The Faith that Saves (James 2:14-26)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to James 2:14-26.

And while you’re turning there, I do need to clarify one issue. There are some who read this passage and completely misunderstand the intent of what James is saying because they think that James is saying something that he isn’t saying. Now, I think you’ll be able to tell as we work through the text that this misunderstanding only happens when someone reads only two verses out of context instead of reading the passage in its entirety and those two verses are v. 17 and v. 26.

V. 17 says, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” and v. 26 says, “as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” If you only read these two verses, it appears as if James is saying something that is antithetical to the Gospel—If you only read these verses, James appears to say something completely contrary to the Gospel.

It sounds as if he’s saying that you need to work for your salvation, which goes against what Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9, which most of you probably know so well that you could probably quote it. Ephesians 2:8-9 says “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” If James is saying that you need work for faith then he’s completely contradicting Ephesians 2:8-9 and really, he’s contradicting every other passage of Scripture that teaches us that we cannot earn salvation, our salvation is predicated in and on faith alone through God’s grace alone—it is a gift.

So, let me clarify, James is not stating that you need to earn your faith through work—he’s saying, true faith results in good work. Please keep this in mind.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) Dead Faith (14-17), which introduces this idea that true faith results in good work and (2) Proof of Genuine Faith (18-26), which then emphasizes the need of work that proves the person’s claim of faith. What this morning’s message will do is cause you to reflect on your own belief—do you actually believe in Jesus Christ and have your faith in Him? And it will cause you to ask if your life reflects that you have genuine faith in Jesus Christ. This morning is meant to convict those who claim to believe, but show little fruit; encourage those who seek to do good as a result of their faith; and ultimately, it will point all of us, this morning, to faith in Jesus Christ.

Prayer for Illumination

Dead Faith (14-17)

Our text this morning starts by posing a vital question—one that needs to be explored and understood even for believers today.

James starts in ch. 2 v. 14 with:

James 2:14–17 ESV

14 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.

James poses a very specific question, “what good is claiming to have faith, if it doesn’t result in any sort of action?”

Now, you might hear that and it might remind you of what he said earlier in the letter. In James 1:22, he writes, “22 be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

What he’s doing in ch. 2 v. 14 is he’s building on this same idea—just like you can’t just hear the Word, you need to do it; if you claim to believe, your faith ought to result in action.

And he gives an example of what he means in vv. 15-16, “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?”

The example that James utilizes is one that I think we can all relate to, but it might be different depending on your context, but the idea is this: “what good is it, if you meet someone in need and you can help to fulfill that need, but all you do is say, ‘I’ll pray for you?’”

Note that I’m mentioning that this concerns situations in which you can actually help, not in every situation—that is, if someone comes to you and they’re in desperate need and you have no way to help them, then praying for them and with them is all you can do.

What James is focusing on is a situation in which someone is in desperate need and you have the ability to help them and yet, instead of helping them, you just say you’re going to pray—and that’s it. You don’t even bother to help.

And the reason that James utilizes this as an example is simple—Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves—do you want to know what a good test of someone’s faith is?

Do they actually love the people that they’re with—are they willing to aid in situations that they can help in?

Or are they more concerned about themselves?

Now turn that around on you—do you love the people that you’re around and if there is a situation that you can help in—do you? Or are you more concerned about yourself?

What James is emphasizing here is a simple concept—if you claim to have faith, but your faith doesn’t actually result in you doing something, then your faith is worthless because its not genuine faith—it’s dead.

That might sound harsh, that might sound like it’s overboard, but, that’s what the Bible says.

If you claim to have faith, but your faith doesn’t result in anything—then you don’t actually have a faith worth having.

It’s almost like if you claimed to believe that a bridge could hold you—you can know everything about that bridge, what it’s height and length is, how much concrete was used to build the bridge; even, how much weight it supposedly could hold.

