True Christian Religion, Intro to James-James 1:1

Are you still wondering where good works fit in the Christian understanding of salvation? John MacArthur's influential work FAITH WORKS: The Gospel According to the Apostles, which followed his best-seller, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS, answers the question this way. "Nowhere in either the Old or New Testaments do we find an invitation for sinners to believe now, obey later. The call to trust and obey is a single summons. The word 'obey' is sometimes even used to describe the conversion experience: 'He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation' (Heb 5:9). Does anyone really suppose it is possible to 'believe,' to really fathom everything that Jesus did in suffering and dying for sin, to accept the offer of forgiveness from His hand--and then turn away, not exalt Him with one's life, and even grow to despise and reject and disbelieve Him exactly like those who put Him to death? That kind of theology is grotesque. The truth is, our surrender to Christ is never purer than at the moment we are born again. In that sacred moment we are wholly under the sovereign control of the Holy Spirit, united to Christ, and recipients of a new heart. Then more than ever, obedience is not negotiable, nor would any genuine convert desire it to be (cf. Rom 6:17). The apostle Paul's conversion furnishes the archetypical illustration. In Paul's conversion, the issue was clearly Jesus' lordship. What were Paul's first words as a believer? 'What shall I do, Lord?' (Acts 22:10). Can we honestly look at Paul's conversion, life, and ministry, and believe that he ever espoused a gospel that taught people they could be saved without surrendering to Christ's authority? Lordship salvation is often caricatured as teaching people that they must change their lives in order to be saved. But no advocate of lordship theology I know of has ever taught such a thing. There is not a legitimate teacher of the lordship doctrine anywhere who would ever tell any unbeliever he needs to 'prove he qualifies for salvation.' As we have seen time and again, meritorious works have no place in salvation. But FAITH WORKS have everything to do with WHY we are saved. God's whole purpose in choosing us is 'that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds' (Titus 2:14). This is God's purpose from eternity past: 'We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them' (Eph 2:10)." This coming Lord's day as we begin our new study in the book of James. The first verse informs us of the writer, recipients, and the theme of the book. Join us as "The Church's First Pastor Instructs on True Christian Religion" (Jas 1:1).