James 2:14-26
Announcements:
Need new teacher for preschool Next men’s breakfast June 16 – time and place TBD
Small Groups May 29 and 30 for 20-40 somethings – Invite people
Introduction:
“Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life conducted a survey that states 78% of the adults in America classify themselves as Christian (this includes Protestant, Catholics, Mormons, etc). Only 5.8% of those adults claim religion is “somewhat important or very important” in their lives. That is a scary statistic! The margin between being a Christian and claiming it is important in their lives is too large.”
—Pew Research Center, “America’s Changing Religious Landscape”, May 12, 2015.
Text: James 2:14-26
Theme: Faith without works is dead.
Verses 14-17
This is one of those passages where it’s necessary for me to get technical. These verses are often used to teach that works are necessary for salvation. Different nominally Christian groups such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses use these verses to teach that salvation comes through faith and works.
That is not what these verses teach, but it is easy to get the idea that is what is being taught. Many Christians and non-Christians can read these verses and think “kind of looks to me like he is saying you have to work to be saved.”
So I want to take special care with these verses today to help address that misconception.
Let me start by saying very clearly that I believe salvation is by grace alone through faith alone based upon the work of Christ alone, and no work we could ever do can save us or add to Christ’s saving work in any way. I say that at the beginning because you might wonder where I am going with my message for the first few minutes or so! Hopefully knowing that I do not believe works contribute to our salvation will help you as I explain these verses.
Alright, first, let’s look at verse 14: *Read James 2:14*
James asks “can that faith save him?” In Greek, the construction of the sentence makes it a rhetorical question expecting a negative response. So James is saying, no, that faith cannot save him.
The important thing to not miss is that he says THAT faith. It’s not “can faith save him” but rather, “can that faith save him?” What is THAT faith? That faith is described above. It is the faith that someone SAYS that they have, but give no evidence of actually having. They say it with words, but it doesn’t affect their life in any way. It’s a profession of faith.
Anybody can give a profession of faith. Anybody can say they have faith. A profession of faith is not the same thing as saving faith. Someone who says they have faith may or may not actually have faith.
Verses 15 and 16 he gives an illustration of what he is talking about:
Suppose a brother or sister in need comes up to you to ask for assistance. They need clothes and food. So you say to them “go in peace, be warmed and filled.” What is the value of that statement? What has changed by you saying it? It is worth nothing. The poor brother or sister does not suddenly become clothed in rich clothing and receive a fridge full of food by you saying some words.
In the same way, the kind of “faith” which is nothing but empty words and produces no works at all in your life is just that – empty words that are good for nothing.
Rather fittingly, James says that this kind of “faith” is “dead.” “Dead” is how people are described when they are outside of Christ. They are called dead in their trespasses and sins. God told us that if we ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, that we would die. And we did indeed die – we became spiritually dead. No movement or activity spiritually was going on before we came to faith in Christ. We were dead in our sins.
New life is what we were given when we placed our faith in Christ. We have the Holy Spirit in us. We became fruit bearing trees. Jesus said that He came that we might have life and have it abundantly. Becoming a Christian is often called being “born again.” Ephesians says that we are His creation, created for good works.
What I’m getting at is true faith is alive and results in life. When someone places their faith in Christ, they are no longer dead in their sins. They come alive. Good things start happening. Living, healthy, wonderful things. Not dead corpse things.
A profession of faith that does not produce new life is a dead faith, just like a person outside of Christ is dead. There is no spiritual relationship with God going on. A profession of faith new life or works is just empty words. The same God who promised us salvation by grace alone through faith alone based upon the works of Christ alone is the same God who promised to give us His Holy Spirit when we are saved, to make us into fruit bearing trees, to be born again, and that we are created for good works.
To be especially clear, what I’m saying is that when an unsaved person places their faith in Christ, they are at that moment saved. And they are saved and sealed forever at that moment. And they are saved by grace alone through faith alone based upon the works of Christ alone.
