Real faith leads to real action.
When I was going to university I often came home to my hometown on holidays. During one Christmas break, a young man started attending the church. I recognized him. His name was Alan and he was in my grade in the local high school we attended together. My friends and I never treated him very well. He was socially awkward and he was always making up stories, bragging about his brother who, he said, was a professional baseball pitcher. No one really paid him any attention, but I was glad to see that he had come to Christ. In fact I remember during a New Year’s Eve service he stood up and gave a glowing testimony of how he came to believe in Jesus Christ and the change it made in his life. Well after the break, I went back to university and when I returned for the summer I noticed that Alan wasn’t around. When I asked about him I was told that a few church members had let him stay at their homes for extended periods, since Alan didn’t have anywhere to stay. After a few months Alan left town with no announcement or forwarding address. It ended up that each place where Alan stayed there were valuable items and money missing. I heard later that Alan was arrested for running some con schemes out west.
Was Alan really saved? I don’t want to judge. I can’t look into Alan’s heart, but I do know this. Faith, real faith is more than a matter of words. Real faith leads to real action. In fact, without this kind of faith we are not saved. That’s exactly what the passage says this morning. Let’s read James 2:14-26 (read verses).
Real faith leads to real action. That’s the theme of the book of James and we have been looking through this book over the last number of weeks. Next week we will be looking at James 3:1-12, so if you want to read ahead and be prepared for next week, that would be great. But today we’re focusing on James 2:14-26. What is saving faith? That is a crucial question that we have to get right. If we get it wrong, then our eternal destiny is in jeopardy. This passage answers that question: What is saving faith? We need to pay careful attention to God’s Word this morning.
What is saving faith? You know there many different kinds of faith, but there is only one kind of faith that saves. It’s like finding the right key to the door. You know I carry a lot of keys around with me. If I gave you this set of keys and told you to open the door of my house, you would probably spend quite a few minutes trying to figure out which one works. You see there are many keys, but only one opens the front door of my house. In the same way there are many types of faith, but only one kind of faith opens the gates of heaven. That’s saving faith.
The Bible passage we’ll be examining this morning describes two kinds of faith that don’t open the gate to heaven. Then we’ll see what real saving faith is through two biblical examples.
What is saving faith? It isn’t faith without deeds. Look at verse 14 (read verse). Faith without deeds cannot save us. What does faith without deeds look like? It’s a person who claims they are a Christian, but their life shows absolutely no difference to a non-believer. They may go to church and may have the Lord’s prayer memorized, but that’s about it. Often these are cultural Christians, people who have been raised in a Christian household. I remember before I came to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, if anyone asked me what religion I was, I would have told them I was a Christian. After all I wasn’t a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist. I grew up attending church and was baptized as a baby and even later confirmed as a church member. But in my day to day life God really didn’t factor in at all.
These people may have even had spiritual experiences. They may have heard a preacher give an invitation and gone forward during the altar call. They may have seen Billy Graham on TV and followed the prayer he asked them to recite. They may even have been moved emotionally and broken down in tears. But none of that guarantees that you have saving faith. Saving faith isn’t having a spiritual experience. It isn’t saying a prayer or walking down the aisle of a church. None of those things by themselves will save you. You see, real faith, saving faith, must be accompanied by a change of life. If our behaviour doesn’t change, then according to this passage, that kind of faith can’t save us.
In verses 15 to 17 there are two reasons why faith without deeds can’t save. First, it’s useless. Look at verses 15 and 16 (read verses). The picture here is of a poor man or woman coming to us and looking for help, but instead of giving them food and clothes, we just give them nice words. Does that help the poor man? No it’s useless. That’s what faith without deeds is. It’s useless. It doesn’t help us and it doesn’t help those around us. This kind of faith doesn’t change our character. It doesn’t help us fight temptation. It doesn’t make us more compassionate or loving. It doesn’t direct our steps or help us make decisions. It has no real effect on our lives at all. And it won’t help us get into heaven either. It’s useless.
