The Wonder of Faith and Works, Part 1
Discussion & Practice
- Start by reading James 2:14-26. What stood out the most to you from this passage and/or from the sermon?
- Read Romans 3:28. How do we reconcile what appears to be a contradiction between these two passages? Using your own words or the slides below, try to explain the different vantage points and what each author was communicating for their specific audiences.
- Read Ephesians 2:8-10. How does Paul describe both vantage points in these three verses?
- What did it look like for you when you came to saving faith in Jesus? How has that saving faith changed you?
- With baptism coming up next weekend, discuss whether everyone in your group has been baptized already as a tangible next step of putting that faith into action. If not, what has held them back? Is there anyone in your group who would consider being baptized next Sunday on April 28th? If so, have them fill out the interest form.
Practice: Share your story with someone this week. Ask God to open up the opportunity for a spiritual conversation with a coworker or a neighbor or someone in your circle. Consider how you would explain these two important aspects of salvation along the lines of Ephesians 2:8-10, both how God justified you apart from any work you've done and also how he made you into a whole new masterpiece and is helping you live an eternal kind of life now.
Notes
This text we’re looking at today is really the heart of the book. It’s the most developed theological concept in James’ argument about genuine faith.
Up to now, that argument has been repeated that faith generates new life and produces works from the inside out. James has made this very clear.
He talks about hearers and doers, especially those who hear and never do. True hearers actually do.
Now, he is going to develop this relationship between faith and works at its height. He makes a very tight theological connection between faith and works. It’s uncomfortably tight if you’re a Protestant.
Martin Luther, the father of the reformation, actually called James a book of straw because he couldn’t find the connection between this and what Paul taught.
What James is saying is not hard to understand. It’s crystal clear. It just seems at face value to contradict another portion of Scripture that Paul talks about.
Both of these verses use the word justify. James says you’re justified by works, Paul says you’re justified by faith. How do we put these together?
This is not a face-to-face confrontation. I’m going to argue that they agree with each other and are defending each other against different errors when it comes to salvation.
We’re looking at salvation from two vantage points, but using language that complicates it.
I don’t know how well acquainted you are with these concepts or if you’re theologically trained. I don’t know if you’re comfortable thinking theologically or biblically about things, even if you’ve been a Christian a long time. Or you may be well acquainted with the argument.
I want to help the person who has never been theologically trained to understand this issue. I want in the next two weeks for you to know the wonder of faith and works together. They’re both wonders of the spiritual world.
Paul is looking at the entrance into salvation. How do you enter into it?
James is talking about the expression of salvation. What does it look like after you get in?
These two include salvation as a whole. There are two major errors here that they’re both addressing.
What makes it complicated is that they use similar language. Paul talks about the front end using the word justify, and James talks about the other end with the same word. They’re using the same language differently.
Here’s your picture of salvation as a whole. I want you to see it as a whole instead of just one thing.
Paul will say on the front end, works cannot save you. We know that line as Protestants. We tell everyone that you’re saved by grace. Our typical mantra is, “Do not connect works with salvation!”
But you have to get both halves right. We’re good at getting the front end right and it’s created a theological problem in the world where people think they’re saved, but they’re not.
If you just rely on a creed or a prayer and nothing changes in your life, that’s the problem James is trying to address.
For James, faith and works are inseparable. Paul agrees with James on that, but would emphasize that works have nothing to do with the front end.
We are so used to thinking of salvation as a point instead of a whole. We ask people if they want to go to heaven when they die. We say, just pray this, just believe this. One day you're going to be judged, but what are you going to be judged on? You may think to go back to a prayer you said in 3rd grade, but have never had any real change in your life.
If you have faith but nothing happens here along the way, it’s not genuine faith.
Faith is invisible. You feel its effects, but you can’t see it. It’s like radio waves.
A Brazilian women wheeled her dead uncle in a bank to get him to sign a loan. She had to hold his head and hand. The bank teller noticed something fishy.
James is saying, don’t you wheel that dead faith into heaven and try to get in the door.
This is not how the gospel was constructed, but it’s how most of us heard it. Just give your life and go to heaven. Getting into heaven is a good thing, but it wasn’t just something to prepare you to die. It’s something to make you start living now.
Do you think God would just give you forgiveness and leave you alone?
Dallas Willard says, Does Jesus enable us only to make the cut when we die? It is good to know that when I die all will be well, but is there any good news for my life or just for my death? If I had to choose, I would rather have a car that runs than insurance on a car that doesn’t. Then he asks, Can’t I have both? James is saying you have to have both.
There’s no such thing as a genuine faith that doesn’t change you.
Someone will say, you have faith and I have works. And someone else will say, I have works. As if there’s two ways to heaven, a faith way and a works way. James will say there are not two ways. He’ll say show me your faith by your works.
If you have genuine faith it will result in works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
The reason Jesus says he will judge our works when we get to the end, even when works don’t get us in, is because I just have to look at the works to know that the faith was real or not.
You can’t have one without the other. You have to have both. That’s what salvation is.
