ames 2:14
What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and has not works? Can faith save him?

Sola fide - but it is not as simple as that sounds when it comes to the matter of faith and one's salvation. Faith alone will not save. In fact, it is not really your faith that saves: it is the Lord's covenant faithfulness, the Messiah's faithfulness in life and death, and the faith that is God's gift of grace to those to whom He bestows this unmerited love. We are to exercise this faith in works that show that we have received this gift, that we desire to serve the Lord and reciprocate His mercy to the world around us. Faith without works is just faith: it is dead - and the person who has just faith is also eternally dead, except by a change of heart.

19th century Scottish minister Thomas Chalmers said: "Though justified by faith alone, let me remember that it is not by faith being alone, or by faith which is alone.-My God, may I show my faith by my works, and when tempted to the opposite of this, do Thou prove unto me a very present help in the time of temptation."

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