6-11-2017 Surprising Faith James 2:18-26

This story is told by the captain of a ship on which George Muller of Bristol was traveling. During his life he received more than 1,000,000 pounds from the Lord, without advertising—every penny came as an answer to prayer.

“We had George Muller of Bristol on board,” said the captain. “I had been on the bridge for twenty-four hours and never left it and George Muller came to me and said, “Captain, I have come to tell you I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.” “It is impossible,” I said. “Then very well, if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way. I have never broken an engagement in fifty-seven years; let us go down into the chart room and pray.”

“I looked at that man of God and thought to myself, “What lunatic asylum can that man have come from, for I never heard of such a thing as this?” “Mr. Muller,” I said, “do you know how dense this fog is?”

“ “No,” he replied, “my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life.” He knelt down and he prayed one of the most simple prayers. When he had finished I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. “As you do not believe He will answer, and as I believe He has, there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.”

“I looked at him and George Muller said, “Captain, I have known my Lord for fifty-seven years and there has never been a single day when I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door and you will find the fog has gone.”

“I got up and the fog indeed was gone, and on that Saturday afternoon George Muller kept his promised engagement.”

—Sunday School Times

Transition:

In our passage this morning, the apostle James clarifies what strong, (almost) unbelievable faith looks like:

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.

Two weeks ago, we saw a seemly contradictory position with James’ soteriological beliefs in a supposed contrast to Paul’s, “by faith alone” theological assertion. This week we see a even greater potential problem as James details his position on faith and deeds—especially in verse 24!

I. A Surprising Objection v.18

Questions emerge from this verse which are common to diatribes (imaginary, sometimes factitious opponents for the sake of engaging in argumentation).

James 2:18 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.

Is James referring to real people saying this or is this only to emphasize deeds in the Christian walk?

Where exactly does the opponent stop talking and James starts again?— is all of verse 18 the opponent or just the first half? What about verse 19?

What you need to understand about ancient Greek is that there was no punctuation to start quotations or end quotations; therefore, in instances like these, it is hard to be dogmatic. But one thing we can all agree on is that the first sentence is the naysayer against James.

What is faith? Well, in the Greek mindset, faith and belief are synonymous. Pistos is the Greek noun for faith; whereas pisteow is the verb form of the same word, but in English we don’t say, “to faith” or for example “Sure, I faith in Jesus Christ” rather we translate pisteow as the verb “to believe”.

Faith has objects. In context, the object is God, but there can be other objects of faith which scripture is clear are wrong objects of faith (i.e. idols, “other” gods, self, etc.)

Faith/Belief involves deep trust and deep love!

And finally, right faith results in salvation!

David Nystrom, in his commentary says:

The speaker of 2:18 holds a position in opposition to that of James. His argument is:

(1) Faith and deeds are separate entities; for

(2) if faith is validated by deeds, then it can be said to have some existence prior to this validation; thus,

(3) faith is both prior to and superior to deeds; and

(4) the demons believe without deeds, so therefore a nonsaving faith does indeed exist.

While both James and his opponents believe that a faith with deeds exists and is a saving faith, James cannot agree with his opponents that there is a saving “faith” that exists without deeds.

In response James argues that :

(1) faith and deeds cannot be [divided];

(2) the only faith that is worthy of the name is faith that expresses itself in deeds; and

(3) faith without deeds is false, since it “does not work”; it fails to accomplish its purpose.

This last is a potent point and is able to survive the interpretation of Laws. Faith has a purpose, and that purpose is for the word to grow within us (1:18) until we are mature and complete (1:4). Any “faith” that does not move toward the goal of salvation is therefore not “true” faith. The idea is similar to that of , where God declares that his word always accomplishes the purpose for which he sends it. Anything less is evidence that what is in view is not the word of God.

Isaiah 55:11 ESV

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

So what about those demons?

II. A Surprising Comparison v.19

Roger Ellsworth in his commentary says:

We are saved only by faith in the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus. Let us never be mistaken about that! But there is such a thing as true faith, and there is such a thing as false faith. One of the marks of false faith is that it contents itself with mere belief in the existence of God.

James’s readers were Jews who had been converted to Christianity. Their Jewish background meant that they were very familiar with the ‘Shema’, the Jewish confession of faith: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!’

Is it good to believe that there is one God? Absolutely! James says that those who believe this truth ‘do well’. But is belief in the existence of God sufficient for the saving of the soul? James answers by pointing to the demons of hell. They also believe in God! They know the truth about God, and the truth they know makes them ‘tremble’, or ‘shudder’. It makes them ‘bristle up’ like a frightened cat!

But is their belief saving [faith]? Of course not! And neither is our belief in God, if it consists of nothing more than nodding in agreement with various propositions and statements about God.

