Where Are Your Ripples?

 If you throw a stone into a pond, the stone will create ripples in the water.  This is not complicated.

If someone says they threw a stone into the pond but no ripples were observed or detected, you would properly conclude that he was lying or mistaken or confused ... or something.

This is an illustration in the natural world of the spiritual relationship between faith and works.  As James says:

Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?  You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.  - James 2:18-24

As I said, this is not complicated.  Saving faith is made visible - is manifested - by works.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.  (Ephesians 2:10)

Because saving faith must NECESSARILY produce good works, it can be honestly observed that any so-called "believer" who does NOT display a changed life does not have saving faith.  This stirs up some theologians, who make a sharp distinction between "faith" and "works" and then insist the former is essential to salvation, but the latter is not. And their prime example is the thief on the cross, who had saving faith but no (alleged) opportunity for works.  Therefore, some reason, works must NOT be essential.  Is this thinking reasonable?

First, as I have pointed out previously, if being crucified was the way to get saved without works, I doubt that any would choose that option.  But this also displays some ignorance of crucifixion.  So let's clear that up.

We'll start easy:  if you are teaching a Sunday school class or speaking to others about Christ and the gospel, is that a "work"?  Or if you go to a hospital or senior living facility just to encourage the people who are there, is that a "work"?  I think we'd agree that these are - indeed - good works, proceeding from faith.  The act of speaking is a work.  And we do those sorts of works regularly.

What was the penitent thief doing?  He was speaking words of faith and encouragement while being crucified.  When one is crucified, all your weight is crushing your diaphragm.  You can breathe in, but it's agonizingly difficult to exhale.  You must push up with your lacerated feet to release the air in your lungs.  Speech is a series of painful gasps.  

It would have been easier for the thief to say nothing.  Breathing was painful, and speaking made it worse.  But he managed to say, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong," and "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom."

This was not a casual discussion in a Jerusalem coffee shop, and it probably took the thief a while to get it all out.  But he said it - syllable by painful syllable.  The people standing around the cross may not have heard it, but Jesus did and it's a safe assumption that when the disciples asked Him about it after the resurrection, Jesus gave them the full account.  This is a short sermon by a dying man to an audience of one - that has been heard or read by millions of people around the world for the past 2,000 years.  This thief probably preached to more people than Billy Graham ever did.  So YES, the faith of the penitent thief was completed by works.  His "pebble of faith" created the expected ripples.

That was a bit of a detour, because my intention in this post is to, once again, defend the idea of "Lordship salvation" from those who think it's a heresy, that one need not make Jesus the LORD of one's life, or that any good works are unnecessary.  "Just believe," they insist.  "Belief is all that is required."  Some even suggest that works are an insult to God, because it suggests you are trying to save yourself, you think Christ's sacrifice was insufficient, or you are trying to earn or deserve salvation.  I addressed that here: 

The Selfish Gospel

and here:

Lordship Salvation - Another Perspective

Examine yourself, as Paul advises in 1 Cor. 11:28.  Be ready; Jesus is coming soon, and His reward is with Him, "to give to every one according to his work." - Rev. 22:12