JAMES | Faith Without Works: The Great Oxymoron | James 2:14-26 | McNeal, A. (Guest)

Please turn with me in your copies of God's word to the book of James.

James, chapter two, verses 14 through 26 this morning, and before we read, let us go to the Lord in prayer asking for his blessing.

Speak Oh Lord, for Your servants, listen. Give us ears to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd speaking to us in His Word and make us to follow after Him in trust and obedience to the praise of His glorious grace. We ask in His name, Amen.

Hear now the Word of the living and true God, James, chapter two, verse beginning in verse 14, What good is it my brothers? If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 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? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

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. You believe that God is one. You do well, even the demons believe and shudder. 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. The word of the Lord, please be seated Amen.

Come to this passage that is dreaded for some Protestants, where James says a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Years ago, I spoke with two Mormon missionaries who were going door to door. They were promoting their false gospel of works righteousness. And I made clear to them, this is not how we are made right with God. One of them asked me, So you believe that salvation is by faith alone? I said, Yes, faith alone, but in Christ alone. And he said, turn to James two, see there faith apart from works, is dead. A person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

See that salvation is faith plus works by God's grace. I didn't fall for it. I told him that James is talking about works being evidence of true faith, not faith plus works, saves even Martin Luther famously said that James is an epistle of straw. There is nothing of the nature of the gospel about it, and we should be charitable to Luther there. Thankfully, he came to a higher esteem of James later on in his career. But this passage has been controversial and difficult to understand for many in the church, with God's help, we want to not only answer misunderstandings, we also want to delight in what this passage says we should understand that James addresses a particular problem here. It's the old problem of those who profess faith but who do not possess faith. It's the problem of the hypocrite, someone who says they have saving faith, but whose life says otherwise. In other words, it is the problem of those who profess faith in Christ but do not possess Christ.

Often it seems that much attention is given to what James says about justification, especially compared to what Paul says about justification, but James's focus here is on the nature of true faith. That is James's focus in this passage.

What is true faith? And James distinguishes here true faith, living faith in Christ, versus false faith, a mere acknowledgement of something true, a faith that has no works, and by God's grace, we'll see that there is a night and day contrast between these two kinds of faith, faith without works, as James condemns here, Faith without works, that is an oxymoron for James.

This. You know what an oxymoron is a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear together. You've probably heard lots of oxymorons, two contradictory things that don't go together, things like deafening silence, The Walking Dead jumbo shrimp and my personal favorite, Microsoft Works.

Apologies to the to the Windows fans. These are contradictions, right? They don't make any sense together. It's the same thing with faith without works. That makes no sense for James. There is no such thing as faith without works. He's emphatically showing us the nature of saving faith. True faith, the faith that unites to Jesus Christ, is living. It is active. It is a working thing. True Faith is busy to glorify God and serve neighbor. A living faith in the living Savior is a faith that works. A faith that doesn't work is not true faith, which means it is not the kind of faith that saves. It's not even worthy of the name faith. It is a counterfeit of the real thing.

The nature of true saving faith in the Lord Jesus is that it obeys and works.

If we had to put a main point on it, it'd be harder to put it better than Richard Gaffin when he says, A faith that rests in God the Savior, is a faith that is restless to do His will. We see this in five ways. First of all, Faith works through love.

Faith works through love, and that's in verses 14 through 17.

Do you notice how James introduces the issue there? The issue of faith without works right away in verse 14, he does not say, What good is it if someone has faith, how does he put it there in verse 14? What good is it if someone says he has faith? See the difference. We're talking about professors who are not possessors. They say they have faith, but they don't have true living faith in the living Savior.

Listen to how the Puritan Thomas Manton put it, faith where it is indeed is of use and profit to salvation, and he that has faith is sure of salvation, but not always he that says he has faith. So this gets at the specific situation James is getting at here, showing the difference between true, living faith and a false, dead faith.

It's when there is a poor believer in the body of Christ.

So one of your fellow church members is in need. He or she has little or no basics, no clothing or food. They're without means to provide for themselves, if there is a legitimate need that you as a professing believer could meet.

How would you respond?

