Faith Lived Out - James 2:14-26
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In just a couple months I will turn 35.
I feel too young to need special shoes and slippers but alas my feet hurt so I will do whatever it takes.
I was wearing recovery slippers around the house and Hannah joked that I looked like an early 2000s high schooler.
All I needed was gym shorts and a livestrong arm band.
Y’all remember those?
We don’t really see those around anymore and it’s because of Lance Armstrong’s fall from grace.
Lance Armstrong
Was a world class cyclist who won the Tour De France 7 times
He was a cancer survivor
He talked about his work out regiment and how he would never touch performance enhancing drugs.
Despite his achievements on the surface, Armstrong's actions contradicted the values he professed publicly.
He repeatedly denied using banned substances, even under oath, and vehemently defended his innocence.
Armstrong was known for his philanthropy and cancer advocacy, which further contributed to the public image of a dedicated and honorable athlete.
However, when the truth emerged, it became evident that Armstrong had been involved in a systematic doping program, deceiving not only his competitors but also his fans and supporters.
His actions revealed a stark contrast between the image he projected and the reality of his behavior.
There is a difference between what is claimed and what is done.
His actions do not match the words.
We see this all the time in our world.
A politician boasts about the high standards of the local state colleges, but enrolls his own children in an expensive private college.
A McDonald’s executive claims his company offers the best family food, but is found taking his family out for a meal at Burger King.
A husband insists he cherishes his wife and yet maintains a secret, longstanding affair with another woman.
It is their behaviour that shows what they really think, more than what they say.
Our claims are not always an accurate reflection of what we really think and believe—but our deeds are.
We do not always live what we say we believe—but we do always believe what we live out.
This is what James calls us to see today.
Big Idea: The steadfast life is a life of lived out faith
Today we walk through a challenging word from James
It’s a introspective look at how our faith stirs us to live.
It starts with the reality that our faith acts.
1. Faith Acts (v.14-19)
James 2:14–19 (ESV)
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!
James is asking a poignant question.
What good is it if someone says they are a Christian but they don’t live like it?
He asks the question by pointing to how do we care for the poor.
Is your first instinct when you see need to extend compassion?
If our faith doesn’t produce in us more then words then our faith isn’t genuine.
If we have the means to help meet the practical need before us, and choose not to, no amount of nice-sounding words will make up for it.
Deedless Christianity is dead Christianity.
It is counterfeit.
If you have a faith that doesn't act then you need to ask do I have real faith?
Faith that has no impact on behavior is not authentic Christian faith.
Real faith acts.
Real love does.
And in particular, real faith serves and cares for others, especially fellow believers.
James makes three things about faith abundantly clear.
1. First, faith is not mere intellectual assent.
In verse 19 he says, “. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”
Every Jewish man or woman believed the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4
Deuteronomy 6:4 (ESV)
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
The demons believe the Shema.
Demons believe a lot of things that we believe—they believe in the existence of God, the deity of Christ, and the presence of heaven and hell.
They know Christ is the eternal Judge, and they know that Christ alone is able to save.
If we are ever tempted to congratulate ourselves about our orthodoxy—about having our theology right—we need to remember who we share it with.
The demons have sound doctrine.
This should not surprise us.
They know who God is. They know he is One.
There are no atheists in the demonic realm.
Affirming certain right things about God is clearly not enough.
Hell is full of good theology.
Are you pleased with your right understanding of who God is?
Congratulations: you are at precisely the same level as the demons
My fear is that countless men and women have bought into the soul-condemning idea that mere intellectual assent to the truth of God in Christ is enough to save, and the reality is that these people are no better off than the demons themselves.
That is a stinging word.
2. Second, faith is not simply an emotional response.
According to James 2:19, the faith of demons is not just intellectual but also emotional.
The demons believe and they “shudder.”
They are affected by the truth of God; they tremble at it.
I wonder how many people define their faith today merely by the emotions they feel at any given time.
3. The third point James makes about faith is that faith involves willful obedience.
You show your faith not just by what you think or by what you feel but by what you do.
Faith acts.
If your faith consists merely of listening to the Word, talking about the Word, or feeling a certain way about the Word, your faith is dead.
Faith acts on the Word.
Faith in our hearts is evident in the fruit of our lives.
A pastor was at his sons basketball game and struck up a conversation with one of the fellow parents.
The gentlemen quickly told the pastor he was a deeply commited Christians.
The pastor asked him where went to church and if he was active in that local church.
The man responded, “No, but the dying thief wasn’t active in a church and yet he was still accepted.”
The minister then asked if he had been baptized.
