James (12) No Works? No Faith! (James 2:14-26)

Evening Service, 23 August 2009

Around ten years ago a University outreach event in Sydney was advertised as ‘Bad People Go To Heaven!’ This was met with great interest. Ever since then Christian groups have tried to use provocative titles as attention-getters.

This is what James is doing here in the passage before us. He sees that the treatment of others raises the whole question of faith, of believing. In what sense? As to its genuineness, says James in this passage.

But how does he raise this issue to get them to really think it through? He uses the attention getter of “Faith without works is dead!” This he states in v.17, repeats in v.20, and then reinforces in his conclusion in v.26. This is no slip.

Imagine how these words would have been received: ‘What? What did he say? Read that again, that can’t be right!’

This statement would have come as a great shock to the wider church which was constantly taught salvation by faith not works.

It continues to come as a shock to many evangelicals today who know enough of the Reformation to repat one of its maxims as capturing essential biblical truth: ‘by faith alone’. So in Rom 3:28 Paul declares that “Man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law”. In Rom 3:22 we read that the way we receive good standing with God and are counted as righteous in His sight before Him is “through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe”.

So you know that declaring in such unequivocal terms that “Faith without works is dead!” would’ve got their attention – as it did Martin Luther who on account of this regarded the letter of James as an ‘epistle of straw’. He did not like t apparent contradiction with the clear teaching of Paul such as we just noted, and as a result even doubted that it should be included in the canon of Scripture. And at one level I hope it also makes us sit up and take notice and ask, What did he say? From which we turn to, What did he mean?

Having got their attention, and hopefully ours, James spells out what he means. But in order to understand what James means it is helpful to note that it can be divided in three parts, each of which serves as a response to an implied or declared observation or question.

The first section deals with a logical response to what James has said so far: ‘Are you questioning my faith? I believe, isn’t that what really matters?’

The second to the declared statement, “You have faith, and I have works” (v.18).

The third responds to the obvious response: ‘But aren’t you talking against Scripture? Where is the biblical evidence?’

The Claim Made

In v.14 we find a word that is the key to the James’ discussion: “says”. James says, “If someone says he has faith”. There is a profession of faith being made, but James realises that not every claim to faith is real.

The Reality Declared

James sees that this is a faith that has not changed him. It has not proved of benefit in his relationships with others. He asks, “Can faith save him?” More literally, “Can the faith save him” – ie, the faith which he speaks of, that he claims he has. Some translations as a result place the word ‘such’ in italics to carry the meaning.

He also asserts that “faith by itself is dead”. Here James is declaring what ‘saved by faith alone’ doesn’t mean. To use the words of J I Packer, ‘What saves is faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone’.

It is not a question of works instead of faith, nor even in a broad sense of faith and works, but specifically of a faith that works, a faith that produces works. And therefore a faith that is evidenced by works. It is by faith that we are saved, but it is by works that we show that we have the faith by which we are saved. Even at our best our ‘works’ are spoiled by sin and self, so we do not attach any merit to them; the point is that the works we do are the fruit of saving faith.

Now with this Paul is in agreement: Eph 2:8,9 is a great statement emphasising the unique position of faith in bringing us to salvation. But notice how it is followed by v.10 which says that just as faith is the result of the determination of God, so also is works – “to works appointed beforehand”.

Indeed Jesus indicates the same truth when he teaches that: “By their fruit you shall know them” (Matt 7:20), and in John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”.

The works Identified

The works that James is talking about are those that are defined by the moral Law which James has been talking about – notice how he immediately draws examples that illustrate “love one another”. But also that are connected to faith, that they are the works which arise from the heart of a person who is born again and who as a result has entered into a life-time of obedient service, of bringing glory to Christ.

What James wants us to say at this point is: ‘Yes, I can see that. If one is to believe in Jesus and follow Him, there should certainly be an expression of compassion for other people.’

And you know we can admit that intellectually today, and still fail to do it. As Motyer applies what James is saying here: ‘If there is a person who is hungry and we have the means of alleviating that hunger, we are not really Christians unless we help that person.’

This doesn’t mean that we must take personal responsibility for every needy person in the world. Nor does it mean that unless we have responded throughout the whole of our life whenever any need presented itself we are not saved. But it does mean that we cannot be indifferent to need and still profess to be Christians. If we are truly Christians then we will increasingly show the compassion to the needy that Jesus showed.

