Real Faith Can Be Seen

Introduction

We have learned that biblical faith must:

Be in something or someone (it must have a real object).

Be based upon information that is true.

The time for a lack of seriousness is over. It often feels like we are watching a controlled demolition. Except, it isn’t some dilapidated stadium or degraded high rise collapsing in on itself. Instead, it is our very civilization. Our way of life.

Surely these times demand that you and know who we are and why.

You and I need to let the Word of God refine our understanding of its own teachings so that we can have a clear sense of our identity in Christ.

Two very corrupt uses of the word faith that should not be confused with the kind of faith the Bible speaks of:

A psychological state of persistence: “Life is no straight and easy corridor along which we travel free and unhampered, but a maze of passages, through which we must seek our way, lost and confused, now and again checked in a blind alley. But always, if we have faith, a door will open for us, not perhaps one that we ourselves would ever have thought of, but one that will ultimately prove good for us.” (Scottish physician and novelist, AJ Cronin).

What does Cronin even mean by faith here? We must be deceived into thinking biblical faith is a magical human power conjured from within enabling us to believe things for the sake of not letting the bad parts of life get us down.

“Pretending to know what you don’t know:” (Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists).

Like the wooded, branded, and leafy object in the field stands as the reality behind the word tree, so the person of Jesus is the reality of life, truth, and the resurrection.

The Bible teaches us that Christianity is not a religion. Salvation is not the result of a religious process. It is knowing a person. It is knowing God.

Faith is not something we “work up” from within ourselves. It is an obedient response to learning reality.

Today, we will add a third element to biblical faith.

Genuine, saving faith gets demonstrated and confirmed in the real world through the increasing presence of observable, godly virtues that also produce public acts of obedience toward God.

God’s virtues all produce characteristics in our lives that must become apparent through how we interact with other people. (Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness - how can these be practiced in private?).

Background of James’ Letter:

It might have been the very first of the New Testament letters. (1 Thessalonians).

We will see that conditions among the recipients had become ugly, unholy, and ungodly.

James’ audience had confusion over trials that came from God and produced spiritual maturity and temptations, desires to commit acts of sin.

James wrote this letter to correct their misunderstanding of God and calls upon his audience to demonstrate genuine faith through obedience.

James 3:13-4:1 seem to be integral to understanding the letter.

James Explains the Causal Relationship between Faith and Works.

We must pay attention to the wording James uses.

Note the phrase “someone may say…show ME” (James 2:18).

What is under consideration in this section is the public demonstration of righteousness.

You’ve claimed to have faith, but that claim, by itself, is lifeless, dead without something to substantiate it.

Illustration # 1 - “Be Warmed and Filled” (James 2:14-17).

Illustration #2 - Abraham (James 2:21-24).

Illustration #3 - Rahab (James 2:25-26).