I. Introduction
A. We come this morning to an extremely important passage, one which is at the center of the controversy between Reformation Christianity & Roman Catholic & Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
1. Of course, one of the central doctrines of the Reformation is the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And if you mention the doctrine of justification by faith alone to a serious Catholic or Orthodox Christian, he may well point you right to James 2:24, which says, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” As if nothing more needs to be said.
2. And, if they have a chance to make another point, they will probably point out that Martin Luther, the initiator of the Reformation, called the book of James “an epistle of straw” and questioned whether it belonged in the NT canon. This claim is not accurate, though Luther did say James was “an epistle of straw compared to” other books of the NT which presented Christ and therefore deserved first attention. There is no evidence he ever sought to remove James from the NT canon, though he did place James at the end of the NT, along with Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation.
B. James 2:14–26 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
C. This has been such a misunderstood passage, so I’m going to have to take a little more time than usual in the explanation section.
D. We have already spent three sermons on the theme of faith and works. One of his great burdens is that believers be doers of the word and not hearers only (1:22).
II. In my opinion, the key to understanding James 2:14–26 is reading from start to finish in context. (Many places in Scripture can’t be properly understood if you jump into the middle of a passage and read this verse or that verse.) So, let’s start at the beginning.
A. 14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
1. This is very important. James defines his terms right here at the start. This verse doesn’t say, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone has faith but does not have works?” That would be a whole different thing. That would imply that it’s possible to have true faith but not have works.
2. But it says, “What good is it if someone SAYS HE has faith but does not have works?”
3. Then he asks, “Can THAT FAITH save him?” He doesn’t ask, Can faith save him? but Can “THAT FAITH” save him? What is “that faith”? He refers back to the faith he described earlier, the faith someone CLAIMS to have even though he doesn’t live it out.
4. He isn’t referring to real, genuine faith, but to professed faith, claimed faith.
5. That kind of faith doesn’t necessarily save a person.
6. Now, I have claimed faith, you have claimed faith, all God’s children have claimed faith. But hopefully we done have mere claimed faith, that is we don’t have faith without any of its fruit.
7. For faith which is devoid of fruit, DOESN’T save.
8. We can all agree that mere claimed faith doesn’t save.
B. 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
1. Faith here has the same meeting as v.14: claimed faith.
2. “Faith by itself” means claimed faith without the fruit of a transformed life.
3. But he then introduces a new concept, the concept of dead faith.
a. Also in v.26 “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”
b. Here he speaks of faith using the analogy of a dead body.
c. You see, we talk about dead bodies in both ways.
(1) We say, “I buried my father,” as if the dead body is a person.
(2) But we also say, “I know that he is in a better place,” as if the dead body is not the person.
(3) So, we use the word person in both ways.
(4) If I speak of a dead person, you would know exactly what I’m talking about.
(5) If we were gathered at a cemetery for a small burial service, and someone asked, “How many people are here?,” you wouldn’t point to all the tombstones and say, “Thousands.”
d. This happens thousands of ways with all languages and many of our English words.
e. When Paul says, “A person is justified by faith apart from works of the law,” in Romans 3:28, he means real, sincere, living faith.
f. But when James talks about faith here in James 2, he means faith that might be real but might also be merely professed, merely claimed.
C. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
1. His point seems to be that one person having faith and another having works is a false distinction. Faith and works belong together, one being the cause and the other being the effect.
2. But in saying this, James has moved his argument forward in an important way. For here he explains one reason why works is so important to faith. For here he portrays works as proving the authenticity of faith. “I’ll show you my faith by my works.”
