Faith Apart from Works Is Dead
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. James 2:26
James 2:14–26 – Doing the Word: Directions for life to a scattered church from The Letter of James
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – July 26, 2020 (am)
Today we come to one of the most familiar passages in James, one that has generated hot disputes for centuries. What’s the connection between faith and works? How are they related? How do they work together. But make no mistake, our time in the Word today will not just be the latest installment in a theological debate. We all want to leave here [stirred] up to love a good works (cf. Heb.10:24). Let’s answer two questions from this passage.
What Is James Teaching Here?
In v.14 James poses two questions as introduction to this paragraph as a whole (14-26): What good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works? And: Can that faith save him? The assumed answer to the first question is: No good. And to the second: No, faith without works cannot save him.
Then James launches into an illustration of a brother or sister in need (15-17) to confirm both of these answers. This brother or sister is embarrassingly under-dressed, probably in rags, and has no food, most likely referring to a regular, ongoing [lack], not just to missing one meal on one particular day (15). Now, someone who says he has faith sees this brother or sister, but simply says: Go in peace, the Jewish greeting, Shalom, wishing spiritual wholeness and well-being. Not only that, this nameless someone also wishes him or her to be warmed, even though he provides no [clothing], and filled, even though he offers no food (16). Now, if someone who says he is a Christian sees a fellow Christian in this kind of need, yet closes his heart (1Jo.3:17) in this way, offering nothing but pious well-wishes and statements that demonstrate he clearly sees the need but then he makes no effort to meet it, is there any profit, any good, any evidence of a [saving] quality to his faith? No! Faith [without] works is dead (17)—no signs of life!
In v.18 James anticipates an objection from another someone. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works,” as though both were equally valid, like some people have genuine faith that shows itself with good works and others have genuine faith that doesn’t show itself with good works. So, James continues: Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. In effect he’s saying: Let’s stand these two assertions side by side and see how they compare. And more, let’s even see whether both can legitimately be called faith— this faith which produces works and this faith which doesn’t!
James begins by citing the primary affirmation of faith in all of Jewish life, the Shema, Deu.6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You can recite this passage all day, believe it, even know in the depths of your heart that it’s true, and [tremble] at the implications, but you haven’t yet been set apart from the demons of hell in your [beliefs]! Just [believing] something to be true, even [believing] in biblical truth and holding to good theology, is not saving faith—17 … faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Or, said differently, being hearers of the word without being doers of the word (cf. 1:22) just isn’t true, saving faith. Agreed?
Say, a man is lying in a ditch, [robbed] and [beaten] by [thieves]. A priest and a Levite walk past on the other side of the road and do nothing. Then a Samaritan stops to help, cleans up the wounded man, and nurses him back to health covering the cost himself (cf. Luk.10:25-37). Which one of these showed genuine faith, saving [belief] in God? Why?
17 … faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But James uses his own examples. And he throws down the gauntlet in v.20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Then he uses Paul’s favorite illustration that shows we’re justified by faith alone apart from works of the law (Rom.3:28). James wrote: 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works. So, how do we reconcile Paul and James? It really does sound like they can’t both be right! Paul says, Rom.3:28 … we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. And James says: 17 … faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
We could spend a long time unpacking this. Many have. But the simple truth is that, even though Paul and James are talking about the same gift from God, they’re talking about it in different ways, defining key words differently. Doug Moo (2009 p..103) explained: The appearance of a conflict is created because [Paul and James] give two key words, ‘faith’ and ‘justify’, different meanings…. Bottom line (1985 p.135): “Justify” in Paul refers to how a person gets into relationship with God, while in James it connotes what that relationship must ultimately look like to receive God’s final approval. So, Paul is talking about how we’re reconciled to God. And James is talking about what a reconciled life looks like.
Thus, when Paul wrote that Rom4:3 … Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, he clarifies his meaning by asking: 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised—before or after his good works, his obedience? It was not after, but before…. So, it was apart from [his] good works (17, 26), by faith alone, that Abraham was justified, that he was reconciled to God. And when James writes here, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (23), he’s talking about Abraham’s obedience which confirmed that he really did [believe] God, He really did trust God to the point that he’d do whatever God said even when it was hard. That’s what he means when he says: 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
The writer of Hebrews talks about this, and also about James’ next example, when he lists those whose lives were changed, whose faithfulness was enabled, by true faith in God. Rahab was one of them (25; cf. Jos.2, 6). She was so confident in Israel’s God during those days of their conquest in the land that she received the messengers and sent them out by another way—she aided God’s people in their time of need even though it surely put her life in danger. That’s what genuine faith in God looks like, what it [does] (1:22).