But until you actually take a step out onto that bridge, you don’t actually have faith in it—if you did, you would do the work; you would walk across that bridge.

Likewise, you can claim to believe in Jesus Christ—you can know everything you possibly could about Him, who He was, where He was born, His death, burial, and resurrection, and even the fact that the Bible says He came to save mankind from their sins.

But until you actually have faith in Him, you have nothing. And if you have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, it would be evident in your actions—you will have good works to prove that you genuinely believe.

James then continues by pointing out an objection that some people might have against this idea that genuine faith results in good works. He states that some might try to argue that they have good works and that alone would be sufficient, but he reiterates the fact that it’s genuine faith that ought to result in good works and it isn’t good works that result in faith. Let’s look at vv. 18-26 together:

Proof of Genuine Faith (18-26)

James 2:18–26 ESV

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.

The objection that James raises concerns the idea that good works is sufficient for salvation, but as I mentioned from Ephesians 2, good works does not have the ability to save anyone. James replies to this objection with, “Show me your faith [without] your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Or in other words, those who claim that their good works is sufficient unto salvation run into a problem.

It isn’t the good works that save—thus, if all they have is good work, then they don’t actually have faith and thus, they don’t actually have salvation in Christ alone.

Again, James reiterates this idea that genuine faith is seen by our good works.

He then says something in vv. 19-20 that might seem somewhat shocking or surprising to you, but it emphasizes this idea that genuine faith results in good works. He says in v. 19, “You believe that God is one; you do well.” That’s not the shocking part, this is, “Even the demons believe.”

You may never have thought about this before, but the demons weren’t cast out due to a lack of knowledge or a lack of faith—demons believe that God exists.

Demons have absolutely no doubt that there is a God and that our God is one God—nor do they have any doubt in who Jesus is—it’s just in their situation, they’ve chosen in disobedience to rebel against God, but even in their disobedience, the Bible says that they believe that there is a God and it causes them to shudder; the NLT says that they’re terrified of God.

Genuine faith isn’t about knowing facts—as in knowing that there is a God. It’s in genuinely believing in that God for salvation, obeying Him, and following Him.

Or in other words, what James is saying is that just knowing that there is a God isn’t enough to claim that you have faith or you believe in Him. If your claim to faith doesn’t result in good work, your knowledge that there is a God is worthless—you’re just like the demons who also believe that there is a God.

Just knowing that God exists isn’t the same as having genuine faith.

James then reiterates his thesis by posing a question and by offering two Old Testament examples. He says, “do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” And then he jumps into his two examples.

He provides two examples:

The first is Abraham. Abraham’s faith was proven not when he claimed to believe in God, but rather when God told him to offer up his son Isaac and Abraham obeys—his work that proved his faith was that of obedience.

The second example is Rahab the prostitute, who received in the messengers of Israel, hid them from people who wanted to kill them, and sent them away safely by another route.

In both examples there are all sorts of conversations that could be had, but James’ point is simple—both of these people proved that they were genuine believers in God, not by simply claiming or saying that they believed in God, but rather through their actions after.

It’s one thing to claim verbally that you believe—it’s another thing to take your son, who was promised to you after a lifetime of infertility and take him to be sacrificed on an altar.

It’s one thing to claim verbally that you believe—it’s another thing to commit treason against your own nation to save the Israelites who were sneaking through your city.

The point that James is making here is that these two people didn’t just say they believed, their claim to believe caused them to act and react like believers.

People who were willing to obey God even though it might not have made sense.

People who were willing to follow God even though it could have cost them their lives.

Now, you’ll notice I skipped over one verse, v. 24, “you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone,” but remember that’s one of the two verses that I started the sermon by explaining.

When not taken in context, it sounds as if James is saying that you are not saved by grace alone through faith alone like Ephesians 2 and the rest of the New Testament teaches, but remember, there is a context to keep in mind in James 2:14-26.

And the context is that simply claiming to believe; just saying that you have faith is not enough.

