Title: That Can’t be right, Can it? 

Text: James 2:14-26

Date: 4-18-04.am

Thesis Statement: What good is your faith if it doesn’t do anything and if your faith doesn’t do anything can it really be genuine saving faith? James says a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. That can’t be right, or can it?

James 2:14-26

14     What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

15     If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,

16     and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for {their} body, what use is that?

17     Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, {being} by itself.

18     But someone may {well} say, "You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

19     You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

20     But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

21     Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

22     You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;

23     and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God.

24     You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.

25     And in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

26     For just as the body without {the} spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (NAS)

A few weeks ago I said that beginning in verse 19 of chapter 1 James wrote about the characteristics of genuine faith. The first was faith hears the Word. The second was faith obeys the word. A third characteristic is genuine faith proves itself by works. The passage we’re looking at today gives us the central theme of the book of James, “faith without works is dead faith.”

This is one of the most misunderstood passages in the New Testament outside the book of Revelation and maybe one of the most misunderstood in the entire Bible. It was this passage, particularly verse 24, that caused Martin Luther to reject the authenticity and authority of book of James and characterize it as an “epistle of straw.” Certainly if we read verse 24 by itself we might be lead to that same conclusion because James says, “a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

Obviously from very early in church history this has raised the question, is James teaching justification by works? Does James in fact contradict the doctrine of justification by faith which is so clearly taught by Paul on his letters?

First let’s begin by affirming a basic truth about the Bible itself. The Bible is God’s self revelation to mankind, inerrant and infallible. The Baptist Faith and Message, the doctrinal statement adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention, says the Bible “. . .is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.” That means the Bible does not contradict itself. Believing that, we know what James wrote can not and will not be at odds with what Paul taught and wrote.

Some have argued James was written for the express purpose of contradicting Paul’s writings. But, historical documentary evidence indicates James was written prior to any of Paul’s letters. In fact James may be the earliest of the New Testament writings. Of course, even though Paul hadn’t written any of his letters, it is likely his teachings were known to those believers scattered throughout Palestine. As we mentioned in the first message in this series, those James refers to in verse one are most likely Jewish believers scattered throughout Palestine by local persecution. But, if this letter was also circulated among Jewish and Gentile believers beyond Palestine there is little doubt Paul’s teachings would be known by them. James, himself, would likely be aware of what Paul taught having spent time with him in Jerusalem (Gal. 2).

However, if there is any correlation James and Paul, by that I mean if James was writing in response to something someone attributed to Paul, it is more probable James was addressing either a perversion or a misunderstanding of Paul’s teachings.

It seems more probable James was addressing a general misunderstanding of the doctrine of justification by faith among believers particularly Jewish believers that developed apart from Paul’s teachings.

Jewish believers came out of a works based religion – Circumcision, keeping of the law, Sabbath regulations. Dietary regulations, sacrificial requirements. All external ritual requirements that were necessary for a person to achieve a right standing before God. Christianity taught something radically different salivation by grace through faith. That wasn’t just Paul’s message, we find it clearly spelled out by Jesus in John’s Gospel.

John 3:14-16

14     "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;

15     that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life.

16     "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (NAS)

John 5:24

24     "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. (NAS)

John 6:40

40     "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life;" (NAS)

Even though the word justified isn’t specifically used in these passages it’s clear that justification by faith was the teaching of Jesus. Justification was a legal term used by Paul to describe how we become just or are made righteous before God. It’s describes how grace and faith work together. Paul wrote, Jesus was raised in order that in the sight of God we might be made righteous, the resurrection demonstrated God’s acceptance of the atoning sacrifice of Christ for us so that we might be justified and God would still be just. God by His grace provided the sacrifice for sin on the cross, and by the resurrection proved or verified His acceptance of that sacrifice on our behalf. By faith we believe Christ died for our sin and rose for our justification. We accept God’s forgiveness and we receive His salvation. We talked about that last week an exchange takes place where our sin is assigned to Christ and His righteousness is assigned to us. That’s called imputed, or credited righteousness and it comes by faith alone apart from works! There is no doubt, the clear teaching of Jesus, Paul and Scripture is no one can be saved by works.