What Should We Be Learning?
Three Things About These Good Works James Wants to See:
These good works are the God-designed expression of true saving faith.
Paul stated this most clearly when he explained the connection between true saving faith and good works— how they fit together. Eph.2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. So, we’re not saved by good works, we’re saved for good works, unto good works, to do good works! Good works are an essential part of God’s intended outcome in our salvation. So, we press on to do them with our whole heart!These good works are what happen as we become doers of the word.
So, not only are they the evidence of our genuine, saving faith but they’re also the expression of our obedience to God. As James clearly insinuated in the last chapter, if we are hearers of the word but not doers, then we’re deceiving [ourselves] (1:22) if we think that the [blessing] (1:12, 25) of the crown of life (1:12) will be our eternal reward! No, that [blessing] is promised only to those who [persevere] in their obedience, in their [doing] of the word, to the point where they become steadfast under trial (1:12)—or, as Paul said, where they do not grow weary of doing good (cf. Gal.6:9).These good works here are essentially compassion, mercy, and love.
These are the good works that top James’ list, capture it, summarize it—Paul would agree (Gal.5:6); so would John (1Jo.3:16-18), and Jesus (Mat.25:31-46). We see this insinuated in James’ first example here with the poorly clothed and [hungry] brother or sister (15-16). We saw it last week (1-7) as we were called away from the favoritism that looks down on those who are poor and needy in this world while it inappropriately elevates those who are rich. We saw it at the end of c.1 where religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is [that which attends to] orphans and widows in their affliction. Love like this is the essence of the royal law… of liberty (12, cf. 1:25). It is the love that is as devoted to neighbor as it is to [self] (8). And it should be our pursuit (8).
So this really is what we should be learning from this text. We should see the central importance of good works to genuine Christianity, and then the central role of compassion, mercy, and love among those good works.
We should also recognize that our calling to compassion, mercy, and love is pretty tightly intertwined with whatever form of trial we’re facing in which we need to be steadfast —either some expression of compassion or mercy is being required of us in situations that make these expressions seem hard or unpleasant to offer. Or it’s the suffering that comes when someone we love is the source of the hardship or trial or testing in our lives.
But our primary subject this morning is not the size of the problem that complicates or impedes our good works, it’s the central importance of our good works in displaying the legitimacy of our faith. Does your faith show itself in good works, especially in compassion, mercy, and love, to those in need? Is there a resiliency to your commitment to these? Do they produce great joy and thanksgiving to God? Is there a twinge of guilt at the thought of resisting an impulse toward compassion, mercy, or love?
Conclusion
That is what we want to encourage today! We want to breathe on any smoldering embers of these expressions in every heart made alive by God’s sovereign grace such that they kick up into white-hot flames of heaven-like community among us! We want a church that is filled with clear displays of genuine, saving faith to the praise of God’s glory!
As Paul wrote to Titus (2:14), we want to be a church that lives in a manner worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. We want to be a church that is passionate about compassion, mercy, and love, a church that displays and protects and nurtures these virtues!
We have a unique opportunity this morning as we take a break between our corporate worship and celebration of our long-awaited Communion. Communion is God’s appointed ceremony by which He affirms those who belong to Him—His new covenant community. And it is our opportunity to examine our hearts before Him to ensure that we’re living in obedience to His new covenant commands, individually and collectively. If compassion, mercy, or love has been lacking in your relationship with one another in this body, use this time wisely to address that with each other.
Also, we have wanted to wait on the celebration of Communion until it was clear that we had found a way to do it that would address every sensitivity and would not eliminate anyone who would want to participate. We believe we have found that. If you choose not to be here, or are unable to be here, we understand. We just wanted our procedure to allow for every level of sensitivity and vulnerability to be accommodated such that, as best we’re able, God’s new covenant community at GCD is gathered this day.
Next Sunday: A Truly Perfect Man or Woman, James 3:1-12, Todd Walker