What About Faith and Good Works?
An Answer to the believer
James 2:14-17
Preached by Pastor Tony Miano
Pico Canyon Community Church
April 1, 2001
Introduction: We’ve spent the last couple of weeks tackling an issue that many people, present company excluded of course, would like to avoid. We confronted the sin of favoritism by discussing what it could look like in the church and how we can avoid falling prey to it in our lives and the life of our church. Paul moves from addressing an issue that is often avoided to addressing an issue that is often debated. We find the issue in James 2:14-26.
This passage is very meaty. Any serious student of God’s Word cannot just gloss over it and say, “Well, isn’t that special.” We’re going to dig deep into this passage and pull out every ounce of truth that we possibly can. D. Edmond Hiebert wrote, “This paragraph is one of the most difficult, and certainly the most misunderstood, sections in [James’ letter]. It has been a theological battleground” (Hiebert, p. 158). Douglas Moo wrote, “This paragraph is the most theologically significant, as well as the most controversial, in the letter of James” (Moo, p. 118). And R. Kent Hughes wrote, James’ teaching [in this passage], taken to heart, will steel the church against a ‘lite’ faith (Hughes, p. 108).
The passage that we just read has been used by many different religions as a proof-text for their belief that you need to do good works in order to gain entry into heaven. Those who deny the infallibility and inerrancy of the Scriptures have used it. They claim that this passage in James contradicts the teachings of Paul in the Book of Romans; therefore, the Bible is an unreliable book. We’re going to prove that conclusion wrong.
James 2:14-26 is to be taken as one continuous section. There is so much information, so much essential Christian truth in this passage of Scripture, that it is not possible to do it justice in one message. That’s why we’re going to spend a few weeks in this paragraph.
The issue deals with the relationship between faith and good works. Are we justified by faith? Does good works justify us? Or do both faith and works justify us? Again, what we’re going to begin studying today is an essential truth in the Christian faith. It is one of the great truths of God’s Word that differentiates biblical Christianity from every other religion in the world, even several that considers themselves to be Christian.
One of my seminary professors once said, “You have to decide which hills you are willing to die on.” The doctrine of sola fide, more commonly known as “Justification By Faith Alone,” is such a hill. It is a doctrine that is under constant attack by those outside and inside the body of Christ.
There are churches, and even denominations, that seem willing to set aside one of the most important tenants of the Christian faith in order to foster ecumenical relationships with other religions that teach a different gospel. We will not be going to that party. I’m confident that after we are through studying this passage we will all understand why we need to take such a strong position.
My hope and prayer is that each of us who know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior will reaffirm our conviction regarding this issue, during our study, and will be better equipped to defend our faith in Christ. For the unbeliever, for the person who has yet to commit their life to Jesus Christ, I pray that as we study God’s Word together you will see that salvation is completely dependent upon faith in Christ, and Him alone, and not by good works, ancestry, or church affiliation. Ultimately, may our study bring honor to Christ and draw each of us closer to Him.
This morning our focus is going to be on verses 14-17, in chapter two. In this section of the passage we find an assumption (v.14), an analogy (vv. 15-16), and an application (v.17).
A Historic Look at James and Paul
Before we study the text, let’s begin by taking a close look at what some consider being a contradiction between James and Paul. Again, in verse fourteen we read, “”What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?”
At first glance it would seem that James is telling us that faith alone does not save a person from their sin, that faith alone in Christ alone is insufficient for receiving eternal life. After all, isn’t James saying that a faith without works cannot save a person? In fact, it seems that he reaffirms this belief in 2:24, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” If this is what he is saying, then James is completely contradicting the teachings of Paul in Romans 3 and Ephesians 2.
In Romans 3:28 Paul wrote, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” In Romans 4:5 Paul wrote, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” And in Ephesians 2:8-10 Paul wrote, “”For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” It seems pretty clear that Paul teaches that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
If the two men are contradicting each other, then one of them has to be wrong. But which one? If God would allow contradictory information in the Bible, then He must be a God of confusion. How can we trust a book that teaches one thing in one section and teaches the exact opposite in another?
