Why faith isn't a work

A Calvinist complaint against Arminianism is that the latter implies works based salvation. Both sides agree that the Arminian perspective is that a man takes part in the salvation process: that is, a person must agree to God's call to salvation. Arminians claim that salvation itself is still from God, that we are unable to save ourselves.

Calvinists sometimes argue that any involvement of a person in the salvation process makes salvation works based and not faith based. The problem with this claim is that this understanding of works does not line up with Scripture.

Faith is a decision. It is trust placed in someone. Faith is contrasted with works, and works are activities we do. Works are things like obeying the commandments, helping the needy, fasting, giving money to God's work. These are all behaviours.

Faith is related more to the mind, works more to the body (though we must be cautious with this distinction). Now it is true that faith may involve a specific action (ie. a work), but this action is not the faith per se, rather it is the acting out of the faith decision; an action which proves that the faith is real and not just an empty assertion.

Some important lessons about faith, life, and work

After working several years at the Acton Think Tank, Jordan J Ballor summarises some important things he has learnt.

Over that time I’ve learned some important lessons about faith, life, and work.

His 5 points are

1. Treat people like people.
2. Your work matters to God.
3. Culture matters.
4. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
5. The dirtiest work has already been done.

They are all good points and he briefly expands on them. Item 4 is useful for perfectionists

There’s a saying in graduate school that the only good dissertation is a done dissertation. The truth of this insight applies to other endeavors, too. Let good enough be good enough. If you wait to “go live” with something until it is perfect, it will never see the light of day. Realize that improvement is a never-ending process, and that the only way to achieve anything is to risk failure and even embarrassment. Perfectionism can be a way of withdrawing from the responsibilities of work in this world. So don’t let your high standards be an excuse to wash your hands of genuine engagement.

There are things best done by perfectionists which need significant time devoted to them. But the perfectionist mentality can afflict all their tasks making them unnecessarily inefficient in areas that good enough will do. In other words, the admonishment is addressed to perfectionists, not those of a more sanguine disposition.

Desiring and completing

In the second letter to the Corinthians Paul gives some advice on giving money. He makes a comment which, while applying to money in the context, seems to have broader application.

And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. (2 Corinthians 8:10-11) 

Here was something (giving) which the Corinthians started to do. Not only did they begin to do this work, they desired to do it. Further, Paul says that the desire needs to be matched by finishing the work.

It is not enough to have a keen desire, the desire must both be acted on and completed. This corresponds to Jesus' parable about the 2 sons.

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” (Matthew 21:28-31)

Desire and intent is not enough, it must be matched by action. As James says,

You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (James 2:22-26)

Faith and works

Faith is contrasted with works when we suppose that somehow our behaviour merits God's grace. It doesn't. But to suppose that what we do does not otherwise matter is false. God saved us to do good works. The work we are to do is either general commands (eg. show hospitality) or specific tasks that God has for us. This is why James says that he shows his faith by the works he does (Jam 2:18). His works are not salvific, but they demonstrate his salvation. We must not think works are unimportant, or optional for the Christian. Dallas Willard writes in The Spirit of the Disciplines.

We have simply let our thinking fall into the grip of a false opposition of grace to "works" that was caused by a mistaken association of works with "merit". And history has only made things worse. It has built a wall between faith and grace, and what we actually do. Of course we know there must be some connection between grace and life, but we can't seem to make it intelligible to ourselves.

In fact, to not do the good works we are commanded to do is disobedience. Obedience is a necessary component of the Christian walk. Redeemed men cannot walk in disobedience. To walk in disobedience is to not be included in the elect. But to try and earn our salvation by doing good works is a failure. We cannot be completely righteous and and righteous acts do not atone for our sin. We need righteousness imputed to us. As John says, Jesus is the atonement for our sins yet,

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1Jo 2:4-6)

Lest this seem impossible, God gives us grace, and grace comes before obedience. God delivered the Israelites from slavery before they were given the Law. We receive Christ's salvation before we are to walk in obedience to him. But just as many died in the desert because of disobedience, so we should also tread carefully lest we be wanting (1Co 10:12; Eph 5).

Money, employment, and wages

In A Humane Economy, (which I have not read) Wilhelm Röpke (1899–1966) argues that

...we cannot have all three: stable money, full employment, and further wage increases.

If that were that case which should we prioritise?

I think this can best be solved by looking at what the government should do, the nature of wealth, and the importance of work.

Man is created to work. The earth is cursed and thus work is often toilsome. Our attempts at redeeming work by removing toil have been moderately successful over the centuries. Work is what God has created men to do and as such it seems to be a priority over remuneration, or increases in remuneration. Still, we should pay what we have agreed to pay (James 5). High wages tends to allow a higher standard of living which seems a good in itself, though in a fallen world this can tempt us to seek security and independence from God (Deuteronomy 8). Further, wealth is its own temptation. Wage increases here are presumably for the masses, not the most wealthy. If wage increases were only for the latter then it would not seem wise to sacrifice stable money and high employment for this. Nevertheless, improving the material welfare for most of the population seems a desirable good.

