A state trooper was parked on the side of the road, waiting to catch speeding drivers, when he saw a car puttering along at 22 mph. Knowing that a slow driver is just as dangerous as a speeder, the state trooper turned on his lights and pulled the car over.
As he approached the vehicle, the officer noticed five elderly ladies inside – two in the front seat and three in the back – wide-eyed and white as ghosts.
The driver, obviously confused, said, “Officer, I don't understand. I was going the exact speed limit. What seems to be the problem?”
The trooper, trying to contain a chuckle, explained to her that 22 was the route number – not the speed limit.
A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error.
“Before you go,” the officer said, “I have to ask: Is everyone in this car okay? These women seem awfully shaken.”
“Oh,” she answered, “they'll be all right, sir. We just got off of Route 127.” (Van Morris, Mount Washington, Kentucky; www. PreachingToday.com)
What you believe is vitally important, because it profoundly affects your behavior. And this is especially true in times of trial and pain. What you believe will profoundly affect how you handle the pain.
Do you want to pass the tests of life and come out on the other end of the trial more like Christ? Do you want to be saved from despair and disobedience in your pain? Then turn with me to James 2, James 2, where the Bible shows you the kind of faith that will save you from a debilitating despair.
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? (ESV)
Can that faith deliver him from giving into sin in hard times? Can that faith keep him from giving up in despair? James is not talking about your salvation from hell here. He is talking about your salvation from self-pity and sin during your trials. The context makes that very clear! Do you want to be saved from a debilitating despair in YOUR pain? Then…
USE YOUR FAITH TO SERVE.
Put your faith to work to help those in need. Don’t just SAY you believe; SHOW that you believe by loving others in THEIR pain. Otherwise, your faith is dead. It’s no good.
James 2:15-17 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 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? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (ESV)
A belief that doesn’t behave is no belief at all; it’s dead! Just because you SAY something is so, doesn’t make it so. If you want to be saved from a debilitating despair in YOUR pain, then serve others in THEIR pain. Put your faith to work in a world full of need.
That’s what Harriet Tubman did. She was born into slavery on a Maryland plantation in 1822. As she grew up, she was made to work driving oxen, trapping muskrats in the woods, and as a nursemaid. Harriet's owners frequently whipped her. And she endured the pain of seeing three of her sisters sold, never to be seen again. But when her owner tried to sell one of her brothers, Harriet's mother openly rebelled. The would-be buyer gave up after Harriet's mother told him, “The first man that comes into my house, I will split his head open.”
Those were hard days, but Harriet's mother told her stories from the Bible, which developed in her a deep and abiding faith in God.
When Harriet was about 26 years old, she learned that she might be sold away from her family. The time had come to try to escape. She made her way some ninety miles along the Underground Railroad. She traveled at night to avoid slave catchers, following the North Star, until she reached Pennsylvania and freedom. Once there, she dared to make a dangerous decision: She risked her own freedom in order to give others theirs.
For eight years, she led scores of slaves north to freedom. During these trips, she relied upon God to guide and protect her. She never once lost a runaway slave. As Harriet herself later put it, “I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
She gave all the credit to God, explaining, “Twant me, ‘twas the Lord. I always told him, ‘I trusts to you. I don't know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,’ and he always did.” (Eric Metaxas, “Harriet Tubman, on the Money,” Breakpoint, 5-6-16; www.PreachingToday.com)
Her faith was clearly evident, because she in her pain reached out to others in their pain. Her faith worked in tough times, and yours can too. You can be saved from a debilitating despair in your pain if you use your faith to serve. Then…
USE YOUR WORKS TO SHOW YOUR FAITH IS REAL.
Use your behavior to vindicate your beliefs. Use your deeds to justify your doctrine.
You see, there are those who say that what you believe is not all that important, that your faith in the One God doesn’t really matter, that your doctrine is irrelevant. “We’re just going to love Jesus,” they say, “and not worry about theology.”
That’s what some false teachers were saying in James’ day. They were saying your faith is worthless. Look at their argument starting in verse 18, which James counters, starting in verse 20.
