Soyeong
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- Mar 10, 2015
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Wrong.
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." - Romans 4:5
Romans 4:4-5 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
Every example of someone living by faith in the Bible is also an example of someone doing works, but not every example of doing works is an example of faith, such as in Romans 4:4-5 where someone does works in order to earn a wage that are due them. There can be different motivations for taking an action, so if I were to tell you to take an action that would only benefit me, then you would be providing a service to me for which I would owe you wages, however, if I were to tell you to take an action that was for your own good, then you decision to take that action would not be causing me to owe you anything, but rather your decision would be based on whether or not you had faith in me to guide you in a way that is for your own good. In the same way, if our obedience to God's law were for God's good, then it would have been about trying to earn our justification, which would be owed to us as wages in return for our works, however, God's law was given for our own good (Deuteronomy 6:24, 10:12-13), so our obedience is instead about expressing our faith in God to guide us in how to rightly live, and it is by that same faith that we are justified.
In Romans 4:4-5, it is speaking about the one who does not work in regard to not doing something to earn their justification, however, it is not speaking against doing works that are an expression of our faith. Again, while Abraham believed, so he was justified, he also believed, so he obeying God's command to offer Isaac, so the same faith by which he was justified was also expressed as obedience, but he did not earn his justification by his obedience as though it were wages that were due to him.
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