Neither of these goods have seemed to me to be a priority of government. Policies that indirectly encourage vice and discourage virtue should be avoided, but the primary role of government is (direct) justice and punishment. So of the 3 options Röpke gives us it seems that goverment should only involve itself in one—money. If this is the case then we priorise stable money because it is a moral good. If money were material rather than fiat then stability would cease to be an issue. The problem would cease to be stable value and become an issue of equal weights.

Aside from this it seems to me that stable money is the only moral good in the list. Honest weights and measures are a necessity and dishonest measures sinful.

You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, (Deuteronomy 25:14-15)

Whereas high employment and high wages are desirable. Quite desirable. But increases in unemployment is not immoral in and of itself. Of course high employment is likely to have flow on effects that limit immoral behaviour in the community, though indirectly.

Finally, wages reflect value. People over-estimate the value they provide and under-estimate the cost for a product or a service. Tax excluded, at minimum the cost for you to pay someone to do a job will be the wages for you to do the same job plus overheads. You can't desire someone mow your lawn for only $10 and expect people to pay you $20 for the same job. Even so, with stable money and high employment (and a few other important factors), wages will likely increase over time.

I therefore prioritise these 3 in this order:

1. stable money
2. full employment
3. wage increases

Looking at the other guests

In an post about the gospel I discussed faith versus work in passing, but wish to expand on this further. We have Paul saying that faith not work saves (Eph 2:8-9) and James telling us faith without works is dead (Jam 2:14). And if both Paul and James were preaching the same gospel we need to resolve these and other statements.

No helping the issue is a definition of "work" by some which makes "work" a synonym of "do", and sometimes even "think"; but Greek has many words too.

Now clearly we do not gain salvation by works,

Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. (Rom 9:31-32)

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Gal 2:16)

 Yet we have much work to do, even Paul tells us this.

• For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10)
• Women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. (1Ti 2:9-10)
• All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2Ti 3:16-17)
• Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. (Tit 2:7-8)
• Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Tit 2:13-14)
• The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. (Tit 3:8)
• let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful. (Tit 3:14)

So there is plenty for us to do.

Now it is clear that Paul does not equate working with doing or thinking for he tells us what we must do in order to be saved,

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

Confessing being something we do and believing being something we think.

Israel had it wrong because they were trying to earn their salvation. When Paul contrasts faith and work he is contrasting the gift freely given with the wages someone earns. Much of my activity could be considered work in that we are performing an action; expending energy—we could measure the wattage even and find a manpower to horsepower ratio. When we work for another we are earning wages whether we do that by manual or intellectual labour; or in Pauline terms obedience to God's Law. But we are fully incapable of obeying perfectly. We cannot earn the wages of obedience that we may buy salvation, we are only capable of earning the wages of sin and we don't like what that purchases  (Rom 6:23).

Isaiah teaches us as much,

Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live; (Isa 55:1-3)

God invites us to buy, but it is not with money we have earned. No, it is without cost. God gives to us freely. Certainly drinking and eating are activities and perhaps work in some men's eyes, but such activity is not earning and the feast is not paid for by us. Let us stop equivocating with the word "work" and consider are we trying to earn our way with God, or trusting him for what he has done? James can say that faith without works is dead because the work he is referring does not result in wages, it is not earning one's salvation. Such work is obedience to a God who saves us. If we are not eating at the feast we can hardly say we have accepted the invitation. Delighting yourself in rich food is not sitting at the table looking at the other guests.

A bent in our hearts

It has been said that the Fall of Man is the one doctrine of Christianity which is evidently true. It is certainly important and foundational to Christian theology. Yet I think it is misused by some believers to imply that all actions are intrinsically evil.

Jeremiah tells us the heart is deceitful

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

And Jesus called his interlocutors evil (Luk 11:13). Yet I have seen this used to argue that people do not seek the best for others, or look for the best in others.

I once said to an unbelieving friend that I think people are intrinsically evil, yet I look for the best in them; and that she thought people were intrinsically good, yet looks for the worse in them. She affirmed this assessment. This illustrates an important distinction that is often missed.

This distinction may be described as the difference between ontic-evil and praxic-evil. The Fall established a bent in our hearts. We desire wrong things, our motives are mixed, we reason incorrectly at times, we rationalise, we justify ourselves. The essence of being is broken and evil dwells there. Ontic-evil.

Yet we are also made in God's image. This image remains—though marred. So while we struggle against base desires not everything we do is intrinsically evil. Men do righteous acts. Moreover, some men are called righteous by their constant choice to do good.

