Worthless Faith Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

› Engagement

On June 30, 1859, Charles Blondin became the first man in history to walk on a tightrope across Niagra Falls. Over 25,000 people gathered to watch him walk 1,100 feet on a tiny rope suspended 160 feet above the raging waters. He walked across several times, engaging in different daring feats on each trip.

As the crowds gathered around him, he stopped and asked the audience, “Do you believe I can carry a person across in a wheelbarrow?” The crowd enthusiastically responded, “Yes we believe you can do that!” “Okay,” said Blondin, “Who wants to get in the wheelbarrow?” Not surprisingly no one volunteered,

That is a great illustration of the idea we’re going to develop from our text today:

Workless faith is worthless faith

Someone once said that faith is like calories – you can’t see them, but you sure can see the results. And we’re going to see this morning that real genuine faith will always be demonstrated by the works that flow from that faith.

› Tension

Many of you are probably aware that in some circles, the passage we’re going to study this morning is one of the most controversial in the entire Bible. That is because some claim that James is contradicting Paul and the other New Testament writers who taught that salvation is by faith, not by works. Although he later removed the comment from his preface to the Book of James, Martin Luther once called it the “epistle of straw” because he erroneously believed that was the case. As we’ll see this morning, a closer look at what James wrote will reveal that not only does James not contradict Paul, he actually complements Paul’s teaching.

› Truth

So let’s go ahead and jump right in because we have so much to cover today.

James 2:14–26 ESV

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,

16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

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;

23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

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

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

26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Before we jump into the text, I need to take a few minutes to explain why it might appear at first glance that James is contradicting Paul here in order to show why that is not the case at all.

Paul and James are writing to different audiences, with different purposes. So even though they use some of the same words, those words are going to have different meanings given that context.

• Paul is primarily writing to Gentiles, many of whom were not yet followers of Jesus. They were being taught a kind of legalistic salvation in which they were told they first had to observe the Jewish law before they could become a follower of Jesus. So his focus was on the fact that salvation is not dependent on man’s works, but rather on the grace of God.

• James was writing to Jewish believers, some of whom had perhaps even taken Paul’s teaching out of context and held to a libertine salvation that required them only to claim they were followers of Jesus without the need for a change in lifestyle that would demonstrate the genuineness of their faith. So his focus was on the need for a mature faith that is demonstrated by the way a person lives.