Topic: the controversy of James 2

James has already been difficult enough, but here we find one of the most controversial passages in the Christian world. 

Many of these verses are incredibly challenging.

How we understand James 2 goes beyond an intellectual or theological discussion, it strikes at the very core of our belief. 

It speaks-to, and in some cases challenges, how do we know we are saved 

It motivates us to strive for the good works that God calls us to

There are five famous doctrinal statements that boldly separated the reformation church from its Catholic roots. These five “sola” statements represented things that nothing else could be added to.

I want to remind you of one in particular, “sola fide”, or more properly “Justificatio sola fide” or “justification by faith alone” which reaffirms the belief that our justification before God comes by our faith alone, not by any amount of works.

Pastor Tony gives out bonus points to us speakers if we include one quote from the great preacher Charles Spurgeon in our messages, I thought it would be helpful to consult ol’ Chuck’s words about “sola fide” to help us understand how important it is to our beliefs, plus I get it out of the way right up front.

The way of reaching this state of justification is not by tears, nor prayers, nor humblings, nor working, nor Bible-reading, nor church-going, nor chapel-going, nor sacraments, nor priestly absolution, but by faith, which faith is a simple and utter dependence and believing in the faithfulness of God, a dependence upon the promise of God, because it is God’s promise, and is worthy of dependence.

Yet here on the page in front of us in James chapter 2 we have the apostle James stating clear and plainly in verse 17, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” And again, in verse 24 “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

On the surface it seems like we have a major disconnect

Obviously quoting Spurgeon isn’t the same as scripture, but our belief in “Justificatio sola fide” has plenty of scripture to support it. 

A common example that you may even know by heart

Eph 2:8-9

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The opportunity for disagreement, conflict and controversy is ripe.

Either this book I’m holding isn’t the divinely inspired Word of God, free of contradictions and errors, or there’s something about this passage that we’re missing.

I can’t think of a better passage to prove the value of the in-context, verse-by-verse teaching that we’re known for. 

By starting with a humble attitude and praying for the Spirit to be our teacher and by staying within the guidelines of Scripture and of the book of James, I’m confident we can come to the simple and true understanding of James 2 that God intended when He guided James in writing it.

We’ll start true to our name, with just one verse, verse 14

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? 

Can that faith save him

When we hear James ask if a faith devoid of works can save someone, our gut instinct is to take off on wild speculation and start to question our understanding of saving faith.

What happened to our justification by faith alone? The “sola fide?”

But let’s slow down and do our due diligence of thoughtful study. The first question we want to answer is “save someone from what?”

We’re not starting on verse 14, we have verse 13, verse 12 and everything that came before it. Remember Mitch’s lesson last week and consider the context before we move on.

Look up or turn the page back, what was the last topic James mentioned?

12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

If you recall from our last study, this judgment under the law of liberty, who is it for? Believers or unbeliever? 

It’s for believers

And what did being under judgment mean in this context? Is it the judgment for our sin? The judgment that determines our justification before God? 

No, it was judgment over what we do with our lives as Christians with the time that God gave us on earth!

The result was not salvation or damnation, it was either the reward or the burning up of what you did with your life.

The point of these last few verses is to warn believers who are practicing the sin of partiality in the church that their sinful acts will do them no favors when Christ judges their deeds.

If we read the chapter in its entirety, nothing suggests that James has suddenly shifted his discussion to the judgment for sin that unbelievers go through without faith, he’s still warning these believers that their faith can not save them from a judgment based on their deeds.

Our understanding of James 2 doesn’t have to involve some revolutionary shift in thinking, all we’ve done so far is recognize that verse 14 must be left in its proper context, which comes after verses 12 and 13.

In the following verses he even goes back to the example from earlier in the chapter on partiality and preferential treatment.

If you managed to get through last week without feeling convicted, just wait, James has some more for you.

15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 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? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

To those who feel like they’re doing what’s right because they don’t show special attention to the rich, James has a new point for them

What are you doing for the needy?

We’re not just talking about the Jews in the first century church either. As controversial as the interpretation of James 2 is, you couldn’t ask for an easier passage for you to take home and apply to your life.