I often hear these kinds of questions from people. Some of them genuinely want an answer. Even Martin Luther, the great reformer and a man who approached His study of God’s Word with a genuine desire to know it better, questioned the place of James’ letter in the Bible because of this apparent contradiction. Others, however, only ask the questions because they are looking for an excuse to remain in their unbelief.
I had an opportunity, not long ago, right here in front of the fireplace, to have a great conversation with a young man who would probably describe himself as a person on a spiritual journey seeking answers. Whether or not I agree with his self-assessment is irrelevant. What does matter is that, as a believer, I am called by God to “sanctify Christ as Lord in [my] heart, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks [me] to give an account for the hope that is in [me], yet with gentleness and reverence” (I Peter 3:15).
My discussion with the young man seemed to run in circles, as such discussions, unfortunately, often do. I wish we had gotten to this passage of Scripture, which I’m sure was on his list of Bible contradictions, because this is what I would tell him. And here we are going to deviate a little from the “typical” sermon format of “three points and you’re out.” Before we start to dig into the text, we’re going to take some time to go on a journey back in time to put this idea to rest that Paul and James contradicted each other.
There are a number of tools at our disposal to help us study the Bible, and you don’t have to be a seminary graduate to make good use of them. One of these Bible study tools is the principle of historical background. Sometimes we have to look beyond the passage to see what’s really in the passage. What I mean by that is, in determining if Paul and James contradict each other on this crucial topic, “are we saved by faith alone, or by faith and good works,” it is helpful to look back in time at the relationship the two men had with each other.
Turn in your Bibles to Acts 9:19b-22. “Now for several days he [Saul (whose name was later changed to Paul)] was with the disciples who were at Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, ‘Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’ But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.”
Paul went through a time of intense discipleship and spiritual growth in Damascus, immediately following his conversion. Shortly thereafter, Paul went to Jerusalem and tried to have fellowship with the disciples. Acts 9:26 says, “When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.”
The disciples were justifiably leery of Paul. After all, this was the same man who once held the coats of the men who murdered Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
But Barnabas, a prominent member of the church, spoke up for Paul and convinced the apostles of the genuineness of Paul’s conversion and ministry. “But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that he had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. And he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord” (Acts 9:27-28).
Fourteen years later, after his first missionary journey, Paul returned for the third time to Jerusalem. In Acts 15:4 we read, “When they {Paul, Barnabas, and by now Titus had joined them] arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.”
One of the reasons for Paul’s trip to Jerusalem was to discuss with the leadership of the church a serious problem which, left unchecked, had the potential to tear the church apart. You see—there were Judaizers in the Antioch church, the place where believers were first called Christians, who insisted that Gentile converts should submit to the Jewish practice of circumcision.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes that, for a time, Peter and James agreed with the Judaizers. In Galatians 2:11-12 we read, “But when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision [the Judaizers].”
Now, this special meeting between Paul and the Jerusalem leadership included three sessions. Two of them were public and one was private. We can find the details of these meetings in Acts 15. The third session included three very important reports. Peter gave the first one. Paul and Barnabas gave the second report. The third report, which was probably the most important, was given by James, who was the pastor of the Jerusalem church at that time.
By the end of the third session, the entire delegation, including Peter and James, agreed that it wasn’t right to compel new Gentile converts to be circumcised as an outward testimony of their faith. This decision led to James writing an authoritative letter (Acts 15:22-29), which was distributed to the various churches by Paul, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas.
Paul returned to Antioch with the James letter. Galatians 2:9 says, “and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas [Peter] and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised [Jews].”
In Martin Luther’s commentary on the Book of Galatians, he wrote that receiving the “right hand of fellowship” was like saying, “In preaching the Gospel we agree with you in everything, Paul. Therefore we are companions in doctrine and have fellowship with each other in it; that is, we all have one doctrine, for we preach one Gospel, one baptism, one Christ, and one faith. We cannot teach you or tell you anything, since there is mutual agreement between us in everything” (Martin Luther, Galatians, ed. Alister McGrath and J. I. Packer, 1998, p. 77).