A second reason why faith without deeds can’t save is because it is dead. Look at verse 17 (read verse). When faith is without deeds then it is dead. Verse 26 expands on this idea (read verse). The comparison here is to a dead body. Just like a corpse without the spirit of life is dead, so is faith without deeds. Have you ever seen a dead body? Maybe you’ve gone to a funeral home and seen the open casket of a friend or loved one. Now that body might look like the person you knew, but that’s as far as the similarity goes. When you look at the body you know it’s not the real person. It’s just an empty shell. The real person is gone. Their spirit has departed. And the encouraging hope of a Christian is that we know if that person had a saving faith, then they are in heaven even as we look at the dead body.
You see a corpse is a far cry from the living person. You can’t have a relationship with a corpse. You can’t talk with it, you can’t laugh with it, you can’t share triumphs and failures with it. You can’t relate with a dead body. In the same way, when our faith is dead, there is no relationship. When our faith has no deeds, we don’t know and love the living God. He is a stranger to us. We might know of Him, but we don’t have an intimate love relationship with Him. That’s why faith without deeds can never save us, it’s dead.
Verses 18 tells us a vital truth. Saving faith is where faith and deeds are inseparable (read verse). Deeds and faith go hand in hand. They are inseparable. A saving faith is a deep heartfelt belief that changes every aspect of our lives. That’s why faith without deeds can never save. Real faith leads to real action.
What is saving faith? It’s not faith without deeds. Verse 19 lists a second kind of faith that doesn’t save (read verse). What is saving faith? It isn’t intellectual assent. The illustration here is very clear. James tells us that it’s good we believe in God. But just belief, just head knowledge, just intellectual assent, isn’t enough. Even the demons in hell believe in God, but they aren’t going to heaven. The demons know in their minds that God exists and what God is like, but instead of that knowledge leading them into a love relationship with the Lord, it causes the demons to be filled with hate and jealousy and rebellion against God.
You see intellectual assent isn’t enough. Someone once said that many people miss heaven by eighteen inches. That’s the distance between the head and the heart. We may know the facts, but it doesn’t change our hearts. Now don’t get me wrong. It’s important to know what we believe. James says it’s good that we believe in God. And for saving faith to happen, then knowing some crucial truths from the Bible is essential.
We have to be aware that there is a God, the author and creator of the universe and everything that exists. We have to know that He loves us and wants to have a living relationship with us. But we have turned our backs on God. We live in selfishness and don’t even acknowledge the Lord. The Bible calls that sin and a verse in the Bible says that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This sin has separated us from a relationship with God. But sin also has eternal consequences. We face punishment, and eternal separation in a place called hell.
We have to know that we can’t save ourselves from our sin. Many people think they can make up for their sins by trying to do good deeds. But we underestimate the power of sin. Even our best acts are contaminated by sin. It’s like trying to make an omelet with six eggs, but one of those eggs is rotten. Would you want to eat an omelet like that? The one bad egg contaminates all of the good eggs so that the whole omelet is rotten. The Bible says that our best acts are like filthy rags to God. We can’t save ourselves.
But the good news is that God still loves us even in our rebellion and selfishness. He saw that we couldn’t save ourselves, so He provided the solution for us. He gave His very own Son, Jesus Christ for us. He sent Jesus into the world to become a man, so He could take the punishment that we deserved. When Jesus Christ died on the cross He paid our debt of sin. He took the judgement that we deserved so we could be forgiven by God. Isaiah 53:4-5 says this: “Surely he took our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
When Jesus Christ died on the cross a spiritual transaction took place. Isa. 53:6 says: “We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;” and that’s like me. Imagine that this book is a record of all the sin I’ve done in my life. Pretend that this is me, trying to reach up to God. But in the way is my record book of sin. But imagine that my left hand represents Jesus Christ. He has open access to God because He has never sinned. Then the verse goes on and says: “and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Do the Bible transfer from hand to hand.) Do you see what happened? When Jesus died on the cross He took my sin on Himself. Now I’m free to reach God.
