The Book of James
Part 8 “Faith That Works”
James 2:14-26
-we’re heading into one of the most theological passages in James…in which he talks about saving faith, true faith, living faith…
-which means we’re heading into a discussion on the gospel of salvation…the gospel of Jesus Christ…
…and any day we do that here at Northgate is a good day…because we love the gospel…and we’re growing in our understanding of it and our willingness to live it…to let it affect the way we live our lives everyday…
-we’re learning that the gospel is so much more than just our ticket into heaven…it’s meant to transform our lives from the inside out and change our behavior so that we learn to live by faith…
-the gospel is good news, so today is a good news day in the book of James…unless your faith is not genuine…unless it’s a faith of words only, of empty claims…of head knowledge only…not backed up or shown by good works and deeds…
-if that’s you, then today is an invitation to embrace true faith, Christ-centered faith, faith that actually saves you…and to see how that faith will evidence itself in the kinds of things you do in your everyday life…
So let’s jump right into the text, 2:14-26…
…Prayer…read…
I Heart of the Passage v.17
-faith without action is dead
-genuine faith produces compassionate, obedient deeds
Now don’t fall into the trap of misunderstanding this passage to teach that we have to add works to our faith in order to be saved…don’t let your inner legalist rise up and say, “Just give me the list of things I’m supposed to do to have genuine faith!”
That is not what is being taught here at all…James is teaching that if you claim to believe in God, then your actions mean more than your words…genuine, saving faith will show itself in loving deeds and actions…
The reason this is important to James (and to us) is that James was already encountering a problem among the early
Christians of his day, the problem of separating belief from action…the problem of claiming a faith in God, but showing no evidence of that faith in real life…of talking the talk, but not walking the walk…
-it goes without saying that we still have that problem today among Christians…
-the early Christian movement was primarily made up of converted Jews, many of whom were devoted to the daily confession he mentions in v.19, “you believe that there is one God…”
-this is a reference to what’s called the Shema, found in Dt. 6:4…a daily prayer a devout Jew would pray:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
-the devout Jew today still daily recites the Shema.
But the point James is making is that simply saying “God is One” doesn’t get you very far if it doesn’t make a difference in your life…instead of a dead faith full of empty claims, even Biblical claims, James is presenting a full, Jesus-shaped faith that shows itself by actions and loving deeds…
In other words, the Lord wants us to have faith that works…
II Contrast Between Dead and Living Faith
Dead Faith Living Faith
1. empty claims of faith v.14 • claims of faith evidenced by deeds
V. 14 teaches that it is possible for people to claim to have faith…which implies a profession of faith…this is likely referring to the person who claims to believe in the Bible, in God, in the gospel, holds to the basic truths of faith…but whose life continually lacks the evidence to support this profession of faith…
The question James asks is: can such faith save them? And the obvious answer from the passage is “no, it cannot.”
You see, there has been an erroneous teaching by the church that says all you have to do to be saved is pray the sinners prayer…say you believe the gospel…say you believe in Jesus Christ…
-we have focused so much on the profession of faith, that we have mislead people to believe that’s all we need to do…and once we’ve said the right words, we’re in…it’s all done…we’re saved and on our way to heaven…
Now I know some of you are wondering, “well, isn’t that how anyone is saved? by simple faith? by simply believing in our hearts and simply confessing with our mouths that Jesus is Lord?”
Yes, that is part of it. But acc to James (and many other places in the Bible), that is only part of it. If you want real assurance that your saving faith is genuine…then that assurance comes when you start to see a life producing fruit that shows evidence of true salvation…
Even John the Baptist said to the religious leaders in Mt. 3:8 “produce fruit in keeping with repentance…” –we see fruit today in lots of Christians that is in keeping with a profession…but less fruit that is in keeping with repentance…
-the fruit of repentance looks like a changed life…a turning away from the old life of sin and self-interest…and a turning to a life of a loving God, pursuing holiness and serving people…
We do people a disservice when we ask them to make a profession of faith and then give them the false assurance that that is all you have to do…
The Bible calls us to make disciples, not converts…(Mt. 28)…which implies a long process of growing, changing, learning, following, obeying, serving, pursuing holiness…
Dead Faith Living Faith
2. empty compassion vv.15-16 • compassionate help
James gives us the classic example in vv.15-16 of saying empty words to people who are hungry and poorly clothed, in other words, people who are in need…”go in peace, be warm and be filled…God bless you brother…”
Now I know we have to be careful about handing out money to those on the street who beg for it, because we may be hurting them more than helping them by contributing to their problems…some will use the money for things that harm them.
