Hard Questions: Faith And Works Series

March 13, 2022 sermon - Hard Questions 2: Faith & Works Ephesians 2:8-9 and James 2:14-26

Welcome to Church at the Mission, back in person! Are you happy to be here and not on your phone or computer? I am! We’re thankful to God that it has been possible to continue worship services and Bible studies during a global pandemic.

We’re glad to be back and we want to thank you for joining us, whether in person, which is always best of course, or live or recorded on Youtube.

We’ve been looking at hard questions in the Bible in our current series. Today we’re looking at another question that came from you, from the congregation. That question is this: “Is there a guidebook for interpreting seemingly contradictory statements in the Bible? E.g., We are saved by faith, not by works (Ephesians) ... vs ... faith without deeds is dead (James)”

Now, there are multiple sources online that are helpful in sorting through challenges in the reading of the Bible. Among them are gotquestions.org. (others) I also have a book or 2 in my library that I’m happy to loan out if you are interested, on a first-come, first-serve basis.

But to answer this question directly today, let's look at how we can understand Scripture when it appears to not make sense, when it appears to contradict itself.

To do this we’ll do so under these headings:

What might be called a contradiction is explained when we simply look closer at the text.

What might be called a contradiction is best understood as a necessary and essential tension. They are there on purpose and necessarily. Without them, we would have a skewed understanding of Scripture. from a shallow or out of context reading of Scripture,

No matter how we read the Scriptures, they must be read with faith. By that I don’t mean that we don’t examine them closely

And with a keen awareness of the

No matter how we read the Scriptures, they must be read with a genuine awareness of the Fallenness of the human heart

For starters:

Again, today we are addressing questions that have come from you, the church, in this series on “Hard Questions of the Bible”.

So while this might be a bit heady, I think we’ll see that having a better understanding of these things can help us both as we read the Bible and as we may face challenges from people who are not believers, or who simply may be young believers largely unfamiliar with the Bible.

Let’s begin to look at some response to the question that was raised by a congregation member, which I think comes down to this: “How are we to understand seemingly contradictory statements in the Bible?

1, What might be called a contradiction is explained when we simply look closer at the text.

Let’s take a specific example:

How did Judas Iscariot die? Two seemingly conflicting reports exist:

A. “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:5).

B. “And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18).

So we have two Biblical authors - the Apostle Matthew, a former tax collector, and Luke, a doctor and the author of both the gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts.

They are both discussing is separate accounts the demise of Judas, who had been a disciple of Jesus and who had betrayed Jesus.

Matthew says bluntly that Judas went and hanged himself.

Luke, the doctor, is recording Peter as he preaches and gives other details, perhaps TMI, of the same event.

This is an instance of one statement finding its place alongside another, not denying it or excluding it, but taken together.

Notice that Matthew does not deny that Judas, after hanging himself, fell and burst asunder; on the other hand, Peter, who affirmed that Judas burst asunder, does not assert that Judas did not hang himself previous to his fall.

Putting the two accounts into perspective, it is natural and logical to conclude that Judas had suspended himself from a tree on the brink of a precipice overhanging a valley, and the limb or the rope gave way, he fell, and was mangled to death.

As it stands, Matthew gives us insight into one aspect of the demise of Judas (which was enough detail for his purpose), while Peter,

to show the inglorious end of the traitor, gives another. And yet there is no contradiction between them.

But note, we have to be willing to think through the text in order to understand what is going on. We have to have an open heart to look beyond the seeming contradiction.

When facing possible contradictions, it’s very important to remember that two statements may differ from each other without being contradictory.