James agrees with Paul that you’ve got to have faith. And Paul agrees with James that you’ve got to have works.
I’m going to put this together in Paul’s language. James is approaching things thinking about it one way and Paul another.
I want to show you what Ephesians says. This is a very popular passage.
There can be no pride in coming to Christ. We are his workmanship. We didn’t do anything to get in, but he did a work on us, so that we would walk in them. God did the works and prepared the works.
Faith and works are both wonderful. It’s a wonder any one of us can get into heaven, and it’s a wonder that we can become the kind of people he’s making us into. It’s all a work of God. You can’t boast about any of it.
Ephesians 2:10 is not a threat. It’s a promise. You will do great things once God comes into your life. It’s a promise, not a threat.
You can’t just say that you have faith. And here’s how James defines inadequate faith. Maybe you say, “I believe stuff.” Look at this verse:
He’s talking to Jews. This is Deuteronomy 6:4. It’s the Shema, the Hebrew word for “hear.”
They repeated that twice a day and looked for opportunities to do it more than that. You don’t have a verse that’s more sacred to you than that verse was to the Jews.
Talk about being sincere in their belief.
But the demons believe too. And they shudder. At least it has an affect on them. They know it’s not enough. Does anyone doubt the eternal destination of the demon? They know they’re not getting into heaven.
Their reaction is correct. The belief they’re describing is not enough. It only creates terror, not hope. All demons are orthodox. They have right beliefs. They’re not heretics.
James is saying, if you just believe certain things about the faith without it changing you, it’s demonic.
If all you have is a confessional faith from when you were six and you’re relying on that, you’re dumber than a demon. James doesn’t want anyone to rely on that if that’s all they have.
James compares a faith that doesn’t work as demonic and he compares it to the dead.
You’ll never find anything stronger in your Bible that says a faith that doesn’t produce anything is as good as a dead body and is demonic.
Paul uses the word justify to talk about getting in, and James uses it on the back end. You know this word. We justify acts. We say, how can you justify that act?
There are two ways to use this word. Paul uses it in the legal way. A courtroom drama. James uses it in terms of vindication.
Somebody is going to have to declare me righteous even though I’m not. Someone has to legally declare me righteous. That’s what Jesus does. He gives you his righteousness so that when God looks at you he sees the righteousness of Jesus.
James is going to say, because you put your faith in what Jesus did for you, let’s see how we vindicate and show this faith. It’ll show up in a changed life.
You got faith? Show me by your works. Justify that faith by showing what you do.
One way of using the word is legal and the other is demonstrative.
Show me.
Faith and works are inseparable.
I grabbed a hold of Calvin’s Institutes. He has a section on this issue in there. He essentially says the beauty of the front end, the wonder of faith, is that you don’t have to panic and look through files of good deeds that you’ve done. You don’t have to stress over that. It’s the wonder of faith. Calvin said, your conscience is released from the burden of works. When you get to heaven, you don’t want one work burden.
If you only rely on works to save you, you never rest, because you never know if you did enough. You live in the terror of hell. You never knew if you reached the standard of righteousness where you can stand secure.
It’s God’s work that I’m relying on, not mine.
I want us to illustrate the front end one more way before we continue next week.
I want you to see that salvation has two perspectives. You gotta get in, and then something happens when you get in. These are Siamese twins. Don’t try to separate them.
There was a biker group here who rode with a serious bike gang called the Banditos. Patrick wanted me so badly to connect with that gang. I told him, that’s not my place. One day, he invites me to one of their big events where they all met. He told me to show up, so I showed up in my Honda Accord with no other car in sight. I’ve got blue jeans and a white t-shirt. Everyone has a black t-shirt on. They were all bikers. I thought to myself that I can’t walk in there and something bad not happen. I thought, how can I justify myself to these guys to get in? I told them I rode a dirt bike in Jr High. I could have told them I tried cigarettes or drew tattoos on myself. I’ve never been more scared in my whole life. Out of the crowd came Patrick with a black vest that had all the right Bandito patches to let me in. I get escorted into the clubhouse and get to meet some of the big boys.
I got into the clubhouse because I had the vest with patches I didn’t earn. I was there on the merit of someone else, completely. Patrick gets up onto the stage to start the meeting, and he calls me up there. I come to the front of the stage and he introduces me and asks me to pray. When I said amen they all clapped. I was overwhelmed. Can’t tell you how I felt. They all greeted me like I had been part of their gang forever. I was connected to the right person who gave me the right clout to be there.
Jesus put his righteousness on me, someone who didn’t deserve it. That’s legal justification. Then your life changes as you’re overwhelmed by the acceptance and the love. You can’t help it. That’s the wonder of faith. Next week we’ll talk about the wonder of works.
There are two potential errors. You could be hoping in your works. Or maybe you’ve relied on a belief that doesn’t change you.
Do not convince yourself you’re ok. You’ve got to make a decision. I will receive Christ’s righteousness. No more justifying anything. And whatever he’s done in my heart, I will let him have his way in my life.