And as a fruit of that salvation – not occurring before salvation, not a condition of salvation, or a prerequisite for it – but a fruit and glorious benefit of salvation: is that we come to life. We are born again. Our spiritual relationship with God goes from a dead corpse to an alive new born babe. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us and begins instructing us in the way we should go. A hunger and thirst for God is awakened inside of us. God begins a good work in us and starts to produce practical and righteous holiness. Just like newborn babes we begin to desire to be fed, but our food is the word of God. And we grow in works and spiritual maturity as we are fed and walk in our newness of life.
“Moral virtue may wash the outside, but faith washes the inside.” – Thomas Adams
All of these things are because we are saved and they are things that God does. They are not things that we do to become saved. And God has promised these things.
If God has promised these things are given to us after we become saved through faith, then what must we conclude about someone who says that they have faith but do not have works? The conclusion is: that faith is dead.
Link: James anticipates pushback from his teaching that true faith results in works and so he gives the anticipated argument and his response to it.
Verses 18-19
The anticipated pushback is “either is good.” Something like “let some people have faith and some people have works, it can be an either or thing. You have your faith. I have my works. We’re both right with God.”
James’ reply is: I challenge you to demonstrate your faith apart from works. You: show me you have faith apart from works. I will show you I have faith by my works.
I can’t imagine they took him up on the challenge, and if they did take him up on the challenge, I can’t imagine how they could have ever proved their case. Just imagine someone going around saying “I have faith.” But they treat everyone with contempt and do no good at all.
Our behavior reflects our belief. I don’t drive above a certain speed because I don’t want to go off roading or be given a speeding ticket. I believe it’s cold outside and so I put on a jacket, or warm so I put on shorts. I believe the country church is located at the corner of 331 and 9b road and so that’s where I park. I believe I’m the pastor of the church so I’m up here preaching this morning. I believe that I am hungry and so I eat food.
And someone wants to say they believe that God is the judge of all the earth and sent His one and only Son to die for their sins and by placing their faith in Him they have been given eternal life and a relationship with Him and freedom from their sins – they want to say they believe that while also doing no good deeds whatsoever? OK, well, if you say so, but good luck proving your case!
For emphasis, James says “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder!” A good point! Would a rational person say that demons have saving faith? No, they would not. Why would we not say that a demon is saved? Well it’s obvious – because everything that demons do is in opposition to God and in disobedience to God. They produce no good works at all. There’s zero evidence in the life of a demon that they are a Christian. And yet, they do believe in God.
So also is the case with a person’s empty profession that has not resulted in new life and works. And in a way, it is even worse, because at least the demons shudder to think of God, whereas the one with an empty profession has disregarded him completely.
Verses 20-24
Here things get still more technical. Hopefully you’ve followed me up to this point. I’m going to have to start throwing some Greek words at you now to explain these verses.
Justified = δικαιοω. It means to pronounce someone as righteous. So to substitute the definition for the word here, what verse 21 is saying is “was not Abraham our father pronounced to be righteous by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?” His righteousness was not earned by his works. His righteousness was declared by his works. Or to put it as verse 18 does Abraham’s faith was shown by his works.
Illustration from a court room: When a person is justified, they are pronounced innocent of the charges. Question: let’s say you have somehow found yourself in court. You are innocent of all charges, but you have to go through the hearing anyway. When you get to the end of the hearing, the judge justifies you: he pronounces your innocence. Are you innocent because he justified you? No. You are innocent because the charges are false. The justification is not why you are innocent– the justification proclaims your innocence.
What if you get to the end of the hearing and – horror of horrors – you are pronounced guilty. You are condemned. But really, you have done nothing wrong.
Justification and condemnation are judicial declarations of innocence or guilt – they are not the things that actually make you innocent or guilty. That’s determined by whether you really did the crime or not.
In the same way, works are not what make us innocent before God. We are made right with God by grace alone, through faith alone, based upon the works of Christ alone. His death, burial, and resurrection is what makes us righteous.
But what proclaims our righteousness is our works. These demonstrate to others that we have been saved, but they themselves do not save us.
Verse 22 – *read verse 22*
Completed = τελειοω. To fill up, or to bring to the goal, or to bring to accomplishment. Faith finds its fulfillment in action, or your faith is shown to be complete when it ends in works.
