|
Home > Bible on Money > Major Themes > James
Faith and Works
By Justin Borger
with assistance from Generous Giving staff
Christian faith without good works is dead. Putting our faith in Jesus Christ means repenting of our sins—turning away from them—and striving to obey the Lord. We are to work out our faith in our actions and the way we live. The New Testament places so much emphasis on the call for active obedience that some people mistakenly have concluded that we somehow are saved by our good works. Of course, this stretch tears the gospel. Our hearts are twisted by evil desires which make it impossible to please God on our own, even with our best efforts. Because every man, woman and child lacks the perfect obedience that God’s holiness demands, no one can come to the Father except through Jesus, who satisfied God’s justice in his perfect life and death on the cross.
Accordingly, the apostle Paul warned against the danger of trusting in our own good works as the basis of salvation in many letters to churches where Christians were tempted to believe that they could please God through their own efforts. For example, when writing to the church at Ephesus, Paul said, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation is the good work of God’s grace. Nevertheless, “salvation by works” is not the only dangerous belief that can distort the gospel. Blind trust in cheap grace—the idea that active obedience to God’s word doesn’t really matter—is just as deadly. This attitude, which is the opposite of legalism, was specifically addressed by James in his epistle, and it is an outlook that has castrated the faith of many American evangelicals today. James calls believers to reject such a nonchalant attitude toward personal actions, exhorting them instead to live out their faith by obeying God’s commands:
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (James 1:21-22)
When James became aware of Christians who were taking God’s grace for granted, his response fell with force: “Faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:26). As a practically minded pastor, James warned his readers that hearing God’s word is never enough. Grasping God’s word intellectually is insufficient to please God. Regardless of how orthodox our doctrine may be, right doctrine is always wrong doctrine if it is divorced from right practice. Yes, believing true doctrine if we fail to act is even worse than believing a lie. After all, says James, “Even the demons believe ... and shudder” (James 2:19). Unfortunately, many of us are more deceived than demons because we not only fail to act, but we fail to shudder as well. The person whose zeal for “good works” ends the day he becomes a Christian demonstrates that his faith is a farce. Indeed, that brand of so-called “faith” makes a person worse off than he was before he trusted in it because it brings a false sense of security. Faith apart from works is dead because works demonstrate that faith is alive.
Being practically minded, James did not respond to the problem of actionless faith with warnings alone. He also gave positive examples of what active Christian faith had to include. Interestingly, his illustrations for his letter’s two primary passages on faith and works (James 1:22-27 and 2:14-25) both happen to be examples of caring for the poor. James suggests that care for the poor is the hallmark true religion, and he concluded his first section on “hearing and doing” God’s word with this: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27). This is as specific as Scripture gets—the “good work” of true religion is to care for the poor and the powerless. Again in his second section on faith and works, James returned to a similar illustration of what true and living faith must be:
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 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? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17)
Related Passages: Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 3:21-31; 6:1-23; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Galatians 2:15-16, 21; 3:11-14; 5:6; Ephesians 2:8-10; 2 Timothy 1:8-10; James 1:21-27; 2:14-26
|
|
