What is a stated consequence of trusting in works for salvation?

What is a stated consequence of trusting in works for salvation?

• A. You will be in bondage
• B. Christ shall profit you nothing
• C. Christ is become no effect unto you
• D. All of the above

Answer: (D)

The idea being tested is that salvation by faith, not by keeping rules, frees a person through Christ; trying to earn God’s favor by works actually brings serious spiritual consequences. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, attempting to justify oneself by the law puts a person back under the law’s demands and under bondage to the world’s elementary principles. That path also means Christ’s redeeming work doesn’t count for you—Christ shall profit you nothing—and you are as though Christ were of no effect to you, because justification would come by your own performance rather than by faith in Him. Taken together, these statements show why trusting in works is described as producing all of these outcomes: bondage, loss of Christ’s profit, and Christ’s lack of effect in the life of the one seeking to be justified by the law.

The idea being tested is that salvation by faith, not by keeping rules, frees a person through Christ; trying to earn God’s favor by works actually brings serious spiritual consequences. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, attempting to justify oneself by the law puts a person back under the law’s demands and under bondage to the world’s elementary principles. That path also means Christ’s redeeming work doesn’t count for you—Christ shall profit you nothing—and you are as though Christ were of no effect to you, because justification would come by your own performance rather than by faith in Him. Taken together, these statements show why trusting in works is described as producing all of these outcomes: bondage, loss of Christ’s profit, and Christ’s lack of effect in the life of the one seeking to be justified by the law.