When You Say You Must Have Faith To Be Saved;
That Is a Work

This FAQ addresses the question: "Is Faith a Work?"

Latter-day Saints sometimes present the argument that one can not be saved by faith alone because the act of coming to faith is in and of itself a work. They reason: if you must ‘hear’ God’s Word to come to faith, then you are doing a work.

Romans 10:17:  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

There are several responses to this argument:

A dead person can’t do anything:

The Bible depicts a person without faith as a person without spiritual life, a person who is spiritually dead. Just as a physically dead person can do nothing to come alive, a spiritually dead person can do nothing to come alive. Lazarus was physically dead and yet he heard Jesus, was given new life, and walked from the grave.  John 11:43-44.

This is also the way of new spiritual life; the spiritually dead hear their master, are given faith and cross over from death to life.

John 5:24:  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.