3. You see, God can see into the heart. He knows if faith is genuine or not. But we can’t see into people’s hearts.
4. So, the only evidence we have as to whether a person who claims to be a believer is in fact a believer is whether their have the fruit of faith in their lives.
a. 1John 2:29 "...everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him."
b. 1John 2:4-5 “The one who says, `I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him.”
c. 1John 4:20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar." (Cf. 1John 2:9-11)
5. We can’t even see completely into our own hearts. So, good fruit becomes important for us to evaluate the genuineness of our own salvation.
a. 1John 2:3 "By this we know that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments."
b. 1John 1:6-7 "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light...the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."
c. 1John 2:5-6 "By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked."
6. Do you see how over & over again, one’s life is evidence of one’s faith, or of one’s lack of faith?
7. And this is important for what follows, especially in v.24.
D. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
1. Believe = faith. They are the noun form and verb form of the same word. English doesn’t have a verb for faith. A person doesn’t faith something. Instead we use the word believe. But in Greek, the verb and the noun are the same, like our words cook, plant, or even speak/speech, sing/song.
2. So, the demons believing is the same as the demons having faith!
3. Now here the meaning of the word faith seems to have shifted. It doesn’t refer to profession of faith or claimed faith but to what a person knows or believes to be true. Satan knows that there is only one God.
4. When it comes to v.19, faith seems to mean theism. The demons know God exists, but hate Him.
5. But this new concept of faith fits in well with what James has said earlier.
6. All Christians are theists, but that certainly doesn’t mean all theists are Christians.
7. Theism by itself isn’t true faith just like mere claimed faith isn’t true faith.
8. You need more than theism – and more than professed faith. Just as a dead body is not a true living person unless life is added to his body, so we need true, sincere, personal trust in Christ in order to have a living faith, not a dead faith.
9. To further make his point, James next cites two examples: Abraham and Rahab. First, Abraham:
E. 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
1. Faith apart from works is useless. It’s useless not only to the world, but it’s useless to the person him/herself. It is useless to them because it is not true faith. It’s doesn’t save them!
2. “faith was completed by his works”
a. He’s talking about the things we can see, things which give evidence as to whether one is saved.
b. True faith is never alone. True faith and works go together. They are part of the same package. Because true faith causes good works.
3. Genesis 15:6 tells us that “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” But then that faith Abraham had in Gen.15 was demonstrated or fulfilled in Genesis 22, where Abraham offered Isaac many years later.
4. But James also says that Abraham was “justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac.” (21) And he goes on in v.24 to say...
F. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
1. Yes, he does. So, now we’ve got to talk about the word justification.
2. Justification in James
a. When you’re working with a language, you only have a certain number of words to choose from, so some words end up getting used for more than one thing.
b. Greek words were often taken and used in a technical sense to express Christian truths – like the words elder and deacon, which in their general sense mean “old person” and “servant.”
c. There is a general meaning of the word ‘justify.’ It means to show something as right. We might say that the fact that around 20 GPCers got COVID this week ‘justified’ cancelling SS and modifying the service. Jesus used the word in this way in Matt.11:19, “Wisdom is justified by her deeds.” This is the sense which James is using the word, not in the technical sense which Paul used it. James is not writing in light of Paul. He wrote first, it seems.
d. The point is that James and Paul used the same Greek word ‘justify’ to refer to two different things: James in its general sense, Paul in its technical sense.
e. We saw earlier, in v.18, that James says that works demonstrate one’s faith: “I will show you my faith by my works.” This is the sense in which James uses the word justification. He is saying that faith is demonstrated through works, faith is evidenced by works, faith is shown to be true by works.
3. Inward faith is invisible. But works are visible. So, we have two visible evidences by which we might evaluate a person’s faith. First is a profession of faith. And second is their lives. “By their fruits you will know them.” (Matt.7:16)
G. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
1. He’s saying the same thing here. Rahab’s had come to faith in the God of Israel (Joshua 2:9-13). Then her faith was demonstrated by her heroic act of hiding the spies and sending them back by another route. Her work demonstrated the genuineness of her faith. For if she’d just claimed to believe, but that claim was not backed up by any evidence in terms of her actions, she could not be judged as having true, living faith.