When a fellow believer walks in these doors and they need help, what can we do?

“Oh, Daniel, we submit a prayer request for them, that God might meet their needs…”

If that’s as far as you go…

Do I even have to say it? It’s spelled out for you in the verse

“If 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?”

Let me be clear in what I’m saying and what I’m not saying,

I’m saying (because James is saying) that we give of ourselves for the body of Christ, for our fellow brothers and sisters here at our church. I’m not saying you have to meet the physical needs of every stranger you encounter in your life.

If you’re called to that level of charity and service, more power to you! 

A charitable and generous lifestyle is a God honoring lifestyle, 

Great evangelism can be done through charitable giving and ministries meeting people’s needs for food and shelter but I’m not saying that James 2 is a blanket commandment to the entire church to meet every physical need of anyone who walks in the door. We’re talking about taking care of one another.

I’m also not saying that Verse by Verse Fellowship has some ongoing problem with meeting the needs of our congregation. We just installed two deacons dedicated to benevolence last year!

Here’s what I am saying. I, Daniel, am only minorly concerned with how well WE are meeting the needs of the Body, the elders and deacons are involved in that every day.

I’m much more concerned with how well I am meeting the needs of the body. You should be concerned with how well you are meeting the needs of the body.

If a needy Christian walks in that door and your first thought is “I’m so glad our deacons will take care of them so that I don’t have to.”

Verse 16! … “What good is that?

It is no good, it is a useless attitude. A Christian who does nothing for anyone else has a useless faith.

Now “useless” is not exactly the language that James uses in verse 17, is it? He calls it a “dead” faith.

This phrase of “dead” faith is quite a curious one

There’s no hidden magic in the underlying Greek, those words mean what they say, “nekros” meaning “Dead” and “pistis” [Pees Tees] meaning “Faith.”

Pastor Tony’s not up here but you all can still turn to the person next to you and have some fun saying “nekros pistis”

So it means what it says, dead faith. But faith isn’t a living organism, it can’t literally, physically die like a person or a plant or an animal, it’s a concept. It’s a belief that exists in our hearts because God put it there. 

So, what does it mean to have “Dead” faith exactly?

We can always theorize, but real Bible study isn’t done on guesses, we want to use scripture to understand.

We know the topic at this part of the chapter is Christians who are failing to live out their faith

When we look down at the solution, he encourages us to pair our faith with good works, notably his solution is not “repent and believe” like we would expect if we were talking about someone who was missing faith.

Later on in the chapter in verse 20 he calls faith without works “useless”

While studying I tried looking through other usages of the word faith in the New Testament to gain more insight and there is no other usage quite like this

No other time is faith used in this way in the New Testament

Faith can be strong or weak

People can hold fast to their faith or they can stray from their faith

But faith is never treated like a living organism, it’s treated like an object to be clung to and cherished

So how can faith be dead, like an object? Think about it like this. 

You didn’t think you could get a lesson from the youth leader without a visual illustration, did you?

Visual illustration of a power tool without a battery, is the power tool broken or working? It doesn’t matter as long as there is no battery to power it.

A battery on its own accomplishes nothing either, the only time that work can be accomplished is when a tool and a battery are combined.

 Dead faith is like a tool that accomplishes nothing, like a dead power saw or drill. It’s a paper weight with no more value than its own existence.

So, with that context in mind, what does James mean when he says that faith without works is “dead?”

Do we think James has switched his audience suddenly?

Before he was correcting believers and warning them about their coming judgment for their deeds but now, he’s questioning their salvation by grace through faith? 

No that doesn’t fit the context of James nor does it fit with the New Testament’s teaching on justification before God.

Slide: What does it mean that faith can be dead?

When God judges a believer’s works, their faith is useless.

When God judges a believer’s sin, He sees Christ’s righteousness given by faith but when God judges a believer’s works, their faith does nothing. It is useless on its own

Let’s step back and address an elephant in the room.

Someone out there might be listening to this message and thinking “Well James 2 isn’t saying that good works are necessary for salvation, that means I’m okay, it doesn’t really matter how I act as long as I have faith.”

This thinking can take God’s free gift of faith and turn it into an excuse for sin in your own life or for sin in a loved one’s life. It’s a mindset that has completely missed the entire point of James 2.

