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Main Idea
A living faith is an active faith.
As a kid, I was out playing in the woods with my friends. We were probably playing army, pretending to be explorers charting unknown territory. While we were playing, I saw a huge bug clinging to the side of a tree. And, of course, as any reasonable adolescent boy would do, I had to touch it. So, I crept closer so as not to scare it off, and to my surprise, it didn’t seem to be bothered by my presence. It wasn’t until I was inches away that I realized it wasn’t an insect. It was the shed exoskeleton of a cicada, which was even cooler than the bug itself. I plucked it from the tree and looked it over. I played with it like it was a G.I.Joe villain. My friends even dared me to eat it, which I did…not.
I’m sure many of you have seen the same thing. I bring it up to highlight the reality that what I thought was something ended up being a mere shell of the real thing. I didn’t have a real cicada. I had a hollow, dead shell of one.
This is James’s main concern for the infant church: Do you have a real faith, or do you just have a dead, empty version of it? Let’s see what he responds to.
Passage
James 2:14–26 CSB
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?
If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.
Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete, and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
I – Probing Question (v. 14)
What good is it if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
I think this is a relevant question in our day, though it might be phrased differently: “How do I know for certain that I am actually saved?” Wouldn’t you like to have certainty of your salvation? Can I get a show of hands of how many of you have asked Jesus to be your Lord multiple times, just to be sure? Or maybe you have royally messed up and wonder if you have disqualified yourself or if you really were saved in the first place. The more I hear people’s testimony, the more I understand how commonplace this question is. So, if you ask this question often, I’ve got good news. You can have assurance that your faith is genuine. Luke and John address this question, as does James.
To answer this question, James creates a dialogue with an imaginary interlocutor, which was a standard rhetorical device at the time, and he does so by looking at the nature of your faith, mainly… is it a living faith or a dead faith? And, how does your faith relate to works? We are studying 12 verses today. In them, ’faith’ is mentioned 11 times, and ‘works’ is mentioned 12 times. Clearly, James is telling us not to ignore the connection between the two.
James unpacks this with three distinct sections—two that are versions of dead faith and one that demonstrates a living faith.
II – Disconnected Faith (vv. 15-7)
James illustrates the answer to this question with a hypothetical situation:
You meet a fellow Christian who lacks the basic necessities – food and clothing. Let’s maybe liven this scene up a little. It’s a frosty morning in late November, and you go up into the mountains to check on folks after a big storm. You come to a drafty shack that looks more like a barn than a home. After a few knocks on the door, an older lady answers in a thin, worn nightgown. She is shivering. You immediately notice the heat isn’t on inside the house. You also see her pantry door open in the kitchen behind her, which is completely bare. Her countenance is grim and hopeless. It’s clear to you she has no means to take care of herself. How horrible would it be if you replied like this:
“Hi, ma’am. I’m up here, doing well checks to see how people are doing after the storm. I’m so happy to see that you are alive and moving around. I pray your pantry will always be stocked and you stay cozy this winter. Ya’ll take care now, ya hear?”
And then, you leave.
What exactly did you just accomplish? That’s essentially the reply that the person in James’ story gave. “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed.” That might be a nice sentiment, but it is utterly meaningless. It is a useless gesture. Wishing someone well in a situation like that and failing to give the poor woman a coat and put food in her pantry is as useless as a rope-handled broom you can neither push nor pull to clean with. What good is such a worthless cleaning tool? That is the same question James asked to begin with. What good is it?
If you can imagine such a terrible scenario with a meaningless sentiment that does nothing to help the person in need, then you can understand a crucial element of Christian faith. A saving faith is an active faith. It’s not just a faith that lives between one’s ears in the form of intellect or private prayer. It is lived out in the form of works. A saving faith is not disconnected from the rest of the world but actively engages it. If there are no works, your faith is dead. Definitionally, a dead faith cannot give you spiritual life. If we were dead in our trespass and sin and made alive in Christ.. and it is also true that we have been saved by grace through faith… then our faith has to be a living faith. Therefore, part of our assurance is recognizing what dead faith looks like and avoiding putting our confidence in that type of faith.
So, the first example of a dead faith is a disconnected faith. The second is a demon’s faith.