The man responded, “The dying thief was not baptized and he still made it to heaven.”
The minister then asked if he had partaken of the Lord’s Table.
The man responded, “No, but the dying thief didn’t either, and Christ still received him.”
The minister then commented: “The only difference between you and the dying thief is that he was dying in his belief and you are dead in yours.
Our faith isn’t stagnant friends.
James builds his case for a lived out faith by showing us first that faith acts then he moves next to the reality that faith sacrifices.
2. Faith Sacrifices (v.20-24)
James 2:20–24 (ESV)
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.
Here is what is important to understand James is not contrasting mature faith with immature faith or lukewarm faith with dynamic faith.
No, he’s contrasting genuine faith with professed faith that in fact doesn’t exist.
James is saying this is not really faith.
It’s dead. It’s nothing.
He is pitting dead faith against living faith.
James introduces imaginary people who claim to have faith without deeds, and James says over and over again that such people don’t really have faith.
This is where you need to look with in.
Every person here…all of us have to ask
Is my faith dead or living?
Is your faith only about intellectual assent to belief in God or Christ?
Or is your faith alive, penetrating, and transforming every part of who you are?
This is an eternally important question.
Is my faith counterfeit do I make a lot of promises, a lot of claims and don’t follow through?
That kind of faith is like the gator grip…or the bionic wrench(AS SEEN ON TV)
These tools made a lot of claims…ended up in junk drawer.
James gives two illustrations of this important point.
He is going to show us two biblical characters and at first glance they couldn't be any more different from one another.
He presents for us Abraham and Rahab.
One is the Father of the nation of Israel and the other is a prostitute.
He first turns our attention to Abraham.
We are pointed to the life of Abraham and first to something that took place in Genesis 22.
In this passage, Abraham is asked to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice.
We must be careful to think about this story in context.
In Genesis 12 God had made great promises to Abraham including the promise that through his seed the whole world would be blessed.
It was the promise of the Messiah.
But there was one glaring problem. Abraham had no children.
He was an old man and him and his wife Sarah were barren.
But decades after the promise was made when Abraham was 100 years old, God kept that promise in a miraculous way and Sarah gave birth to a son.
God had done the impossible, but now God was asking Abraham to sacrifice his precious only son.
It was a beautiful foreshadowing of the cross.
A picture that points us to how God willingly sacrificed his own Son for us.
Abraham by faith journeyed up that mountain to sacrifice his son.
Genesis 15 make it clear to us that Abraham was justified by faith, and James even quotes that passage here.
This happened decades before this moment with Isaac in Genesis 22.
Abraham was already justified in the eyes of God, but as he lived out his faith in God, he was demonstrating that his faith was real…it was genuine.
Verse 22 points out that his faith was completed by his works, what this means is that his faith had matured.
Abraham was bearing the fruit of true faith.
Works are the fruit of salvation, not the means of salvation.
The works of the believer that flow from the transformation of redemption are an evidence of faith.
These works have no power to save, but they are a demonstration that the individuals faith is true faith and not merely the intellectual assent that even the demons have.
Faith without works is not faith at all.
Faith leads you to obedience, and obedience matures faith.
Here is what helps us with Abraham’s story. Hebrews 11:19
Hebrews 11:19 (ESV)
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
How is Abraham able to display a living faith? Because of the object of his faith (Riff here - root yourself in Christ not your good deeds)
“If you’re falling off a cliff, strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch. Salvation is not finally based on the strength of your faith, but on the object of your faith.” —Tim Keller
Works are good when they are the fruit of faith.
Consider how this plays out in some of the most basic of Christian actions:
Coming to worship with the church on Sunday.
If you come to a worship gathering fueled by the flesh in order to put on a face before men or to earn favor before God, then this work of worship does not bring honor to God.
But if your coming is the fruit of faith, if you believe and love God, and if you trust that He knows what He is saying when He tells us not to forsake gathering together, your actions do honor God.
When your faith drives you to corporate worship with God’s people, leading you to sing, listen to the Word of God, and fellowship with other believers, this is a part of bringing your faith to maturity.
Spending time in prayer and Bible study.
If you are doing these things in the flesh because you feel like this is a religious routine you must do in order to earn favor before God, then this is not a good work.
But if you believe your supreme delight is found in God and you want to know Him, hear from Him, and express the longings of your heart to Him, then a quiet time is a really good work.
Caring for the poor.
If you do this in the flesh because you feel like you have to in order to earn favor before God, then caring for the poor will not bring honor to God.
But if you believe God when He says this is important to Him and His people are to spend themselves on behalf of the poor, then you will care radically for the poor, and your faith will be made complete in what you do.