Gordon Keddie writes of the demons,

They actually have a more informed ‘faith’ than human hypocrites! Men and women can make their easy professions of faith and live their worldly lives as if there were not God at all. Their casual blasphemies about ‘the man upstairs’ can roll off their tongues with never the slightest tremble at the consequences of offending a sovereign and holy God! Why is it that demons tremble, while sinners can sail on in blissful unconcern? The answer is that the demons are not so blind as people. They know their latter end … They really fear the wrath to come. But careless sinners say they believe in God positively, go on in daily life to live as if he did not exist and yet can dream that they are safe in the everlasting arms!

Posing arresting questions, creating a hypothetical situation, stating a firm conclusion, handling an objection and drawing a startling comparison—James has put his readers through their paces and us through ours.

The deadly faith which only amounts to intellectual assent is now pictured as, at best, just as good as the faith of demons, but at worst, not even as good as demons! So much for beating around the bush! James is a straight shooter!

III. A Surprising Account v.20-24

So now James transitions to two actual concrete examples unlike the last few verses where he used hypothetical examples. Naturally, he wants to prove his position.

First, verse 20 is really a great display of his emotion by jumping in and responding to this sort of false thinking.

James 2:20–24 ESV

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.

James 2:20-

So he points us to Abraham. This makes sense, after all Abraham is in the “Hall of Faith” fame in Hebrews chapter 11. What might not make total sense right now is how he is using Abraham as proof. The first thing that throws people off is how in verse 21, he is asserting that it is by works that Abraham was saved. Well, the answer really comes in the next verse, v.22.

In verse 22, he admits through his grammar usage that he recognized Abraham had faith before being asked to sacrifice Isaac. The specific use of “along with” and “completed by” both in the English & in the original Greek show that Abraham’s faith was separate from his works but his works was completed, perfected, or fulfilled (gk: verb ‘teleiow’ from teleios) his faith.

Ellsworth again says:

His willingness to sacrifice Isaac was, therefore, not the means by which he secured salvation. He already possessed that! It was rather Abraham showing by his obedience that he truly had faith.

James’s point is plain. Just as Abraham showed that he had faith by his works, so his readers were to do the same. And we are to be doing the same as well.

And now verse 24. V.24 is the most “controversial” verse in the whole epistle. I will ask you now to recall from 2 weeks ago, the reason why I gave that huge list of different Bible verses that quoted from Paul, Peter, John, and even Jesus. I hope you walked away from that Sunday with great certainty that there is absolutely no contradiction with James’ theology when compared to the rest of the New Testament. This recollection is going to come in handy now.

IV. A Surprising Example v.25

Does James put another great man of God on the pedestal? Nope, rather a questionable woman of the night:

James 2:25 ESV

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?

An interesting thing to note here is how James moves from a patriarch (an ancient father of the faith) to a prostitute as an example of true faith. This really should give us quite a bit of hope because what he indirectly communicates is that we don’t have to have always been a super Apostle in order to be an ambassador for Christ today. Our backgrounds can be as rough as a prostitute’s yet still be used mightily of God. In essence, it’s biblical to say, “I don’t really care what your background was because your present state before Christ is more important, and certainly James is saying the same thing by using a former prostitute as the example of authentic faith. In other words, your past cannot be an excuse for the shortcomings of your present condition. Your past does not define you—and that is just a part of our hope!

Is James saying that Rahab deserves salvation by doing good works of helping Israel’s spies? No, she had faith before they came:

Joshua 2:11 ESV

11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

Joshua 2:9–14 ESV

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. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. 11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign 13 that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”

Joshua 2:1 ESV

1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.

Joshua

Joshua 2:

She heard of YHWH and believed— similar to how Abraham believed way before Issac’s birth! So now this once prostitute, has better faith than some of those that James was refuting in his time and some today that just have intellectual assent to Christianity! If there is hope for her, than there is hope for you!

So What?

So why is it so important, then, to show our faith through our deeds? well consider the words of Brennan Manning:

Brennan Manning - best known for his popular book The Ragamuffin Gospel, he was a former priest who was permanently kicked out of the catholic church for preaching that Jesus' gospel was one of grace, and that efforts to earn salvation are impossibly misguided. This man said this about those with the deadly type of faith, he said:

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

What evidence, if any, can you see in your life that you have true, genuine faith in YHWH?

What do you hold in faith as just a mere intellectual belief as opposed to true belief leading to action, which is sourced in our Lord?

Conclusion:

We, as the only light to this world, cannot afford Manning to be correct. If you walk out these doors today, and hang up your ‘Christian hat’ when you get home only to live the week apart from Christ, then put that ‘Christian hat’ back on the next Sunday, you are giving the world the anti-gospel, the bad-news. If this is you--guilty of this very act--then it would have been better for you never to claim the name of Christ, than to blaspheme Jesus’ name through your deeds and actions. But I cannot leave you here hopeless, Scripture never does and neither shall I. So if this indeed explains you, then understand Scripture gives hope even here! Repent! Repent immediately by turning away from your self-ruled, self-centered, selfish lifestyle and start to live today for the One who died for you! Turn it all around just like we just saw with the example of Rahab!

Conclusion:

Salvation is indeed through grace alone by faith alone; however, true faith is never alone just inside your brain, it is inside your hands and feet as well.

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