The New Testament presents salvation as God’s gracious act received through faith, but it never defines faith as mere intellectual assent or a momentary act of trust detached from the life that follows. Faith is portrayed as a relational allegiance to Jesus as Lord. This is why Jesus can speak of “believing” and immediately insist on abiding in his word, remaining in his teaching, and being freed from slavery to sin. In John 8, those who are said to “believe” are tested by whether they continue in his word; belief that does not persevere in obedience is exposed as inadequate, not because obedience earns life, but because such belief has not truly grasped who Jesus is.
Paul does not depart from this understanding, even when he insists that justification is apart from works. His polemic is directed against reliance on the Mosaic Law as a means of becoming righteous or as a boundary defining God’s people. When Paul speaks of faith apart from works, he is not redefining faith as obedience-free trust, nor is he setting aside Jesus’ teaching. Instead, he consistently frames faith as an obedient response to the gospel, an allegiance that transfers a person from the mastery of sin to the lordship of Christ. This is why Paul can speak of the “obedience of faith,” warn believers that living according to the flesh leads to death, and describe the Christian life as one lived under the “law of Christ.”
The apparent tension arises when obedience is collapsed into “works” and faith is reduced to belief alone. Scripture does neither. Obedience is not the basis of justification, but it is inseparable from living faith because faith unites a person to Christ, and union with Christ entails a transformed way of life. The New Testament therefore holds together strong promises of salvation to those who trust in Christ and serious warnings to those who persist in sin, without offering a mechanical formula to resolve that tension. It calls people not to calculate the minimum requirements for salvation, but to entrust themselves to Jesus in a way that continues, abides, and bears fruit. In that sense, Jesus and Paul are not teaching two gospels, but the same one viewed from different angles: salvation by grace through faith, and faith as a living, obedient allegiance that leads from death in sin to life in Christ.
Wording by AI as prompted by Stephen D Green