Even the passages in Jeremiah and Luke establish this. Jeremiah says,

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
“I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind [lit. arm],
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:7-10)

Despite having an evil heart a man can trust the Lord. God tests our mind to see if we act rightly; literally "arm" which may suggest God looks at what we do. Jesus specifically says that evil men can do good actions, indicating how much more will a good God do good things.

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13)

It is false to claim that all our actions are evil because we are intrinsically evil. We can wish for the best for others, we can act selflessly at times; and to assume that our friend or spouse wishes the best for us is not a denial of the fallen state of man.

Some may argue that we are saved by faith not works thus our acts are not truly righteous. And what are we to make of Isaiah's declaration?

We are all like one who is unclean,
all our righteous acts are like a menstrual rag. (Isaiah 64:6)

Taking Isaiah first, it is likely he is talking to the unrighteous, or those who are doing unrighteous things. Even this man's "righteous" acts are not righteous. Compare God's disposition to the righteous man earlier in this passage,

You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways. (Isaiah 64:5)

As to salvation by faith, this is true. Belief is righteousness

Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:3)

A man who trusts God is indeed righteous. We have faith in God and God saves us. We still do works of righteousness, the issue is not that we don't work, it is that we don't earn (Eph 2:10; Tit 3:5). Remembering the distinction between ontic-evil and praxic-evil, we do good works but our nature remains fallen. As such, no amount of good works (praxic-good) are able to remove the sinful nature (ontic-evil). The core of our being needs to be made righteous.

People, believers and unbelievers alike, do all manner of righteous and unrighteous acts. It is false to claim that humans never do right things, even when viewed from God's perspective. But we are all sinful at the centre of of being, we all need a saviour.

Increased productivity

I suspect many of the opinions expressed by Tapu Misa in this article are incorrect. I do not wish to discuss them save address this comment on wages:

For the first time in American history, rapid increases in productivity have not been accompanied by corresponding gains in wages; at the same time, the minimum wage has lagged behind increases in the cost of living.

It does not seem to me that increases in productivity should necessarily lead to increases in wages. It does seem that it should lead to an increase in standard of living.

Productivity gains should be sought. If a product at least equivalent in quality can be produced with lower cost in labour hours and source materials this is a good thing. As such the seller could make more profit per item. However in a competitive market the seller has an incentive to price the widget below that of his competitor to increase his market share. As such it may be that the profit per widget is unchanged though the cost of the widget to the consumer is less. Other manufacturers can introduce productivity gains and lower the cost of their widget, or improve the widget and sell a higher quality unit for the previous price.*

What I am suggesting is that increases in productivity should not automatically lead to an increase in profit which the socialists advocate be shared with the workers. Rather, in a competitive environment productivity gains should lead to decreased price.

But note that even though this does not increase wages, the standard of living can increase as these cheaper items cost proportionally less of one's income.

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*I am aware that some productivity gains coexist with a lower quality item, though a significant drop in price may allow a much larger proportion of society to own items previously the domain of the rich. I am not advocating low quality, but some people may prefer a low quality item over the alternative—no item. And price drops are often proportionally greater than quality loss.

A Sushi Model of Capital Consumption

Robert Murphy is an economist of the Austrian school who writes for the Ludwig von Mises Institute as well as authoring the blog Free Advice. He wrote this story, a simplified model of the economy, to explain how consumption can increase even during times of malinvestment. It is because of time considerations.

Without further ado, let's examine a hypothetical island economy composed of 100 people, where the only consumption good is rolls of sushi.

The island starts in an initial equilibrium that is indefinitely sustainable. Every day, 25 people row boats out into the water and use nets to catch fish. Another 25 of the islanders go into the paddies to gather rice. Yet another 25 people take rice and fish (collected during the previous day, of course) and make tantalizing sushi rolls. Finally, the remaining 25 of the islanders devote their days to upkeep of the boats and nets. In this way, every day there are a total of (let us say) 500 sushi rolls produced, allowing each islander to eat 5 sushi rolls per day, day in and day out. Not a bad life, really, especially when you consider the ocean view and the absence of Jim Cramer.

He then introduces a bubble that leads to increased consumption despite several of the islanders becoming involved in fruitless work. But while the bubble may appeal, it will and must burst.

That's why the boom is unsustainable, but it also explains why consumption increases at the same time. It's true that this is impossible in the long run, but in the short run it is possible to increase investment in new projects, and to increase consumption at the same time.

Browsing makes workers productive?

Seems too good to be true.

The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive that those who do not.

...Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days' work, and as a result, increased productivity

But there is a caveat

Coker said the study looked at people who browsed in moderation, or were on the Internet for less than 20 percent of their total time in the office.

"Those who behave with Internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without,"

So if I spend an hour an a half on surfing the net every day my boss is getting the most out of me?

Of course workers could be paid according to productivity. Then they can spend as much or as little time online as they wish.