We know that James 2 is not a passage speaking about justification before God, it’s not about our salvation. That doesn’t mean that since it’s not talking about one thing, then the opposite is automatically true. If we’re staying in the context of James 2 we have to stay there on both sides of the issue.

Think about it, who in their right mind can come to scripture with an open heart to understand God’s Word, read “faith without works is dead” and conclude “oh it’s fine that I have no works in my life” or “oh it’s fine that my life is defined by sin”

That person has obviously missed the point. They’re choosing to take only what makes them feel good out of God’s word without submitting to it wholly. 

James 2 is not addressing questions like “How do I become saved” or “How do I know if someone else is saved?” 

If you have those questions, this is an excellent chance for you to “go deeper” with your study of the Bible and today’s handout has some good suggestions of where to start. 

Jesus answered these questions for his disciples this way in John 14:19-21 

19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Our assurance that we are saved comes from Christ’s work and life alone. 

We live because he lives, we have assurance that He is in us and we are in Him

Yet at the same time Christians will stand out as distinct from the world in our love of the Father shown through obedience to His commandments.

Slide: What about our justification or assurance?

Anyone who believes in Christ’s work is saved

Christians stand apart by obedience

What more is there for James to talk about? 

Just like I had to address an elephant in the room, James also has to anticipate some confusion and argument that might come against him at this point.

18 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. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

Do you know that thing that Pastor Tony does where he’ll stop what he’s saying, change his voice a little and go “but Pastor Tony, what about this?”

That’s what James is doing here, making a hypothetical argument so he can turn around and tell you why it’s right or wrong.

James is setting up a straw-man argument from this imaginary person who in verse 20 James calls the “foolish person”

Here’s the problem with this argument back and forth and it’s one of the reasons that this chapter is so hard to interpret, it’s because we don’t get to hear when James switches to and from his funny voice, and Greek writing doesn’t have any quotation marks in it.

This means it’s not always as simple as you’d think it is to figure which part of the argument is the foolish person talking and which part of the argument is James responding to them.

“But Daniel, there’s quotation marks on my page!” I ask myself hypothetically

That’s a great point, hypothetical Daniel, you’re a very observant and handsome Bible student.

The people with the hard job of translating the original Greek into English know that this statement in verse 18 begins a quotation and because English uses quotation marks they have to add some in, but where do they stop the quotation? That’s a matter of interpretation for the translators to figure out, and they don’t all agree.

Some include just the first half of verse 18, some put the quotation marks around all of verse 18 and some just give up and don’t use quotation marks at all.

We know without a doubt that at a minimum, the beginning of verse 18 is the foolish person’s argument, and we know that James is definitely responding in verse 20, but before we try and figure out the middle section of this argument we have to deal with the second reason this passage is so hard to interpret.

However you split up the quotation marks, it seems like both sides of the argument are saying the same thing. 

The foolish person is claiming that someone else has faith but they have works

James is challenging the foolish person by telling them that faith without works is useless.

But if the foolish person has the works to go with their faith, why does James need to argue with them at all? They already seem to agree that works are very important.

Before we go try to reason out these tricky quotation marks and before we try and answer what verse 19 means about demons, we have to start answering this very basic question, what is James’s point in this argument?

Any teaching on James 2 that tries to draw your attention to who has works and who doesn’t have works must inherently be missing the point because the foolish person has works.

The whole argument doesn’t make sense if you think that the foolish person is right, they’re the foolish person, you don’t want to be like the foolish person, that’s the point.

So how can we hope to understand this? Well carefully consider what is different between the foolish person’s original argument of “you have faith and I have works” and James’s counter-argument of “faith apart from works is useless”

The point is not the presence or absence of works, the point is the togetherness or the separation of faith and works.

James is not saying “faith only is bad, but having works is good”

This is how we know that the quotations belong only in the first half of verse 18, the second half of verse 18 is part of James’s response.

Slide: What is James’s argument with the foolish person?

He’s saying that Faith alone is not enough. Works alone is not enough

When James says “Show me your faith apart from your works” it seems like he’s criticizing someone who says they have faith but don’t do good works, but the foolish person did have works.

