Pentecost 16B, 2024

If you know the story of Martin Luther, then you know that he was “kidnapped” by a group of his friends and supporters to protect him from being seized by the Roman authorities for his criticism of the pope and the church following the Diet of Worms in April 1521. Once he was a safe distance from Worms, he was hidden away for almost a year in Wartburg Castle. During that time, he translated the Greek New Testament into German. And he double-checked his work by comparing it to the Latin Vulgate Bible. So, Luther was reading the New Testament in Ancient Greek, Latin, and his native German. Let me just say that if you really want to understand something deeply, translate it into another language. You really have to know the meaning of the words, the sentences, and the paragraphs to translate it properly. So, having completed this task, I think it’s safe to say that Luther knew the books of the New Testament quite well.

When you study Luther, you don’t have to read very much about him before you discover his dislike for the Book of James. Luther’s critics often talk about this when they bad-mouth him, stating that he was so arrogant as to think he had the authority to take away from the Bible. Obviously - since we are reading from James this morning - Luther didn’t alter the canon of Scripture. But he certainly had a lot of negative to say about this epistle from the brother of Jesus.

Luther had 3 main criticisms of James: “He didn’t think it expressed the ‘nature of the Gospel,’ it appeared to contradict Paul’s statements about justification by faith, and it didn’t directly mention Christ.” [https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/martin-luther-james-bible] And so, Luther referred to James as “an epistle of straw”. Truth is, he never suggested it be taken out of the Bible, but he *did* suggest that it not be taught in schools. [ibid.]

When we read today’s section of James, I think it’s easy to see why Luther didn’t like it. Especially verses 14-18, it seems like faith is not as important as works, or that “faith alone” as Paul puts it, is not enough for our salvation. Certainly, you’ve heard me say, and hopefully every other preacher you’ve heard has told you that there’s nothing you can do to earn God’s favor, or to earn your salvation. That means that there is no “work” you can do that will get you into heaven…that will grant you eternal life with God.

This morning, let’s dig deeply into James 2, and let’s figure out how faith and works are related, and what’s the difference between faith that saves and faith that is dead.

So why does James sound like he is teaching something that differs from Paul’s teaching? This is really quite an interesting question actually. And there’s one word in this lesson that we must have a complete understanding of before we can answer this question. That word is “faith”. As we dig into that word, it will become clear what both James and Paul mean, and how they agree.

In the first part of today’s reading, James is giving us examples of insincere faith, or perhaps even false faith. If you discriminate or show favoritism, you are not acting in true faith. If you show no mercy, you are not acting in true faith. These sorts of attitudes and behavior are quite “incompatible with Christian faith.” [Gench, Westminster Bible Companion, 100] God has made it clear “that when members of the Christian community ignore the poor, they are not reflecting God’s compassion.” [ibid., 101] If you call yourself a Christian, you simply cannot act in the way that James describes. You can’t favor the rich and ignore the poor. And you can’t be merciless and expect God’s mercy. This does not work in the life of Christian faith.

But what is “faith”? In my time in this pulpit, we’ve talked about several different definitions. In no particular order: faith is the opposite of fear. Faith is a relationship to God based on trust. Faith is believing that Jesus died to save our sins. Faith is a gift from God, and not something we can manufacture or come up with by ourselves. Any others? Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” is also a good definition.

I think a proper understanding of faith includes everything on that list…but let’s simplify it to this: believing and trusting in Jesus Christ as our savior and accepting his teachings and commands. Lots of scholars have a great many things to say about faith as James describes it, but one thing I found that several scholars agree about: let’s call it “head faith vs. heart faith”. Head faith would be the kind that believes in God and in the teachings of Christianity in a general way (“I know God exists and I believe that”); it knows that facts of the history of the gospel and would agree with those facts. This is knowledge, and it is good knowledge. But if it stays in the head (that is, the brain) and stays there… what kind of faith is that?

The other side of this comparison we can call heart faith. This is faith that has infiltrated the heart... and changed it. This is the faith that not only believes in Jesus Christ but acknowledges that we *need* a Savior, and that’s who Christ is for us. Faith is how we receive God’s grace. When we say we are “saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 2:8)…

To be saved is to be guaranteed that our eternity will be spent in communion with the Triune God. We did not earn that, because we could not earn that. Jesus earned that. HE saved us in his death and resurrection. He took on our sins and bore them with the slashes on his skin from the whips, the nails in his hands and feet, and in his death he paid the ultimate price for those sins. Our debt has been paid. We have been saved and that has been offered to us by God’s grace, which means that we don’t deserve it and we don’t have to pay for it, but God gives it to us because of His great love for us.

