Saving Faith at Work

Transcript

GR 1648
07/15/2012
Saving Faith at Work
James 2:21-26
Gil Rugh

We’re going to the book of James. The book of James chapter 2. As I mentioned, James is the first letter written in the New Testament. James will be martyred about 62 A.D. Josephus talks about that. But he wrote his letter before Paul’s letters were written. There’s no contradiction between James and Paul, but there’s been confusion in understanding some of what James says. We have to have clarity. James addresses one situation. Paul addresses another. And to be confused on either point, the point James is making or the point Paul is making, is of eternal consequence. As Paul said, if you’re confused and think that works are necessary to enter into God’s salvation, you are on your way to hell. James says, if you claim to have faith and no works that evidence that faith, you are on your way to hell. So if we’re not clear on the distinction they’re making, we can be in a world of confusion. Works are not necessary to be saved, but works are necessary for salvation. Works are not part of what bring us into right relationship with God, but works are a necessary result of being brought into a right relationship with God.
James has mentioned this back in chapter 1, look at verse 18. He’s clear salvation is a work of God. “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth.” It was God’s sovereign will, an action that brought about our salvation. Then down in verse 21 he exhorted them, “putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” That’s a fateful mistake to delude yourself into thinking you’re saved because you look into the word, you read the word, and you can quote the word, but you’re not a doer of the word. James’ point, you delude yourself. Down in verse 25 after giving an example of the mirror, “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it,” that governs his life. It’s the realm in which he now lives, “not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer,” or literally ‘a doer of works,’ “this man will be blessed in what he does.”
Then you come into chapter 2 when he’s talked about our conduct. From the end of chapter 1 down into chapter 2, he’s clear, he’s talking to people who claim to have faith. James is clear on the place of faith. He was part of the Jerusalem conference, and the one who had the leadership in that conference in Acts chapter 15. So you know, chapter 2 opens up, “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.” James is clear, salvation is the work of God; it is by faith. He’s addressing those who claim to have faith. That faith must be manifest.
Verse 14 brings us into the section that we are looking at now. “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” They are not talking about faith plus works to acquire salvation, to enter into God’s salvation, but if you claim to have believed in Christ, have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus as he said in verse 1, but your life doesn’t manifest it, you don’t have saving faith is his point. So verse 17, “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” So we are saved by faith alone, but saving faith never remains alone. We’ve now been born again. We’ve become partakers of the divine nature. The Spirit of God dwells in us, and life is changed. James said, “But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’” He says, my argument is “show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by the works.” You see it’s a matter of the evidence of faith, the manifestation of faith. We both claim to have faith. You can’t see faith. This is important. This is an important section because sometimes you talk to people who are not living a life that conforms the way God said a believer’s life . . . They say, you can’t tell me what’s in my heart. James says, yes, I can. What is in your heart comes out in your life.
That’s what Jesus taught. Mark chapter 7, it’s out of the heart sinful conduct comes. If you’ve not been transformed on the inside, then it will manifest itself on the outside. We looked in Matthew chapter 7. A good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, the same emphasis. Very important, very important for us in a Christian context, been in a Bible-believing church, perhaps raised in that. For remember, I prayed the prayer, I asked Jesus into my heart. But with the passing of time if there’s no evidence of a changed life nothing really happened. That’s James’ point, so verse 17, “faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” Verse 19, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
There is faith, and there is saving faith. The demons have faith in God. We talked about this in our previous study. They have been before the throne of God, fallen angels, who are now called demons, have served God before their fall. They are called into the presence of God on occasion as we see like in the book of Job and Kings. They have no doubt about the reality of God. We looked in passages were they acknowledged the reality, the truth, concerning the person of Christ and His power. He had the power to cast them into Hell if He so chose. They said, we know who You are, the Son of God. They had faith, not saving faith, there’s a distinction.
Coming to recognize your sinful condition and coming to place your full trust, faith, in Him as your Savior will cause you to be made new. If any man be in Christ he’s a new creation, a new creation, old things have passed away, new things have come, Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 John emphasizes this strongly. So if “you believe that God is one you do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow,” literally ‘oh empty man,’ “that faith without works is useless?” This repeated statement, similar emphasis. Faith without works is dead, “faith without works is useless,” verse 17, verse 20. It will be repeated at the end of the section at verse 26, “faith without works is dead.” It cannot accomplish anything. It’s not a faith that has brought about salvation. It’s not a faith that makes you new. That doesn’t mean an unbeliever can’t do some works that would look like what a believer does, but the reality of a changed life, and that manifests itself in ongoing behavior, is characteristic of a believer.
So what James is going to do now is give two examples from the Old Testament. Remember back in chapter 1 verse 1 James is writing “to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad.” So he’s writing to Jewish believes who are scattered outside the land of Israel. So he’s going to give them two examples from their Old Testament about the relationship of works to faith, and the genuine faith is always seen in the life and lifestyle of the person. His first example is going to be Abraham. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?” So this Jewish audience, Abraham our father. Of course, every Jew calls Abraham, his father because Abraham is the beginning of the Jewish race. So Abraham our father. How was he justified? Wasn’t he justified by works? The point he wants to focus on, “when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar.” Now we have the word ‘justified.’ Paul’s word we usually think of, but it’s James’ word as well. He can be declared righteous, and confusion comes. Here James is arguing Abraham our father was justified by works. We say, well, Paul says you can’t be justified by works. No, follow through what happens here.
The incident referred to goes back to the book of Genesis in chapter 22. You’re familiar with that. We’re going to go back to Genesis in a moment. It is referred to one other time in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 17, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your descendants shall be called.’ He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.” You see the point here. By faith Abraham acted. So James understands this as the writer to the Hebrews does, that Abraham is manifesting his faith. Remember what James said? “Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” Did Abraham have faith? Yes, indeed he did. Did he manifest his faith in a clear, evident way? Yes, he did. He offered up his son Isaac.
Now I want you to see the time here so we’re going to be going back and forth a little bit. We’re going back to Genesis chapter 11. At the end of chapter 11, we’re picking up the life of Abraham. Verse 26 picks up with the father of Abraham. “Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.” You remember God will change Abram’s name to Abraham on a later date. Then you have the records, verse 27, “Of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram,” verse 27, “Nahor and Haran.” “Haran died,” verse 28. Verse 29, “Abram and Nahor took wives . . . the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai . . . .” And then you have the other names. “Sarai was barren;” verse 30, “she had no child.” Verse 31, “Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan.” Now this is a summary. When we get to chapter 12, we’ll be told why they left and went, and the background for this is the call of God to Abraham. “They went as far as Haran.”

