Is my faith genuine?

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. - John 14:23-26 (LSB)

Jesus emphasized the need for the habitual practice of obedience to His commands as evidence of the believer’s love for Him and the Father. True saving faith is manifested by works produced by God in the transforming, regenerating power of the Spirit. Those works are expressions of the love which the Spirit pours into the believer’s heart. - John MacArthur

What use is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead by itself. For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. James 2:14-17,26 (LSB)

This important phrase, "if someone says", governs the interpretation of this passage. James does not say that this person has saving faith, but that he claims to have it. James' point is not that a person is saved by works, but that there is a kind of apparent faith that is dead and does not save. - John MacArthur

Am I trusting works for my salvation or are my works produced by God as a result of my salvation?

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. - Ephesians 28-10 (LSB)

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. - Titus 3:5 (ESV)

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 2:16 (NIV)

Be Encouraged to let your good works glorify the God that saved you by His grace.



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