Works Without Faith Are Dead

Introduction

James famously says in his Epistle that “faith without works is dead.” What James is responding to is a kind of “easy believe-ism” that would claim, “oh yes, I believe in Jesus, I think all the correct things about him, I can put a check mark next to all the right facts, so I’m good now. it doesn’t matter what I do or how I love God and love others.” To that attitude, James says that that kind of faith, mere intellectual assent, is no faith at all. It is dead. True faith, genuine trust in God in the heart, is a living and active thing that changes you. It produces love and good works.

But why am I talking about James? Well because the point Paul is making in Romans 4 complements James’ statement nicely. In fact, Paul’s point is basically the exact inverse of James’. James said that “faith without works is dead.” Paul would say “yes, of course, but works without faith are also dead!” They’re two sides of the same coin. Where James was responding to a false faith that doesn’t produce true works of love, Paul was warning against empty works that don’t flow from the true source of trust in Jesus Christ and the life-giving power of God. Mere morality, just keeping the rules for what you should do, what you should say, even what you should think doesn’t get you to the goal that God has promised to his people.

Problem: Those of the Law Can’t Inherit the Promise

The Promise: To Inherit the World

So what is it the goal that God’s people are seeking, what is the promise that they are going to inherit? According to Paul it is God’s promise to Abraham. We should remind ourselves that in this passage Paul is continuing a discussion how Abraham is the OT example of someone who was justified, declared right with God, by faith. God made specific promises to Abraham, and Genesis 15 tells us that “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Abraham trusted that God would keep his promise and that was what made him right with God.

Now the first verse of our text says that the promise was that Abraham and his offspring would be the “heirs of the world,” that they would be the inheritors of God’s creation. That’s a pretty lofty goal and a lavish promise. Being the rightful heir of God’s world basically amounts to being a son or child of God, a member of God’s own family. It’s a summary of the meaning of the promises that God made to Abraham in Genesis. God promised that Abraham would be the father of many nations, that he would give the “land” of Canaan to his descendants, and that all the nations and families of the earth would be blessed through Abraham’s descendant. Paul is saying that those promises find fulfillment through Jesus in the New Testament. What they amount to is that everyone who shares the faith of Abraham will inherit a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth. The world will be remade and restored, and God’s people will rule the world on God’s behalf just like he always intended.

Why Can’t Law Achieve the Promised Inheritance?

“But why is it,” someone may ask “that simple obedience to God’s law, the Law God gave his people on Mt. Sinai can’t inherit this promise?” After all, the law of God was a good and gracious gift, and it told Israel what a good, moral life would look like. And God had told Israel that if they kept his covenant they would inherit the land he promised to Abraham. Paul’s answer is that if those who are merely “of the law” are the heirs, those who trust only in their moral character, then faith is null and the promise is void. That is, your faith will prove empty because it trusted in the wrong thing, and the promise will never actually be fulfilled. Paul has already proved earlier in Romans, that no one, Jew or Gentile, is actually able to keep the “law” that God has revealed to them. On the contrary, the Law on Mount Sinai that promised life and inheritance in theory, in practice accomplished only wrath. The only thing the law achieved was turning “sin,” falling short of God’s intentions, into “transgression,” deliberate rebellion against an explicit command from God. That’s why it produced even more wrath.

It’s really important for us to get this through our heads, that merely keeping God’s law and being a “good person” is not enough to earn God’s promises. Mere works without faith in Christ are dead. There’s a wonderful essay by C.S. Lewis called “Man or Rabbit” that really helps us drive this point home. (By the way, you should go read the whole essay as soon as you have a chance, it’s short, and you can find it online for free.) In this essay, Lewis is answering a question that many people ask, a question closely related to the one Paul is dealing with,“Can’t you lead a good life without believing in Christianity?” His response is first to point out that there’s a problem with the question itself: you can’t actually know what a “good life” is until you have first determined whether Christianity is true or not. Someone who asks that question on behalf of himself wants to live a good life without bothering to find out what “good” actually means. But the answer that Lewis finally comes to is no, you can’t ultimately live a “good life” without faith in Christ, and you can’t inherit the promise of God either. There is a twofold reason that he gives for why a person merely “of the law” can’t inherit the promise as Paul would say. He writes

All right, Christianity will do you good - a great deal more good than you ever wanted or expected. And the first bit of good it will do you is to hammer into your head (you won't enjoy that!) the fact that what you have hitherto called 'good' - all that about 'leading a decent life' and 'being kind' -isn't quite the magnificent and all-important affair you supposed. It will teach you that in fact you can't be 'good' (not for twenty-four hours) on your own moral efforts. And then it will teach you that even if you were, you still wouldn't have achieved the purpose for which you were created. Mere morality is not the end of life.