James wrote the letter we are studying shortly before the historic meetings with Paul, in Jerusalem. The fact that Paul and James agreed in all areas of doctrine, and the fact that James gave his approval of Paul’s ministry, it is reasonable for us to conclude that they also agreed on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. They simply come to the same conclusion from different vantage points.
The Assumption
Now that we can see how unlikely it is that James and Paul would disagree on this important issue because of the kind of relationship the two men had, let’s dig into the text and let James’ own words teach us that he believes as Paul does—that we are saved by faith alone.
James begins to make his case by asking two rhetorical questions in verse fourteen. What we’re going to see in this verse is that James is making the assumption that faith is the “fundamental attitude” (Ropes, p. 203) that makes a person a Christian.
James’ tone of voice is starting to show signs of frustration, the kind of loving frustration a parent shows toward a child. You know the kind—you love the little bundle of energy, but sometimes you just want to strangle them while you’re kissing their forehead. In fact, I’ve seen that look on Mahria’s face before, but it wasn’t directed toward the kids.
The very first phrase in verse fourteen gives us a clue that this is how James was feeling. “What use is it, my brethren?” James is basically saying, “What good is it? What difference does it make? Does it really matter?” The word we see in this verse translated as “good” can also be translated as “profit” or “gain.” The apostle Paul uses the exact same word in a similar way, in I Corinthians 15:32a. “If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me?”
The next phrase in verse fourteen, “if someone says,” really directs the rest of the passage. Since I teach from the NASB, we often look at a more literal, word for word, translation of the text as we study. That’s what we see here in the word “says.” But the NIV, which is an accurate, thought for thought translation, translates the same word as “claims.” This is closer to the point James is trying to make.
James is putting forth a rhetorical question through a hypothetical situation. “What good is it, where’s the profit, for someone to claim he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” James asks the questions in such a way that the logical and expected answer is, “No.”
The word “claim” is in the present tense. This means that the person in James’ hypothetical situation continually and repeatedly says that they have faith. But the only thing they have by way of defense is their claims. They have nothing else to show for their faith than their words about how much faith they have.
James chooses his words careful. The first question in verse fourteen is asked in such a way that he doesn’t affirm the person’s faith. But at the same time, he stops short of calling the person a hypocrite. The person in this hypothetical situation may be very sincere in their belief that their faith is genuine.
Here’s a great question for you. Is faith visible? Can you see a person’s faith? Think about it. Can you see my faith? Can I see yours? Look at the person sitting next to you. Go ahead. Give them the “once over.” Can you see their faith? Can you see the condition of their heart? Can you see whether or not the Holy Spirit is actually living inside of them? The answer to all of these questions is, “No.”
James recognizes that faith itself is invisible. So, in a sense, what James is saying is that the faith of the person in the hypothetical situation he’s constructing “is dependent upon his verbal testimony alone” (Hiebert, p. 160). The negative side to what seems to be a positive profession of faith is seen in the next phrase—“but he has no works.”
Just as James used the word “claims” in the present tense, he uses the word “works” or “deeds.” In other words, just as the person continually claims to have faith, they also continually fail to produce any works. We should remember that James was writing to predominantly Jewish believers who were still probably fairly new in their faith. Many of these believers were coming out of a religious background that was steeped in tradition and legalism.
It’s not unreasonable for us to assume that some of these believers, in order to get out from under the suffocating grip of traditions that centered on the works of man instead of the worship of God, went from one extreme to another. In order to completely distance themselves from working in vain to earn their salvation, they could have adopted a theology that “replaced a works-righteousness system with one that required no work at all” (MacArthur, p. 123).
So how do we know if a person’s faith is genuine? How can we tell if a person is a true or false believer? Let’s look at what Jesus had to say on the subject. Turn to Matthew 7. Although in the immediate context Jesus is dealing with false prophets, the evidence of a false prophet is similar to that of a false believer.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.”
“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-20).
In James 2:14, we have “a man who declares that he has true and proper ‘faith,’ but everybody sees, and, in fact, he must admit to himself [if he is honest], that he [doesn’t have the works, he isn’t bearing the good fruit] that belong to [the faith he claims to possess]” (Lenski, p. 577). I began to realize this in my own life when the Lord began to draw me to Himself.