So they leave Ur of the Chaldeans, we’re in Mesopotamia, and they travel up to Haran, and then they wait there. Then Terah dies in Haran. Chapter 12, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’” And Abraham went out, note how old he is here in verse 4, “Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran,” and went down into Canaan. So seventy-five there. Now we have to jump back to the New Testament to Acts chapter 7. Stephen is making his defense before his stoning, before the leadership of Israel, and in Acts chapter 7 verse 2, “he said, ‘Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, “Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.” Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.’ ”
So you see something of the problem. The call of God came to Abraham, Abram as he was known then, when he was in Ur of the Chaldeans, which is in Mesopotamia, over in the land of Babylon, in that region. Then he went up to Haran, and he’ll come down into the land. You see God had called him there, and Abraham left. Come back to Hebrews chapter 11. We read about Abraham. In Hebrews chapter 11 we read about his offering his son down in verses 17 and following, a moment ago. But back up to verse 8 of Hebrews 11. “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” What I want you to note is Abraham was a man of faith who believed God and responded in faith to the word of God back in Genesis chapter 12. There we had the summary of the account. We pick it up there. But when he left Ur of the Chaldeans and traveled up to Haran, God called him in Mesopotamia. Going out to a place he didn’t know. Where? He’s just traveling, that God said He wanted him to go.
Come back to Genesis 12. Consistent here, you’ll note, when Abraham, Abram, comes into the land in Genesis chapter 12 down in verse 7. What do we have? “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.” Now this happens when Abraham was about seventy-five years old. He’s a man of faith. Manifested it when he believed God and left Mesopotamia, when he comes into the Promised Land, and he worships the Lord.
You come over to Genesis chapter 15. Probably ten years have gone by when you come to Genesis chapter 15. Abraham was seventy-five so he’d be about eighty-five here in Genesis chapter 15. And the chapter opens up, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.’ ” Then you have the discussion. Abram asks God, well, what will You give me Lord? I don’t have any children to pass on anything I have. So it’s a dead end so to speak. Whatever You give me will stop here. I guess my servant will inherit what I have since I have no family to leave it to. Verse 4, “Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.’ And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ ” Then verse 6; that famous verse used by Paul on a number of occasions, “Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
This verse is used in the New Testament. It’s used by Paul in writing to the Romans, Romans chapter 4. It’s used in Galatians to speak of salvation by faith alone. But you’ll note, the reason is this is the clear statement. Abraham believed; God credited it to him as righteousness. But Abraham was evidently a believer before Genesis 15:6. The book of Hebrews lists him among the Hebrews of the faith based on the action he did when he responded to God when he was in Mesopotamia. And when the Word of God came to them there, by faith he responded and moved on. And so time has gone by here. He’s worshiped God in the land already, and now some ten years have gone by.
Come over to Romans chapter 4. You see Paul’s argument here. Then we’re coming back to Genesis. I keep you going back and forth. Romans chapter 4 verse 3. Paul is arguing here. Now verse 2, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” He can boast in his own works. Sounds like the opposite of what James is saying. That is why we have to keep clear on what their point is. Then Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6. “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” So Abraham was saved by faith, and the evidence of that in the clearest statement is Genesis 15:6. Now that’s the clearest statement where the connection is made. Abraham believed, God justified him, declared him righteous.
But from the evidence of Scripture, as we’ve looked at, like in Hebrews 11, Acts 7, he was a man of faith before that. So his salvation is there. The point I want to make is God can exercise His sovereign declaration as a judge declaring righteous repeatedly through a life. We enter into our salvation by faith, but the deeds we do now as obedient children are a manifestation of the fact we belong to Him. An evidence and a basis upon which God declares us righteous because we are manifesting His character in our life which is true of a believer, was true of Abraham when he entered into salvation, evidently in Mesopotamia because he wasn’t a believer, wasn’t born into a believing family there. His father Terah worshiped idols, we are told, in Mesopotamia. But God intervened and called Abram to Himself, and Abraham responded in faith and began a life of faith. So how you enter into salvation and then what happens when you have experienced God’s salvation are the two points being dealt with. Paul is dealing with how do you enter into salvation. James is dealing with how do you live when you’ve entered into God’s salvation which is consistent with the emphasis of the Old Testament which has so much emphasis on the works and the deeds as a manifestation of the faith.