I love what Martin Luther said about faith:
“O it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them, and is constantly doing them” _Martin Luther
Now when we read verse 24 a lot of us have a hard time.
James 2:24 (ESV)
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Why well because it’s a strange sentence in light of the rest of the Bible
Romans 3:28 (ESV)
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
It is helpful to keep the whole context of chapter 2 in mind.
In a sense James 2:24 summarizes the whole book of James.
Likewise, in a sense Romans 3:28 summarizes the whole book of Romans.
So, what are we to do?
How are we to understand this?
We have no reason to shrink back from either James or Paul because they do not contradict one another.
There are so many helpful takes on this but for the sake of time and clarity here is a really helpful summarized point from new testament scholar Grant Osbourne:
The primary way in which Paul uses the word “justify” (Gk. dikaioō) emphasizes the sense of being declared righteous by God through faith, on the basis of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice (Rom. 3:24–26), whereas the primary way that James uses the word “justify” (Gk. dikaioō) here in James 2 seems to emphasize the way in which works demonstrate that someone has been justified, as evidenced by the good works that the person does. _Grant Osbourne
(end of vs 14 - THAT FAITH or THIS KIND OF FAITH- Meaning Dead Faith)
Each of them is writing about the exact same gospel; yet they are writing from different vantage points, and they are addressing different problems in the churches to whom they are writing.
I don’t picture James and Paul standing toe-to-toe with each other with contrary understandings of the gospel.
Instead, they are standing back-to-back with each other fighting two different enemies and together defending a unified understanding of the gospel.
Paul is fighting against the false idea that we can earn our salvation with our works.
An idea that James affirms in this book as he shows us that we are law breakers in need of grace
But James, on the other hand, is fighting against an easy believism that had reduced salvation to intellectual belief.
So, which battle are we fighting today?
I think the answer is … both.
We fight both legalism and licentiousness
Either the idea that we can somehow measure up to the law by our doing (which would nullify the cross), and work our way to God.
OR
We are saved by grace through faith and now we can just not worry about doing anything.
Coram Deo both are wrong ideas.
Many followers of Christ, whether they admit it or not, think they can work their way to God.
As a pastor, I want to fight against that idea with everything in me.
At the same time, many others believe the idea that we are saved by grace through faith means works are irrelevant to God and obedience is unimportant.
I also want to fight against that idea with everything in me.
A man who claims to have faith without works is like a man who puts all his effort into building the foundation of a house and never builds anything on it.
A man who displays great works but claims no faith is like a man who builds a house on sand without any foundation
This passage gives us a picture of a glorious gospel that is received by faith, but this faith is not mere intellectual belief.
This is a faith that results in radical obedience to the commands of Christ
Christ is the basis of our justification, faith is the means of our justification, and works are the evidence of our Justification.
Abraham here is called a friend of God.
That is the natural overflow of knowing God as Father, it is to enjoy God as friend.
That kind of relationship, that kind of faith results in radical obedience.
When your faith is in God as Father and as friend, then you do not need to be afraid to obey Him.
You do not need to fear His commands.
Even when He says to do things that make no sense to us or to the world around us, and even when He calls us to take steps that risk everything, we can obey.
Why? Because we trust God wholeheartedly.
This is why Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son: because he trusted God.
And when we trust God, we will follow God sacrificially.
We’ll sacrifice everything in obedience to His commands.
So we have seen that faith acts, faith sacrifices and finally lets look at verse 25-26 to see that faith risks
3. Faith Risks (v.25-26)
James 2:25–26 (ESV)
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.
In Abraham we see that faith lived out is a faith that sacrifices.
But now James shifts the focus to Rahab
So who is this Rahab? We find her story in Joshua 2 and 6.
When we come to her story, the people of Israel are about to enter the promised land after years wandering in the wilderness.
But in between the people of God and the promised land stood the wall of Jericho.
And it was in that wall of Jericho that Rahab lived.
She was a prostitute and it was likely she had not chosen that profession on her own.
As a prostitute, her home was in the wall of Jericho and she ran an inn of sorts where she could entertain travelers and customers.
That is exactly where we find her when the two spies come to her home.
They needed to be hidden from the king and this unlikely woman would exercise great courage in being the one to hide them.
In Joshua 2:11
Joshua 2:11 (ESV)
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.
We see her pronounce a great profession of faith in the God of Israel, and then we see her act on that faith by risking everything to hide these men.
If the king had discovered that these Jewish spies were in Rahab’s home, she and her family would have been executed immediately.