Before I became a Christian, before I truly received the free gift of salvation through God’s unmerited grace, I firmly believed that I was a Christian. I was even pretty sure I was going to heaven. I believed all the “right” things. I believed that Jesus was God’s only Son. I believed He lived on the earth, died on the cross, and rose from the dead. I believed He was my Savior. I believed it all in my head.
But that intellectual belief never translated into a change in conduct. It never went from my head to my heart. When I was able to look at things honestly, I saw that the intellectual belief I had in Christ never caused me to change my behavior. It never caused me to repent and seek the Lord’s forgiveness for my sins. Again, what we see James doing here is “attacking a verbal profession of faith that produces no change in conduct” (Hiebert, p. 160). And that brings us to the second question in verse fourteen. “Can that faith save him?”
And, again, as with the first question he posed, the answer to James’ second question is a resounding, “No.” And here’s where some people get confused. Here’s a point where some try to argue that James is disagreeing with Paul, or they try to use this last phrase to flat out deny that we are saved by faith alone, or they use it because they have the misguided notion that they can save themselves, earn their salvation through their works. And they hang their hat on the word “faith” to do it.
What they fail or refuse to consider is the fact that the word “faith” does not stand alone. In the NASB, “faith” is preceded by the word “that.” In the NIV, it’s the word “such.” James is not denying the fact that we are saved by faith alone. He is saying that the type of faith he just described, the faith that has only the words of sinful man to support the claim, the faith that does not result in works of righteousness that glorify God, that kind of faith can’t save a person. Just because a person claims to have faith, that in and of itself won’t save them, especially if it is a fruitless faith. That’s why Jesus said, “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).
James’ assumption is not that good works save us. His assumption is that if you say you have faith in Christ, but your faith does not produce the fruit of a Christlike life, you are trusting in a faith that will not save you. His assumption is that if you say you have faith in Christ, yet you do not desire the things of God, you do not desire regular fellowship with the body of believers, you do not desire to know the truth of His Word and to live by it, that kind of faith will not save you.
James’ assumption, one that the apostle Paul would wholeheartedly agree with, is that if you do not desire to love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, and might, and you do not desire to love your neighbor, you are trusting in a faith that will not save you. You can dress it up however you like. You can rationalize it and distill it to the point that you are able to make yourself comfortable with it. But the fact will still remain. God’s Word will continue to be true. If your faith is a faith of the mind, a faith of the lips, and not a faith that results in regular and continual deeds born out of a genuine and changed heart, then you are only playing church.
In Matthew 7, the passage we looked at a few minutes ago, Jesus was addressing the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the Jewish people who trusted in their good works to earn them heaven. They, too, were playing church. After Jesus’ analogy of the tree and its fruit, He had this to say.
“Not everyone who says to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Just as James agrees with Paul, the two men agree with Jesus Christ. Paying God lips service or doing things that you think will earn you credit toward salvation is not the same as knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
The Analogy
With the assumption clearly stated, James moves on to give an analogy to support the very serious assumption he just made, and he does so with another hypothetical situation. James was not only a good teacher, but a smart one as well. He knew that if he just pointed and shook his finger at his readers they would likely tune him out. So he uses another hypothetical situation to get them to hear and understand his point without causing them to be defensive.
We find the analogy in verses 15-16. “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?”
James, much like his older brother and Savior, paints a picture with a short parable. John the Apostle draws a similar picture in I John 3:17-18. “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”
James was a great teacher and he shows it in the way he took a very difficult truth in verse fourteen and puts in a perspective his readers could understand. In verse fourteen, James talks about faith without works. In these two verses, he reinforces his point by illustrating that compassionate talk is useless if it is not followed up with real care for those in need.
In verse fifteen we see a two-fold situation. The first aspect is that of a brother or sister in Christ, a fellow believer who lacks sufficient clothing. The Greek word used here for “without clothing” means, “naked” in its most literal translation. But here the meaning is not quite that extreme.