Ok, come back to Genesis chapter 17. You see we’re moving along from Genesis chapter 12, basically, to Genesis chapter 15. Then you come to Genesis chapter 17 and you have a promise given to Abraham. More years have gone by. Abraham is now ninety-nine years old. So he was seventy-five when he came into the land of Canaan. He was about eighty-five when we saw the promise of descendants in chapter 15 and his response of faith. Now you come to Genesis 17. He’s ninety-nine! So this is twenty-four years after he entered into Canaan, and God’s given him promises. God gave him that promise fourteen years earlier. What do you think is going on in Abraham’s mind? I mean you’ve got promises when you’re that age. I’m going to give you a son. You think, let’s get the program moving, I’m not getting any younger. God’s timing is always right. He’s never early; He’s never late. So you come to chapter 17. It opens up, “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless.’” And again a reiteration of covenant promises. Verse 5, his name is changed from Abram to Abraham. I’ll make you a father of a multitude of nations not only of the Jewish people. In Genesis 25 you see some of this, and it will be elaborated with his second wife Keturah especially. In verse 7, “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations . . . to be God to you and to your descendants after you, I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings,” and so on.
Sarah is part of this promise, obviously because the promised descendant must come through Abraham through Sarah. We’re familiar they tried plan B with Hagar and the child Ishmael, but he couldn’t fulfill the promise because the child had to be born by Sarah, whose name was also changed. Now she is a woman of faith based on this promise. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 11. We’ll come down to verse 11. We’ve talked about Abram’s faith in verse 8. Abram lived in the land that God promised him, but he lived as an alien. He didn’t own any of it. When his wife dies, he didn’t even have a place he owned to bury her. He had to buy a burial plot. But when you come down to verse 11, “By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.” Sarah is a woman of faith and manifested that faith in the context of the promises of God in Genesis chapter 17. What I’m trying to show here is Abram and his wife Sarah demonstrate faith and were saved prior to the example that James is using in James chapter 2 because the example James is using comes from an incident that took place in Genesis chapter 22. Abram was called a man of faith when he left Mesopotamia. According to Hebrews 11 he demonstrated faith. And Abram and Sarah manifested faith in the context of the promise of a son. Abram in chapter 15 and then them together in chapter 17, but we’re still not to chapter 22. Because Isaac has to be born and become a young adult, a young person old enough to walk, to carry the wood, and so on to be offered by Isaac.

