Works-Based Faith
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Introduction
Introduction
I chose an image for this week’s background that invokes a common phrase in the American vernacular, and one that is probably familiar to you if you’ve attended here for a bit: A man about to pull himself up by his own bootstraps.
It is hopefully apparent why this is an absurd image!
A large part of Christian theology is acknowledging the fact that our works can’t earn us salvation.
We readily understand the absurdity of trying to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps...
We accept our brokenness, right?
It is this aspect of our belief system that distinguishes it in many ways from other religious systems and even secular philosophies
Where most of these pursuits centrally focus on the attainment of enlightenment, power, purity, immortality...
Christians are forced to begin in a place of acknowledging their incapacity to completely attain any of these goals within this lifetime.
In several ways, we also finish entirely incapable of achieving these goals
We can’t figure it all out.
We can’t become perfect.
We can’t live forever.
So… someone might say… what’s the point in works at all then (especially if they don’t benefit me!)? Why should we worry about the less fortunate? Why should we spend our time and energy and money?
I’m not going to solve the problem...
I’m not going to become perfect if I invest enough...
I’m not going to add a day to my life or enrich myself in any way!
And we’re not legalists here, right?!
So it’s not even like you can even really condemn me for it!
Why should I waste my money?
Why should I waste my time and energy and talents on a cause that 100% isn’t going to pay me back?
All I have to do is believe!
We’re not a works-based religion… right???
I hope you can excuse my little diatribe there…
Works...Work?
Works...Work?
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.
And so Noble has so kindly elected to give me another easy start this week!
Not a bit of controversy around this passage AT ALL!
This very familiar passage has long been the center of a great source of tension among Christians,
And it’s not hard to understand why, right?
One of our primary selling-points as modern Christians is that our faith system is not works-based, right?
We’re not “legalists”
In fact, in our modern parlance, we even avoid the word “religion”, a word which James uses several times in closing chapter 1.
“It’s not about religion, it’s about ___________.”
Well... things don’t seem to be easily resolved by a quick survey of other NT authors discussing this exact topic:
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
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.
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
So, are James and Paul in disagreement?
Do we have warring factions of “faith” and “works” folks all the way back at the origins of our faith?
Let’s go back to verse 14 and really take a fine-toothed comb to the passage:
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
To answer our question about faith vs. works, let’s begin by answering James’ question about faith: What good is faith without works?
Really ponder this with me...
Let’s conduct a short mental experiment, where ten individuals are granted salvation from eternal damnation simply by putting their faith in Christ,
and then these people, already granted salvation from eternal damnation, then all sit down in an empty room and literally do nothing until they die...
Do we think they’re saved? Most of us would probably say yes.
So these ten individuals have received salvation from eternal damnation and that... is kind of the end of the story.
So… what good came of that? Ten people were saved (by grace and by no merit of their own, btw), which isn’t nothing… but...
What good was done in the room over the course of our experiment? (nada)
Or perhaps the better question to respond to this illustration, as well as this “works-free” version of faith, is this:
What good is this salvation, then, until I’m dead?
What good is my opinion on God’s identity in a vacuum?
We actually see James developing this concept through vv. 15-17, in which he renders an image of a poorly dressed starving person being subjected to this same sort of worthless optimism.
What good does the future prospect of warmth and sustenance do for the person dying right now?
What if this hypothetical homeless person does actually go on to find shelter and get fed later on in the same day that you “bless” them… How are you connected to that provision? Will they even think about what you said when they’re sitting across from the person who’s actually fed and clothed them?
What good did you being correct actually do for anyone?
Hopefully, you’re beginning to see that this portion of James’ letter, while totally involving a conversation about “final-states (eschatology)/ salvation (soteriology)”, is also largely talking about the “good” being done in this life.
Did your faith save you, or did God’s grace save you? Then stop trying to take credit for your faith!
God gives us the answer, all we do is acknowledge/confess the truth!
Rest assured: If your relationship with God boils down to you waiting to die
so that you can cash in on that free ticket to heaven that you earned because God told you that he was God
and you said “yup, checks out”,
then your faith is practically worthless
BECAUSE it is entirely self-absorbed!
In fact, as James illustrates, covering your own unwillingness to help by saying something polite and pious is morally and spiritually reprehensible!
To put it bluntly: Saying Christian things without doing Christian things is worse than useless!
As we read on, we find that an “interrupter” pipes up to argue that faith and deeds are, in fact, separable:
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?
This form of argumentation in the ancient world was known as diatribe, in which a presenter would present opposing arguments to their own position through the means of an imagined interlocutor (interrupter).
Verse 18 presents a bit of a quandary, so let’s take a moment to dig through James’ hypothetical
The first thing you might note, if you’re like me, is that the phrasing of James’ quote actually makes it sound as though the person arguing against him is standing up their own faith claim with works.. (You—Faith, I—works)
This has led to some debate among interpreters and commentators on James’ exact point, and even James’ exact quotations!
Ancient Greek did not use quotations to denote when someone is speaking
They typically marked speech portions just as James has here: “You say/I say”
If you’ll allow me a small nerd-digression, we can quickly address three options that we have in dealing with this confusing bit of text:
Option 1: James might be citing the opinion of an “ally” on the question of faith and works:
The Letter of James D. Saving Faith Reveals Itself in Works (2:14–26)
You [the false believer of the illustration] say that you have faith; and I have works. But you cannot show me your faith because you do not have works; I, on the other hand, can show you my faith by my works.”