The picture here is of a person who has only their undergarments covering their body. They don’t even have the tattered robe of the “poor man in dirty clothes we saw in verse two. James wants his readers to look even deeper into their own hearts. They were probably still reeling over being confronted with the sin of favoritism toward the rich while shunning the poor. They were likely feeling uncomfortable as they possibly reflected in their minds about the times that they stiff-armed the poor visitor because of their dirty robes. Now they’re being forced to consider a person, male or female, in more desperate condition, but also a fellow believer and probably a member of the church.
Can you imagine the humiliation you would feel if you had to go to a friend for help wearing nothing more than your underwear? Can you even imagine being in such dire straits and having to swallow what little pride you might have left at that point, and knocking on your friend’s door begging for help? That’s the graphic situation James put in front of his readers.
Add to that being “in need of daily food.” James is not saying that the person in this hypothetical situation is simply hungry at the time his reader runs into him or her. The person in this picture is not necessarily starving, but they certainly lack the proper nourishment to sustain a healthy life. The wording here tells us that this was a regular and continual situation in the person’s life.
Having set the scene, James makes the hypothetical a little more personal in verse sixteen. James wants to make sure that his reader puts him or herself in the picture he is painting. We see this in the first phrase—“and one of you say to them.”
So here you are. You hear a knock on the door. You answer it to find a person from the church standing on your doormat. You’re a bit taken aback because the person standing in front of you, someone you’ve seen before in church but never really connected with because they’re new and they don’t travel in the same circles you do, is standing there looking disheveled and wearing only their undergarments.
And here’s what you say to them—maybe because it’s the first thing that comes to mind in an extremely uncomfortable moment. More than likely you’ve chosen your words, hypothetically speaking of course, because the words of Jesus are true. “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man” (Matthew 15:18). You look at the fellow Christian at your door and say, “”Go in peace, be warmed and be filled.”
James uses a phrase, “Go in peace,” that probably would be familiar to his readers. It “was a warm and kindly expression of farewell among the Jews” (Hiebert, p. 162). For instance, in I Samuel 1:17 we read, “Then Eli answered and said, ‘Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.’” In II Samuel 15:9 we read, “The king said to him, ‘Go in peace.’ So he arose and went to Hebron.”
After healing a woman of a very serious medical condition, Jesus had these words to say to her. “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction” (Mark 5:34b). But Jesus’ use of the phrase is much different than that of the person in James’ analogy.
James is not suggesting that the person in his illustration was mocking the poor and hungry person. The person in James’ analogy was likely very sincere when he said, “Go in peace.” The phrase is typically used as a prayerful wish, as an expression of sincere hope that the person who receives it will be well in every way.
But in James’ analogy we see another phrase attached to “Go in peace.” The person says, “be warmed and be filled.” The way this phrase is worded in the Greek text, we can understand the phrase this way. “Hey buddy, I wish you well, but go and let someone else feed you and give you some clothes.” This idea is supported in the next phrase of the verse—“and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body.”
“A young boy, on an errand for his mother, had just bought a dozen eggs. Walking out of the store, he tripped and dropped the sack. All the eggs broke, and the sidewalk was a mess. The boy tried not to cry. A few people gathered to see if he was OK and to tell him how sorry they were. In the midst of the works of pity, one man handed the boy a quarter. Then he turned to the group and said, “I care 25 cents worth. How much do the rest of you care? (Stanley C. Brown, unk. Ref.)?”
What we see here in James 2:16 is that words mean very little when we have the ability to do more. James drives this point home by ending the thought with the same question he began his thought. “What use is it? What difference does it make if I tell someone to go in peace if I’m unwilling to do something to help them.”
Remember I said there was a difference between the ways Jesus used the phrase “go in peace” and the way the person in James’ analogy used it. Jesus didn’t use the phrase until he had already met the need. In the case of the woman stricken with an issue of blood, when she cried out in desperation to the Lord, He didn’t tell her to “go in peace” and then walk the other way. He healed her first, and then He told her to “go in peace.”
This issue is so important to the life and health of our church. We need to do everything we can to make sure that we don’t throw around phrases lightly, like “go in peace,” or “if there’s anything you need,” or “we’re going to support you in this,” or, probably the most important one, “I’ll pray for you.” How many times has it happened to you?
