Sermon Tone Analysis

“Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 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.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

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?

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”[1]

Faith is vital to religious practise.

Every religious group urges adherents to “have faith.”

Some urge faith in the denomination or the religious group itself.

Some urge faith in the words of the spokesmen of the group.

Others urge faith in what is done.

Still others, especially in recent years among some self-described evangelicals, urge faith in faith.

The Word of God calls us to faith in the Living Son of God; and if we indeed possess such faith, it will be evident through how we live.

James informs us that faith is vital.

One must believe Christ Jesus the Lord.

However, believing Christ leads us to believe the truths that He has presented.

Believing Him, we also believe the truths that He taught, and thus we arrange our life to align with those timeless truths.

As we have seen in recent studies, faith is useless if the life of the one claiming to believe remains unchanged.

It will be beneficial for us to review such useless faith, learning what should be evident as we live out the Faith of Christ the Lord.

*The Principle Stated* — “Faith apart from works is useless.”

This is the principle of the Faith that is too often neglected in contemporary churches.

We have redefined success in pursuing the Lord’s work to mean larger crowds at a service, increasing membership, expanded budgets, approval and adulation from the adoring masses—everything except changed lives.

However, the Word of God anticipates that those who are born from above will reveal that new condition through daring to live holy lives.

Review in your mind what James has said to this point concerning faith.

He began by pointing out that faith is impartial [*vv.

1-7*].

Real faith receives each individual whom the Lord sends to us—both to be blessed by their presence and to bless them through providing strength and hope as we serve together.

In fact, those who are least capable of repaying our ministries are often those who prove to be the greatest blessing to us as individuals and as a congregation.

In that context, James has stressed the need to see that we are responsible to see the Law, not as a series of restrictions to steal our joy, but as a revelation of what is pleasing to the Lord [*vv.

8-11*].

Therefore, through applying the Law without prejudice—both among ourselves and in the greater society—we honour the Lord, encourage the saints and attract those seeking the truth.

This lifestyle reflects, not a slavish adhesion to minutiae that are difficult to remember; rather such lifestyle reveals an understanding of the great mercy we have already received [*vv.

12, 13*].

Through demonstrating mercy, we may anticipate mercy.

The unspoken assumption in what James has written is that the Spirit of God is at work in the life of the believer urging her to a holy life.

The believer’s desire for righteousness arises in great measure because she has received mercy.

Indeed, God is “compassionate and merciful” [*James 5:11*], and those who claim to know Him are expected to demonstrate that same mercy.

It is perhaps significant that one of the Names Paul gives to the Lord God is “the Father of Mercy” [*2 Corinthians 1:3*].

We should anticipate that the redeemed child of God will increasingly express the character of the Father, and that character is distinguished by mercy.

This is the reason for the beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” [*Matthew 5:7*].

This is the reason that the Master needed to remind the Pharisees of the divine assertion recorded by Hosea, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” [*Matthew 9:13*].

A failure to show mercy invites divine judgement [see *Matthew 18:33-35*].

Indeed, the child of God has received the divine command, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” [*Luke 6:36*].

James has also stressed that the mercy, growing out of faith as it does, will be applied across the spectrum of humanity, but especially will it be applied to caring for the needs of the saints [*vv.

14-17*].

The individual possessing genuine faith understands that God blesses so that in turn he may prove to be a blessing to others.

The individual who walks by faith sees his possessions, to say nothing of the spiritual gifts which God has given him, as a stewardship.

Thus, the believer who understands the divine work God has performed is concerned to ensure that the needy among the assembly are cared for.

Because this truth has been seriously distorted through the lens of modernity, I must take a moment to address an issue of significance.

There persists the assumption that the people of God are responsible first to care for the needy of society at large.

The biblical principle is that our first responsibility is to the congregation wherein God has placed us, and then to the broader community of faith, and only in tertiary fashion are we to be concerned for the broader society.

