Catholics believe that salvation is a gift from God, received through faith and baptism, and lived out through charity and good works.

But members of many Protestant denominations have a different idea. They believe that you need only to believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (that is, you will be welcomed into heaven). As evidence, our Protestant brothers and sisters rely on a few notable Scripture verses: In Acts 16:31, for example, Paul and Silas explain to the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

And if that’s not enough, they cite Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God — not because of works, lest any man should boast.”

These verses may seem decisive at first glance — but it’s important to consider the whole of Scripture to understand God’s full design for salvation.

Faith Without Works?

The Epistle of James offers a clear answer to those who believe they can live in sin, and still make it into heaven. James 2:14-18 reads:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Indeed someone might say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.

This passage posed a theological problem for Martin Luther.

In fact, Luther referred to the Book of James as an “epistle of straw” and sought unsuccessfully to have the entire book removed from the Bible. Why? Because it didn’t agree with his newly-reasoned idea of “faith without works.”

After his break from the Catholic Faith, Martin Luther thought that the only way to respond to God’s plan of salvation for all mankind is to simply trust in his perfect love. Under that theology, doing “good works” or obedience to God was not necessary for salvation. From Luther’s reliance on “faith alone” as the sole foundation of the believer came the later tradition of reciting the “Sinner’s Prayer” in one of its many forms.

Luther removed seven books from the canon of Scripture: Tobit, Judith, First and Second Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch, as well as sections from the books of Esther and Daniel. He also tried, unsuccessfully, to remove James and Revelation, both of which included certain texts that disproved his theology.

But the version of the Old Testament that was used at the time of Christ — the version that Jesus himself would have used — was the Septuagint. This version of the Bible included the seven books that Luther removed. It was the version of the Old Testament that was used by New Testament authors and by all Christians during the first century A.D.

Why would Luther have taken it upon himself to “correct” all those Christians and even Christ himself? Many theologians believe that Luther felt guilt for his own sins, and changing to a “faith alone” theology allowed him to absolve himself of responsibility for his sins.

Still today, as a result of Luther’s biblical meddling, Protestant theology differs from what had been consistently taught from the time of Christ through the Reformation. For example, in removing the books of Maccabees, Luther eliminated from Scripture the evidence in support of praying for the dead, and hence, for Purgatory.

Was Luther right that only faith in God was needed for salvation? How does that idea match up against the words of Jesus himself in Matthew 19:17-19, where he says:

If you would enter life, keep the commandments. … You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.