The results of faith: A changed life
James 2:14-26
It is one that can easily be misunderstood. It is one that challenges us again with the question as to whether or not we are really saved.
This morning as we consider this passage we are challenged to take a look at our faith. Do you have faith? What kind of faith? Do you ever question your faith? Is it real?
We can take a lot of what is written in James 2. And that’s because the charge is to put our whole faith into action. Theological understanding and doctrinal clarity are useless if they are not accompanied by genuine repentance, genuine trust in God, genuine obedience to his Word and genuine concern for others, especially the poor and downtrodden - just as social action is useless if it does not come from genuine submission to God and his Word. It’s a massive, whole-of-life transformation that James is insisting Christians undertake.
James’ message in this passage is not really very complicated. If your faith is not accompanied by action, then your faith is dead, you have no real faith at all. It’s really just common sense, as we can see from his first illustration in vss. 15-16 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? I know a pastor instead of leaving a tip for the waitress he leaves his card and a scripture. Now I don’t know about you but if I were a waitress I would want my tip, especially if I had kids at home to take care of. He should leave both a tip and a card and scripture. If I see someone in serious need – lying on the ground with a gaping wound in their chest crying out for help – and I go up to him and say “oh, that’s terrible I hope you get better” and then walk away until his pleas fade into the background, then that shows that my comment about him getting better was at best insincere and at worst maliciously sarcastic. My actions demonstrate the genuineness of my faith. Clearly there was a school of thought in the early church that some had the gift of faith and others had the gift of works - 18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." But James declares there is no such separation – you need to have both – “I will show you my faith by what I do”.
ILLUSTRATION
Anyone Else?
A man slipped and fell off a cliff while hiking on a mountaintop. Luckily he was able to grab a branch on his way down. Holding on for dear life, he looked down only to see a rock valley some fifteen hundred feet below. When he looked up it was twenty feet to the cliff where he had fallen. Panicked, he yelled “Help! Help! Is anybody there? Help!” A booming voice spoke up. “I am here, and I will save you if you believe in me.” “I believe? I believe!” yelled back the man.
“If you believe me, let go of the branch and then I will save you.”
The young man, hearing what the voice said, looked down again. Seeing the rock valley below, he quickly looked back up and shouted, “Is there anybody else up there!”
And that is where we find ourselves this morning.
At times we say we have faith, but we have a hard time believing enough to put it into action. This mans faith is a dead faith. It is heartless, useless and empty. Faith, according to James, is dead if it is not accompanied by some action.
Now some of you are saying to yourselves well Paul says that it is faith alone that saves us and not our works. And I can see what you are saying. 2:24 says “You see a man is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” Compare that with Romans 3:28 where Paul says “For we maintain that man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” or Ephesians 2:8-9 where he says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast.”
At first glance, James and Paul seem to contradict each other. However, James and Paul are addressing entirely different things.
In James, the words faith and belief mean a simple knowing in ones mind like someone saying “yes, I think that’s true”. So when vs. 18 says “you have faith” and vs. 19 says that the demons believe that, the words are derived from the same root – it could have just as easily said “and the demons have faith that”. It’s talking about just believing something to be true in your head.
On the other hand, Paul, uses the word faith to stand for something much much more meaningful. To Paul, it denotes trust and dependence. Similarly, James uses works or deeds to mean the action of living out your faith, whereas Paul refers to the works of the Old Testament Law. Now this is an important distinction. Listen to it again…..
In there writings James and Paul are correcting two very different misunderstandings. James is again stressing the concept that Christians must put God’s Word into practice. He’s writing against the hypocrisy of some who claim to believe in Christ, but don’t live a life in keeping with the gospel. Don’t just sit and listen – Get out there and do something! To those people he has a warning – that sort of empty, dead faith won’t save you, because it’s no faith at all. I am thinking of a song by the Newsboys. The words are It(faith) can make a bouncer take ballet and a vegetarian BBQ hamster.
Faith puts us out there a little bit. The Christian faith didn’t grow by being “safe” it took faith. Daniel in the lions Den. The false prophet and Elijah praying for fire from heaven, Queen Esther speaking to the king w/o permission.
These situations could have had disastrous outcomes. Daniel could have died in the furnace, Elijah could have been humiliated and killed the king could have ordered Esther killed for her forwardness. But instead Daniel walked through the fire and the King was saved, pagan worshipers saw fire fall from heaven and Esther saved her people. Sometimes faith moves us to do something or reach out to someone when it doesn’t always make sense. But this is how the Gospel is spread. It takes faith and works.