III. Application
A. Calvin said that justification is by faith alone, but the faith which justifies is never alone.
1. Both sides of this statement are important.
a. If we forget that salvation is by faith alone, then we fall into the temptation of thinking that we are working our way to heaven and that our salvation is not purely by the grace of the Lord Jesus.
b. If we forget that the faith which justifies is never alone, we are vulnerable to feel safe even if our faith is phony. It’s very dangerous when a person with no true faith thinks he is safely saved.
2. You see, true faith is not something human. It is not something people decide to have or decide to try. True faith is a supernatural gift of God. And this true God-given faith has a transforming effect. Or, to put it another way, the God who calls us to Himself and gives us faith continues and develops His work in us, transforming us into the image of His Son Jesus.
3. Like Paul, James believes in justification by faith alone. We can even see this elsewhere:
a. James 1:18 “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth.”
(1) We don’t do it, He does. It’s not by our works, but by His work.
(2) The image here is one of birth. We were born not by our own choice or effort.
(3) In the same way we were born again – born spiritually.
(4) Romans 9:16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
b. James 1:21 “The implanted word...is able to save your souls.”
(1) What saves our souls? It’s not our own works. It’s something which happens inside of us.
(2) It comes from outside of us and is then done to us and in us.
(3) And this thing done by God in our hearts is able to save our souls.
4. And like James, Paul believes that the faith which justifies is never alone. Rom.2:13 “It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”
B. However, there is the danger of false faith, counterfeit faith.
1. It is very possible to claim to have faith but not truly have faith. It is very possible to have all the right doctrinal convictions and yet be a devil, not a believer.
2. It is even possible to be fully convinced that you are saved and not be saved.
3. There are many Bible passages which talk about this. E.g.,
a. Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
b. 1Jn.2:19 “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”
4. So, it would be foolish not to be circumspect about our salvation in light of this.
a. 2Cor.13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.
b. 2Peter 1:10 Be diligent to confirm your calling and election.
5. One of James’ biggest emphases in his epistle is that faith must be lived out if it is true.
6. We must take this very seriously.
7. James seems to have perceived a lackadaisical attitude among some Christians who had embraced salvation by Christ but then felt no compulsion to conform their lives to Him...
8. Even though Jesus Himself said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are truly my disciples.” Jn.8:31
a. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15
b. “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” John 14:21
9. I think today we have much the same problem James saw in the church. Many Christians feel so safe in their salvation and so relaxed in their destiny that there is no sense in which they “work out their salvation with fear and trembling,” as Paul commanded in Phil.2:12.
10. Christian self-examination can be taken too far. All of us can find reasons to doubt our own salvation. We are all far from God’s holy standard.
a. And ultimately our confidence is in God’s forgiveness through the cross.
b. But there has to some fruit of the Spirit. There has to be humility. There has to be repudiation of the ways of the world. There has to be sincere love/compassion. There has to be some generosity.
c. “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” James 2:15-16
C. Helping those in need
1. So, James has been emphasizing the importance of demonstrating your faith by means of good works. And he’s citing the example of the use of the tongue, and avoiding worldliness.
2. But the main example he keeps giving, here now for the third time, is the example of caring for people in need.
a. He mentioned it in 1:27: visiting widows and orphans
b. He mentioned it in 2:2-9: honoring the poor, not discriminating against them
c. And now he mentions it in 2:15-16: about helping out a brother/sister who needs clothes/food
d. Are you getting the impression that James thinks it is important to help those in need?
e. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.” “If a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?...If you fulfill the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” James 1:27, 2:2-9, 2:15-16
f. Where did James get this idea that believers should care for the needy? It seems like he got it from his older brother Jesus, who said that if we feed the hungry, welcome to stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick & the prisoner, we have done it to Him and will be welcomed into His heavenly kingdom, but if we don’t, we’ll go away into eternal punishment – Matt.25:31-46.