March 13, 2022 sermon - Hard Questions 2: Faith & Works Ephesians 2:8-9 and James 2:14-26
Welcome to Church at the Mission, back in person! Are you happy to be here and not on your phone or computer? I am! We’re thankful to God that it has been possible to continue worship services and Bible studies during a global pandemic.
We’re glad to be back and we want to thank you for joining us, whether in person, which is always best of course, or live or recorded on Youtube.
We’ve been looking at hard questions in the Bible in our current series. Today we’re looking at another question that came from you, from the congregation. That question is this: “Is there a guidebook for interpreting seemingly contradictory statements in the Bible? E.g., We are saved by faith, not by works (Ephesians) ... vs ... faith without deeds is dead (James)”
Now, there are multiple sources online that are helpful in sorting through challenges in the reading of the Bible. Among them are gotquestions.org. (others) I also have a book or 2 in my library that I’m happy to loan out if you are interested, on a first-come, first-serve basis.
But to answer this question directly today, let's look at how we can understand Scripture when it appears to not make sense, when it appears to contradict itself.
To do this we’ll do so under these headings:
What might be called a contradiction is explained when we simply look closer at the text.
What might be called a contradiction is best understood as a necessary and essential tension. They are there on purpose and necessarily. Without them, we would have a skewed understanding of Scripture. from a shallow or out of context reading of Scripture,
No matter how we read the Scriptures, they must be read with faith. By that I don’t mean that we don’t examine them closely
And with a keen awareness of the
No matter how we read the Scriptures, they must be read with a genuine awareness of the Fallenness of the human heart
For starters:
Again, today we are addressing questions that have come from you, the church, in this series on “Hard Questions of the Bible”.
So while this might be a bit heady, I think we’ll see that having a better understanding of these things can help us both as we read the Bible and as we may face challenges from people who are not believers, or who simply may be young believers largely unfamiliar with the Bible.
Let’s begin to look at some response to the question that was raised by a congregation member, which I think comes down to this: “How are we to understand seemingly contradictory statements in the Bible?
1, What might be called a contradiction is explained when we simply look closer at the text.
Let’s take a specific example:
How did Judas Iscariot die? Two seemingly conflicting reports exist:
A. “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:5).
B. “And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18).
So we have two Biblical authors - the Apostle Matthew, a former tax collector, and Luke, a doctor and the author of both the gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts.
They are both discussing is separate accounts the demise of Judas, who had been a disciple of Jesus and who had betrayed Jesus.
Matthew says bluntly that Judas went and hanged himself.
Luke, the doctor, is recording Peter as he preaches and gives other details, perhaps TMI, of the same event.
This is an instance of one statement finding its place alongside another, not denying it or excluding it, but taken together.
Notice that Matthew does not deny that Judas, after hanging himself, fell and burst asunder; on the other hand, Peter, who affirmed that Judas burst asunder, does not assert that Judas did not hang himself previous to his fall.
Putting the two accounts into perspective, it is natural and logical to conclude that Judas had suspended himself from a tree on the brink of a precipice overhanging a valley, and the limb or the rope gave way, he fell, and was mangled to death.
As it stands, Matthew gives us insight into one aspect of the demise of Judas (which was enough detail for his purpose), while Peter,
to show the inglorious end of the traitor, gives another. And yet there is no contradiction between them.
But note, we have to be willing to think through the text in order to understand what is going on. We have to have an open heart to look beyond the seeming contradiction.
When facing possible contradictions, it’s very important to remember that two statements may differ from each other without being contradictory.
Josh McDowell points out, for example, the case of the blind men at Jericho. Matthew relates how two blind men met Jesus, while both Mark and Luke mention only one.
However, neither of these statements denies the other, but rather they are complementary.
Many biblical statements fall into this category. Many think they find errors in passages that they have not correctly read.
So, very often apparent contradictions can be very nicely resolved by simply looking closer at the text with an open heart. There’s much more to be said about this, but for the sake of keeping it tight, we’ll leave it there.
2. What might be called a broader theological contradiction within the Bible is best understood as a necessary and essential tension.
When we see apparent contradictions about spiritual and theological topics in the Bible, we need to start by recognizing that they are there on purpose and they are there because they are necessary.
Everything is in the Bible on purpose, and we trust that God has, through the writers of Scripture, authored everything it contains.
They are so necessary that without them, we would have a skewed understanding of Scripture.
You’ve likely heard me talk about the wisdom of taking in the ‘whole counsel of Scripture’.
You know that we encourage all of us to be regularly reading and contemplating the Bible.
That is quite necessary in order for us to appreciate what I’m going to be saying here.
In order to appreciate and grasp the Bible, we have to learn how to appreciate contrasts and tensions, because the Bible presents us with contrasts and tensions. What do I mean?
Bear with me as I try to explain as briefly as possible using a metaphor (one thing that tries to explain another thing).
If you have a guitar that is not strung, and you have a guitar string lying loose on your hand, and you try to pluck the string, what sound emerges?
Nothing. No sound. If you take that string and attach it to one end of the guitar and leave the other end loose, and then you pluck the string, what happens? Nothing.
If you take that guitar string and then attach it to the other end of the guitar, and tighten the string, what happens? You get sound. Where is the sound the best?
Precisely in the middle of the string, between the 2 points of connection to the guitar. The truest sound is between the tensions. The truth is between the tensions.
Here’s an example of what I mean that speaks to the question that we are looking at today: “How are we to understand seemingly contradictory statements in the Bible? The Bible gives us many passages that relate to salvation.
Some of those passages put all of the action and responsibility for our salvation upon God: there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation;
Jesus has done it all. Ephesians 2:8-9 summarizes this truth this way: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Other passages talk about the importance of human response to God. We need to obey God. We need to respond in faith and love and action, and that response, that action, is evidence of the faith we have.
