Faith Alone
A Riddle for the Logical Mind
Three verses. One logical answer. Can you find it?
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Romans 5:9-10 (KJV) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
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James 2:24 (KJV) Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
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Matthew 24:13 (KJV) But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Read all three. Lay them side by side. What must be true?
Melchizedek set the table in this order.
Genesis 14:18 (KJV) And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
- Justified by His blood now; saved by His life still to come. — Romans 5:9-10
- The only time Scripture says "faith only," it says not by it. — James 2:24
- He that endures to the end shall be saved. — Matthew 24:13
Deliverance begins at the blood and finishes in the walk.
Why It Matters
The church teaches that belief alone saves, and that deliverance is complete the moment one believes. Paul lays out two stages in two verses. "Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him" (Romans 5:9). "Being reconciled... by the death of his Son, we shall be saved by his life" (Romans 5:10). Justified now, saved later. James is the only writer who uses the phrase "faith only," and he denies it: "by works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (James 2:24). Yahushua puts the finish line at the end: "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (Matthew 24:13).
Entry is by the blood, freely, apart from works. "By grace are ye saved through faith... not of works" (Ephesians 2:8-9). The very next verse gives the purpose: "created in Messiah Yahushua unto good works" (Ephesians 2:10). Scripture speaks of deliverance in three tenses: begun (Ephesians 2:8), being worked out "with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12), and "ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5).
The word "alone" was added. In his 1522 German New Testament, Martin Luther inserted allein ("alone") into Romans 3:28. The Greek has no such word. In the same year he called James "an epistle of straw." He was answering Rome's system of purchased merit, and he swung to the other ditch.
This matters because "once saved, always saved" makes endurance meaningless and warnings empty. Hebrews says we are partakers of Messiah "if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end" (Hebrews 3:14). The blood opens the door. The walk, in the commandments, carries the believer through it. Cut the second stage off, and the first is turned into a ticket instead of a beginning.
Every one of the seven letters in Revelation ends with the same condition: "to him that overcometh" (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). And to Smyrna: "be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).