James uses the example of “a brother or sister” who is in need [*James 2:15, 16*]; he does not speak merely of a person.

Jesus will hold those who live through the Tribulation period accountable for how they minister to His brothers [*Matthew 25:40*].

Though there are multiple examples of the apostolic Christians responding to disaster [e.g.

*Acts 11:28-30; 24:17; Romans 15:26*], in each instance the response is to relieve the immediate need of fellow believers.

There are no examples of the church sending money to relieve need within a populace at large.

The first responsibility for benevolence among the people of God is to the brotherhood of believers.

When we have cared for our own people, and when we have shown compassion to fellow Christians in need, then with what is left over we should be compassionate toward the greater world about us.

Liberal Christianity has cheapened the message of the Word by attempting to find an easy way to fulfil the law of love.

They taught that if we would do acts of mercy—essentially giving money for benevolent causes—that was all that was required as God’s holy people.

However, the Word of God calls us to get our hands dirty with those we know and love.

Consequently, if we have no needy people among us and if there are no needy people among the faithful, then we should be reaching out to win those needy people about us to faith.

Then, having brought them to the knowledge of Christ the Lord, we can minister to them as James is teaching in this chapter.

Before we arrived at this portion of the letter we are considering today, James pointedly confronted individuals who say that we cannot judge their belief by the life they live [*vv.

18, 19*].

James, however, turns the tables by pointing out that the demons believe God is one; but their belief is of no consequence.

Thus, faith apart from works is useless.

Earlier, James stated that “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” [*v.

17*].

James now says that faith apart from works is useless.

The principle is that faith must have an impact on the conduct of our lives.

Practically speaking, faith that fails to transform is of no value in the sight of God, and certainly such faith of no value before the watching world.

The problem for many people is that they contrast what James says in this passage with what Paul has said in his writings, and they conclude that these represent opposing views.

Paul said, “If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God” [*Romans 4:2*].

In the Letter to the Churches of Galatia, the Apostle wrote, “We know that a person is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ” [*Galatians 2:16*].

On the surface, these verses appear to be at odds with James when he writes, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar” [*v.

21*]?

When James weighs the life of Rahab, he contends, “Was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way” [*v.

25*]?

It is the bold contention of *v.

24*, however, that truly appears to be utterly contrary to Paul.

There, James writes, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

Consider the context.

An old saying reminds the child of God that any text out of context is pretext.

Thus, context is vital.

Paul is speaking of salvation when he uses the example of Abraham’s faith in *Romans 4*.

His contention was that Abraham would have nothing of which to boast concerning salvation, for he was not justified before God by what he did.

Likewise, in Galatians, and more particularly in the portion of Galatians cited, Paul is again speaking of salvation.

He strongly presents the truth that an individual is justified through faith in Jesus Christ.

Before God, we have our righteous standing because of faith in Jesus the Son of God.

James, on the other hand, is focused on the life of one who claims to be justified before God without being transformed.

Whereas Paul is speaking of the means of justification, James is focused on the evidence of justification as seen by impartial observers.

The brother of our Lord contends that it is an impossibility to be saved if the life does not reflect the reality of salvation.

One does not work in order to be saved; but those who are saved will work.

The evidence of salvation is the life one lives out before the watching world.

Profession without possession is meaningless.

Rather than being in conflict, James and Paul are in concert in this instance.

*The Principle Illustrated* — “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 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.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

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?

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

To illustrate the point that saved people are transformed people, James reaches back into Old Testament history.

He presents two individuals, either of whom made a great sacrifice as evidence that they had made a decision to follow the Lord.

He reaches back to Abraham, a name that would have been immediately recognised by any observant Jew, and certainly would have been readily known to his readers.

He also names Rahab the prostitute.

Though she may have been less readily recognised by some individuals, he was likely confident that his readers would be familiar with the account of her brief moment in the history of the Faith.

She was, after all, in the lineage of the Messiah [*Matthew 1:5*].