III – Demon’s Faith (vv. 18-19)
Did you ever think that demons had a sort of faith in God? Admittedly, it’s a strange concept to many, but let’s hear what James says.
He introduces this concept with a second hypothetical with his imaginary interlocutor:
A person who claims faith and works can be separate and distinct from each other.
• On one hand, a person has a faith that lives between their ears intellectually.
• On the other hand, a person has works, as James advocates for.
This notion is absurd to James. It would be like a person being challenged to prove that he can run the Boston Marathon, but he can’t use their legs to do so. He must prove it another way. How can he prove he can run a race without running? How ridiculous!
And so this introduces a critical function of works in the believer’s life. The existence of works proves that your faith is a living faith, not a dead one. You say you can show me your faith APART from works, but I say you must show me BY your works.
The underlying assumption is that this person would demonstrate their faith apart from works by a show of biblical knowledge. But, knowledge of orthodox Christian doctrine alone can’t save you. Why? Because the demons have that. Did you realize that forces of darkness have sound theology? James points to the Shema, a verse from Deuteronomy that every faithful Jew knew and recited daily to drive this concept home: “Here O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The confession of Yahweh as the only true God was central to their Jewish and new covenant Christian faith. Knowledge of that doctrine, however, does not mean you have a living, saving faith. Why? Because even the demons know that. They live in the spiritual realm where God dwells and reigns. They’ve seen Him. They know there is only one God. They know that Jesus is the Son of God. They even know His death on the cross atoned for the sins of His people. They know these central Christian doctrines because they are spiritual beings who can see it! And yet, they do not possess a saving faith. James doesn’t pull any punches here. He’s pretty spicy. “You believe the Shema? Congratulations! So do the demons, but at least they shutter at His greatness and judicial authority.”
Now, I’m not saying that knowing sound doctrine is demonic. Of course not. We all need to treasure the wisdom of God’s truth. But don’t deceive yourself into thinking that your knowledge proves you have a saving faith. I call this a demon’s faith simply because the demons can say they believe God is one. Talk is cheap. Only saying you are a Christian is like pulling out a cicada shell and declaring it a living insect. It’s not… you’ve only shown a hollow shell that is a dead version of the real thing.
It is easy to say you are a Christian. It’s easy to say when you live in a county with Christian values, grow up in a Christian family with Christian parents, go to church on Sundays, believe that there is a God, and know about the life of Jesus. You may be able to recite loads of scripture, rattle off the historic creeds, and answer most Bible trivia questions and still be under God’s judgment with an eternal future in hell like the demons because you do not possess a living faith. You have a dead faith.
Saying that you know biblical truths is not proof of saving faith.
IV – Demonstrated Faith (vv. 20-25)
James’ reaction to this type of thinking is quite blunt. If you think this way, you are a senseless person! The term literally means ‘empty,’ as in the hollow, empty shell of the cicada. If you believe faith and works can be separated, you have a hollow understanding of faith. Yowza!
Then, he asks a follow-up question to his imaginary opponent: “Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?” Clearly, his imaginary interlocutor is a stubborn mule. He’s presented two scenarios of dead faith but now wants to offer two examples of living faith.
1- Abraham’s faith
James and Paul used Abraham’s life to highlight essential truths about faith, and both quote Genesis 15:6, which states that Abraham believed God and that it was credited to him as righteousness. He trusted God at His word, and his righteousness was given to him by God because of it. James uses this instance to emphasize how Abraham demonstrated that type of faith. Abraham didn’t just sit and meditate day and night, ‘believing God.’ His faith had legs. Abraham demonstrated his faith (trust in God) by raising the dagger to slay his only son as God had commanded. And if God chose to let this happen, Abraham believed that God could raise him from the dead (which, as a side note, is a powerful foreshadowing of God giving his only son to die on the cross).
Abraham’s faith manifested in this world through the near slaying of Isaac… his beloved only son of the promise. He didn’t have the theology of Moses or the Shema because it hadn’t been given yet! Faith is made active through works. There is no other way it can be exercised or made complete.