He criticizes someone who separates faith and works, meanwhile he boldly shows that the two work together.

It seems like, logically, a person could have faith without works, works without faith or both together. 

In his response in verse 18 James compares someone with faith only to someone with both works and faith, but there’s one missing. What about someone who has works without faith like the foolish person?

Here’s the thing, James doesn’t need to address that because it’s impossible

When I say works, what do you think we’re talking about here?

Good works? Doing nice things? Obeying God’s commands?

Where does it say “good” works in the passage?

Trust me for now and I’ll show you the evidence later in the chapter, but James 2 is not about doing good works, it’s about doing works of faith, meaning our actions should reflect what we believe in our hearts.

Now that know what James is arguing, we can understand verse 19. Why are we talking about demons all of a sudden?

James is criticizing this hypothetical foolish person by pointing out that a knowledge and a belief about something is different than true faith in it.

It’s one thing to know that God exists, that God is our creator and He rules the universe, it’s another thing entirely to have faith that Jesus is our savior, to have a personal relationship with Him and to do these works of faith in response to that belief.

The demons know all about God, but that wasn’t enough to bring their actions in line with God and obey Him, they rebelled and now they shudder in fear of God.

James’s point is the necessity of combining our faith with works of faith. What does that look like?

James finishes this chapter with two very, very helpful examples. Abraham and Rahab.

 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 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. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 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? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Here’s where we get to really understand what James is saying by looking at his examples and learning about works of faith. 

Let’s start with Abraham; there are two very important moments in Abraham’s life that are mentioned by James.

The first is mentioned in verse 23 and comes out of Genesis chapter 15 where Abraham is given a very special promise from God. We’ll read just verses 15:1-6

15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue[a] childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son[b] shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

This isn’t the first time God has made a promise to Abraham, but it is special for a couple reasons, we’ll only talk about one reason tonight.

That one reason is that this is the first time that scripture explicitly tells us that Abraham believed God and then we’re told it was counted to him as righteousness, what we would call a saving faith.

From this moment on, Abraham’s sins were forgiven on the basis of Christ’s righteousness and he stood justified before God not because of his own righteousness but because of Christ’s given to him.

James mentions this moment, but he says this scripture wasn’t fulfilled until a later moment.

That’s kind of odd, does that mean that Abraham wasn’t actually saved until later?

No, because everything in this chapter is sequential.

“God said to him… AND he believed… AND God said to him…”

James says a different moment in Abraham’s life fulfilled this moment, and he references something called the binding of Isaac which is in Genesis chapter 22.

Before we go look at chapter 22, and I know you’re going to be shocked that I’m saying this, but it helps to know the context a little bit of chapters 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21.

Don’t worry, we’re not going to study all of that right now, however over in the Flex room last year in our student ministry, we did study the entire life of Abraham. I bet you can ask any of the students sitting around you right now about Abraham’s life and… well honestly, they’ll probably all say they completely forgot about it, but maybe if I’m lucky, one of them remembers how faithfully Abraham acted between chapters 15 and 21.

The short answer, is not faithful at all.

Abraham does start out okay and he waits faithfully for 10 years for God to fulfill His promise, but then he starts to doubt that God’s going to go through with it and takes his wife’s maid as a concubine to try and hurry along God’s promise and he has a son.

Almost 15 years later, God himself appears to Abraham and tells him “after these 25 years I’m going to give you the promised son through your wife” and Abraham laughs at God, and then tries to convince God to just give the promise to his first son instead.

Then before that promised son can come, Abraham travels in a foreign land, gets scared that the king there will kill him in order to take away his wife and so Abraham tells her to lie about being only his sister, then she gets captured.

Here’s the real kicker to this whole story, is that this was the second time that Abraham did that. He had already once before made his wife lie and seen her get taken by a foreign king and see God have to rescue her so that God can fulfil his promise to give Abraham a son through her. 

If Abraham’s story stopped at chapter 21 when Isaac is finally born, all we’d have for an example is a man who (according to chapter 15) genuinely has faith in God’s promises, yet repeatedly chose to act in ways contrary to the very faith he had.