(+) Good pronoun consistency
(-) Forgets about the big “but” at the beginning
Option 2: James is quoting an objector who doubts James’ faith:
The Letter of James D. Saving Faith Reveals Itself in Works (2:14–26)
“Do you [James] really have faith?” James then responds: “I do have works; and while you cannot show me your faith at all, since you lack works, I can show you my faith by those works.”
(+) Helps with the grammar
(-) James’ opponent is actually making the exact same point as James
Option 3: The pronouns aren’t meant to identify James and his hypothetical opponent specifically.
“One has faith, and another has works.”
“There is faith on one hand; there is works on the other.”
This passage from James is actually confirming the philosophy of Paul in relation to faith and works:
Faith is not a work! WORKS are works!
This leads James to use the fallen angels as an example, as these creatures saw God’s creation of the Earth, and they know who he is, and yet that understanding alone is not enough to save them!
James moves further into his argument by citing some interesting Biblical figures’ responses to finding faith in God:
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.
So James here invokes a name that would be of major importance to the Hebrew audience of his letter
And he actually references two moments in Abraham’s life in this assessment:
He first mentions a highlight in Abraham’s story, where his belief in God is established by the fact that he was willing to sacrifice his own son at God’s command
He then refers backwards to Genesis 15:6, to a moment where God (in person) takes Abraham outside and promises that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars, though he’s already a geriatric and he has no children yet.
James’ point is apparent: The reality of Abraham’s faith was borne out eventually through his actions!
Now, there are questions raised by this citation, as well as a tempering point to our lesson today, but we’ll address them in a bit!
Let’s read on for now:
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?
This is an interesting scene in Biblical history and a very interesting citation of good works!
Rahab was a citizen of the city of Jericho, and she technically aided and abetted foreign spies in the face of violent invasion and the genocide of her people, right?
Kind of an odd “good deed”, if you consider it from an objective perspective, right?
Why would James cite this story?!
Well, Rahab, speaking to the spies sent by Joshua, defends herself like this:
8 Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.
Note that both of these acts of justification are things that could easily be viewed as indefensible/reprehensible acts in any other context!
The Bible condemns child sacrifice!
The Bible condemns treason and deception!
Both Abraham and Rahab’s actions are only justified because they are borne out of a genuine belief in who God is!
Note also all the other massive moral failures in either of these figures that get glossed over in light of the enacting of their genuine faith!
This leads us to another major learning point for this passage that OFTEN gets swept under the rug whenever Christians try and apply this passage to their lives: If you think you can judge someone’s faith based off of the works that you are observing… TAKE A BIG STEP BACK!
You’re not seeing the whole picture!
Abraham could EASILY be condemned as an unfaithful, lying coward by the very narrative we receive through scripture...
But James calls him a hero of the faith for this one act!
Rahab is LITERALLY a lying prostitute...
But she is accounted in the lineage of David and of Jesus Christ!
The argument of justification made by James here IN NO WAY suggests that Abraham or Rahab led morally exemplary lifestyles that we would all approve of!
This is a comparison of NO GOOD WORKS to SOME GOOD WORKS, SOME OF THE TIME
not YOUR NOT-NUMEROUS-ENOUGH-GOOD-WORKS to MY MARGINALLY-MORE-NUMEROUS-GOOD-WORKS
Abraham (Gen 18) and Rahab (Joshua 2) also are similar in that they both showed hospitality to God’s ambassadors in their missions!
The “three men” who visit Abraham and the two spies that visit Rahab are also meant to draw the reader’s mind back to hospitality— feeding and clothing folks who are in need.
Pay close attention to James’ language as we finish out this passage:
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
James closes his argument here with a reiteration of the point that he began with in verse 17:
Faith without works is dead.
James invokes an analogy: Just as the body is dead without the life-giving spirit/the breath of life/ruach (Gen 2:7), a body of faith is similarly dead without works inspired by the Spirit.
So… basically, we are a works-based religion??? spoiler alert: nope
All of this tension, much as with all the other paradoxes of scripture that we handle, gets resolved over time.
Faith Works
Faith Works
Perhaps a healthier way for us to view both of these aspects of our Christian walk (faith/works) are as separate “gifts”
8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
As we approach this tension we feel between faith and works, we do ourselves a great disservice when we try to take credit!
James is quite clearly struggling with a portion of his community who are over-inflating their contribution to their own salvation by trying to claim their faith as a work!
We still struggle with this today!
If showing up here on Sundays is your major claim to Christianity… this is actually our off-day!
Admitting and Believing are only the beginning of the process...
If I claim I believe in the God of scripture
And the God of scripture says “go take care of the unfortunate”
And then I don’t go take care of the unfortunate....
What good is my claim?
I’ll let Jesus answer this one:
In discussing his judgment of all creation in Matthew 25, Jesus divides the sheep from the goats, the right from the left, the saved from the unsaved.
And what metric does his use in making this decision???
Of the righteous, he says:
35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
Of the wicked, he says:
43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
Where Chapter 1 of James focuses a lot our tendencies towards succumbing to our weakness and temptation
Or, in other words, the don’ts of the Christian walk
Chapter 2 focuses on our tendency not to act on the good things that God inspires us to do
Or the do’s of the Christian walk
James’ discussion of works and faith are about doing the good that you can do.
James’ message is about innumerable people, across all generations, being joined together by God’s love!
Thousands have been persecuted, gone hungry, lost their families, gave their lives...
To get this message to YOU!
Now… how are YOU going to respond?
James’ message is not about a works-based faith, it’s about a faith that actually works.