So when James says, wasn’t Abraham justified by faith, any Jew who would be familiar with the Old Testament would have an understanding of what James is talking about. He’s not talking about the time when Abraham entered into a relationship with God because they know what we just reviewed. This is in chapter 22. Abraham was a man of faith at the end of chapter 11 of Genesis and the end of chapter 12. He’s a man of faith when he left Mesopotamia, a man of faith when he believed the promise of God in chapter 15, man of faith when he responded again to the promise in chapter 17. His wife demonstrated the same faith. Now we’re going to have more years go by, and he’s going to take Isaac and offer him. Well, that can’t be when he’s saved. We’ve already been told again and again about Abraham and his faith. So Genesis 22 is when Abraham offers up Isaac, and we read in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 17, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac,” By faith Abram left Mesopotamia. By faith he lived in the land when he came into Canaan. We saw him there offering sacrifice, and then he has children, Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs. And then his wife Sarah manifests her faith in the promises of God. You get down to verse 17, Abram’s manifesting his faith again, but this can’t be his initial, saving faith, and any Jew would understand that.
So we need to be careful. We need to understand James in the context of which he would be writing. Abraham was justified by works. Why? All the judgments of scripture are based on works. Remember that? We studied judgments of scripture. Every one of them is based on works. Why? Well, by your words you will be judged, Jesus said. Why? Because it’s out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, that reveals the condition of the inside. We like to say, well, I’m not really like that. But wait a minute. God says that’s what you’re really like. What’s on the inside is coming out. Your words reveal it. Your conduct reveals it. Behavior reveals it. But we keep saying, oh no, I know I’m saved. I know they’re saved. They prayed the prayer. They invited Jesus.
Well, wait a minute. They may have faith. We’re not even saying they don’t have faith. They might have faith like the demons have faith. Do you have saving faith is the issue. Saving faith is life changing so that God can declare us righteous again and again because our acts of obedience are evidences of our relationship with Him. And so you can pick a later event. Abraham believes God, and God declares him righteous. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t righteous before that, but here’s a reaffirmation of that.

