Why I Believe Works Salvation Becomes a License to Sin
Works salvationists often say that, "Your doctrine of eternal security is a license to sin. You say that you can be forgiven and you don't need works? You say grace saves you? Bah! You're just teaching a license to sin!" They're just making a series of Nom Sequitur arguments with how they conclude that if I teach salvation can't be lost and that it's by grace through faith then I'm teaching a license to sin. They can go as far as to vilify the Reformers who didn't support the whole notion that salvation by faith alone was by a faith that's alone. Now I'd like to talk how works salvation becomes a license to sin.
Works salvation gives the license to boast. Ephesians 2:8-10 says that from salvation up to sanctification it's all about God's work. Titus 2:11-14 shows that Christians do good by God's grace. The works salvationist is in short saying and bragging,"God look how good I am! You must accept me! If not, you're not a just God! I've done the best I can. I don't need your Son the Lord Jesus Christ or your grace to be saved. You have to accept me when I make it my way!" This is really one good reason why works salvationists tend to be very arrogant. It's just like the Pharisees who thought their works were enough to justify them but they fell short of God's holy standards.
The idea that salvation is by doing more good than bad is dangerous. James 2:10-11 shows that you can't keep the whole Law. There are a total of Ten Commandments which includes a command against making graven images. Regardless from which knot you cut the string, the perfect standard causes man to fall. If you think that just because you do more good than bad then it makes the person that they do have a license to sin. It's like saying, "I can go ahead and live in adultery with a woman who's not my wife as long as I go to Mass, get active with Catholic missions, pray the Rosary daily, never miss a feast day and go to confession then I'm fine because my good works will outweigh by bad works!" By doing so, it gives a license to sin to people.
The idea that salvation is by doing more good than bad is dangerous. James 2:10-11 shows that you can't keep the whole Law. There are a total of Ten Commandments which includes a command against making graven images. Regardless from which knot you cut the string, the perfect standard causes man to fall. If you think that just because you do more good than bad then it makes the person that they do have a license to sin. It's like saying, "I can go ahead and live in adultery with a woman who's not my wife as long as I go to Mass, get active with Catholic missions, pray the Rosary daily, never miss a feast day and go to confession then I'm fine because my good works will outweigh by bad works!" By doing so, it gives a license to sin to people.
Charles H. Spurgeon warned, "The proof of man's being unsaved is not only evident in self-righteousness but a wicked lifestyle. What is disturbing is that many people think they are "good" even if they love to live a life of sin. Many religious but lost people are faithful to their religion but are also degenerate in their lifestyles at the same time. When people are truly saved, they are delivered from their sinful lifestyles by the grace of God so nobody can boast." How true. Many people think they're righteous but their lifestyles show otherwise. Worse, many people who brag that they're at the top of morality are in fact very immoral people.