Does that sound like “the father of faith,” Abraham, to you?

Is that someone who you would call “a friend of God?”

All of that changes in chapter 22, when Abraham is told by God to take this promised child that he waited 25 years for and go travel to a mountain in order to sacrifice him.

and Abraham does it! God stops him before he actually kills Isaac, but Hebrews tells us that Abraham had such a firm belief and faith in God’s promise to make Isaac into a nation that Abraham knew if God asked for him to be killed, then God was planning on bringing him back from the dead. Hebrews 11:17-19

17 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, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Now THAT is a work of faith.

James says that at this moment his works were active with his faith, and they completed his faith.

Yes in chapter 15 Abraham was justified before God, but for you and I and other human beings who don’t get to see into his heart, he wasn’t justified before us publicly until his works matched the faith he had inside.

He didn’t earn the title “father of Faith”, and “friend of God” by taking a concubine, laughing at God and telling his wife to lie. He did that by his works of faith on the mountain with Isaac.

Abraham was justified before God based on Christ’s work and Abraham’s faith alone in chapter 15, now he is justified in the eyes of you and me because of his works in chapter in 22.

What about Rahab?

Rahab’s story begins in Joshua 2 and ends in Joshua 6

What was the faith that she had?

She lived in a city that the nation of Israel was marching on their way to take over.

She had heard of the power of the God of Israel and in chapter 2 she declares Him to be the God of the heavens and earth, there’s her faith that justifies her before God

What were the works of faith she did that completed her faith and justified her before people?

When Israel sent spies into the city to scout it, she hid them away so they wouldn’t be killed, even knowing she was hiding enemies coming to destroy her own people and risking her life along the way.

That’s not where her works of faith stop, however. Do you know what city Rahab lived in?

Rahab lived in the city of Jericho; do you know how Israel conquered Jericho?

It wasn’t by catapults and siege cannons and a huge army. No, they started walking circles around the city for a whole week doing nothing until God miraculously knocked down the walls of the city entirely.

Meanwhile Rahab was told to keep everyone in her family that she wanted to keep safe in her house with a sign tied outside the door so that when the invading army comes in, they know not to kill her family.

That means she spent a week sequestered in her house with her whole family, meanwhile the attacking army is just walking around uselessly in circles for 7 days.

Her faith that God was powerful enough to overcome Jericho’s walls controlling her actions and causing her to stay inside day after day despite all evidence to the contrary outside.

That is a work of faith just as much as hiding the spies was.

Both of these examples from James are not recognized in scripture for their high morality and strength of character, they’re recognized for their faith.

In one case Abraham tried to do things his own way for over 25 years and in the other you have a woman who is a prostitute by trade, not exactly shining beacons of righteousness and morality.

Both of these individuals had faith in God so much that they acted on that faith in obvious and public ways that gave them a reputation which was visible to anyone who looked at them.

Slide: What do we learn from the stories of Abraham and Rahab?

They were justified before God by faith and justified publicly by works of faith.

James’s point in these examples was to explain “Faith apart from works is useless”

The same way a body devoid of life is dead, lying there, unable to speak or move.

A lifeless body can’t produce any work, can’t receive any reward, can’t share the gospel with anyone else. Useless.

But a body full of life, well that is something that is obvious to anyone who looks at it. It accomplishes things, it produces things, it communicates things and anyone around can see it.

The point isn’t just morality, it’s faith-based actions

If you come away from James 2 and your big idea is that you should be more kind to people or that you should volunteer more or any other morality focused ideas, then you haven’t read James 2, you’ve watched an episode of Veggie Tales.

The point is to have a faith so strong that it controls our works.

Does James want us to meet the needs of those in the body?

James doesn’t want us going around being charitable devoid of faith, that’s so called “good works” without faith, useless!

James doesn’t want us going around with a heart full of faith that God provides for us meanwhile we horde what He’s given us. That’s faith without works, also useless!

James wants us to have faith that our wealth and status are given to us by God and then when we see a fellow believer in need our faith spurs us on to the good work of meeting that need.

I can’t leave you with any more concise summary than James himself gives in verse 26

For as the body apart from the Spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Grow your faith church, and let’s go out and do the works to prove it.