He hits the point again at the end of the essay, saying,

The idea of reaching 'a good life' without Christ is based on a double error. Firstly, we cannot do it; and secondly, in setting up 'a good life' as our final goal, we have missed the very point of our existence. Morality is a mountain which we cannot climb by our own efforts; and if we could we should only perish in the ice and unbreathable air of the summit, lacking those wings with which the rest of the journey has to be accomplished.

What Lewis is getting at is the same point Paul is making. You don’t have the ability in yourself to perfectly fulfill God’s law, to have your every action, word, thought and desire flow out of love for God and love for your fellow man. And even if you could, even if your perfect church attendance, or your volunteer work, or your never saying any naughty words could somehow qualify you as living a good life, you’d still fall far short of the mind-bogglingly generous goal that God intends for you. Do you honestly think that just being a “good person” is enough to earn you the status of “heir of the world” and “child of the God of creation”? Do you think God owes you that for good behavior? Guess again. The promise of God is nothing short of sharing his undying, divine life with you and giving you creation itself as an inheritance. But you won’t inherit that promise merely by being an “adherent of the law.”

The Solution: Trust in the God Who Gives Life

The Faith of Abraham

So if mere rule-keeping won’t do the job, what will? Faith. It is not those who are merely of the law who are the heirs, but those who share the faith of Abraham, that is, those who put their trust in the same thing that Abraham put his trust in: the life-giving power of God. Paul turns back to the example of Abraham to illustrate the point. Abraham also had been given a mind-bogglingly lavish promise from God: that he would be the father of many nations. And what’s more, Abraham was totally unable to attain this promise by his own efforts. Abraham was almost a hundred years old as it says, and his wife Sarah wasn’t far behind. And they still didn’t have any children. Paul tells us that Abraham considered his own body and his wife Sarah’s womb to be dead as far as the ability to achieve God’s promises was concerned. From a human perspective he had no hope of being anyone’s father, much less many nations. But Abraham knew the life-giving, creative power of the God that he believed in. The God who could give life to the dead and call things that didn’t exist yet into being could certainly give life to his practically dead body and Sarah’s dead womb and call a son for Abraham into existence. That, Paul says, is why Abraham’s faith was “counted to him as righteousness,” because he put his faith in the right thing: not his own abilities or efforts, those were as good as dead, but the life-giving power of his God. That’s why Abraham obtained the promise.

Jesus Vindicated as the True Heir

Then Paul turns his attention to New Testament Christians, applying the example of Abraham’s faith to us. He says that the words “it was counted to him” are not just for him, but for us as well. Christians can also be counted righteous before God and become heirs of the promise by trusting in the life-giving power of God. Like Abraham, we have been given a glorious promise from God: to become heirs of his new creation, and sons of the living God who are considered righteous and good in his sight. But just like Abraham, we can’t attain this promise by our own efforts. When we look at our own abilities, we have no hope. Our works, apart from Christ, are as dead as Abraham’s body and Sarah’s womb.

So just like Abraham, we have to trust in the life-giving power of God, the life-giving power that raised Jesus from the dead. As Paul says, Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” And how was Jesus “raised for our justification?” Well he was delivered over, accused, and put to death for claiming to be the Messiah, the true Son of God, the offspring of Abraham, and the rightful heir of the world. The charge against him was that he was a rebel and a false Messiah, someone who didn’t deserve the title “heir of the world.” But God gave a different verdict when he raised Jesus from the dead three days later. The resurrection was Jesus’ “justification,” his vindication by God. By his life-giving power, God proved that Jesus was innocent, that he was righteous, and that he truly was the only one who deserves to be called the “heir of the world.” The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus was “appointed the heir of all things” by God the Father.

And everyone who trusts in Jesus shares his justification. Everyone who dies and rises with Jesus by faith is vindicated: they receive the same verdict as Jesus that not only have they lived a “good life” in the eyes of God’s law, but they are counted as children of God and heirs of the world. Jesus kept the law for you and lived a good life on your behalf, but more than that, he shares the powerful divine life of God with you, and he gives you back your inheritance as a child of God. You couldn’t have done it with your dead works. But by putting your faith in Jesus Christ and in the life-giving power of God, you are now an heir of the new creation.

Conclusion

So what is an heir of the world to do while you await the fullness of your inheritance? Well, you might listen to the advice of James again: good works! A living faith in God’s life-giving power leads to keeping the law and good deeds, living ones, not dead! And remember that the good life of a Christian is about more than just rule-keeping. Good morals are a part of it, an important part, but God has even more noble and beautiful things in store for you. When you are raised like Jesus and you finally inherit the new creation, you’ll get to see it fully. Lewis puts it better than I could. On that day, he says that we will see “a thing we have never yet imagined: a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy.” May God bring us all to that inheritance. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.