SAVING FAITH VS SYNTHETIC FAITH

 It's interesting, because the bible can almost appear to be contradictory at times. On one hand, it says:

 Jas 2:14  What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

On the other:

 Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast. 

So which is it, works, or faith? In reality, it’s both despite outward appearances, they blend together seamlessly. But one thing is for certain: your own works will never, ever earn you salvation. On Judgement Day, if we were foolish enough to try and convince Jesus that we deserve salvation based on our good deeds, He could effortlessly recite an almost endless number of sins we've committed - most of which we weren't even aware of - as they may have come in the form of unspoken thoughts.

And hypothetically, you can conceive of the greatest person you could imagine. She may be very kind, honest, charitable, loving, etc., and by our standards, many would call her saintly. But that isn't how God would view her, as He can't be in the presence of any sin at all, so just one single sin would be totally righteous grounds for casting her into eternal darkness forever. As Jesus said, when you break the least of the commandments, in God's eyes, you are guilty of breaking them all:

Jas 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all..

So, if you’re under the law, it’s either moral perfection or hell; there is no grey area to speak of. This is definitely not to say that good works aren’t absolutely essential, as they certainly are. In fact, the verses above from James make a distinction between real and synthetic faith, by whether or not it yields good works, much like these verses in Matthew:

Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Mat 7:17  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

So, while faith in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ alone is what brings about salvation, it's also essential to define the word 'faith'. A good example of synthetic faith would be something like Pascal's Wager, which isn't rooted in deep-seated belief in Christ, but is instead nothing more than a shallow 'play the odds' strategy devised to avoid the horrors of eternal damnation on a technicality, just in case Jesus' words happened to be true. Of course, attempting to gain entrance to heaven by such a ridiculous method is laughable, for the obvious reason that - unlike our peers - God knows our every thought and motive with crystal clarity.

Though we should certainly do everything in our power to cultivate good works and genuine saving faith, we must also understand these things cannon cannot be summoned by human willpower, absent the grace of God, as we are all dead in sin. Works and faith aside, Jesus Himself said the no one can even attempt to come to Him, unless the Father draws him:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 

We must comprehend our hopeless plight, bow down humbly before our Creator, and readily acknowledge our unworthiness of the gift of salvation. We must trust solely in the power of the Blood of His Son to obtain that which we have no currency to secure: the gift of eternal life. We are far more fortunate than our tiny minds can ever begin to comprehend. How miraculous it is to ponder God’s mercy and Grace!