This was treason: Rahab’s life was on the line.
Like James, Hebrews points to Rahab as a hero of faith (Heb 11:31).
But is she a hero of faith because of her rituals or religious activities?
No, she is a hero of faith because she put her life and everything dear to her on the line for the Lord, trusting Him without hesitation, qualification, or reservation.
She risked it all, going against everything in the culture around her.
She risked it all so the people of God might take Jericho for the glory of God, and according to James she was considered righteous for what she did.
Are you willing to do that in your life?
Are you willing to take risks in obedience to the Word of God because you revere the sovereign God who has saved you by His scandalous grace?
Thousands of years after Abraham took his son to a mountain to sacrifice him, thousands of years after Rahab risked her life, are we today willing to risk it all?
Will we go against the grain of the culture around us, even the Christian subculture that surrounds us?
Are we willing to take some risks for the glory of God’s name?
Just a few chapters later after she agreed to harbor spies, the walls of Jericho come tumbling down, we see that one part of the wall was left standing, it was the home of a prostitute named Rahab who had become a child of God.
Rahab's greatest honor isn't being named alongside Abraham here in the book of James, or even being listed in the great "hall of faith" passage in Hebrews 11.
No, there was a far greater honor that was bestowed on this unlikely woman.
In Matthew 1 we find her name tucked amid the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Yes. This unlikely woman would be named in the the lineage of the Messiah.
She was the great, great grandmother of David and part of the family tree of Jesus.
This is scandalous grace.
It is grace that takes an outcast and makes her a daughter.
Our faith is evidenced by our works.
It was true for Abraham as he walked up the mountain willing to sacrifice his son, and it was true for Rahab as she risked everything in order to protect the spies from danger.
The scandalous grace of God is so great that it not only has the power to save, but also to produce in us the fruit of sanctification.
This isn't about what we bring to the table because we bring nothing but filthy rags.
Instead it is about the work of the Spirit that transforms us little by little into the image of our Savior.
Perhaps this is why James chooses two people who are very different as our examples because growing in godliness and bearing fruit is for every child of God.
It may look different for each of us.
It is going to take time.
But through the power of the Spirit, all believers will grow little by little in godliness.
This passage requires self-examination from all of us.
We need to reflect on what we are doing, and how (or if) that relates to what we say and think about ourselves.
Some of us will naturally have very tender consciences: any time a challenge like this comes along, we instantly think of our inconsistencies and faults.
Our failures are never too far from our minds.
And so we might easily find ourselves questioning whether we really are Christians at all.
It is a blessing to have a tender conscience—but the danger is that we so consider our deficiencies that we fail to notice the ways in which we do actually (if imperfectly) express our faith in our actions.
We only see the flaws and we easily miss what might be genuine fruit.
Others of us may have the opposite reaction.
We immediately assume we’re fine.
We run a cursory self-diagnostic, think of a handful of good Christian deeds we’ve done recently, check the “James 2” box, and then move on.
But just as the tender conscience might overlook genuine good, so too the naturally confident might overlook some genuine problems.
We see the good deeds and miss the many sinful attitudes bubbling away under the surface.
In both cases, our self-assessment is superficial. We need to take our time, and we need God’s help.
We need to pray with David: “But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults” (Psalm 19:12).
We need God to show us where we are truly at, especially if we know we are prone to have a very slanted view of ourselves.
One of the means God can use, of course, is Christian people who know us well and who will be honest with us—and we then need to be willing to hear their answer, whether it confirms or corrects what we think.
There may be some who read this part of James and rightly conclude that they are not Christians.
That is part of James’ aim after all—to expose false faith.
Though that might sound like a negative aim to have, it is enormously important.
As we’ve seen, such (counterfeit) faith does us no good at all.
To realize that is an essential and positive step.
We need to dump false faith if we are to enjoy true faith.
The best way to respond is to pray to God about it: to confess the false faith and ask him for true faith or living faith.
Too often what passes for Christianity today is a life legislated by the good example of Jesus and frightened by the threat of divine punishment. But the person who is afraid of sinning because of hellfire isn't really afraid of sinning; he's only afraid of burning. ... He has no stimulus for action except fear and pride. But true faith is swallowed up with such a sense of the glory of Christ that the heart transcends choice in the pleasure of surrender." _Ray Ortlund
Application Question
Is my faith more than just mental assent, what does my treatment of those in need reveal about my faith?
What works or spiritual disciplines am I tempted to rely on for a right standing with God?
What might risking it all look like in my life right now?
Do I work out of duty or delight? How will looking to the gospel cause me to delight to do the works of God?