Well, true faith would respond along these lines, remembering the words of Christ himself when he says, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me truly. I say to you, as you did it to the one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. True Faith wants to serve the body of Christ, because that's ultimately serving Christ Himself. True faith would help this poor brother or sister mentioned here. True faith could at least mention this issue to the deacons, and they could go to work to manifest the Sweet mercy of Christ to His lambs in need believers take care of fellow believers, but false faith, false faith would have no works.

False Faith sees this need in the body of Christ and merely offers good wishes.

Oh, you have no food or clothing. Well, go in peace. Be warmed and filled.

Hope it hope that goes well for you. If our response to the poor believer in the church is like this, then we must reckon with James's question, what good is that serving the body of Christ means serving Christ himself, but failing to serve the body of Christ means dishonoring Christ.

So James already shows us here, true faith is selfless and false faith is selfish.

James is illustrating what we see in first John three, if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk.

In deed and in truth. So true faith works by love, but false faith can't work because it is dead. Again, we're seeing something of the nature of true faith here. The faith that unites to Christ is a living thing. It is outward facing, it is active. It serves in love.

And this is what Paul emphasizes in Galatians five in Christ, Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love. You know that the fruit tree is alive if it bears fruit, and you know that faith is true, living faith if it works through love. Secondly, we look more at false faith, false faith. So to highlight the true thing, James shows us it's opposite. Look at that portrait of false faith, again in verses 18 and 19.

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. You believe that God is one. You do well, even the demons believe. And shudder here in this dialog, you can see that false faith is dead.

There's a dialog here between the believer, the true believer, and the hypocrite. This true believer is able to demonstrate his true faith by works of love, but the hypocrite has nothing to show for his dead faith. The hypocrite has nothing to show because there is nothing to show. His faith is not a living trust in the Lord Jesus. His faith is false and dead and worthless. These are two completely different kinds of faith here. One is the real thing, the other is a counterfeit.

Perhaps you've heard that illustration of the chair. One person acknowledges that this is a good chair. It's well made.

It's sturdy, and I affirm it would hold me up if I rested on it. The problem with that is he's not sat in the chair. He's still depending upon himself in his own strength, his own resources, not resting upon the chair.

But another person looks at this chair, he sees all that the other person saw it's well made and sturdy. It would actually work. But he doesn't stop there.

He actually sits in it. He stops depending on himself, and actually rests only upon the chair. That's the kind of contrast James is making here.

Do you merely affirm Christian truth, or do you rest upon and receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior and Lord? Do you merely subscribe to true statements of fact, or do you take hold of the Lord Jesus and all that is in him as your own. What kind of faith do you have? Do you affirm that the Bible is God's word, that God exists, that Jesus, Christ was a real historical man who lived, died and rose again?

Satan affirms these things as well. How sobering verse 19 is.

Do you believe that God is one?

Even the demons know that. And as Sinclair Ferguson highlights, at least the faith that the demons have affects them. They tremble.

That is especially sobering, not only that we would merely have the same kind of faith that the demons have, but that that we would be less impacted by it than the demons. If you have the same kind of faith that Satan has, that's not going to do you any good to have the same kind of mere awareness of true propositions that the demons have, this is not saving faith in the savior of sinners, Satan will be cast into that lake of fire on the last day, even though he has faith in God, and you will be cast into that same lake of fire. If you have the same kind of faith that Satan has, you can understand and affirm true things about God without trusting in Him and loving him. You can say with the demons that God is one, but you cannot say with the tax collector, God be merciful to me, a sinner. This is false faith. It merely affirms true things. But what does true faith look like?

James shows us here from the history of redemption, living faith in the living Savior. Look at these believers whose faith worked by love. And this brings us to our third point, the example of Abraham. Abraham an example of true faith. There again at verse 20.

It?

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

Wasn't 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.

Think back to the life of Abraham for Genesis 15 to 22 Genesis 15, Abraham believes God's promise to give him a son and a numerous offspring from that son. This was God's promise to send the Lord Jesus through Abraham, as Galatians three makes clear.

Think about Abraham's situation.

When God makes him this promise, God promises Abraham he would be the father of many nations, but Abraham is way past the natural age of being able to have children.

