Decoding the Debate of Faith vs. Works and Recovered vs. Never Recovered
Am I Recovered or Not: Sitting at the Intersection of Faith vs. Works
118 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless?
There is the UNNECESSARILY massive argument that shows up wherever faith in Jesus and recovery comes up that is pointless and indicates a misunderstanding of things taught in both recovery and the Bible. It is two arguments that are secretly only about what things are called and have nothing to do with the concepts they have been weaponized against
One is the question of whether a person is ever recovered or not. The second is if telling people to do what they are instructed to do in the Bible or recovery literature is to abandon faith somehow and to switch teams to believing “works” will “save” you.
Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works
I used to debate both views vigorously until one day; I realized that the people I was fighting against and those I was fighting in alignment with believed similarly but were willing to hate each other and even cast out people, depending on how these things are described.
I n this article, I will go through what I used to make one point and what can make the opposing point. After that, I want to demonstrate that they have the same point of view and that all of this is an outright stupid argument to have in this context.
So here we go. Here is one of the first passages I loved for my idea that telling me I had to do things from the Bible was operating by works and not faith.
Saved By Faith and Not the Result of Works
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 New American Standard Bible
This is saying that we are saved by faith, and it is a gift from God and that our works have not saved us. This bluntly states that. It also says that it is this way so that nobody can brag that they saved themselves or that their works are better than other people’s, etc.
When you are starting in recovery, those leading you are told to remind you of this in the Alcoholics Anonymous book:
Remind the prospect that his recovery is not dependent upon people. It is dependent upon his relationship with God.
Alcoholics Anonymous pgs. 99-100
By grace you have been saved through faith
That is pretty straightforward, let’s look at another one:
Saved Not by Deeds Done in Righteousness
5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:5 New American Standard Bible
Here, God saved us not based on things we did “in righteousness” but because of His great mercy by washing and regenerating us by the Holy Spirit.
You can see something similar outlined in the Alcoholics Anonymous book:
In our belief any scheme of combatting alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure.
Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 101
Any idea that taking actions to shield a person from their addiction is, even in the absolute best of cases, just a temporary Band-Aid and, in the worst cases, just a minor distraction. These actions or works are not going to be enough.
God saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy
The being “saved” part is a massive source of the argument of whether you can be “recovered” or not. The idea is that statements like this mean that he “saves” you from addiction; nothing is powerful enough to take that “saved” away, so you are recovered.
This leads to the idea that saying a person has not “recovered” is actually to say God hasn’t “saved” the person.
Actions or “works” are not going to be enough.
In the Alcoholics Anonymous book, this is how they describe this level of deliverance that comes from God:
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone – even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality – safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience.
Alcoholics Anonymous pgs. 84-85
The “not on the basis of deeds” part is critical in the arguments about whether you must “DO” anything. That “doing” something or telling other people to follow the instructions of the Bible at some undefined level is suddenly “under the Law” and no longer under grace.
This is not an entirely unfounded argument; for example, consider the following passage:
Not Justified By Works of the Law
16 nevertheless, knowing that a person is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law; since by works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
This passage uses explicitly both the words “works” and the word “Law” and says that we are not Justified through them but solely through “faith in Jesus Christ.”
That seems pretty straightforward. Many people on one side of this argument feel that verse is the death blow. The discussion should end on that note with them as a win (as I used to believe)
Saved by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law
Let’s look at the other side of this supposedly key argument, starting with a bridge verse that straddles both sides. Remember that I stated earlier that both sides of this argument usually believe similar things in practice and that this is an argument of semantics. By semantics, I mean a debate about which words are specifically used and not really about how someone lives out their faith or, in our case, their recovery.
Confess With Your Mouth. Believe in Your Heart, and You Will Be “Saved.”
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
This particular verse has an “and” that is usually ignored on all sides of this conversation, but that is a topic for another day. Let’s go with what the verse states literally; it is about the faith in a person’s heart and the expression of that faith from that person’s mouth.
Consider this story from the Alcoholics Anonymous Book:
For the first time, he lived in conscious companionship with his Creator.
Thus was our friend’s cornerstone fixed in place. No later vicissitude has shaken it. His alcohol problem was taken away. That very night, years ago, it disappeared. Save for a few brief moments of temptation the thought of drink has never returned; and at such times a great revulsion has risen up in him. Seemingly he could not drink even if he would. God had restored his sanity.
What is this but a miracle of healing? Yet its elements are simple. Circumstances made him willing to believe. He humbly offered himself to his Maker – then he knew.
Even so has God restored us all to our right minds.
Alcoholics Anonymous pgs. 56-57
Some experiences align perfectly with the ideas in these passages. The miracle of believing changes people.
For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses
Simply put, from their heart, a person believes; with their mouth, the person confesses that belief, and that leads to salvation. Did you catch what the result of believing with the heart was? It resulted in “righteousness.”
Hold onto that thought and not just that confessing with the mouth after it is in your heart leads to “salvation,” but believing in your heart leads to something called “righteousness.”
In the next Article I will use the Bible and the Alcoholics Anonymous book to show the other side of this argument:
Stay sober, my friends…