Again, this is a straw man that shows you don't understand, and seem intent on not trying to understand, what is meant by "faith alone." As I have repeatedly stated, "faith alone" is opposed to justification by works; that is the point. Faith is the only means by which we receive salvation.
There are three choices: justification through faith, justification through works, and justification through faith and works. The last two are another gospel.
That has nothing to do with what I wrote. Please address the points I am making and stop setting up straw men.
As I have repeatedly stated, and then repeated some more, you are the one who claims that "our works keep us saved." Adding works to faith in order to maintain our salvation is also salvation by works. There is zero difference between saying "our works keep us saved" and "our works saved us to begin with."
I'm always open to being wrong, but in this case, I'm sure that I am not. And I have repeated shown how Paul and James agree.
One more time: We are to do good works, to be obedient to Christ, but those works do not save us or keep us saved. To say that our works keep us saved, which is what you have repeatedly stated, is works salvation (no different from saying our works saved us to begin with). That is your position, which I soundly reject.
There is absolutely nothing confusing in any of that. Please stop taking things I say out of context.
Okay, but no one is saying that.
No, James is saying that someone who claims to have faith but has no works, doesn't actually have any faith at all.
That's the point: we cannot "have faith" and "don't DO anything with it." Someone with saving faith will do good works and obey, because they love Jesus and will do those works which were prepared before hand for them to do. Works are evidence of having a saving faith, but they do not keep us saved.
Yes, exactly! I have repeatedly agreed with that and stated that myself. But those works and that obedience do not save us. We obey because we love Christ, not to keep our salvation.
Of course. Not a single person in this thread is saying otherwise.
No, it absolutely does not mean that at all. That is a gross mischaracterization, a straw man.
If we have to work to keep our salvation, then that means that Christ's sacrifice was insufficient and that God is unable to complete the work he began in us.
Of course it isn't, which is why not a single person in this thread is say
And now you contradict everything you have said. That is exactly what I and others have been repeatedly saying, "faith alone," and which you have attempted to refute just as many times, even in this very post.
Yes, yes it does. If your works keep you saved, then you're following another gospel.
Of course, which is why everyone in this thread agrees with that. That has never been a point of contention, except in your own mind.
