Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother or sister for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed are those who do not condemn themselves by what they approve. But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

—Romans 14:13-23 (TNIV)

Here we have another textbook example of faith leading to right works. Paul continues to talk to the strong Christians about how to behave themselves around “weaker” Christians, those whose faith did not yet allow them to partake of the wonderful freedom that is in Christ, at least in dietary customs and habits.

“Don’t offend your weaker brothers and sisters,” says Paul. “Why? Because this is the Lord’s will for you. Remember that you were bought at a terrible price. So were your weaker brothers and sisters in Christ. Remember you don’t have a snowflake’s chance on water to live forever in God’s direct Presence without the blood of Christ shed for you. You didn’t earn it nor do you deserve it. It was God’s wondrous grace and mind-blowing love for you that caused him to give you this great gift in his Son. So act like you believe it. Act because you believe it.”

Could Paul empirically prove any of this? Nope. Nor did he feel the need to do so because empirical proof is not the ruler and arbiter of all things (or of anything for that matter). Empiricism has its place but not in “proving” the work of the cross. That requires faith and faith always manifests itself in works. This doesn’t mean we check our minds or reason at the door (to the contrary, our minds and reason help us to make sense of the content of the Gospel). It simply means we use the right tools for the right contexts.

There is wonderful power in the cross of Christ. It has power to wake the dullest conscience and melt the hardest heart; to cleanse the unclean; to reconcile him who is afar off and restore him to fellowship with God; to redeem the prisoner from his bondage and lift the pauper from the dunghill; to break down the barriers which divide men from one another; to transform our wayward characters into the image of Christ and finally make us fit to stand in white robes before the throne of God.

— Dr. John R.W. Stott, The Preacher’s Portrait 102.

Grant, O God, That we may never lose the way through our self-will, and so end up in the far countries of the soul; that we may never abandon the struggle, but that we may endure to the end, and so be saved; that we may never drop out of the race, but that we may ever press forward to the goal of our high calling; that we may never choose the cheap and passing things, and let go the precious things that last forever; that we may never take the easy way, and so leave the right way; that we may never forget that sweat is the price of all things, and that without the cross, there cannot be the crown.

So keep us and strengthen us by your grace that no disobedience and no weakness and no failure may stop us from entering into the blessedness which awaits those who are faithful in all the changes and chances of life down even to the gates of death; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

—William Barclay, Prayers for the Christian Year

Here we see another beautiful example of faith manifesting itself in works. In Barclay’s prayer, perseverance is the key. We struggle, we endure, we fight our sinful nature and the temptations of this life. If we endure to the end, we will be saved. This is not a theology of works-righteousness or a theology of salvation by perseverance. It is a theology of faith that leads to perseverance because we believe the promise of the cross. Our faith leads us to understand that Jesus calls us to be like him, and we acknowledge that this is difficult to impossible without the help of his Holy Spirit living and abiding in us.

Notice too how this should direct our praying. We pray first and foremost because we believe he hears us and will answer us (faith expressed in action). Therefore we pray for him to be present in us to help us persevere and to overcome, to transform us into his very likeness. Faith always manifests itself in works.

Five times in one brief paragraph (Rom. 5:1-11) Paul repeats the preposition ‘through’ in relation to Jesus Christ. It is through the death of Christ that we were reconciled to God. So it is through Christ that we have received our reconciliation, that we have obtained access into the state of grace, that we enjoy peace with God, and that we rejoice in God. Reconciliation, access, peace and joy – these are all blessings which become ours only through the finished sacrifice and the present mediation of Jesus Christ. No wonder our prayers are offered to God through him, for there is no other way to the Father except through his Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ (Jn. 14:6).

—Dr. John R.W. Stott, Life in Christ 18.

Let Us Plead for Faith Alone

Let us plead for faith alone,
faith which by our works is shown;
God it is who justifies,
only faith the grace applies.

Active faith that lives within,
conquers hell and death and sin,
hallows whom it first made whole,
forms the Savior in the soul.

Let us for this faith contend,
sure salvation is the end;
heaven already is begun,
everlasting life is won.

Only let us persevere
till we see our Lord appear,
never from the Rock remove,
saved by faith which works by love.

—Charles Wesley, 385