James 2:18 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. (ESV)
In other words, faith is not important; works are! This is NOT what James is saying. This is what the false teachers are saying. And they support their assertion with the argument in verse 19. Take a look.
James 2:19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! (ESV)
Literally, they bristle up. The foundational truth of our faith is this: “God is One.” In other words, Christianity is a monotheistic faith. We believe that there is only one God, but the demons believe the same thing, and it sure hasn’t made them any better. In fact, they bristle up at the thought.
Do you see the argument of the false teachers? What you believe is NOT important, they say. The demons believe the same thing, and it hasn’t benefited them. So don’t worry about your faith; your faith is worthless. That’s what the false teachers are saying.
Well, James counters their argument starting in verse 20. Take a look.
James 2:20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless – i.e., idle or lazy? (ESV)
In other words, faith and works go together. You cannot have one without the other, because what you believe always affects how you behave. And if it doesn’t, your faith is idle; it’s lazy; it’s no good. Your faith is NOT worthless, James says.
In fact, the opposite is true. Your faith works! The Christian faith, contrary to all other faiths, is very useful! When you put your trust in Christ, the true and living God, there is always a very real change in your life for the better. The Christian faith is NOT idle or lazy. It is always very active in the lives of those who hold it.
In his book, Is God a Moral Monster, Paul Copan lists many of the positive achievements Christians, because of their faith, have accomplished over 2 millennia. They include:
Eradicating slavery: As the Christian faith spread after the fall of Rome, the practice of slavery dwindled. Centuries later, when slavery reemerged, Christian advocates (like the Mennonites, the Quakers, and individuals like William Wilberforce) strongly opposed it.
Opposing infanticide and infant exposure: Abandoning infants was a common Greco-Roman practice until Christians led reforms to outlaw it in the fourth century.
Eliminating gladiatorial games: This brutal sport, which used the death of slaves to entertain the masses, was condemned by Christian activists.
Building hospitals and hospices: Unlike most Greeks and Romans, the early Christians organized resources to care for the sick and dying.
Elevating women's status/rights: Although women have been mistreated in nearly every culture, Jesus treated women with profound respect. Early Christians routinely protected women and children from neglect and abuse.
Promoting higher education: Europe's and North America's great universities (Oxford, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton) were founded on Christian principles and trained pastors and missionaries.
Producing great works of literature and philosophy: some of the most profound and beautiful written works have been authored by followers of Christ—Augustine, Dante, John Milton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, and Soren Kierkegaard, to name a few.
Creating beautiful works of art, sculpture, and architecture.
Establishing modern science: Modern science is rooted in a biblical worldview that assumes an orderly and predictable universe. Many early scientists were also devout believers—Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Boyle, and many others.
Composing brilliant music: Think of Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, and Hayden.
Advocating human rights and concern for the poor: these themes are deeply woven into the biblical idea that each person, made in the image of God, has inherent dignity and worth.
Creating a worldwide, multi-ethnic community: most of the achievements listed above flowed from the Western world. But throughout history, lives and cultures around the globe have been transformed by the power of Christ. Today the Christian faith has grown into a beautiful mosaic of cultures, especially in the global south. (Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster?, Baker Books, 2011, pp. 218-219; www.Preaching Today.com)
The Christian faith works! And if it’s not working for you, you better make sure your faith is real; you better make sure you’re truly trusting Christ with your life, and not some PRAYER you prayed, or some THING you did when you were a kid.
Genuine faith in the One True God is NOT worthless. On the contrary, it truly does work.
So dear believer, use your works to vindicate your faith. Behave in such a way that others know your faith is real. That’s what Abraham did.
James 2:21-24 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 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. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (ESV)
But I thought the Bible said, “One is justified by faith apart from works” (Romans 3:28). Does James contradict what the Bible says elsewhere? No. This is a different context. When Paul says in Romans 3, “One is justified by faith apart from works,” he uses the word in a legal context. To be justified in that context means to be declared righteous. God, as the judge of the universe, declares the believing sinner “righteous” (or not guilty). That’s the believer’s legal stand before God. When James says here in James 2, “A person is justified by works”, he is using the word in a practical sense.