“...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:17
“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead”. James 2:26
Why both? Some read this and say it is a clear contradiction. The key is, these are NOT contradictions, but rather they are essential tensions.
Here’s why we need both: if humans believe that they have no responsibility to live out their faith, they will be content to live unchanged lives. We will think: “It’s all God, none of me.
“Therefore, since I’m saved, I can live as I please. I’m saved, so now my conduct doesn’t matter.
“Caring for others? Doesn’t matter. Growing as a disciple of Jesus. Doesn’t matter. Becoming more and more like Jesus, why bother?”
Ephesians 2:8b
you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works,
To assume on the basis of this Ephesians passage and others like it that since we’re saved by faith, as the gift of God, and NOT by works, that then it must logically follow that our works really don’t matter a hoot.
On the extreme other hand, if we think that our salvation is something we DO earn through works, if we have the slightest self-awareness, we will live in terror because we will know that we fail daily and that we sin often and that our works at best are incomplete.
We will never have assurance of salvation. We will live in fear.
God wants neither response, He doesn’t want us to be glib and unchanged by the gospel, living as we did before we were followers of Jesus - as if we have no accountability to God.
AND He doesn't want us to live in fear, or trying to vainly earn our salvation. As if our salvation is something that could in any way BE earned by us.
And so God doesn’t allow, actually, either response, by including in the Bible BOTH understandings. These are tensions.
And the truth is between the tensions: We are saved through faith and not by works. And since we are saved, our genuine faith will produce good deeds; it will be accompanied by action.
James really indicates that the actual evidence of our genuine faith is not what we say we believe, but rather, what we do with what we believe.
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 my deeds.
So faith and works are critically connected. That’s an understanding of Scripture that is necessary in order to understand other tensions, other contrasts that exist in the Bible.
3. No matter how we read the Scriptures, they must be read with faith.
I often talk about faith being a miracle. The fact that you believe the gospel is evidence of God doing a miraculous thing in your heart, where he has removed the scales from your eyes, He has been at work in your heart to bring you to a place where you trust Jesus.
That faith represents the vital, true connection that God has created between Himself and you.
There was once a chasm (Pic) between you and God due to sin. Jesus and your faith in Jesus has enabled the bridging of that gap. That is huge, and I hope you never take it for granted.
It is possible to read the Bible as just any other book. Words and sentences and paragraphs and stories and chapters. The word “Bible” means “The Book”, but it’s really a collection of books and letters put into a single volume.
But something that we need in order to truly understand the Scriptures, in order to truly benefit from the incredible wisdom found within the Bible, is faith. You need faith. I need faith.
Faith enables us to read expectantly, knowing that God wants to communicate to us and to the world.
Faith enables us to take the promises of God that we find in the scripture, and there are a very great many promises in the Bible…
Faith enables us to take those promises to heart, to take them personally, to weave them into our understanding of life when things are great, and also, and perhaps most importantly, when things are not good.
We have just come out of a two year long pandemic where millions of people have died.
We were in lockdown for much of that time, isolated, alone except for those of us who we’re blessed with being able to make connections online. This has been a period of great suffering.
In the middle of a pandemic there was an insurrection in the United States, That was pretty bad.
And we might’ve thought, hey… The pandemic seems to be coming to an end. Although that insurrection was a real threat to democracy in the United States, so far it appears that it did not work.
So then what? We can get back to normal. What could be worse than a pandemic, right?
And then Russia invades the Ukraine, serving notice to the whole world that Russia is an imperialistic power that has no qualms about murdering civilians when it’s army discovers that it is no match for the Ukrainian army.
And now we have a nuclear armed bully, threatening the world order such as it is.
So externally, there is a lot of reasons for anxiety. I feel it, you feel it. But living with faith in Jesus Christ is more powerful than all of that bad news.
Trusting in Jesus and following Jesus has a much greater impact on our lives than anything that can happen around us.
So we need to read the Scriptures with faith, and when we do, as you know if you’ve ever read the Scriptures, God speaks to us powerfully.
God encourages our hearts.
God motivates us to live for his kingdom, to focus our lives on his purposes that really matter in this world: the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the spreading of the justice and mercy of God into all areas of life.
No matter how we read the Scriptures, they must be read with a genuine awareness of the Fallenness of the human heart
Here is a caution. As we read the Scriptures, we need to read with humility. Quite opposite to the advice of “follow your heart“, we need to heed The Bible's caution that “the heart is wicked above all things: who can know it?“
How does “the heart being wicked“ potentially impact our reading of Scripture? Well, it’s quite possible to only ever read the Bible in order to support views that are quite wrong.
In the south, before during and after the Civil War in the states, they read the Bible and they attempted to use the Bible to justify the horrendous evil of slavery. That’s one example.
Or, it’s quite possible to only ever really pay attention to the very uplifting and positive parts of scripture that talk about the beauty and goodness of God and how lovely a restored relationship with God through Jesus Christ is.
And in doing that we can ignore the parts that caution us in how we live, that call us to holiness, that call us out of sin, out of the darkness and into the light.
Or, we can pick and choose, accept or ignore, passages that challenge our lifestyle, our values, our opinions on what is right and what is wrong. I find that happens quite often.
So we need to approach the Bible with humility, with self-awareness,
with a genuine desire to submit to the will of God, and we need to approach the Bible with reverence.
It is how God has chosen, primarily and most authoritatively, to speak to us.
So, there you go. Those are just a taste of some of the things that we need to consider when we are reading the scripture, when we discover what might appear to be contradictions.
May we join our hearts as a community that exists because of Jesus Christ, and may we together submit to his love, his authority, and his Word.