As Paul explains in Romans four, Abraham's body was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old, and Sarah's womb was barren and dead. So how will Abraham and Sarah have offspring when Abraham is too old and Sarah is incapable of producing an offspring. How is blessing going to come to the nations from this impossible starting point?

This is not an ordinary promise.

It is the promise of God, the Redeemer, to bring about redemption. It is God, and God alone who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Romans, 417, God makes the promise to Abraham, and God will fulfill the promise for Abraham. God doesn't ask, and God doesn't need Abraham and Sarah to help him. What Abraham cannot do naturally, God will do supernaturally in almighty power and grace, and not even Abraham's old age and Sarah's incapability can stop God's promise of a redeemer being fulfilled. And how did Abraham respond to God's promise?

Genesis, 15, six, he believed the Lord. He expected that God would do what He promised. He believed that even though it was impossible for him and Sarah to provide for themselves, God would sovereignly, supernaturally provide for them.

Now, like all true believers, Abraham was a sinner, wasn't he?

Abraham believed God, but he also tried to fulfill God's promise in his own strength.

Genesis 16, Abraham, at Sarah's suggestion, went into Hagar and Ishmael was born, but Ishmael was not the child of God's promise.

Abraham and Sarah thought they could fulfill God's promise by way of polygamy, and what a mess they made in the lives of Hagar and Ishmael, but the promise of God could not be stopped by the sin and folly of man, even though Abraham and Sarah thought they needed to help God, even though they had adultery and shame on their hands, Almighty God granted that Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the child of God's Promise. Abraham's 100 year old body was as good as dead, and Sarah's womb was barren, but in this situation of lifelessness, the god of resurrection brought about life after such sin and shame, how amazing for Abraham to receive abundant grace from his God, and that's not the end of the story.

In the birth of Isaac Abraham saw the resurrection power of God and trusted and in the sacrifice of Isaac Abraham obeyed that God of resurrection power. James shows us that Abraham's true faith in God was active in obeying God's command, and that's where Genesis 22 comes in. What does God command?

Abraham in Genesis 22 take your only son, Isaac, and sacrifice him.

What did Abraham do? He showed his genuine faith in God by His work of obeying God's difficult command, Abraham has grown in God's grace by this point, hasn't he? At first, Abraham tries to help God out. Well, Sarah's too old, and so maybe my son will come from Hagar. But Abraham witnessed Amazing Grace.

This in the in the birth of Isaac, even though his body was as good as dead, even though his wife's womb was barren, even though he dishonored the Lord and shamed Hagar, even though he did not deserve it whatsoever.

Abraham saw the supernatural, other worldly power of God, and he received grace, Abraham finally realized the pressure is off of him. He does not need to help God fulfill his promise.

Abraham realized it wasn't up to him to bring about God's provision of an offspring for worldwide blessing. He trusted that God would fulfill his promise, and for that reason, Abraham's trust in God was obedient and working.

When Abraham received God's command to sacrifice Isaac, he didn't try to get out of it. He just obeyed God. And please understand this, since Abraham saw how God brought the life of the promised child from the barren womb, He knew that God could bring the life of the promised child from the altar of sacrifice as well. This is clear from Hebrews 11, where the author says, By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom, it was said, through Isaac, shall your offspring be named? He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back on that altar at Moriah Isaac was as good as dead, wasn't he?

All seemed hopeless and lost, but Abraham believed and obeyed the God who raises the dead, as James shows us from Abraham's life, true faith works. And can you see that the trust and obedience of Abraham revolves around the resurrection power of God. It was God who brought the life of Isaac when Abraham's body was as good as dead and Sarah's womb was dead. And it was God who brought about the life of Isaac from the altar of sacrificial death. It was God who supernaturally provided so that the nations would be blessed in Jesus Christ, Abraham's ultimate offspring and so dear believer, whether in faith or works, in trust or obedience, the example of Abraham shows us we live in union with a life giving Redeemer.

But what about verse 24 you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Paul says in one place, for example, Romans, 328, we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Don't Paul and James contradict one another on justification?

Well, it's what we confessed earlier in our own confession of faith. Chapter 11, paragraph two, faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification, yet is faith not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love.

Look at chapter 11 of the confession, and you'll see how it helps us to think through these things biblically.

To summarize, when we talk about justification, we want to keep three things in mind, three distinct but inseparable things, the ground, the instrument and the evidence.