Those are the facts you have to understand and believe. But even if you’ve heard that, even if you believe that all of what the Bible says is true, that’s not enough to be saved. Head knowledge, intellectual assent is not enough to be saved. It’s the place to start, it’s necessary, but it’s not enough.
The rest of this passage in James gives two illustrations that shine a light on what it means to have saving faith. What is saving faith? It’s not faith without deeds. It’s not just intellectual assent. These two illustrations show us the two aspects necessary to have saving faith.
The first aspect is this: we need a change of heart. The first illustration is found in verses 20 to 24 (read verses). Abraham is called the father of the Israelites. He followed God for many years. The Lord called him to leave his family and country and go to a land he didn’t know. Abraham did as he was told. The Lord promised that He would give Abraham the land the Lord led him to and God also told him that his descendants would become as numerous as the sand on the sea shore and the stars in the sky. The only problem was that Abraham and his wife Sarah didn’t have any children. He got so desperate that he had sexual relations with one of his wife’s slaves to have an heir. But God told Abraham that the son of the slave woman wouldn’t inherit the promises. The Lord promised that Sarah would have a son. And even though he was 99 years old and Sarah was 90, he believed God. And at the age of 100, Abraham became a new father. How do you think Abraham viewed that child? Do you think he spoiled his son Isaac? It doesn’t say in the Bible, but I’m sure Isaac received every good gift Abraham could give. I’m sure Abraham treasured him and saw him as the apple of his eye, the joy of his heart. This boy was to be the heir of the promise. He was the child of promise, the miracle child.
Isaac was God’s answer to prayer. He was the joy of an old man’s heart. And then one day the word of the Lord came again to Abraham. Let me read it to you in Genesis 22:1-2 (read verses). Wow, how many of you are parents here? What if God spoke to you in an unmistakeable way and told you to sacrifice your child? I try to put myself in the place of Abraham and I think about God asking me to sacrifice my son, it’s unimaginable. I’m not sure what I would do.
It’s not that God didn’t know what Isaac meant to Abraham. In verse two, the Lord says, take Isaac, your only son, whom you love. The Lord did indeed know very well how much Isaac meant to Abraham. And I believe that’s exactly the reason God gave Abraham this command. He wanted to see what was in Abraham’s heart. He wanted to see if Abraham loved Isaac more than God. It says in Gen. 22:3 that early the next morning Abraham got up and made preparations for the trip. Again, this is not written in the Bible, but I suspect Abraham got up so early because he didn’t sleep at all. I imagine that Abraham wrestled with God’s command throughout that sleepless night. But in the morning he had come to his decision. It took them three days to reach the place of sacrifice. Then Abraham led his son up to the place of sacrifice where he built the altar and arranged the wood for the fire. He tied up Isaac and laid him on that altar. Then Abraham took the knife and raised it up to deliver the killing stroke, but right at that moment God stopped him. This is what the angel of the Lord said in Genesis 22:12: “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Right at that moment the Lord discovered that Abraham’s faith was real. You might say, didn’t God already know Abraham believed? But that’s exactly the point. It isn’t saving faith until it becomes action. The act of sacrificing Isaac was completed Abraham’s belief. Faith and action are inseparable. James 2:22 says: “You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.”
What is saving faith? It is a change of heart. It is having God take the place of the highest love in our hearts. God isn’t the first in our lives, He is our all in all. He is the everything of our lives. This thought is repeated in many places in the Bible, but I don’t think it comes out any clearer than in Luke 14:26-27:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
I’ve always been shocked by that passage. Doesn’t Jesus call us to love our neighbours? Why does he tell these people coming to Him, that they have to hate those people closest to them? The issue isn’t that we love them less. The issue is that we love Christ more. In fact, we love Him so much, that every other relationship pales in comparison. Saving faith is a change of heart. It is loving Jesus so much that He becomes our everything. I believe that God called Abraham to sacrifice his son because Isaac was becoming and idol in Abraham’s heart. Isaac was starting to take the place that only God deserved. That’s why Abraham’s action proved his faith.
