The Bryce Crawford Podcast - Faith vs. Works (EP 32)

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

In this video, Bryce talks about the difference between faith and works. Filmed By; Josh Rodriguez @whitehorse.studios MERCH👉 https://www.jesusinthestreet.com subscribe for more! Sow Into My Ministry One-Time or Monthly! Visit 👉 https://www.equipnet.org/missionaries/bcrawford (all donations are tax deductible) Download Our FREE Bible Plan https://growinfaith.readytoconnect.com/join-the-one-year-bible-challenge follow me on other platforms! Podcast Instagram 👉https://instagram.com/brycecrawfordpodcast Personal Instagram 👉 https://instagram.com/brycecrawford Merch Instagram 👉 https://instagram.com/ilovejesus Tiktok (main) 👉https://www.tiktok.com/@brycecrawford Tiktok (2nd) 👉 https://www.tiktok.com/@adventuresofbryce Snapchat https://snapchat.com/add/brycecraww Twitter 👉 https://twitter.com/ibrycecrawford #christianity #christian #Jesus #BryceCrawford #christiantiktok #christianvideos #holyspirit #Jesusheals #viral #christianvideo #venicebeach #evangelism

What's going on, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce. In today's episode, don't know how long it's going to be, but really excited for it. I feel like this is a topic a lot of people get confused on. Faith and works. People say, do I need to do works to get into heaven? Am I not say because I don't do good things? We're going to talk about it, break down the whole thing. But before we get into it, you guys always ask me, Bryce, how can we support what you're doing? There's two ways that you can help support and keep our feet on the ground, mobilizing the gospel. Two ways. Go to Jesus in the street.com, get some Jesus merch, supports what we're doing. or number two, if you feel lead on your heart, God is unctioning you to give towards our ministry. We have a tax deductible giving link in the description of this video. You can make a one time or monthly giving seed, sow in our ministry, whatever the Lord's leading you to do.

But if God's leading you to support us in one or two ways, it means the world to us and it keeps our feet mobile on the ground. Now, let's get into this thing, fate, and it works. Because we get this thing so mixed up. And look, we have to understand. Look, I'm going to kind of like go ahead and spoil it for you. No, you don't need works to go into heaven. It's actually, yeah, you don't need works to go to heaven. That's the thing that separates Christianity and Jesus Christ from all other religions.

In Islam, you have the five pillars of Islam, and you have to do good to make Allah happy. And in the Quran, it says, Allah will weigh your good and you're bad. And if you're good outweighs your bad, green line. If you're bad outweighs your good, red light. good and here's the reality is Muslims don't know if they're going to heaven because they never know if they're doing enough how would it feel how would it feel to know that you that you never feel like enough to the God that you worship and devote your life to every day you never know if you're doing enough or you feel like enough and and every other religion it's work to

enlightenment work to make a law happy work to get into heaven work to do this and there's a there's a example that says every religion is like having God on the top of a mountain and each religion has a different perspective of the mountain and they're all climbing up the mountain trying to work their way to God. But Jesus Christ is the only God that comes down from the mountain and meets mankind where they're at. So we're going to talk about faith and works today. Let's go to Ephesians 2 real quick. Ephesians 2 8 through 10 says for by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may both.

for we are his worksmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So the passage is like, hey, listen, actually your works do absolutely nothing for your salvation, right? Your salvation is not determined on your good works. Your salvation is by the grace of God, God giving us what we don't deserve, salvation through faith. Grace giving us what we don't deserve, faith, believing and putting our trust in Jesus

Christ. That's where our salvation comes from. And then a lot of people, and I'm not going to lie, there's a lot of churches and sometimes even denominations that will abuse the James 2 passage when it talks about faith and works saying kind of like almost like you have to do these good things for God to love you. Now, I'm going to read the passage, then we're going to break it down. James 2, 14 through 26. There we go. We're going to read a little bit of it. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but not have works. can that faith save him if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them go in peace be warmed and filled without giving them the things that they

need for their body what good is that so also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead so then people will read that scripture and go okay i need to do good works i need to do good works i need to do good works no that's not what james is saying if we believe and put our trust in jesus our actions will show that we do. So when James is saying, if my faith doesn't have works, he's not saying I have to have the works to get into heaven.

He says, works should be a byproduct of my faith in Jesus. Our obedience and works are not our driving motivating factor to get into heaven. Our works and obedience is a byproduct of our faith in Jesus. Here's an example.

