The age-old claim that Paul’s gospel of grace require baptism and works
Many have stumbled over the age‑old claim that Paul’s gospel in Ephesians 2:8-9 is incomplete without baptism or the works James describes, as though the two must be blended together to secure salvation. This confusion arises because people fail to rightly divide the Word of truth, mixing Israel’s kingdom doctrine with the mystery revealed to Paul for the Body of Christ. When doctrines are merged, clarity is lost, and the simplicity of the gospel of grace is buried under ritual and performance. The following post sets the record straight by laying out Paul’s teaching in its proper dispensation, showing why we must rightly divide in order to fully grasp the clarity of Scripture and rest in the finished work of Christ.
Claim:
Paul never actually used the word “alone” in Ephesians 2:8-9, yet some argue the reformers inserted it to stress faith without works. Instead, Paul is said to emphasise redemption through baptism, describing it as burial with Christ and rising to new life in Him. James is then understood to qualify Paul’s words by teaching that while we are justified by grace, sanctification requires our response in doing God’s will, so that faith is ultimately justified by good works (James 2:14-26).
Correction:
Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:8-9 are plain and powerful: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” In this passage Paul makes no mention of baptism, nor does he tie salvation to any ritual or human effort. The emphasis is entirely on God’s grace and the believer’s faith, with works explicitly excluded. While Paul does not use the word “alone,” the Word’s phrasing makes it clear that salvation is by faith apart from works, so “faith alone” is already implied. To suggest otherwise misses the force of Paul’s argument, which is that salvation is a gift, not something earned or completed by human action.
When Paul speaks of baptism, he does so in a very different way than many assume. He teaches that believers are baptized by the Word into Christ, not by water into a ritual. “For by one Word are we all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13). This is a divine operation, not a human ceremony, and it places the believer into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). Water baptism belonged to Israel’s kingdom program, where repentance and ritual were required for entrance into the kingdom (Acts 2:38). But in the dispensation of grace, Paul reveals the mystery that salvation comes through faith alone, and the baptism that matters is the Word’s work, not man’s.
Confusion often arises when James is brought alongside Paul, as though James were qualifying Paul’s gospel. Yet James himself states that he is writing to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (James 1:1). His epistle is kingdom doctrine, directed to Israel, where faith had to be demonstrated by works to enter the promised kingdom. Paul, however, reveals the mystery kept secret since the world began, that justification before God is “to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly” (Romans 4:5). James is not correcting Paul, nor is Paul incomplete without James. They are speaking to different audiences under different dispensations, and to mix them is to butcher Paul’s gospel of grace.
Finally, Paul is clear about the relationship between faith and works. Faith alone saves, because it is counted for righteousness apart from works (Romans 4:5). Works follow salvation as fruit, not as the root. Believers are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10), but those works are the result of salvation, not the condition for it. To say that sanctification “justifies faith” is to reverse Paul’s order and confuse the gospel. Faith saves; works are evidence of salvation, not the means by which it is secured. In this dispensation, salvation rests entirely on Christ’s finished work, received by faith, and any attempt to add baptism or works as conditions is a corruption of Paul’s message.
