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We live in a culture that often teaches we have to earn approval—through hustle, good behavior, or proving our worth. That mindset can easily seep into how we view salvation. Even in church, it’s easy to wonder: Is faith alone really enough?
**What do you think? Can someone be saved without works at all? ** How do we explain “faith alone” when Scripture also says faith without works is dead?
Justification by faith alone doesn’t make obedience optional—it makes it possible.
Doesn’t salvation by faith imply salvation is based on your action rather than God’s?
Who saves us from sin? God? Or us? Or both us and God?
Faith comes from a heart open to recieve God’s Word and act upon it. This is the heart of a child.
Anyone can do what they think they are suppose to do out of fear of punishment.. But that doesn’t fulfill the Law. A wayward servant fears a fearful ruler, fears being thrown into the dungeon, or thrown out. These are two different hearts.
The works of a heart guided by God serve the Kingdom, not our personal salvation. Children who are loved do not fear being in their family home, nor do they fear being thrown out.
The same actions born from different hearts are not equally satiafying to God. God pays attention to what is in the heart.
The key is transformation. Cleaning the inside of the cup. Opening the heart to listen and see, to be like a child. A daughter, a son.
Oh, Tillman dropped a poetic gospel smoothie—but let’s strain out the pulp and get to the solid food.
You asked: Doesn’t salvation by faith imply salvation is based on your action rather than God’s?
Answer: Only if you think faith is something you cooked up in your flesh, rather than a gift God gave you by grace (Eph. 2:8). Faith isn’t you flexing your spiritual muscles—it’s you collapsing into Christ.
Now let’s talk hearts.
Yes, God looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). But here’s the rub: that heart of yours? Scripture calls it deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9) until God gives you a new one (Ezek. 36:26). So no, salvation doesn’t start with a tender human heart—it starts with divine surgery.
You’re right that transformation is key. But don’t flip the order. God saves then transforms. We’re not saved because our hearts are pure—we’re saved so He can purify them.
So who saves? God alone. But He saves through faith—faith that He Himself provides, not faith that earns us a single ounce of grace.
Here’s the gospel math: Grace is the cause. Faith is the conduit. Works are the consequence.
Anything else is just rearranging the furniture on the deck of a sinking ship.
A hard heart and a filthy heart are two very different things.
The heart of Pharoah who refused God plague after plague is an example of a hardened heart that will not bend. The Scripture that refers to the seed falling on the rock refers to this- the Word of God never lands where it can take root. And only God can soften the heart that will not know Him, enough so that some day it can..
Where as Paul, who persecuted the Christians in error, immediately recieved God’s Word when God crossed his path. And he changed. This was a sinful heart redeemed.
Yes all have fallen short. But a hardened heart is something more. He tells God who God is…without ever asking God Who He is. Because that man has all the answers. And will not listen.
Tillman, you’re drawing a sharp line between a sinful heart and a hard one—and fair enough, Pharaoh’s heart was so granite God used it as a display case for divine judgment (Ex. 9:16). But let’s not forget: both kinds of hearts are spiritually dead until God steps in.
Paul wasn’t saved because his heart was less hard—he was saved because God knocked him off his high horse and opened his eyes (Acts 9:3–6). That’s not soft soil—that’s sovereign grace.
Hard, filthy, proud, confused—it doesn’t matter the flavor of dead. Only God resurrects. So whether the heart is stone or sewage, the solution is the same: new birth (John 3:3), not better soil.
In the end, it’s not about how broken the heart is. It’s about who breaks in.
Hi,
Absolutely faith alone.
The faith we have been given allows us to receive the gift of God, which is grace.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. KJV
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast. KJV
Everyone has been given a measure of faith.
With this measure of faith, we may receive the gift of God
Faith is the pipeline through which grace is received.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. KJV
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. KJV
Ah, Tillman—there it is. The soft-gloved version of God: the divine gentleman caller, knocking politely, hoping we might give Him the time of day.
But let’s pull that Hallmark theology through the grid of Scripture, shall we?
Yes, Revelation 3:20 says Jesus knocks. But who is He talking to? The church in Laodicea—a lukewarm, self-deceived church, not the unregenerate dead. He’s rebuking His own people, not modeling His method of saving sinners.
When it comes to salvation, Jesus doesn’t beg at the door of a corpse. Ephesians 2:1 says we were dead in sin, not just deaf. Dead men don’t answer knocks—they get raised.
Was Paul wooed on the road to Damascus? No—he was blinded, confronted, and commanded. (Acts 9:4–6) Jesus didn’t whisper sweet nothings—He dropped Saul to the ground and changed his name.
God doesn’t rape the will. But don’t get it twisted—He rules it. “I will take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26). Not suggest. Not request. Will.
Grace doesn’t knock like a shy suitor. It kicks down the door of hell and drags the sinner into light.
So no, God doesn’t force. But when He saves, He doesn’t wait for permission either.
Why the Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone Matters - Bible Study | Crosswalk.com