If faith can be compared to a race, faith is what gets you through the race. At the end of the race, that is where the works are. Faith saves you, and then at its fulfillment we find works.
“Faith is the starting-post of obedience.” – Thomas Chalmers
Verse 23 – *read verse 23*
Let me show you something interesting about this quotation here. I think it will help show the point better. Turn to Genesis 15:6. *Read Genesis 15:6* Here is the verse that is quoted. Abraham believes the Lord, and the Lord counts the belief to him as righteousness.
Now turn to Genesis 22:1 – *Read Genesis 22:1-3*
Let me ask you this: Does 15 come before or after 22? So which happened first – that Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness? Or that Abraham demonstrated his faith by works? 22 comes after 15. And in fact, the events of chapter 22 occurred over 25 years after Abraham was declared righteous in Genesis 15.
Turn back to James 2:23.
“And the Scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed the Lord and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
That verse in Genesis 15:6 which says “Abraham believed God…” that verse was fulfilled, Abraham’s righteousness was demonstrated, Abraham was proclaimed to be righteous by his works, when over 25 years later he showed his faith by his works.
And so, again, verse 24 – a person is proclaimed to be righteous by works and not by faith alone.
Works proclaim that a person’s faith is genuine and that they have been made righteous. They don’t save a person – that happened many years earlier in the life of Abraham – but they show the faith is real.
Last couple verses – *read 25-26*
Same message in these verses – Rahab was shown to have faith in God when she received and protected God’s messengers. For those that don’t know that story, this occurred in the Old Testament times when the Israelites were first entering the land promised to them by God. Two people from Israel went to go spy on the town of Jericho before Israel came to invade. Rahab had faith that the God of the Israelites was the true God and that He would fulfill His promises. Thus, she decided to protect the two Israelite spies and send them out a different way.
She was shown to be righteous by her works. She had a true faith in God that resulted in works. Hers is a good example too of faith resulting in action. If she did not believe that the God of the Israelites was the true God, then it would have made no sense whatsoever to protect the two spies. Protecting them would just mean death for her and for her family. And revealing them to the town would have meant reward and honor. But because she had faith in the One true God, and faith that He would fulfill His promise to give the land to the Israelites, it made perfect sense to protect these two individuals. To not do so would have been foolish.
So, faith leads to works. Faith without works is dead.
Application:
Alright, so, verse by verse we went through James 2:14-26. Hopefully you now have a good understanding of these verses and the interplay between faith and works! If you have any more questions about it, feel free to ask me later, but I want to move from explaining these verses over to how they relate to our lives.
Basically, it’s this: works give evidence that our faith is genuine. Works do not save us, but a living faith is a working faith. If you profess to be a Christian, but there is no obedience to God in your life, then you really need to seriously reconsider that profession. Faith results in action. You know the things you believe: you know you believe that water will drown you so you don’t breathe under water. You know that cars can kill you so you don’t run out in front of them. If you truly believe that God is a just God who has saved you by faith and will punish evil doers, then why do you do no good works? The very likely case is that you have deceived yourself.
And, similarly, while we can never know if someone else is truly saved or not – God is the judge, we are not. God knows people’s hearts, we do not. God knows if someone is doing good works, we do not – though all that is true, these verses should encourage us to share the Gospel with others. Maybe you have a friend or loved one that says they are a Christian but you see no evidence of that at all. God knows the truth of it. But from our perspective, if you know of someone like this, it would be wise for you to find opportunities to share the Gospel with them. Because anybody can say that they are a believer.
And if they are truly a believer after all, well, no harm done. We all need reminded of the Gospel. Believers and unbelievers. The Gospel is why believers do what they do – they do all they do out of a loving thankfulness to God for saving them. They are able to do good things because God has saved them. They are merciful because God has shown mercy to them. They love others because God has loved them. Believers need reminded of the Gospel. It encourages their faith and that encouraged faith spurs them on to good works. If you believe someone to be a Christian – it is still a good thing to remind them of the Gospel, because such reminders spur us on to love and good works.