What is saving faith? It is a change of heart. It’s a faith that places Christ at the centre of our lives. And this faith results in a changed life. God becomes more than just a great power that set the universe into motion. He becomes our heavenly Father who knows us by name and who loves us more than we believe. And Jesus becomes our best friend, the apple of our eye, the desire of our hearts. He becomes the one we live for, the reason we wake up in the morning, the hope of our lives, the joy of our hearts. When we come to realize how much God loves us by sending His one and only Son to die for us, we come to love Him with all of our hearts.
What is saving faith? It is a change of heart. But there is also a second aspect. It is a shift in culture. The second illustration is found in James 1:25-26 (read verses). Rahab was a prostitute who lived in the city of Jericho. Her story is found Joshua chapter two. She heard that a mighty army was coming into the land. The people were the Israelites who had a God who performed miracles on their behalf. Rahab heard that this God, Yahweh had destroyed the mighty nation of Egypt so the Israelites could be freed. There were rumours that this God had even parted the sea so that His people could pass through and escape the Egyptian army. She had heard how the Israelites had already completely destroyed the two Amorite kings to the east. Now they were practically camped outside the gates on the other side of the Jordan River. As all these thoughts filled Rahab’s mind, there was a knock on the door. She expected the regular customers but instead a couple of strange men with funny accents entered the house. She knew they weren’t from the city and she knew that the only people not afraid to be travelling would be the ones threatening to attack. They were Israelites, spies most likely. At that moment Rahab came to a decision. She would throw in her lot with the invaders and trust that their God would be merciful to her. Rahab let the men stay for the night and hid them as the King of Jericho searched for the spies. She made a deal with them. She told them if she helped them escape, then when the Israelites captured Jericho they would spare the lives of her and her family.
The spies agreed to the deal and after Jericho fell, the men made sure that Rahab and her family were kept safe. Joshua 6:25 says: “But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho – and she lives among the Israelites to this day.”
Was Rahab’s decision to side with the Israelites an easy one? No it wasn’t. She had to choose to give up her old way of life, her old home, her old culture, even her own language and adopt a new culture, that of the Israelites. Everything about her life changed with that decision.
What is saving faith? It is a shift of culture. We decide to leave our old lives and live a new life based on the new reality described by God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!” When we become Christians then our values, our priorities, our morals, our desires change. Our behaviour can’t help but shift. We won’t do the same things we used to do. We’ll begin doing things we never thought about doing before. Now as this verse says, we don’t start changing by our own strength and will power alone. We are given a new life through the Spirit of God and it is through the Lord’s power that we really change. When I first became a Christian, my language changed. Swearing was a normal part of my vocabulary. After I received Jesus Christ as my Saviour, I just stopped swearing. It wasn’t even something that was conscious. When we have saving faith we will change. Some of that change will be immediate, but other changes will take time and self-control. But with any change, we don’t do it by ourselves. We need to power of God Himself.
But did Rahab make the right choice? Of course she did. Look at the alternative. If she had turned the Israelite spies over she would have been destroyed along with the rest of the people of Jericho. We are in exactly the same situation. We need to be saved. If we don’t get saving faith, then we will face an eternity separated from God. This is not something we can take lightly.
The two crucial elements of saving faith are a changed heart and a shift in culture.
Now I want to make this clear. Saving faith doesn’t mean we become perfect overnight. It doesn’t mean that we love Jesus Christ perfectly. It doesn’t mean that we change and follow God’s commands perfectly. Think of the thief on the cross. He didn’t have time to change his behaviour or even develop a deep love relationship with God, but it was his intention to do those things. Jesus recognized that and welcomed him into heaven. Is it your intention this morning to love Christ and follow Him? That’s all that’s needed to come to Him. You can do that this morning. Let’s pray.
