, "You do this work.", and he does it because it is expected of him. And when he gets done, he asks, "What else master?". For we are created for "good works" and we are to walk in them. We could work till the cows come home all the works of this earth and it would not be worth the priceless gift of life eternal. That it where the gift of God's grace steps in by the blood of our Lord that was shed upon the cross. Let's step back and look at Abraham as he was justified by his works. Why was that? When Abraham was told to go and sacrifice his son, he did not question God's request, as he considered that even God could raise one from the dead, (Hebrews 11:17-19), and when he raised his hand to sacrifice him with a knife, an angel held back his arm and told him, "for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son , from me." (Genesis 9-12). How do we prove our love to those we love? It isn't just by saying, "I love you!", but by doing things for them because we love them. God is no different. HE loves us, but also want to see the love we may profess to Him. That proves our love, just like Abraham did, and it was reckoned him for righteousness (James 2:23). So, we are not saved by "faith only", (James 2:24), nor by "works only", but we can "show our faith by our works" (James 2:18), and thus be pleasing to our Lord and Master.