So we see that James is not arguing against faith – but the kind of faith that does not produce the works that God intends. He is pointing out that there is a false faith we must be fearful of lest we find ourselves deceived into thinking that we are saved when we are not. He is addressing those who go to church on Sunday but who go to Hell during the week. This is why we must insist not just on a confession of faith for membership in the congregation, but for a credible confession of faith!

Quite rightly James then asks ‘What does it profit…?” or ‘What good is it?’ if we only have a faith that does not cause works to flow, for it is not the faith that the Holy Spirit generates within us.

We have a conversation between two professing Christians – 18a

It can be put like this: ‘I am a practical Christian. You, well you’re more concerned about faith – that’s fine. Surely we are both right, we are just different kinds of Christians, but we are both children of God. And really, the world needs both. So let’s respect our differences and greet each other as Christians instead of causing division between us. What you are saying James is so disruptive and so unnecessary.’

James responds by saying there is not different kinds of Christians, only different kinds of faith

The Christian faith which produces works, which he has already described, and then that faith described in v.19 – it may be intellectually consistent (“you believe in one God, you do well”), but it fails to deliver from the clutches of Hell. You are either a Christian or a devil.

See how James changes tack whilst still underscoring His basic premise of true faith works.

By reversing the expected order he is saying that it is equally wrong to go the other way of emphasising works to the neglect of faith.

This is still alive today – those who believe what we desperately need is a practical Christianity. That all these doctrinal issues that we hear so much of from this pulpit are really irrelevant. Look at the world: people are dying and starving. People are hurting and crying. Let us go out and help them, following the example of Jesus. But when pressed it becomes clear that their assurance of being received by God lies not in what Jesus did, but in what they do.

Brethren we must be careful not only of the satanic lie of a faith that stands alone, but also of the lie that says I don’t need faith. Now you may not be deliberately saying that, but you are in effect if your peace is tied to your works instead of to Christ’s work.

The balance is that it is not either or, but both in the sense that faith produces works. Spurgeon said in his day to those who so emphasised evangelism to the neglect of works: ‘If you want to give a hungry man a tract, wrap it up in a sandwich’. We could say to today’s increasing tendency to swamp evangelism by social action: ‘/f you want to give a hungry man a sandwich, wrap it up in a tract’. Remember compassion is not the substitute for conversion but arises out of it. As does service from salvation.

James supports the truth by the setting before us the example or testimony of the Father of the Faith from whom Israel as a nation was to come, and also of that of a notorious sinner (a prostitute) from outside of Israel who came to faith and was incorporated into God’s people.

In both cases it is evident James says that faith produced works.

Firstly he draws attention to Abraham, whom all Jews look back to with honour. In particular James draws attention to God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, which he set out to do until stopped by God. But note what Gen 22:12 states at this point: “…now I know that you fear God”. Now clearly God knew the heart of Abraham, that he really did have faith (cf Gen 15:6 where we read at once “He reckoned Him as righteous’). So what God is saying is that despite all the pressures and temptations you have shown that your faith is real. It has produced works that certify its character as the genuine article.

Secondly he highlights the testimony of Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, who had recognised the two spies as servants of the true God and declared her faith in Him to them. But then what does James say? She kept them safe, helped them escape, and did as they told her to obtain her own safety in the fall of the city. It worked.

But what works!

Through Abraham we see Prompt Obedience to God – a prompt readiness to obey God. Through Rahab we see Personal Risk to help those who were needy and helpless, regardless of the risk to herself. The grace of God not only forgave her, it transformed her from selfish lust to daring love and loyalty to the people of God in great need.

Together they give a balanced test of faith. Motyer: ‘The life of faith is more than a private (long past) transaction seen in the obedience which holds nothing back from God, and the concern which holds nothing back from human need.’ This is living faith, saving faith.

God, through James, then, is calling us to emphasise:

The Importance of the Living Faith – Does your faith produce works that reflect and glorify Jesus Christ? This is not a cruel demand – notice what is said in 2 Peter 1:3 of all who come to true faith! No true believer can plead background, environment or anything else as an excuse for not displaying the fruit of the Spirit in their life.

The Importance of Living the Faith – The generosity seen in the early church was not socialism – for the right to private property was carefully maintained, it was rather a willingness to use and give up that property in response to the needs of others. Let us show commitment to Christ and compassion to others even if it means denying ourselves of things to which we may be entitled.