JAMES 2:21-26
LIVING FAITH
[Genesis 15 & 22]
Biblical truths demand demonstration in daily life. Real faith, dynamic faith, results in a changed life. James used Abraham and Rahab as examples of dynamic saving faith, since both of them responded in faith to the message of God.
Faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed. The man in the jungle bows before an object of wood and trusts it to help him. But no matter how much faith a person may generate, if it is not directed at the right object, it will accomplish nothing. Most, if not all people believe, but the great questions are, in whom do you believe and what do you believe? We are not saved by faith in faith or by faith in the right information. We are saved by faith in (eis) Jesus Christ who is revealed to us in His Word by the Holy Spirit.
Real faith involves the whole man, and it must include the will. The mind understands the truth, the heart loves the truth, and the will must act on the truth for it to truly be faith.
True faith leads to action. Living faith is not just intellectual agreement or emotional outburst it is also obedience by the will. And this obedience is not an isolated event; it continues throughout life and brings about good works. Where there is real faith, saving faith, there will always be good works.
James here illustrates genuine faith through the lives of two well-known Bible persons: Abraham and Rahab. You could not find two more different persons! Abraham was a Jew; Rahab was a Gentile. Abraham was a godly man, but Rahab was a sinful woman, a harlot. Abraham was the friend of God, while Rahab belonged to the enemies of God. What did they have in common? Both exercised saving faith in God. For faith that is not exercised in the real world is not real faith (CIT).
I. THE OBEDIENCE OF ABRAHAM, 21-24.
II. THE EXPERIENCE OF RAHAB, 25-26.
Verse 21 calls to mind the event where Abraham was asked to act in great faith upon God’s Word to him. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
The background for this illustration comes from Genesis 15 and 22. For emphasis James reverses the order of the events and places the verification deed (2:21) before faith (2:23). You will want to read Genesis 15 and 22 to get the background facts for the illustration. God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees to lead him into Canaan and to make out of him the nation of Israel. It was through Israel that God would bring the Savior into the world. Abraham’s salvation experience is recorded in Genesis 15. At night, God showed His servant the stars and gave him a promise, "So shall thy seed (descendants) be!" How did Abraham respond? "And he believed in the Lord, and He (The Lord) counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:5-6).
The word counted is a legal or financial term that means "to put to one’s account." As a sinner, Abraham’s spiritual bankbook was empty. He was bankrupt! But he trusted God, and God put righteous in Abraham’s account. Abraham did not work for this righteousness; he received it as a gift from God. He was declared righteous by faith. He was justified by faith (read Rom. 4).
How can you tell if a person is justified by faith if this transaction takes place between the sinner and God privately? Abraham’s example answers that important question: the justified person has a changed life and obeys God’s will. His faith is demonstrated by his works.
James first used another event in Abraham’s life, an event that took place many years after Abraham’s conversion. This event is the offering up of Isaac on the altar (Gen. 22). Abraham was not saved by obeying God’s difficult command. His obedience proved that he already was saved because he lived by faith in God’s Word and not by sight. Abraham’s offering of Isaac was a proof of faith. It was evidence that his faith was alive.
James is not teaching justification by works but that true faith moves the heart and regulates the life. True faith does not lie dormant and inoperative but manifests itself in active obedience. True faith always results in deeds but the deeds themselves do not save us. Faith in God brings us salvation. Obedience demonstrates that our faith is genuine or living.
Verse 22 states two facts about Abraham’s faith. You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
Abraham’s deed was preeminently an act of faith, for it was his faith that prompted his obedience. His faith was spurring him on to do good works. These works prove the integrity of the faith.
There is a maturing relationship between faith and works. The end result of faith is works which matures the faith. The tree is to produce fruit and when it does the reason for the tree’s existence is accomplished. Faith also produces works which are the outworking of loving faith, the maturing of faith. The works were the exercising of faith and the result of the works was the perfecting of the faith.
Verse 23 summaries Abraham’s salvation event. 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.
Verse 23 asserts that in the offering of Isaac Scripture was fulfilled. The Scripture quoted though is from Genesis 15 and refers to the imputation of righteousness to Abraham more than 25 years before the offering of Isaac. God had pronounced Abraham righteous because of his faith, but Abraham’s works proved this pronouncement of righteousness in Heaven was also realized in the life of Abraham. Abraham’s walk of faith with God was brought to fruition, was matured with his willingness to offer his son Isaac. By this deed it is abundantly clear that Abraham was indeed a man to whom righteousness was reckoned or imputed.
