The Power Activator - James 2:14-19 Series

James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

Introduction

Assurance

One of the most common questions people ask me is, “How do I know for sure that I’m saved?” Many, many people who are genuinely saved still struggle with doubting their salvation. And many, many people who are not truly saved believe with all their hearts that they are saved. Those are the ones who should be doubting, and they don’t have any doubts at all. If there is one thing in Scripture that is clear it is that it is possible for you to be wrong about your assessment of your own salvation. On Judgment Day there will be people who spent their lives serving Jesus Christ, and they will be shocked to hear Him say, “Away from me, I never knew you.” And so people ask, “How can I know for sure I’m not one of those?”

Two Kinds of Faith

What determines whether you are saved or not? The simple answer is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that answer by itself is not enough, because there are actually two kinds of faith – one kind that can save you and another kind that can’t. So the answer to the question of whether you are truly saved or not is this: it depends on which kind of faith you have.

Starting in chapter two verse 14 all the way through the end of the chapter, James is very concerned to teach us the difference between those two kinds of faith. Verses 14-19 describe the kind that cannot save you, and the rest of the section describes the kind that can save you. Look at the end of verse 14.

James 2:14 …Can such faith save him?

(The answer implied in the Greek is no – it can’t.) In verse 16 he describes that kind of faith and asks, “What good is it?” Answer: no good - no value. And in verse 20 he calls that kind of faith useless. No value, no use, it can’t save you - and here’s why: because it is dead. He makes that point in verse 17 and again in verse 26. So the two kinds of faith are dead faith and saving faith.

Very often people will say, “I invited Jesus into my heart when I was seven, but I never really got serious about following Him and walking with Him until I was 30.” And they want to know, “During that time between age 7 and age 30, was I saved? At what point did true salvation come?” The answer is this – true salvation came when you went from having the dead kind of faith to having the saving kind of faith.

For many years now the trend in the evangelical world has been in the direction of more and more vagueness in the presentation of the gospel. They want lots and lots of converts. But if you are clear about the gospel, it will offend most people, and most people will reject it. But if you are vague, you can get hundreds of people to raise their hand or come forward and make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. If you are vague about what the Bible says, each person assumes you are affirming what they believe and so nobody gets upset, and you can have a huge church and everyone is happy.

And when I say that there is a tendency to be vague when sharing the gospel – it is not that everything is vague – mainly the part about faith. If you want to know how to share the gospel with someone, here is a quick outline to keep in mind: God, sin, Jesus, salvation, faith. Tell them about God and His law, then explain about sin and how that separates us from God and provokes His wrath, then let them know about the cross and what Jesus did, then describe what salvation is (forgiveness of sins, peace with God, becoming a new creation, eternal life, etc.), and then, after you have explained all that, you get to the bottom line and explain to them how they can obtain that salvation.