Faith Without Works Is Dead: A Biblical Rebuttal to Sola Fide

Why Martin Luther’s doctrine of faith alone doesn’t hold up against the Bible’s teachings

Martin Luther

Sola Fide (“faith alone”) is one of the cornerstone doctrines or “five solas” that distinguish Protestant theology from the Church the reformers broke away from. While the Catholic Church has always emphasized the importance of being saved by the grace of God, it has also emphasized, in addition to grace, the importance of using our free will to cooperate with grace in order to secure our eternal salvation in heaven.

A key verse Martin Luther used to justify sola fide is Romans 3:28:

“For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”

A common caricature of Catholicism by Protestants, especially evangelicals, is that Catholicism is a “religion of works” that says you have to earn your way to heaven. Citing a handful of verses from St. Paul, Protestants claim that sola fide is well supported by Scripture, whereas Catholic theology is the result of tradition gone astray from Biblical foundations.

But is this true? Does Scripture really better support sola fide versus the Catholic position of “cooperation with grace,” which places an emphasis on both faith and works rather than faith alone?

First of all, what does Jesus teach about what it takes to have eternal life in heaven?

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.” (John 3:36)

Here, it seems Jesus clearly connects our eternal salvation to whether we obey or disobey the Son. He didn’t say, “whoever fails to have faith in me will not see life.”

Or what about the famous section in Matthew 25 where he talks about eternal life in terms of sorting sheep from goats:

“‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:45)

Here, it also seems pretty clear: Jesus is saying that if you do not perform works of mercy and give alms to the poor, you will go away into eternal punishment. Nothing about faith alone.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat…’”(Matthew 25:41-42)

Here again, Jesus is clearly saying that if you have faith alone without also the works of mercy, you will be cursed and suffer eternal hellfire.

Earlier in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus also discusses what it takes to get into the kingdom of heaven:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Here, Jesus is clearly stating that unless you “do the will of my Father,” you will not have eternal salvation. He did not say, “whoever merely has faith will enter the kingdom of heaven.” The emphasis is clearly on doing the will, not on faith, which concerns belief, not actions.

It should be mentioned at the outset that for Luther, faith was not merely “abstract mental assent” but a living trust in Christ’s atoning work. Nevertheless, the key point is that faith is not a work, action, merit, or strength of man.

Jesus’ emphasis on works (in addition to faith) as the ticket to eternal salvation is famously emphasized by St. James, an epistle that Martin Luther despised because it did not easily square with his doctrine of sola fide:

“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17)

St. James makes the interesting observation that even the demons have “faith” in God insofar as they believe he exists:

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.” (James 2:19)

Protestants often use another Pauline verse to justify the doctrine of sola fide from Ephesians:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Indeed, it is often said that St. Paul and St. James are diametrically opposed, and Protestants follow St. Paul, whereas Catholics follow St. James.

But are they really so opposed? Not really. If we look closely, there are many places where St. Paul puts a similar emphasis on obedience to God’s will rather than faith alone:

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6)

Here, St. Paul says that what “counts” is not mere faith, mere trust in Jesus, but faith expressing itself through love. St. Paul echoes this theme of love in 1 Corinthians, in the famous love chapter, where he says:

“If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2)

And in Romans, an epistle often used to justify sola fide, St. Paul writes:

“Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.” (Romans 1:5)

Notice that St. Paul clearly connects faith and obedience to God’s will in the exact same way St. James does in emphasizing that faith without works is dead.

St. Paul also writes in Romans:

“God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.” (Romans 2:6-8)

Here, St. Paul seems to be saying that eternal life is dependent, not merely on propositional belief or deeply felt trust in Jesus (i.e., faith alone), but “according to what they have done,” which is in line with Jesus’ teachings and those of St. James.

Another example in Romans:

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” (Romans 2:13)

St. Paul is saying it is the doers of the law who will be justified, not merely those who have faith alone.

And in Galatians, we see another emphasis on the connection between keeping the commandments of Jesus, especially those about loving your neighbor:

“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:13-14)

This is in perfect keeping with the teachings of Jesus, who always emphasizes the importance of good deeds:

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Notice He didn’t say, “so that they may see your good faith.” No, it’s your good deeds that matter.

And again, in Matthew 16, Jesus clearly connects our eternal rewards “according to what they have done,” not to whether they merely have faith alone:

“For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.” (Matthew 16:27)

And also in Luke, in the parable of the Two Foundations, we see an emphasis on putting Jesus’ teachings into practice:

“But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation…” (Luke 6:49)

And again, in the Gospel of John, Jesus says that if you love him, you will keep his commands, aka love God and love your neighbor for the sake of God:

“If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15)

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:10)

Again, in the Gospel of Luke, when asked explicitly about what it takes to have eternal life, Jesus emphasizes works of mercy and says, “go and do likewise,” not “go and believe likewise.” Jesus’ emphasis on the criteria for eternal salvation is almost always on faith and works, grace and cooperation with grace, not faith alone:

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ … Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” (Luke 10:25-37)

In the story of the Rich Man, Jesus very clearly connects our eternal life with various works, such as giving to the poor. He does not answer the rich man by saying the ticket to eternal life is faith alone:

“Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, ‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’ … Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’” (Matthew 19:16-21)

To pile on even more Scripture evidence, we see St. Paul explicitly saying that if we are alive in Christ and have died to sin, then it should follow necessarily that we will perform good works:

“How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” (Romans 6:2)

And again:

“Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Romans 6:15)

In Romans, St. Paul clearly connects faith with obedience to Jesus’ commands and not just mere faith or trust:

“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16)

And again, St. Paul talks about “the obedience of faith,” a concept that really does not make sense in the Protestant doctrine of sola fide:

“but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26)

So how do we reconcile the few times St. Paul does seem to emphasize that we are saved by faith and not “works of the law”? The key is to understand that when St. Paul talks about “works of the law,” he was not talking about all possible works, such as almsgiving to the poor or works of mercy or loving acts of kindness to your neighbor.

Instead, what St. Paul meant by “works of the law” was explicitly Jewish rules about keeping kosher, such as strict dietary laws, circumcision, etc. Indeed, St. Paul was explicitly making the argument that Gentiles did not need to follow all the Mosaic laws of keeping kosher in order to be Christians. So when he said we are saved by faith and not the works of the law, he did not mean “works” as a synonym for actions in general, but only those specific cultural rituals that were specific to Jewish kosher laws about ritual purity and circumcision, etc.

This was one of Martin Luther’s biggest theological mistakes, and it’s based entirely on a misunderstanding of St. Paul’s intended audience and message. Historians have argued that Luther’s interpretation of “works of the law” to mean all possible actions and not just actions specific to Jewish ritual purity was a result of his highly neurotic and scrupulous personality, which made him fret about venial sins damning him to hell. So, in order to deal with his scrupulosity, he basically rejected the entire 1,500-year-old theological tradition emphasizing works of mercy and cooperation with grace by saying works don’t matter at all, and we gain eternal life entirely on the basis of being justified by faith, thus securing him a ticket to heaven regardless of whether he was able to follow Jesus’ commandments.

In conclusion, “sola fide” has almost zero Scriptural basis and resulted entirely from a misunderstanding of St. Paul. Far from Protestantism claiming to be more “Biblically based” than Catholicism, it goes to show the dangers of forming an entire Christian sect on the misinterpretation of a single man who thought he had a better grasp on theology than all the Church Fathers and 1,500 years of Catholic magisterial teaching.