Answering the Church of Christ “Faith Alone” Argument

SOURCE: A person challenged me to show one verse in scripture that ‘salvation is by faith alone’. I replied with the following:

Considering the CHURCH OF CHRIST’s own standard of “necessary inference”, a person can identify this as plain as the nose on his face because there are at least 154 passages throughout the New Testament which tell us salvation is by placing faith alone in Jesus Christ.

Consider for a moment the following passages:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

“Most assuredly, I say unto you, he who hears my Word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come to judgment, but has passed from death to life.” John 5:24

“…but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” John 20:31

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, lest anyone should boast.” Eph. 2:8

“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” Galatians 2:15-16

These verses and provided passages plainly and clearly state:

* a direct relationship between salvation/ justification and faith- with nothing else being mentioned in the sentence or context, and/ or,

* a direct eternal benefit from faith- with nothing else being mentioned in the sentence or the context;

* therefore, since nothing else other than “faith” is mentioned in the thoughts or context being communicated-

Faith Alone or “faith only” is what is implied and required.

To further illustrate the above reality, as well as to show how ‘selective’ those in the Church of Christ are in applying their own standard, this individual applied the “faith only” argument to the illustration of Noah building the ark – with gopherwood “only”.

Genesis 6:14-16

“Make yourself an ark of gopherwood (only); make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch (only). And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits (only). it width fifty cubits (only), and its height thirty cubits (only). You shall make a window for the ark (only), and you shall finish it to a cubit from above (only); and set the door of the ark in its side (only). You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks (only).”

His point: It’s utterly ridiculous for the Church of Christ to assert its ‘no verse in scripture specifically says we are saved by faith-only’ argument when honest consideration is given to the biblical verse(s), text, and context of those passages.

To refuse the plainly stated truth from the Word of God that salvation is simply by grace though faith in Jesus Christ alone is like saying:

‘Noah was told to to build an ark with gopher wood, but the Scripture NEVER specifies that he was told to use gopherwood “only”.’

http://www.cofcdilemma.org/faith_alone_in_scripture.aspx