Think I know what you mean and it is not always easy to say it in the right way without inadvertently nullifying any side of the coin, but in James the bible says that we are not justified by faith alone, but by faith and works working together. We do come out of Egypt (leaving the womb so to speak - being born again), by faith alone, but after that faith will produce works....even where it says to believe in our heart and confess with our mouth...the confess with our mouth part is really the first "work" that we do, and it is working with our faith, since the bible says "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" This agrees with where in James it says by works faith is made perfect. Faith that doesn't have any kind of expression or manifestation at all is dead. We are to produce fruits in keeping with repentance, obeying the Lord, keeping His commandments etc.
But we have to take James in context.
James spoke to people who were hearers of the word, not doers.
He said they CLAIMED to have faith, he never said they did have faith.
and he starts out with the question..
what if someone CLAIMS to have faith, but has no work, CAN THAT FAITH (CLAIMED) save him?
remember also.. Abraham was declared righteous in Gen 15. before he did one work. and decaded before he went to offer his son..
James also said, You show me YOUR FAITH without your works, and i will PROVE my faith with my works.
think of the faith hall of fame (hebrews 11) .. what is the one item that all of those hall of faimers had in common?
They did not just claim they had faith, they had true saving faith, Proven by the fact, they did what they were told to do (works)
Abraham proved he had true faith, and if you look at his life, his faith grew. to the point, KNOWING God would raise his son from the dead. he offered to sacrifice him. I hope we both can agree in the begining, Abraham did not have this great of faith (look at all his sins up to this time)
yet again, Abraham was declaired righteous in Gen 15. before he had one kid.
I think we need to be careful in adding works to faith and declairing this is what saves us,, Paul made it clear in romans 4, when he was addressing the jews who tried to add works to faith. that Abraham was not found by works, but by Faith.. And that grace and works do not mix, it can only be one or the other.
The Jews added works to faith and said that is how we get to heaven (are saved) and paul called them fools. this is what people like Epi are tryign to do
it sounds great to the flesh (we are trying to be good, to please God)
but to the spirit, it is dead works, because they can not save.
