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?

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Key Verse:

James 2:17

"Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself."

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FAITH PROVES ITSELF BY ACTION

INTRODUCTION

A. Historic background.

Jewish believers in the dispersion found themselves among not only Gentiles but also other Jews, most of whom did not believe in Christ. These unbelieving Jews had a "faith," however, just as the Pharisees whom Jesus denounced as hypocrites had a faith. Jesus pointed out that their faith was vain because their works were evil. It would have been very comfortable and advantageous for these believing Jews if they were to content themselves with a mere intellectual, traditional "faith," a faith that accepted the tenets of Jewish orthodoxy but had no power to save from sin. They could even have an article of faith about Jesus, so long as His Lordship did not require any moral commitment, any heart-obedience. Such antinomian "faith" would have been inoffensive to others, but it would be dead and useless.

B. Current background

The popular notion today seems to be that to be a Christian is simply a matter of subscribing to a set of beliefs and acting in a socially acceptable manner, all of which is to be made official by a few religious rituals. Such an attitude misses the essential point. It makes religion to consist in a set of opinions that do not move the heart to loving obedience toward God, yet compensates for this lack of true heart-obedience by substituting a set of religious duties to be fulfilled. It manufactures a combination of "faith" and "works," neither of which is genuine. The truth is that real faith is of the heart, and therefore it acts from the heart.

I. Do we really know what faith is? (2:14-18)

A. Can the kind of faith that does nothing be the kind of faith that saves? If so, then in what way has it saved? If the person is left unaffected in heart and life, what good has that person's religion done? Is this the kind of salvation that the angels desire to look into?

B. James uses a dramatic illustration to demonstrate his point: telling someone without food and clothes to be warmed and filled, yet doing nothing. By this illustration James informs us that he is speaking of the "faith" that consists only in words, words, words. That kind of "faith" had a long history in Israel. Jesus said so much as that when He quoted Isaiah's charge against Judah recorded in Isaiah 29:13: "This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me." (Matthew 15:8).

C. Works are not something added to faith to supplement or fortify it; neither do works (and we are talking about real works--love works) merely flow from faith. In verse 17 James tells us that the practical energizing of love is the very heart and life of faith itself. "Faith" is spurious if something has to be added to it, or if works only result from it. Faith is genuine saving faith only if its actions are a part of its own dynamic. One cannot make a dead body "live" by merely moving its arms and legs. Such "works" are imposed from the outside, and are just as dead as the body that is manipulated to perform them.

D. So often faith and works are placed separately, even in antithesis to each other. James is not contending for works against faith, or works apart from faith. James is championing faith--real faith, the kind that is alive and shows that it is alive by the actions that it generates from within itself. As sin is aroused to action by its enmity to the law, so faith is aroused to action by its response to grace. (See Romans 7:8).

E. Verse eighteen is a battleground of conflicting interpretations. It's thrust is clear, however. It is impossible for faith to reveal itself except in actions. This is the premise of Hebrews 11. In that great faith chapter, the faith of the people cited was shown by what they did. Faith is a choice, and choice produces action.

II. Where do we see faith in action before the law and apart from the law? (2:l9-26).

A. If one's "faith" consists only in a mental assent to the truth, though it be the most fundamental truth of all, the existence of the one true God, yet does not obey God, he does no more than the demons. They, too, believe as much and obey not. In fact, the demons do more than merely subscribe to the doctrine of God. They tremble. This shows that their "belief" has a more profound effect on them than the "belief" of the person with a dead faith. (A Christological note: the Biblical examples of demons trembling before the one true God are of their trembling before the Lord Jesus. cf. Mark 1:24; 5:12).

B. No stronger argument could be presented to a Jew than the example of Abraham. How was Abraham justified? By faith (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4; Hebrews 11:8-19). What kind of faith was it? It was a living faith, a faith that "was working with his works," and therefore was a complete, effective faith. It was the action of his faith (the "follow-through" of his faith) that fulfilled the Biblical declaration (made earlier than the action) that he was justified by faith. So we see that a person is justified by the operation of faith (i.e., the action of faith), and not merely by its form. Abraham was before the law.

C. Though Rahab the harlot was in a category about as far removed as possible from Abraham in the Jewish mind (to compare her with Abraham was in itself a stumblingblock to many Jews), she was justified in the same way as Abraham. That is, she believed. How do we know that she believed? By what she did, that is, by her actions, her works. Apart from those actions (works), there would have been no vitality and hence no validity to her faith.

D. This principle is demonstrated over and over in Scripture. "And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, 'My Son, your sins are forgiven'." (Mark 2:5). What did Jesus "see"? He saw them tear the roof off! No antinomian "faith" there! Faith is a volitional response to the truth and to the God of truth.

E. James's concluding analogy is an exact one. Just as it takes a body and a spirit to make a whole person, so it takes both the form of belief and the volitional response to make a living faith.

CONCLUSION

Do we truly believe? Are we trusting Jesus alone as our Savior? Are we trusting Him to forgive us? Do we believe that He has given us new life? What is there in our lives that demonstrates that faith? What are we doing about it? Where is that new life energizing in us? Has it made a difference in our attitudes and actions? What is the evidence that our faith is true saving faith? Can Jesus "see" our faith? If we truly believe the gospel, we will act like it to the extent of our light.

A familiar story is told of a performer whose top act was pushing a wheelbarrow over a waterfall (from one edge to the other) on a narrow cable. The performer asked a spectator if he believed that he (the performer) could really do it. The spectator said, "Sure, I believe you can do it." To this the performer replied, "Are you willing to get into the wheelbarrow"? Faith "gets into the wheelbarrow." Faith--real, living, saving faith-- trusts Christ completely, and it proves itself by a total commitment to Christ.

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POINTS TO PONDER:

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1. What is the difference between the works that complete faith, and the works of legalism?

2. Who is the "someone" in verse eighteen, and whom is he addressing?

3. Is it possible to exhibit one's faith apart from works? Why?

4. In the light of verse 20, is every person who does not recognize that faith without works is useless a "foolish fellow," that is, an "empty man"?

5. How did the act of offering up Isaac "justify" Abraham? Did it merit forgiveness of sins?

6. Rahab the harlot did not have the relationship with God that Abraham did. Was her act of receiving and protecting the Israelite spies just as total a commitment for her as surrendering Isaac was for Abraham? Why?

7. Discuss the relationship between body and spirit as it relates to the relationship between faith and works. If the body represents the form and/or substance of faith, what does the spirit represent?

8. We are saved by faith alone, but we are not saved by a faith that stands alone. Do you agree? Why or why not?