But can you not see, you quibbler, that faith divorced from deeds is barren? James 2:20, N.E.B.

We are saved by faith, not by our own merits. Faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith is the rope thrown to the drowning man, by which another pulls him safely to shore. Christ is the object of our faith. Faith is that response which brings us to the Saviour. It lays our sins on Jesus. It takes off the rags of our own righteousness and puts on us Christ's righteousness. It covers us with a robe provided only by Christ. So what must we do to be saved? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."

Consequently, many conclude that men are saved without works of any kind. But let no one deceive us. Works are the fruit of faith. "No whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of . . . God" (Eph. 5:5). Christian experience without a sound morality is phony. Faith without a godly life, that never touches or changes the conduct of a man, is lifeless. True faith walks in the path of the Ten Commandments. Faith that works is kind, not selfish, obedient, not disobedient. Faith that works keeps husbands loving, wives patient. It banishes sin and evil in the home.

We believe that God will have mercy on the chief of sinners; that all the sins we have committed may be washed away by the blood of Christ. We believe that God's redemption in Christ and the gift of righteousness is sufficient to bear all the sins ever committed; that God despairs of no one; that whoever turns to Christ, may be saved to the uttermost.

Unchristian people often indulge in a loose morality. The gospel without a sound morality is totally unchristian. It is strange indeed to believe that such people who claim to accept Christ could possibly continue to live like that. If such a person can claim to have experienced salvation, then the seed of the Word of God sown in the heart yields no harvest, the Holy Spirit produces no fruit, the power of God gives no solid moral backbone to keep the spiritual frame erect.

God always communicates His saving grace and power with a view to the restoration of men to the image of God.