He is not talking about a legal declaration of righteousness. He is talking about a practical demonstration of righteousness in the life. That is to say, “a person demonstrates righteousness by his or her works.” Or “a person is vindicated by his or her works.” Matthew 11:19 uses the word in the same way, where it says, “wisdom is justified (or vindicated) by her deeds.”
How do people know that wise people are wise? How do people know that people of faith have real faith? They know it by the way wise people and people of faith behave. They know it by their deeds. God can declare a person righteous without works, because He sees the heart of faith. But people need works to demonstrate that faith. Like it or not, people look on the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7), so they cannot KNOW your faith is real unless they SEE it in action.
That’s how it worked for Abraham. God declared him righteous in Genesis 15 where it says, “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness” (vs.23). But nobody else could count Abraham as righteous until they saw him offer his son on the altar in Genesis 22 several years later. That’s when God’s declaration of righteousness was fulfilled in Abraham’s demonstration of righteousness. That’s when people knew Abraham’s faith was real, for his act of obedience vindicated (or justified) his faith.
Abraham used his works to vindicate his faith, and that’s what Rahab did, as well.
James 2:25 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? (ESV)
The contrast between Abraham and Rahab couldn’t be more stark. Abraham was a male; Rahab was a female. Abraham was a Jew, in fact, the father of all Jews; Rahab was a Gentile. And Abraham was known for his faithfulness; Rabab was a known prostitute.
And yet both of them vindicated their faith by their works. Abraham vindicated his faith when he offered Isaac. And Rahab vindicated her faith when she hid spies in her house to protect them from certain death. They demonstrated their faith to a watching world by their works.
And that’s what God calls every believer to do. Show the world that your faith is real by the works you do, especially in times of trial, for that’s when people are really watching you.
A friend of mine (Chick Stults) once said, “I believe that for every unbeliever that gets cancer, God allows a believer to get cancer, just so the world can see the difference.” Believers are not exempt from trials. They just depend on the Lord in their trials, and that makes all the difference in the world. So don’t hide your faith when you’re in pain. Demonstrate it to a watching world, so they can see that your faith really works!
Tim Winton is Australia's most celebrated novelist today. Author of more than a dozen bestselling books and winner of numerous literary prizes, Winton lives on the coast of Western Australia with his family. Some time ago, Andrew Denton interviewed Winton on his popular TV show Enough Rope and gave Winton an opportunity to talk about his Christian faith.
Tim Winton talked about how his father, a policeman, had been in a terrible accident in the mid-1960s. He was knocked off his motorcycle by a drunk driver. After weeks in a coma he was allowed home. Winton said he remembers thinking, “He was sort of recognizable, but not really my dad. Everything was busted up, They put him in the chair, and [said], ‘Here's your dad.’” Young Tim Winton horrified.
Winton's father was a big man, and Mrs. Winton had great difficulty bathing him each day. There was nothing that Tim, five-years-old at the time, could do to help. News of the family's situation got out into the local community, and shortly afterward, Winton recalls, his mother got a knock at the door. “Oh, g'day. My name's Len,” said a stranger to Mrs. Winton. “I heard your hubby's a bit [ill]. Anything I can do?”
Len Thomas was from the local church. He had heard about the family's difficulties and wanted to help. Winton said, “He just showed up, and he used to carry my dad from bed and put him in the bath, and he used to bathe him, which in the 1960s in [Australia] in the suburbs was not the sort of thing you saw every day.”
According to Winton, this simple act of kindness from a single Christian had a powerful effect: “It really touched me in that… watching a grown man bother, for nothing, to show up and wash a sick man—you know, it really affected me.” This “strangely sacrificial act,” as he described it, was the doorway into the Christian faith for the entire Winton family. (John Dickson, The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission, Zondervan, 2010, pp. 97-98; www.PreachingToday.com)
They saw that his faith was real, and they wanted it too! In the same way, let people see that your faith is real.
James 2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (ESV)
As a believer in Christ, you don’t have a dead faith; you have a living faith, which demonstrates itself in good works.
So use your faith to serve. Then use your works to show that your faith is real. It will save you from a debilitating despair in the midst of your own trials.
The old songwriter had it right when he wrote:
Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust AND obey. (Daniel Brink Towner)