The ground of justification is the imputation of Christ's righteousness, Christ's perfect record, his perfect death, the life and death reckoned to our accounts.

The instrument of justification is faith alone, simply resting upon and receiving Christ in all of his benefits. And the evidence of justification is good works, obedience to God's law.

Here in verse 24 we're talking about the evidence of justification. Faith alone receives Christ and His righteousness for justification, but the evidence that we have done so is obedience and good works.

It's hard to say it better than J Gresham machen, this is a mouthful. I'll say it slowly and we'll unpack it. Machen says this as the faith which James condemns is different than the faith that Paul come.

Ends. So also the works which James commends are different than the works which Paul condemns. So let me simplify.

James condemns dead faith and Paul commends living faith.

And as far as works, James commends works as the fruit of justifying faith, and Paul condemns works as the basis of justification.

So far from being contradictory, James and Paul are in the sweetest agreement, as they show us trust and obedience in the Savior from these different angles. So when James speaks of a faith without works, a faith that is alone, he's talking about dead, false faith. And that is not the kind of faith that unites to the Savior. That is a faith that even Satan has.

It is not a faith that saves.

It's not even worthy of the name faith, bare assent to the facts would be more like it, a bare profession of faith, cold and lifeless as it is, does not save, but a living faith that takes hold of Christ does save and that faith works. It is a faith that is living. As Calvin points out, we confess with Paul that no other faith justifies but faith working through love.

Someone might say, there it is caught you. You're talking about faith plus works, aren't you?

Maybe you're talking about a first justification in this age and a final justification by works at the at the last day, nothing of the sort. Faith does not justify because it works.

Faith justifies because it receives Christ.

But the nature of that faith is that it will work and obey as Sinclair Ferguson helpfully summarizes, the person who is counted as righteous through faith will do what is righteous.

Abraham is an example of that.

And who wouldn't agree with this, who wouldn't in James's day appeal to father Abraham as an example, think of the Jews in James day boasting in their association with father Abraham by mere physical descent. That's not very controversial to appeal to Abraham, but James is going to turn the heat up now and make the hypocrite start to really think about his condition in his false faith. This is our fourth point, the example of Rahab Rahab father Abraham is an example of true faith. But what about this Gentile prostitute? Rahab James is really turning the heat up on the antinomian and the hypocrite in the church by showing us the true faith of Rahab there in verse 25 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, Rahab had true faith, and as such, she serves as a warning to professing believers. Just because you say you have faith that does not make you right with God.

Think back to Rahab confession of faith in the true God when she speaks to the spies in Joshua. Chapter Two, Rahab says, 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, 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. 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.

Do you hear Rahab? True trust in the true God. I know that God has given you this promised land to possess. I believe in this God. He is my God. I want to avoid the destruction that is coming upon my countrymen, and I want to be in that realm where God will dwell with His redeemed God promised the people of Israel that he would give them Canaan as a little preview of the new heavens and new earth.

For them, it would be that holy realm in which they would dwell as God's covenant people, and he would be their reward in order for that to happen.

Happen. God had to drive out the pagans who inhabited Canaan, just as he will do the same thing on a worldwide scale at the last day at Christ's return.

And so Rahab heard about this God. She heard about the Exodus, she heard about the destruction of the other kings. She heard about the mighty acts of the one true God, and she knew he alone is God. She believed in Him, not the false gods of her fellow Canaanites and Rahab abandoned what was comfortable and familiar. She left the Canaanites destined for destruction, and she joined herself to the flock of God destined for glory, as Hebrews 11 also comments By faith, Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. Rahab played her part as an instrument of the judgment that came upon the people of Canaan. She was used by the Lord to bring about this preview of the worldwide final judgment, way back in Joshua's day, Rahab simply welcoming those spies from Israel to scope out that land God would give to them.

This work of Rahab was evidence of her true trust in the true God, she trusted and she obeyed.

So Abraham and Rahab, just to mention, these few had this living faith in the living Savior. Is that the kind of faith you have fifthly and finally, James gives us the organism of faith, the organism of faith, summarizing everything there in verse 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith, apart from works is dead. That's the whole issue. Saving faith is a living thing. We could say it is an organism, empty. Profession looks like faith, but it is not true.