So we are saved by God’s grace - that is why it is a gift. Faith is how we receive the gift. Do you remember the old Tom Hanks movie “Splash” where he falls in love with a mermaid? Early on, he brings her a gift, in a box, neatly wrapped in wrapping paper, with ribbon and a bow. She takes the gift, looks all around it with a huge smile on her face, kisses the box, and says “it’s beautiful…I love it.” She thought that’s all there was. In other words, she didn’t really receive the gift. To do that, she had to open the box.

So how do we know the difference between head faith and heart faith? You can’t see faith, can you? No, not directly. But faith makes its presence known by confession (talking about it) and by its natural works. This is what verses 14-18 are about. If you have genuine faith, heart faith, then it naturally follows that you will do good works. Not because you have to, or because you think it’s required of you to be saved. You will do good works because your faith in Jesus Christ will cause you to *want* to. When James asks the person who “says he has faith but does not have works… Can that faith save him?” What he’s saying is, does he have genuine faith? Because if he doesn’t have genuine faith, is he really saved? Has he really received the gift of God’s grace?

For James, someone who has that “heart faith” means that they have received God’s grace so fully and completely that it’s worked its way into their heart and has begun to change them. This kind of faith is the faith that saves. It saves before it ever does one, single work. How does it save? It saves by embracing Christ as savior. THEN it “reveals itself by producing love and works of love, which, wherever they appear, show that real, saving faith is present.” [Lenski, 580] Faith that does not reveal itself in works of love is simply not faith in Christ, because it does not obey him, and it does not act.

Ok, but why does it appear that James contradicts Paul in talking about salvation and faith and works? There are a couple of reasons. First, because Paul and James are talking about different kinds of works. Paul is dealing with works of the Law - Jews in his day thought that salvation came from doing works of God’s Law (such as being circumcised, and doing the things commanded in the Old Testament). Such obedience was what would earn God’s favor. The problem is, no one could be perfectly obedient. Paul and James agree on this! James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” That’s all of us, as Paul says in Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...” And Paul’s point is that we are justified by faith without works of the law: “a true and living trust in the Savior Jesus Christ.” [Lenski, 577] James, however, is talking about gospel works, which reveal the presence of gospel faith…heart faith. This kind of works, and this kind of faith serve to give glory only to Christ (not to the one doing the work, or to anyone other than Christ). We could also call these “works of love.”

Here’s the second part of why it looks like Paul and James disagree: Paul is talking about the starting point of faith, that is - “how one is brought into right relationship with God.” [Gench, 105] Paul is dealing with conversion - bringing a person into God’s family…the very beginning of a life of faith. For those of you who’ve been to Pr. Hefner’s Bible study, he’ll tell you that James is writing to people who he KNOWS are already Christians. They don’t have to be converted. They already know that Jesus Christ is their savior. They have already been converted. James is dealing with the ongoing life of the believing Christian. For James, works are not acts carried out to try to win God’s approval; works are the fruit of Christian faith. They’re not “legal observances, but rather to acts of love in the neighbor’s behalf. Therefore, works, for James, include such matters as the care of widows and orphans, respect for the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and control of the tongue. From James’s viewpoint, genuine faith cannot exist without producing this kind of works as the fruit of obedience.” [ibid.]

I’d also like to point out that for James, genuine faith is inseparable from works, those very things that are how faith expresses itself. Faith which does not express itself in works of love cannot really be faith at all. So when James says that faith without works is not saving faith, he doesn’t mean that it’s the works that save you. He means that if your faith doesn’t produce works, then you don’t have genuine, saving faith. The only thing works of love have to do with saving you is that they express your genuine faith.

Let me say once more: when we do good works/works of love as Christians, it is NOT to earn God’s favor or to work our way into heaven. Our good works are a response to our already being saved. Our good works express the faith we have in Christ. Our good works show that we trust and believe in Jesus as our savior and because we embrace Him, we want to act in the world on His behalf.

This week, let’s all take a little time to think about our own faith. What works does your heart faith want you to do? It could be that you know you are being called to do *something*, but you don’t know what. Spend some time thinking about the work of the congregation - the work we are already doing, and the work we have said that we want to do - and see if you don’t fit in there somewhere. There’s plenty of work to be done, and many times not enough hands to do it. Later in James chapter 2, he says James 2:26 “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” That word for “spirit” can also mean “breath”…which might be what James is getting at. Breathing is a sure sign that the body is alive. In the same way, works is a sure sign that faith is alive. [Gench, 108] May Christ be at work in all of us such that those around us can see that our faith is alive.