If I really believe and trust in Jesus, I'm going to listen to what he says, not because I feel like I have, have to, but because I want to, because I love him, and I know that he loves me. In the same way, I do things for Jesus, not because I feel like I have to, but because I want to. I actually find myself doing things for Jesus sometimes, just naturally, not even thinking about it. Why? Because I'm not trying to get into heaven by doing good works. I'm just naturally allowing Jesus to become the overflow of my heart. You will find yourself obeying God. Like, I hate this word works here

when we talk about it with Christianity, because we're not working for anything. It's just obedience and this obedience is out of love not out of a goal like if if our works is trying to get into heaven then our obedience is transactional our obedience to god is i'm only doing these things to get into heaven that's not why i do good things our obedience isn't transactional it's willing it's surrender it's god i love you you you know what's best for my life so i'm going to listen to you so when jesus says if you if you you'll love me if you obey my commandments he's not saying i'm forcing you to obey me he's saying a son listens to a father not because he has to but because he loves him so i do things for god not because i have to but because i love him it's powerful and so these scriptures like we can't mess

he's up galatians five for in christ jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love do you know where you're going to find your faith through and your love for jesus not for what you can do for him because if you try to find your faith in what you can do for him, your fate's going to crumble or whatever, and then you might get distant from God, you might backslide, you might have never even had a real relationship with him because your perspective of Jesus has warped.

And I'm going to be honest, some of us may even fall into the category of unintentionally trying to work our way for God to love us because our example of love for ourself was transactional. Okay? This is actually really funny. This isn't personal, it's just funny. I have a roommate, and he is very smart with his money. And he doesn't like to go out and eat. On the other hand, I love to go out and eat.

I love to eat at Keynes. I love to eat a yardhouse. I love all this stuff. And I always invite him to go out to eat with me. And I'll say, hey, roommate, will you go out and eat with me? And he goes, only if you pay for my meal. And now, our friendship isn't transactional. But going out to eat with him, he's like, I'll go with you if you do this thing for me.

Right? And God's not like that. He's not like, I'll let you into heaven if you do this thing for me. He's like, no, the work's been done on the cross. Jesus Christ has done the work that gets you into heaven. And the crazy thing about it is it's not about getting into heaven, but when you look at this faith and works comparison, it's all about getting into heaven when people compare this thing.

It's like you need works to be saved, and this isn't that. No, we need Jesus Christ to be saved. That's what we need. We need the blood of Jesus Christ to be saved. That's what we need to be saved. And if we believe in Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus transforms our life. when Ezekiel talks about the transition of a heart of stone into a heart of flesh that's the kind of transition that happens in our heart when we believe in Jesus and so our

actions may change our actions will prove our belief in something our actions will prove our belief in something here's an example if I care and love one of my friends and I see one of my friends getting picked on and I stand up for them and maybe I get in a fist fight for that friend it shows that I love and I believe in that friend and I care about that friend's well-being and I'm going to do anything to protect them. In the same way, Jesus Christ will do anything in his power

to protect us and love us and all we have to do is have faith and trust in him. Now, if you look at the Old Testament, some people say, well, what about the Old Testament, Abraham and all this other stuff? Hebrews 11 will be your greatest pointing passage for this. Okay, let me explain this.

Hebrews 12 mentioned something called the cloud of witnesses. In heaven, there's a cloud of witnesses. of witnesses, these holy, incredible, amazing people that had trust in God. Hebrews 11 gives you a list of all of these people in the cloud of witnesses. Do you know who these people are? They're all people from the Old Testament. All of these people were under the law. With the New Testament, the law was in us according to Romans. But in the Old Testament, before the new covenant, the law was above people's head and they were surrendered to the law of God. Now all these people

sacrificing animals for their sins, and we know Abraham being the father of many nations. Did you know that Abraham wasn't justified because of the amount of animals that he could sacrifice for his sins? Hebrews 11 says that Abraham was justified by his faith. And the reason that he sacrificed animals was because he had his faith in Jesus. He trusted God, his word, and his law. And so because he trusted God and his word and his law, he sacrificed animals, not because he felt like he had to, but because he loved God, he trusted God's word, and he knew God's word was over what he could say or what anything the world said. So he did what God said because he loved him, not because he felt like he had to to get into heaven. Abraham justified by his works.

Rahab, this dirty, nasty prostitute that hid spies, justified by her faith in God. The woman at the well, John 4. Justified by what? not by the amount of men she's been with, but by her faith and trust in Jesus. It's crazy how trusting in Jesus is where the redemption of shame and sin comes in, not in how many things I can do for God. Our redemption of sin does not come from the amount of works I can do for God. The redemption of sin comes from Jesus Christ on the cross. And what we have to understand is everything that we've been through in all of our sin died on the cross 2,000 years.

years ago. And when we put our trust in Jesus, we understand that it's been dead and it has no longer a hold over our identity. That's it. It's super simple. And I'm making this podcast because I want there to be a freedom for you. Romans makes it very clear. The law is not over your head. It's in our hearts. So we're not looking up the law like the Old Testament. We're looking up to Jesus. Because we're looking at Jesus, the law, obedience to him, doing good things for God, naturally manifests through us because we're looking at him, not at the works. The goal isn't the works. The goal isn't the list of things we can do for Jesus.

The goal is Jesus himself. The goal is being more like him and loving him. That's the goal. There's freedom in that. Jesus, I thank you for everyone watching and listening to this episode. God, I just pray that you will give people a freedom. to love you, a freedom and release, to know that their works don't define them.

God, I thank you that the blood of Jesus and your work on the cross defines us. Thank you for that freedom. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Guys, thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode. If you like it, subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow us on Spotify and Instagram,

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