A writer commented that mere mouthing of “Jesus is Lord” will not save somebody, not even by a profession of faith, saying a sinner’s prayer, nor responding to an altar call. The writer continued on by saying a person is saved “by a living and active faith” as explained in James 2:14-26, a faith that shows through repentance, obedience, and love of God and our neighbor. The writer concluded by saying, salvation is a transformation, not a transaction.

I agree that we are not saved by just reciting a formula prayer, signing a card, or doing the altar call, but a prayer uttered by a sincere individual upon reaching the altar professing his faith in Jesus Christ will surely be honored by God. What is important is the change of mind that happened to that person as he professes his faith in Jesus Christ. If you remember the humble attitude of the tax collector in Luke’s account,

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” – Luke 18:13-14

Some believers even downplay the profession of faith as merely saying Jesus is Lord for this will not save an individual. I wonder if this profession is only true in their very own time but not in our modern-day culture? They even went far by saying a person is saved by living and active faith. I respectfully disagree. By explaining salvation in this way, they are countering the core teaching of the Scripture. When Paul was explaining to the Philippian jailer on how to be saved, he did not say, “Believe in the Lord Jesus by a living and active faith, and you will be saved.” Rather, Paul said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

The Lord Jesus Christ did not say, “whoever believes in him through a living and active faith should not perish but have eternal life.” Rather, Jesus said, “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). They missed out that James 2:14-26 was addressed to saved believers who were reminded to live an active life of faith. In other words, they were saved already in the past while James was exhorting them this reminder.

The teaching of these people is misleading because they are unknowingly injecting works to assure the believers of their salvation. I am not assured of my salvation because of my transformation rather my faith in Jesus Christ assured me of my salvation. There is no question that a believer will be transformed as he places his faith in Jesus Christ. But there are times a believer needs to be reminded that faith without works is dead in the eyes of the people around him. The phrase, “by a living and active in faith” is a cloak of works-transformation in addition to faith in Jesus. This will surely put pressure on the person to “live and be active in faith” leading to frustration, guilt, and condemnation to many believers not knowing that even as we work out our salvation it is still God who works in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (see, Phil. 2:13).

I understand that profession of faith in Jesus can be misunderstood by many people who claim to believe in Christ. They label such a profession as mere “intellectual assent” similar to Satan’s knowledge about God being one (see, Jam. 2:19). But Satan does not struggle with sin compared to many Christians who struggle daily and wage war against the flesh. The fact is one believer’s sin struggle may be different from another believer’s struggle. Even the esteemed apostle Paul himself has his own fleshly struggle but nobody will dare judge him as having an “intellectual assent” kind of faith (see, Rom. 7:7-25).* After all, Paul will not teach us how to put on the armor of faith if his fleshly struggle is not real (see, Eph. 6:10-18). Many believers falsely thought that we can abuse the grace of God. We have yet to see a passage in the Scripture that supports this for there is none. But what I read from the Scripture is “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). Surely, the “tsunami” grace of God will overflow in the life of a struggling believer to the point of transformation that he will want to say, “I don’t want to sin!” (see, Rom. 6:1-2) Let us not be worried too much if somebody might use this grace as an excuse because nobody can fool God. A real profession of faith will surely result in a divine transformation process that we don’t know when, but we are not to force this external transformation to assure us of our salvation. As Paul wrote, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace” (Rom 11:6). Remember that a small ounce of human transformation as an “add-on” to divine grace will surely change the biblical definition of grace. Let us be cautious of the transformation-assurance type of salvation.

Note:

*Although this experience of Paul is contested to be part of his past life. But it’s more plausible to think that Paul included his present fleshly struggle experience than to think that he has no struggle at all. A number of characters in the Scripture showed us their fleshly battle as well like David immorality (2 Sam. 11:1-5), Abraham’s compromise (Gen. 16:1-4), Elijah’s anxiety (1 Ki. 19:9-18), Peter’s hypocrisy (Gal. 2:11-13), and John Mark’s desertion (Acts 15:38).