Come back to James. Again for Jews this would be part of their background. They’re just saturated with the Old Testament and these accounts. So we read it and say, well, Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his son on the altar. But wait a minute. That was in chapter 22. Was in chapter 15 if you just want to go back there. Abram believed God, and he was declared righteous. That’s the argument Paul uses on circumcision. Remember in Romans 4. Did God declare him righteous before or after he was circumcised? He declared him righteous before he was circumcised. So you can’t say circumcision was necessary for salvation. Keep in mind the point of the argument. Here we’re in chapter 22. This is after the circumcision in chapter 17. I mean, this is after the declaration in chapter 15. Abraham was justified by works when? Why? Because the works are showing. What did he require back in verse 18? “Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” So his works become an occasion for God to declare him righteous.
Not because he earned salvation but because he manifests that he has entered into God’s salvation by faith alone through grace alone. “Abraham our father [was] justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar.” You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected. It arrived at its intended goal. It manifested its presence. This is what God intends when He saves us. Not just to give us an escape from Hell, as important as that is, but to make us new, those who are made new in His image. That’s why He told Israel what? You shall be holy for I am holy. Peter repeated that in his letter. You shall be holy for I am holy. Now we have a people who have been changed.
James’ concern is that some of these Jews may be thinking that because now they’ve made a profession of faith in Christ, they’re saved. But they’re just repeating the error of the Jews in the Old Testament, who said, well, we’re Jews, we believe in the God of Israel, we believe in one God. Now wait a minute. That didn’t bring them salvation. You have saving faith when you’ve truly trusted in Him, changes you on the inside. As some of us were talking this past week, I visited with another pastor, not part of our pastoral staff, but pastor of another church. And we’re talking about this whole issue. And much of what’s going on in evangelical Christianity today is we have young people who have been raised in evangelical churches, Bible-believing churches, who are never truly saved. And they are restless and unhappy. And they had developed, like the emerging church and so on, where they think the real problem is something with the church, and they’re trying to redo Christianity. And not totally ignore everything they were taught, but remake it because it just doesn’t work. It’s not satisfying. The real problem is there’s never been a change of heart. And you just get worn out trying to conform your life to what a Christian is to be like and try to make yourself live like that. And the emptiness, if you’re honest, soon catches up.
James is dealing with that. Faith was working with his works. So you see it’s faith that works here, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected. We talk about it in maturing, coming to its goal. What is God doing? He’s bringing us more and more into conformity with His own character. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 where as we behold His glory in the mirror of the Word, we are being transformed by the work of the Spirit from glory to glory. That work going on from within. Verse 23, “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,’ and he was called the friend of God.” So the New Testament writers keep going back to Genesis 15:6 because that is the clear statement, and you build on that. Here is how justification is initially applied to a life, declared of a person. So he goes back to Genesis 15:6, but we are years later. Abraham’s taking his son, who can walk with him, talk with him, and carry the wood for the sacrifice. In Genesis 15 we’re still fifteen years away from this kid even being born. Twenty-five, thirty years later. This was fulfilled. In other words, what God said was true, and the action of Abraham says an ongoing faith like Habakkuk that’s quoted in the New Testament as well. The just shall live by faith. We enter into life by faith, but now it begins a life of faith. This idea was now I’ve trusted Christ. I know I’m going to be going to Heaven. Good. I can get on and live my life. What’s the Bible say? You are no longer your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. I mean it’s just not like, “Well, get that taken care of so now don’t have to worry they’re going to hell.”

Sometimes we as parents give that impression to our kids. We get them to trust Christ, place their faith in Christ, and we do want them to be saved, but we almost have that sense of relief. “Ah, good to know. They prayed the prayer with me, and now I can be sure they’re saved so whatever else happens, whatever else they do, at least we know they’re going to heaven.” James says, “Not so.” That doesn’t mean we don’t want to make clear to our children the importance of trusting Christ and pray for them and model for them and encourage them. The reality is I don’t want them having their confidence in the fact, “Oh ya. I prayed a prayer, or I asked Jesus into my heart.” And we want to keep reinforcing it, reinforcing it, reinforcing it, reinforcing it. There was a time when we stopped baptizing children here. I could not believe how many people were upset with that. I said, “Well what’s the difference. If they’ve really trusted Christ, they’re saved, right?” But no! I want that stamp of approval on it. It has got to be approved because I want to know for sure my kid is saved. The evidence will come out. You want to give them a false assurance? Many will say to Him in that day, “Lord, Lord.” And He’ll say, “I never knew you. Depart from Me you workers of lawlessness.” So what James is arguing here is not contrary to Paul. It agrees with Paul. It just… where are we? How are you saved? By faith alone in Christ alone. Your works cannot contribute to that, but when you are truly saved, there will be the manifestation and evidence in the life.