On the other hand, Paul is correcting people who think that they can earn their way to heaven by obeying the law. They are the kind of people who think they are better than the people around them. These are the king of people who are self-righteousness and think that they are good enough for God – sort of like the Pharisee in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector who go up to the temple to pray in Luke 18:9-14 (New Living Translation)
Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector
9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
People who think they can earn their way into heaven by obeing the law. For example I don’t lie, steal, cheat, commit adultery, I give my Tithe. Therefore I am going to heaven. Those commandments and laws need to be followed. But faith requires more. You may not be a thief. But do you help the poor so they don’t feel motivated to do so? You don’t commit adultery, but are you careful not to dress in a manner that might make someone else fall/ Sometimes the most self righteous people are the ones that just haven’t been put in the situation.
Our faith requires that we personally do not lie, cheat, steal and that we believe in God. But it also requires us to do all we can to help other people not fall into those traps, or for ones that already have to give them a hand back up and help them believe in God. Seeing God through us. This is where faith and works meet.
You’re not saved by works, so you can’t exult yourself, says Paul. Instead, it’s God’s grace through faith that saves you. So, James and Paul are addressing different ideas of works and faith but their messages come together in the end. In Romans 8, Paul explains how we can tell if someone is really, genuinely a child of God indwelt by the Spirit. It’s by looking at their actions, at their works – just like genuine faith is demonstrated by what we is done.
The world sees the works that James is talking about as social action and blind acceptance. But we know that the work that God wants from us is to totally and absolutely surrender to him. To listen to his word and to put it into action. To look after the poor and to avoid being contaminated by the world. That’s the great call that God has given us who trust him.
What both James and Paul say is that the Christian life is not about faith alone and not works alone. It’s about a faith that energizes us to good works, that makes us zealous for obedience to God. If we say we believe in grace and not in good works, we are makeing the same mistake that James condemns in vs. 18. We’ve turned a half truth into a whole truth. And when you do that, you make it into an untruth. Some would say that vs. 24 means that we can earn our justification by works – and that sort of deviation is always a danger. But that is not what James is saying at all. We are justified by works only in the sense that they make our faith complete. We don’t earn salvation by works – so we can’t boast about anything, but we must have works to be saved. And why must we have works? Because works show that we really do have faith.
God’s grace that works through faith transforms our lives. Grace justifies us before God, moves us from being objects of his wrath to being objects of his mercy and this transforms us into a new person. His grace is transformational, and that’s the grace and faith that James focuses on here. God makes you a new person, he re-creates you, He purifies you. That is faith that works, works real change in people’s lives. The challenge for us then is this: don’t be double-minded people who claim to have faith but ignore part of the Word of God. The world loves Christian hypocrites because it can point and laugh. Don’t give them the opportunity. This is not a requirement for perfection – and James acknowledges our sin and God’s mercy throughout his letter. But it is a call to have a living, transforming, vibrant faith. Have a genuine faith that is made complete by what you do. And moreover, let’s respond to the mercy and grace we have received in Jesus Christ by living for him, by obeying him and by glorifying him in our lives.
Billy Graham, had this to say about faith and works and their relationship to each other: “There really is no conflict between faith and works. In the Christian life they go together like inhaling and exhaling. Faith is taking the Gospel in; works is taking the Gospel out.”
Discover your gifts, the gifts God has so graciously blessed you with, get involved and use them! Scripture tells us that we have each been blessed with gifts from the Holy Spirit! Some people say, “Oh, I can’t teach,” or “I can’t do that.” * That’s okay!
We do not all have the same gifts, which is a good thing, because we need multiple talents and abilities in this church. Yes, we need teachers, and yes, we need leaders, but we also need people to do other things: Hand out bulletins, visit shut-ins, clean the church, cut grass, and help out with odd jobs. The body of Christ has many parts, and I ask you to discover where it is you fit in this body! What are you doing as an active, lively part of the body? There’s a need for caring, giving, compassionate people! I repeat ... Faith and works don’t stand in opposition to each other! Faith and works represent two sides of your experience with God. No one will ever be moved to action without faith, and no one’s faith is genuine, unless it moves you to action!
New Living Translation, Life application Bible. Illinois: Tyndale. (2004)
Sermoncentral.com “Faith that works” James Jack
Sermoncentral.com “Faith without works” John Kapteyn
Morgan, Robert J. Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes. Tennessee: Thomas Nelson. (2000)