2 – Rahab’s care of Israelite Spies
As heroes go, Rahab isn’t exactly at the top of the list of model examples. She lived as a prostitute in Jericho… not exactly the portrait of virtuous faith. However, she believed in the God of Israel. When she learned about the pending destruction of the city, she risked her life and the life of her family by hiding the Israelite spies in her home and aiding their escape as long as they spared her life and the life of her family. Perhaps she is more of a portrait of faith than we gave her credit for.
James is driving home the point that Rahab’s faith in the God of Israel wasn’t just talk. It wasn’t just a lived emotional experience in her mind. It was actionable. God’s people were in her house, and she took care of them at the risk of her own safety. Like Abraham, Rahab couldn’t quote the Shema, the Ten Commandments (even though the law existed at this point), or articulate the finer points of the Jewish faith.
Isn’t it interesting that the two examples James gives aren’t the theological elites? They aren’t the guardians of God’s law. Abraham was a nobody when he was called to leave his home. Rahab was a prostitute in a pagan land, and yet, their faith is given to us as the primary example of what New Covenant faith is all about. Why? Because it was actionable. They trusted God and proved it by doing for God.
And the nature of their faith was justified by these actions. It is a beautiful truth to embrace, though the way James worded it has invited much controversy. In fact, James 2:24 is one of the most controversial verses in the New Testament:
James 2:24 CSB
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Why? Because on its face, it seems to contradict Paul’s defense of faith. To see this, let’s lay James 2:24 beside Paul’s declaration of faith in Romans 3:28:
Romans 3:28 CSB
For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
You can see the issue, right? Am I justified by faith or works? Which is it? Theologians and faithful Christians have debated this for centuries. While it will take longer to unpack this than time allows today, I want to bring it to your attention and give you a few speaking points for further investigation.
The primary truth is that the Bible is perfectly consistent with itself. These two verses are not at odds with one another. They both speak about faith, but they approach it from two different vantage points.
Paul is battling people who want to add works to the gospel (such as circumcision or adherence to oral tradition) as a means of salvation as if we earn our salvation by what we do in addition to God’s gracious gift. On the other hand, James encourages his people to realize that you cannot have faith that does not show itself through works. In reality, they are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in defense of the gospel, fighting two different enemies.
Paul defends the doctrine of sola fide – or faith alone is what saves. You cannot earn it by what you do. It is solely a free gift from the hand of the almighty God.
James urges us to take a look at our faith and determine the type of faith we already possess. Is what I have dead or alive? The proof of life is in the works. For James, works are like an EKG, which proves the heart is beating. The EKG doesn’t give life to the heart. God did that. It can only prove that the heart is active and functioning as it should. Likewise, works are the EKG of faith. Works prove that your faith is alive and functioning as it should. It proves that your faith IS the type of faith that saves and is the free gift God has already given you.
In that respect, you could even compare this to baptism. Baptism doesn’t save a person but is an outward display of the inward change that has already occurred. In baptism, you demonstrate that you have died to your old self and have been made new in the image of Christ.
Works don’t save, but they do justify or prove the reality of the faith you currently possess.
Or, as Warren Wiersbe put it:
How was Abraham “justified by works” (James 2:21) when he had already been “justified by faith”? (see Rom. 4) By faith, he was justified before God and his righteousness declared; by works he was justified before men and his righteousness demonstrated.
V – Answering the Initial Question (v. 26)
And finally, James comes full circle to make the definitive statement that answers his initial question. Take a look at the human body. If the body has no spirit within it, it is dead. There is no life. That is precisely what it looks like with your faith. If there are no works in it, the faith is dead. There is no life in it. Therefore, it cannot give you life.
Takeaways
A saving faith is a living faith.
Do you want assurance that your faith is genuine? Take a look at your life and see if your faith has legs, or as Jesus said, see if the tree has any fruit, because a tree will be known by its fruit.
“It is faith alone that justifies, but faith that justifies can never be alone.” – John Calvin.
Questions to Consider
- Why might James’ assertion that even demons have faith challenge our understanding of what it means to truly believe?
- How can we reconcile Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith with James’ emphasis on the necessity of works?
- In what areas of your life do you see your faith actively demonstrated through works?
- How can we ensure that our faith is not merely intellectual agreement but is a living faith that produces actions?