How many times have you shared a need with someone and walked away from the conversation believing you would receive little more from the person than the kind words they just shared with you? What concerns me is wondering how many times I’ve done that to someone else. Wondering if I’ve done that to anyone here this morning. Have I done it to my kids? Considering how easy it is to do, how easy it is to sincerely wish someone well while completely failing to help them at that moment, I’m sure I’ve done this to people before.
Instead of having to ask ourselves the frustrating, rhetorical question “What good is it,” we ought to ask ourselves, “What good can I do for this person?” If someone comes to you with a need, yes—pray for them, yes—tell them you are going to support them or help them in any way you can. But don’t stop there. Do it! Your words, in and of themselves, will not be the true sign of the faith that is already in you.
There is something very important about the connection between belief and behavior. If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it. It took me a long time to understand this truth. I always thought that I was a Christian, but that’s not the way I lived. I didn’t live my life in such a way that it was a reflection of Christ living in me. I didn’t live my life for Christ, so I didn’t truly believe in Christ.
The Application
James wraps up his teaching in these few verses, in a nice, neat package, with a very short and poignant application. We find it in verse seventeen. “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” Here we have the “moral of the illustration” (Moo, p. 126). The moral is this. The profit of a kind word that is spoken in lieu of the help you are able to give is as useless as claiming to have faith in Christ while living a life that contradicts the heart and Spirit of Christ.
James’ wording here is very similar to the assumption he made in verse fourteen. The assumption, the logical and biblical conclusion, is that if a person has a genuine faith in Christ, it will be seen—not every minute of every day because Christians are still sinful people, but certainly with some sense of consistency and regularity—it will be seen in the way that person lives their life. If this is not the case, then the faith the person claims to have is not simply inoperative, or on hiatus, or (what seems to be a popular term) backslidden. It is the kind of faith James just described through his powerful assumption and analogy. It is dead, as James would say, “in itself.”
A close look at the text shows us that James is not contrasting faith and good works. He is not holding up the two as equals in the justification, in the salvation of the believer. He is contrasting true, genuine, and living faith with a faith that can best be described as dead. Faith “in itself,” as James explains it, a faith that has nothing to show for it by way of mercy, love, and repentance, is little more than a mere profession or religious belief. That kind of faith won’t save you. James and Paul agree, and if we are truly in Christ we also agree. We are saved by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Communion
It is that belief; it is that genuineness of faith that puts all of its hope and trust in Christ alone, which brings us to the communion table, and seeing it for what it really is, and truly recognizing what it is not. To the true believer in Christ, communion is not a ritual. To the believer it is not something that brings us merit. It is not something that either delivers or secures our salvation. It is not a time in which Christ has to die all over again, to sacrifice Himself again on our behalf. It is not mysterious, magical, or mechanical.
For those who truly know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, it is a time of remembrance. It is a time to remember the sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross. It is a time to remember that Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.” You see—the work necessary for our salvation has already been done, and you or I have not done it, and we cannot do it. It was done. It was completed. It was finished through Christ’s death on the cross and His glorious resurrection.
Maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve lived with the belief that you are a Christian because of the church or religion you grew up in, or because of the good things you have done. Maybe you’ve believed you’re a Christian because you’ve reconciled in your mind that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
My hope is that if you thought that way, the Holy Spirit has changed your thinking this morning because of what you’ve heard from God’s Word. After all, “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
If you are that person, if the Lord is calling You to Himself this morning, repent and ask the Lord to forgive you for your sins. Ask Him to forgive you for a lifetime of empty and lifeless faith. He will forgive you. “If [you] confess your sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive [your sins] and to cleanse [you] from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).
Ask Him not only to be your Savior, but the Lord of your life. Commit your life and your ways to Him and your place in heaven will be secure for all eternity—not because of anything you have done, but because of everything Christ has done, and is doing now in your heart.
We’re going to spend a few moments in quiet prayer. If the Lord is calling you to live by genuine faith, answer that call and receive His grace. Receive His salvation. Come to the Lord’s Table this morning for the first time as one who truly belongs to Him.
For those of you who have a genuine relationship with Christ, take these moments to confess your sin and prepare your heart for our time of remembrance. Let’s pray.