-even with needs in the church family, sometimes the best thing to do is not just give out things, but to help these folks with the deeper root issues that keep them poor and destitute and helpless…
-we’ve got an amazing membership care team in our church who are doing exactly that…taking the time with people to help them get to the root of issues along with the monetary help they need…and time it takes…in some cases hours of time…I could not be more grateful for dedicated people like this…
But the point is, empty words of compassion with no practical help is an evidence that your faith is not real…that it is dead…that it cannot save you…
-compassion for people in need is one evidence of true faith…
Dead Faith Living Faith
3. empty beliefs v.19 • beliefs that produce obedience
Belief alone will save no one. The world is full of people who believe in the God of the Bible…who even believe many of the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith but have no saving faith…because it’s all head knowledge that has not found its way into their hearts and their lifestyle…
James uses the extreme example of demons who also have an intellectual belief about God…
…the demons, evil fallen angels…and their Boss, Satan, believe a lot of the same things you and I believe…existence of God, the deity of Christ, the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the power of Christ’s atoning blood, the power of prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit, the reality of heaven and hell, the eternal judgment that awaits all created beings… they know and believe all those things…
…they know the Bible…but their knowledge is useless to them… they are eternally lost and can never be saved…
-don’t be deceived into thinking the Christian life is only about learning more…that’s important, but knowledge without practical application is dead and useless…
One of the most sobering things Jesus ever said is in Mt 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
III Examples of Faith
Then James goes on to give some biblical examples of faith…
…in order to illustrate what he is saying about saving faith that proves itself by actions, he gives us the example of Abraham.
The Example of Abraham vv.21-24 (Gen 22)
-he refers to the story in Gen. 22 where God told Abraham to take his only son Isaac to Mt Moriah and sacrifice him there on an altar like an animal sacrifice, a burnt offering. If you know the story, Abraham did exactly that despite how unimaginable and cruel it was…
But as he lifted the knife to literally kill Isaac…God stopped Abraham and said, “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your only son…” Gen. 22:12.
James uses this act of obedience as clear proof that Abraham’s faith was real…that his faith and his actions were working together… that if God tells you to do something, you act on fatih and do it no matter what it is…that means everything to God and proves that our faith in Him is real…
The Apparent Contradiction
But the problem is found in v.24, where we read: “You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.”
And the person familiar with the Bible goes, “Wait a minute, that’s not what the Bible teaches, is it? or what Paul teaches in Romans.” And it appears we have a contradiction on our hands.
Because Paul in Rm 3:28 says, “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”
It’s this apparent contradiction that caused Martin Luther to reject the book of James…at least initially…he called it “an epistle of straw…that has no gospel character to it”…
But as one of the great reformers coming out of the Roman Catholic movement of justification by works, you can understand that any scripture that seemed to teach this would have set off alarm bells for someone God used to pioneer the Great Reformation…
So let me explain this apparent contradiction. It is actually no contradiction at all, but rather two different perspectives of the same truth:
Paul (Rm 3) James (ch. 2)
• the root of our salvation • the fruit of our salvation
(justification by grace (evidence of justification through faith) by grace through faith)
• what God does • what we do
• how we stand before God • how we live before God
• correcting the false idea • correcting the false idea that we can earn our salvation idea that we don’t have to
by works do anything once we’re
saved
John Piper offers this helpful insight:
When Paul renounces "justification by works" he renounces the view that anything we do along with faith is credited to us as righteousness. Only faith obtains the verdict, “not guilty”, when we become Christians. Works of any kind are not acceptable in the moment of initial justification.
But when James affirms "justification by works" he means that works are absolutely necessary in the ongoing life of a Christian to confirm and prove the reality of the faith which justifies.
Faith alone unites us to Christ for righteousness, and the faith that unites us to Christ for righteousness does not remain alone. It is accompanied by action. It bears the fruit of love.
It must do so or it is a dead, demonic, useless faith that does not justify.
The Apparent Contradiction Resolved
-so rather than Paul and James contradicting each other, they are actually offering complementary perspectives of the same gospel…
And we see those perspectives brought together beautifully in two NT passages:
Gal. 5:6
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Eph. 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The Gospel is This
-we can do absolutely nothing to earn our salvation. No good works will save us. Salvation is through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone and His substitutionary death on the cross. It is an unconditional gift of God’s grace freely given to undeserving sinners by saving faith.
-saving faith will show itself by good works and deeds done in obedience to God, not to earn His favor but because we have received His favor.
-where there is no evidence, no fruit of saving faith through good works and deeds, then that faith is dead and useless.
In other words, faith works. Faith that works changes the way we live. Faith that works brings glory to God. Faith that works makes us a friend of God.
Conclusion
-I’m certain that most of us listening to this message want our faith to be real…to be saving faith…want our faith to be more than empty claims…want it to be evident through good works and loving deeds…
So what can we do to make sure this is true of us?
The answer is not adding more works to our faith, not to get busier doing good things in the hope that somehow our faith will become stronger and more genuine…that’s an “outside-in” change and it never lasts…
We need an “inside-out” change…we need a stronger connection to the Object of our faith, to the Source of our faith…which is the Lord Jesus Christ and His saving gospel…
-as we stay connected to Him, abide in Him, spend time with Him in prayer and the word…our faith is strengthened…and the genuine saving faith that only Jesus can give then produces fruit in keeping with that faith…
…we find a new heart of love for the needy, a new love for people, a new desire for righteousness, a new strength to overcome evil, a new desire to live for others and not only ourselves…
There’s no other way; there’s no easy way; no quick way…its’ the long road of discipleship, of being transformed into the image of Jesus by the Holy Spirit…
Are you willing to commit yourself to that today?
I close with this blessing from Col 2:6-7
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taugh…
Prayer…Worship…