It isn’t that you work for your salvation—it’s that if you are truly saved, if you genuinely believe, if you have real faith—you will do good works; and your good works will prove that you truly are saved, that you genuinely believe, that you have real faith in Jesus Christ.

James says that just like the body apart from the spirit is dead, “so also [is] faith [without] works.” This should be eyeopening and it should cause all of us in this room to stop and reflect. In particular, it should cause us to ask one simple question, can people see that you believe based on what you do? Or put differently, when you tell someone that you believe in God or that you go to church—is it something that shocks them? Or is it something that makes sense to them after seeing the way that you live? Can I be blunt? If, when you tell someone you believe in God and that you go to church, their response is that of shock, something’s not right in your life—your faith isn’t resulting in evidence and those around you can tell.

Application

Folks, as we get into application, let me ask a question, genuine faith results in there being evidence in your life that you believe—is there any evidence in your life (besides you saying that you believe) that you have faith in Jesus Christ?

Do you have the good works to prove that you truly believe?

James utilizes multiple examples, but the first one that he uses is that of loving your neighbor—that just telling someone that you’re praying for them isn’t a good work if you have the ability to do more. Likewise, we can expand that premise to every command in the Bible

Just knowing the fruits of the Spirit doesn’t do any good if you aren’t exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit.

Singing songs about evangelism doesn’t do any good if you aren’t actively participating in the Great Commission.

Fellowshipping with other believers within the church doesn’t do any good if you don’t actually care for one another.

The reality, according to James, is that if you truly believe, you ought to be growing in Christlikeness, which results in good works and given the examples that he uses along with the examples that I’ve given, what that looks like is this:

Not only do you know the fruits of the Spirit, you exhibit the fruits of the Spirit.

Not only do you sing songs about evangelism, you actively participate in the Great Commission.

Not only do you fellowship with other believers, you care for other believers.

If you genuinely believe, you will:

Help others when you’re able to help.

You would be willing to obey Jesus even if it meant losing your family.

You would be willing to follow Jesus even if it means rejecting your country to follow Jesus.

Genuine faith is proven by what you do; just like a lack of faith is revealed by what you don’t do.

While Jesus might never ask you to do the specific things that he asked Abraham or Rahab to do;

And quite frankly, he might never ask you to do the specific things that he had David or Paul or Timothy or Titus or any other person from the Bible to do.

There are some things that Jesus asks us to do that are found in the Word of God for all believers to do—and while I won’t tell you all of them, there are a few that I think James emphasizes in his book:

God calls us to endure during the hardships that we experience in life because God can and does utilize hardship in our lives to make us more like Jesus,

God calls us to not just hear God’s Word, but to do God’s Word—to actually hear and apply what we read and hear in God’s Word, which makes sense, after all, Jesus says that we’re sanctified through God’s Word.

God calls us to not be impartial towards other people—to not treat others different based on their skin-tone or their job or how much money they make.

Later in the letter, we learn that God calls us to control our tongues and to reject being like the world who don’t believe in God and to pray in faith.

How are you doing in these regards? I’m not saying you need to be perfect in every aspect, but I am saying that these are all part of the work that James says we ought to be doing as believers.

In addition, just think of all that Jesus has taught. He taught us to love God and love others, to keep His commandments, to go and make disciples—Peter tells us to be holy as Jesus is holy.

How are you doing in these regards? Again, I’m not saying you need to be perfect in every aspect, but I am saying that these are all part of the work that James says we ought to be doing as believers.

Essentially, what it comes down to is this: if you claim to believe this morning, your faith ought to result in good works. After all, people will know if you believe based on the fruit that you exhibit.

Put simply, true, genuine faith results in good work; does your faith result in good work? If not, here’s your application: (1) check your heart to make sure that you truly believe, (2) repent when you find yourself falling short, and (3) seek Jesus with obedience that results in good fruit.