However, the Bible also teaches another truth, equally important: It is impossible for a person to experience the new birth, to have moved from darkness into light, from death unto life, to have the life of God dwelling within, and not produce fruit consistent with that new life. New life in Christ produces a new life style, a new value system, and the fruit of good works. Once we are saved everything we have belongs to God Everything we have and everything we are is to be used to bring glory to God. It is at this point James takes a stand against those who claim to have saving faith in Christ, yet have a lifestyle lacking any evidence of that faith.

Remember we must read this passage in context with the entire letter. From the very beginning of his letter, James has been addressing the issue of a fruitless, faithless life. For James faith alone saves, (1:18-21) but saving faith is never alone. That truth is also clearly taught by both Jesus and Paul.

In the Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5:13-16, Jesus taught:

13     "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty {again} It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

14     "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

15     "Nor do {men} light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house.

16     "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (NAS)

You may be more familiar with what Paul wrote in Eph 2:8-9:

8       For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast. (NAS) But we often overlook verse 10 where Paul wrote:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (NAS)

The teachings of Jesus and Paul are in complete agreement salvation is by faith, they are also in agreement that genuine faith produces works of faith designed to glorify God and cause others to glorify God and that it is God’s desire and will that we should walk in them or live our lives continually producing them. It’s only through good works we become salt and light in our world. Without them (good deeds) we are like tasteless salt and hidden light.

That means there is then no contradiction between Paul and James when James wrote faith without works is dead, useless faith. His question in verse 14 doesn’t say a person has faith, but if a man says he has faith but there is no evidence is it really saving faith, or is it instead merely an intellectual ascent to certain facts. He refers to the unity of God verse 19 as a point of intellectual belief. He is talking about the Shema found in Deut 6:4-5

4       "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

5       "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.(NAS) It’s repeated by Jesus in Mark 12:29-30. James says it’s good to believe that, because it’s the truth, but even the demons know it’s true and believe it, but intellectual belief in fact doesn’t save them.

In verse 21 and 22 he explains his position on faith and works. He asks was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Abrahams faith was not abstract, inoperative dead faith. Faith proved itself by what it did. Faith must be active. Abraham didn’t say when God told him to sacrifice Isaac, I have faith God will provide an alternate sacrifice and not allow me to sacrifice Isaac so I’ll just stay home and praise God. Instead Abraham acted on his faith. A few years ago I heard Dr Harold Bryson professor of Preaching at New Orleans Seminary in a lecture on biblical interpretation talking about words having usage rather than meaning and that’s what we have here in James. It’s a little easier to see in the Greek but James uses the word justified in a different way than Paul.

Paul used the term to mean “is made righteous.” James used a different form of the root word which changed it usage to "is shown to be righteous." James is writing about the proof of faith, not the initial act of being set right with God. (from Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament) He uses the illustration of Rahab in verse 25 in the same way. Abraham and Rahab were not made righteous by their works, but were shown to be righteous by their works.

Verse 22 sums up his argument that faith and works are inseparably linked . Works don’t save, but they demonstrate the reality of saving faith. Faith believes God and that same faith acts on that belief. We can use our pew illustration again faith believes they will hold up if you sit down on them, faith is competed when you sit down.

Let me ask you this morning, what kind of faith do you have? Is it a dead useless faith or are you in fact acting on your faith, testing and proving to yourself that your faith is genuine by your obedience to God? Is Jesus Lord of your life as well as Savior? The Lord knows the answer to that question, and the Bible says you will be know by the fruit you bear. Is your life bearing fruit consistent with salvation, are you living for Jesus? If not we invite you to come this morning and give yourself to Him.