And it says then at the end of verse 23, “he was called the friend of God.” Two passages in the Old Testament. 2 Chronicles. 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther . . . . You know all of that, right, but sometimes you have to stop and say it in your mind. 2 Chronicles chapter 20 verse 7. “Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?” What a way to be known. Abraham, the friend of God. He’s identified the same way in Isaiah chapter 41 verse 8. And if you want to turn there, I’ll read it to you if I get there before you. Isaiah chapter 41 verse 8. “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend.” What a declaration. It says Abraham My friend. Remember when God was going to go destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin in Genesis chapter 18. In verses 17 and 18 He says, “Shall I withhold my plans from Abraham, the one I’m going to do so much for?” Doesn’t specifically refer to him as a friend there, but you see the idea of the closeness of the relationship that I wouldn’t keep from Abraham what I’m going to do here. There is a closeness.
We have that. We are the friends of Christ. Come over to John chapter 15. People would think it would be arrogant if you said, “Well, I’m a friend of God. I have that kind of closeness and intimacy with Him.” And you do if you’re a believer in Christ. John chapter 15. Look at verse 14. Jesus is speaking here. “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” You see the connection now where obedience will be? Would I’d be a friend of Christ, have that close and intimate relationship with Him if I’m not obeying Him? James is emphasizing that. “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My father I have made known to you.” That points as we’ve referred to with Abraham, and what God said He revealed to him. What Christ is saying. Your friends are those that what? You’re close to. You talk about things with your friends. You make things known about yourself to your friends that you wouldn’t just talk to anybody about. Emphasizes that closeness of relationship, and Christ revealing His father’s will to us. It’s connected with “you do what I command you.”

So come back to James. In verse 14 James asks the question of James 2. James 2:14, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” Verse 24, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone,” because saving faith changes a life, and God’s declaration of our righteousness continues on. Our works evidence it. Abraham is the example. God declared him righteous in chapter 15, but he’s justified by works in chapter 22 twenty-five or whatever years later. Well, what do you mean? Was he justified in chapter 15? Was he justified . . . Well, he was saved earlier—probably back when he was in Mesopotamia. According to Hebrews 11, he left by faith, but he has a life of faith manifest in a life of obedience which is required if you belong to God. “You are my friends,” Jesus said, “if you do what I command you.” You know that’s one of the great things about our salvation. It changes us in the heart.
That’s why we don’t try just to get an unbeliever to change his lifestyle. Nothing really happens. Well, they’re easier to live with. They don’t get drunk, or they’re not practicing immorality, but nothing has changed on the inside. And when we give the idea, “Well if you quit doing this, if you didn’t commit that sin . . .” what? You’d be a person on your way to Hell who doesn’t do that sin. Because we have to be transformed on the inside by God’s grace. Ok. So you can’t enter into salvation by anything but faith, believing in Christ. Your works can’t add to that. But once you’re saved, now we are holy because He is holy and His character. We become partakers of the divine nature. The believer cannot live in sin according to 1 John 3 because what? The seed of God dwells in us. We become His children. We manifest His character. When we’re children of the Devil, we manifest character of the Devil. John chapter 8. Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day, “You’re of your father the Devil and you always do what he wants.” They’re always rebelling against God. It’s the character of their life. So now we have God as our father. What do you think? We continue to live like the Devil and for the Devil? No! It’s a beautiful thing to know we’ve been made new. We’ve been set free.

Alright. Back in James 2. Second example. “In the same way,” verse 25, “was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?” And we’re not going to take the time to go back there. You’re familiar with the account of Rahab in the book of Joshua. Pick up in chapter 2 there, and then we go over into chapter 6. What happened? Rahab received the spies. She believed the word from God and the word about God. And these were His people and the promises. And God was going to do what He had said He would do and give that city to the Jews. If she hadn’t responded that way and protected the spies, would she have had saving faith? No. Saving faith changes you. This is the evidence. What other thing would we have? It’s that that demonstrates her faith. She didn’t get saved by doing that, but because she really believed the truth concerning the God of Israel and what she had come to know about what He had said, she acted. That’s the motivation there. So in the same way, she’s like Abraham. What two diverse examples, Abraham and Rahab the harlot. And he calls her here “Rahab the harlot.” Abraham our father and Rahab the harlot. Both are saved by faith, and both manifest their faith by their works so there’s no doubt. You can see their faith in their works.