In the closing phase of verse 23 Abraham is noted for being a friend of God. This title comes from 2 Chron. 20:7, and Isa. 41:8. The meaning of the expression seems to be that as a result of faithful obedience concerning Isaac, Abraham was brought into an even closer fellowship with God.
Verse 24 presents this conclusion about Abraham. "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." A man is proven to be upright by his good deeds and not by mere statement of faith. A real or living faith obeys God and proves itself in daily life and works (Titus 1:16; 3:8). Only an operative, fruit-bearing faith is a saving faith. Man is not justified by an intellectual assent to certain truths.
This verse done not claim that God justifies people by our deeds. But the Bible insists that saving faith must show itself by visible commitment to the Lord in compassion for others. [Lea, Holman NT Com., 289] Living faith alone brings salvation but real faith will be accompanied by deed which prove the genuineness of one’s faith.
II. THE EXPERIENCE OF RAHAB, 25-26.
This section turns to the example of good works from the life of Rahab. Her story is especially powerful for she was not a heroic person like Abraham. 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?
James deliberately uses the greatest conceivable contrast in persons possible. Abraham was a man of noble character had high position - one of the most distinguished men of his time. Rahab, on the other hand, was a woman, a foreigner, a prostitute. James insists, however, that her experience teaches the same lesson as that taught by the experience of Abraham.
The story of Rahab, a resident of Jericho, is found in the second chapter of Joshua. Believing that the Israelites were commissioned by God and destined to succeed in their enterprise, she received into her house the two spies sent out to view the land of Canaan. Rahab heard the Word of the Lord and knew her city was condemned. When the king of Jericho sought to apprehend them, Rahab concealed the spies and later helped them escape. In this way she demonstrated faith in God’s purpose for Israel. Though admittedly not as illustrious as the event taken from the life of Abraham, Rahab’s deed was performed at great risk to herself. If she had been detected by the authorities of her city she doubtlessly would have been put to death quickly. As a result or her actions she and her family were saved when the city was destroyed.
Joshua 2:8-13 makes it clear that it was because of Rahab’s faith in Israel’s God that she protected and aided His representatives. Rahab, like Abraham, is mentioned by the writer of Hebrews 11:31 in his listing of the heroes and heroines of faith.
Rahab exercised real faith. Her mind knew the truth, her heart was stirred by the truth and her will acted on the truth. She proved her faith real by her works.
Verse 26 sums up the entire discussion. "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead."
The relationship between faith and works is like that between the body and the spirit. Without the spirit the body is dead. Without works, faith is dead. Such a body or existence brings no glory to God and yields no fruit to the man who directs it.
For James, the combination of faith plus works yields a synergism. That word is not used much in normal, daily vocabulary. If you consult a dictionary, you will find that a synergism results when two or more things combine. In a synergism, they combine so that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. For example, ordinary TABLE SALT consists of two chemical elements, sodium and chlorine. By itself, sodium is a highly reactive, poisonous element. Chlorine also is poisonous and reactive. Yet, bringing the two together yields sodium chloride (ordinary table salt) not only is it not poisonous, it is necessary for life. In a similar way, faith that stands alone is deadly (2:17). Merely to mouth a creed poisons one’s religious life. On the other hand, works alone are just as deadly. The arrogant attempt to work one’s way to God produces futility (Rom. 4). Yet the synergism of a faith that works yields spiritual life.
CONCLUSION
James pointed out the faith that works by his actions, and that by these actions the integrity of his faith was fully proved. Work had a complementary relationship to Abraham’s faith, not a supplementary or replacement relationship. Faith was expressed dramatically in good deeds. Abraham’s works cooperated with his faith. He was not saved by faith plus works; he was saved by a living faith that was worked it’s way out through his life. Each step of obedience in Abraham’s long life strengthened his faith.
It is important that each professing Christian examine his own heart and life or deeds and make certain that he possesses true saving faith.
How real is your faith? Just look at your deeds & you will know.
Ps. 139:23-24 says, Search me O Lord, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