Faith, just as a corpse looks like a person, but is not really that person. They're both dead.

A living person is body and soul, awake and active, and in the same way, true faith is living and active and it works by love.

James is not telling us to add works to faith. He's telling us to get real faith, the kind that works, not the faith that merely says, Go in peace, be warmed and well fed, not the faith of the demons, the real thing that receives God's promise and obeys for God's glory, works will grow out of faith, organically, as someone has said, dead faith cannot be true. Faith as a carcass, is not a true man and a true faith cannot be without works.

Again. It is not faith plus works that saves. It is faith alone that saves. And the nature of that saving faith is that it works by love.

Well as we've seen. This is a sobering passage. It is a warning to the hypocrite. Do you trust in Christ? Or do you just say that you do? It is a stirring passage for the believer.

Be who you are in Christ.

We won't get very far in Christian obedience if we don't understand who we are in Christ.

That's why I want to conclude focusing on what we see about Abraham in verse 23 How is Abraham described in verse 23 he is a friend of God, who called Abraham a friend of God. God did from Isaiah, 41 you Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend, you, whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, you are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off.

Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

What does God say to those who trust in him? I am your God. You are my friend, you have nothing to be afraid of, because I am with you and I will uphold you after everything Abraham did, thinking God needed his help, adultery with Hagar, shaming Hagar and Ishmael. How does God remember Abraham?

As my friend, is that because God is naive and unjust, it's because God is abundant in steadfast love and faithfulness, and He forgives our sins.

As creatures, claimless, creatures of the dust, we are nothing before God. All the nations are a drop from the bucket, compared to him, as sinners, we hate God and want nothing to do with him, but God loves sinners, and he sent his son to the shameful hell of the cross to make us his friends.

Can it be that miserable hell deserving sinners could be friends with God. He has made it so in the Lord Jesus. Think in that Psalm that exalts in this psalm, 2514, the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He makes known to them His covenant.

Gerhard is Voss wonderfully describes his friendship with the Lord. It is the intimate conversation between friend and friend, as known from human life, where there is no reserve, but the thoughts and feelings of the heart are freely interchanged. And the notion of the Covenant expresses the same idea. The Covenant is conceived not as a formal contract, but as a communion in which life touches life and intertwines with life, so that the two become mutually assimilated.

From God's side of this friendship, he delights in His saints and our prayers rise to his throne room as fragrant incense from our side of this friendship, we get to be near to God, feast on the abundance of his house and drink from the river of his delights. Was now God tells us of His delight in this friendship. From Zephaniah 317 the Lord your God, is in your midst a mighty one who will save he will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing.

Have you ever heard someone say, I love that guy, but I don't like that guy? Well, dear believer, God loves you and he likes you.

Or think of how the lovers delight on one another in Song of Solomon, I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. His desire is for me. And our Lord Jesus, the night of his betrayal, says to the disciples in John 15, greater love is no one than this that someone laid down his life for his friends.

You are my friends. If you do what I command, you no longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you.

So this covenant friendship came to its high point when the Lord Jesus revealed his father's will to us for our salvation and shed His precious blood to bring us to God, dear believer, this is not too good to be true. It is better than you realize that God would not condemn you as you deserve, that God would not just tolerate or put up with you, but that he would call you his own and make you his friend. Nothing could be better.

Abraham could leave his home behind and live as a stranger in exile because he was looking forward to that heavenly city to come. He could give up his his own son as a sacrifice because he trusted in the resurrection power of his god Rahab, could give up her wicked Canaanite homeland because she trusted that the meek will inherit the new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells.

Dear believer, your citizenship is in that heavenly homeland to which your friend, Jesus Christ, has ascended, and from which he shall return in glory. We are strangers and pilgrims here, but we are almost home.

Trust your heavenly friend, rest in his friendship with you.

Never doubt his almighty goodness, for you keep turning and returning to him in confession and repentance when you stumble in sin and do not be overly saddened by the miseries of this age, because there is an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, just over the horizon, your heavenly friend is with you to uphold you and lead you all the way home to his kingdom of glory. So look to Him and press on in His amazing grace, even so come Lord Jesus. Amen.