So back to verse 18, “Show me your faith without the works.” And as we’ve talked about as we’ve been in James, people say, “Oh, you can’t see my heart. You can’t say that I’m not trusting Christ, that I’m not saved.” I can’t see your heart, but I can see your works. You can’t see my heart, but you can see my works. The Bible says, “Yes, you can” because it’s out of the heart that we act. So a person does see into my heart when they watch my behavior. We manifest who we are, and the one that we serve. So verse 26, the conclusion, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” When the spirit leaves the body, the body does nothing. It’s just there. It’s lifeless, and sometimes when they go to a viewing or something, they look like they could get up and speak and walk away. But you know what? They don’t because there’s no life there. The spirit is gone. That’s what faith is. Without works, it’s a dead faith. They say, “Well, it looks like everything,” but there’s a world of difference isn’t there. No matter how lifelike that body looks. No matter if it looks like they could get up and speak to you, they don’t. They can’t. They’re dead. They’re lifeless. James said, “That’s the faith, the faith is.” You can talk about it. You can quote a verse. You can do… But wait a minute. If there’s no works there . . . . I’m not saying you get saved by works, but if there’s no works, the life hasn’t been changed. You know where we are.

You know we hear a lot about Luther’s problem with the book of James, and him calling it a “right strawy epistle.” And understand. Luther was in a battle for how are you saved. Are you saved by faith plus your works? Are you saved by a faith in Christ alone? And so book of James made life difficult for him in that, but Luther was clear on the issue James is arguing for. Here’s what Luther wrote, “Faith is a living, restless thing. It cannot be inoperative. We are not saved by works, but if there be no works, there must be something amiss with faith. It is quite impossible to separate works from faith as to separate heat and light from fire.”

Another reformer, John Calvin, put it this way, “Faith alone justifies, but the faith which justifies is not alone.” So it is important we have clarity on this so that we as a church are clear. We think, “Oh, we stand for salvation by faith alone by grace alone in Christ alone,” but wait a minute. We also stand for what? Faith that is saving is never alone. Remember a person who left our church after being involved for several years, and the statement that they made was, “I always feel like I’m an unbeliever when I leave the service.” My response is, “From what I can tell, you probably are. I mean so you leave and go someplace else. Why do you feel like you’re an unbeliever? Maybe you know you’re life.” With the idea think, “Well, you know, I look around. I come like everybody else, and I go through whatever…” But wait a minute. Is my life truly changed?” That’s why we say… You know we’ve been talking about husbands and wives and families. We could ask the wife. Ask the husband. Ask the children. We find out a lot more what life is like. Ask those we work with, those we associate with. What is our life like? I remember I had teacher tell me in college, “What you are when you are alone is what you are.” That is a good reminder. I never forgot it. What you are when you are alone is what you are. We know the desires. We think, “Well I can do this, and nobody really knows,” but then I need to stop and think, what am I really like? Is this a matter of being able to fool people so they will think something about me? I’m concerned that nobody find out I’m like this, or I’m like that, or I do this, or I do that. I say, “Wait a minute. I need to back up, Lord.” What am I really like? That’s James concern here. Not to be mean. Not to be judgmental in the wrong sense, but to lay out the word of God so that we can understand the importance of it. We are saved by faith alone. Now when we are saved by faith alone, that faith will never again be alone. We live a life of trusting God; we live a life of obedience to Him, and so God can declare us righteous again and again in that sense. We have the initial righteousness of Christ credited to us but on the basis of our behavior. He can declare again, “There’s a righteous person. They belong to me.” That’s why we will be clothed in righteousness, the white robes which are the righteousnesses of the saints in Revelation as we come to the end.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for Your grace. Thank you, Lord, for a salvation that truly changes us. Lord, all of us come as sinners. We all have things that today we look back, and they’re a cause of shame, but we rejoice. They are not what we are today. By your grace, we have been cleansed. We have been forgiven. We have been made new. We belong to You the living God. You have caused us to be born again. You have placed Your very character in us. And Your Spirit now produces His fruit which is a manifestation of the marvelous work You’ve done in our lives. Lord, we indeed want to examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith. We want to be honest before You, the One before whom all things are open and seen. You examine the inner most recesses of our hearts and minds. You know us as we are. Lord, I pray that we would be honest before You, that any who do not know You who know their lives have not been changed in reality might come to know You. Lord, may we who know You count it a great honor to live for You, manifest Your character, strive with every ounce of our being and the power of the Spirit to be holy as You are holy. Use us in the days of the week before us in the accomplishing of Your purpose as we pray in Christ’s name, amen.