Family and I arrived safely in Chelan at our little getaway, and everyone has gone to bed after playing Clue (Bella won). I sit here in the quiet of the Livingroom in this quiet place to reflect on the next passage of reading here in James. I am on James 2:14-26 which is all on the relationship of faith and works.
It is one of those interesting passages where one author (apostle James) takes a different tack than another author (apostle Paul). Although both fundamentally agree on the saving power of Faith, James takes an argumentative stance on the importance of ‘works’ in the life of one who has been saved by faith.
14 What is the use (profit), my brethren, for anyone to profess to have faith if he has no [good] works [to show for it]? Can [such] faith save [his soul]? James 2:14 [AMP]
James comes right out of the gate swinging! What James is saying right here in the beginning is that ‘Saving Faith’ has a fruit of ‘Good Works’. If your ‘so called’ faith does not produce works, then you should question the kind of faith you have.
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clad and lacks food for each day, 16 And one of you says to him, Good-bye! Keep [yourself] warm and well fed, without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do? James 2:15-16 [AMP]
The root of what I think James is getting at here is that a person who has been truly saved (Converted – a new creature) and is driven to seek the heart of God and in learning God’s heart, would never turn away this person (without clothes and food), without helping them.
21 Was not our forefather Abraham [shown to be] justified (made acceptable to God) by [his] works when he brought to the altar as an offering his [own] son Isaac? 22 You see that [his] faith was cooperating with his works, and [his] faith was completed and reached its supreme expression [when he implemented it] by [good] works. 23 And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God’s will in thought and deed), and he was called God’s friend. James 2:21-23 [AMP]
Not only did Abraham have faith in God, but he was also willing to walk forward in obedience to what God told him to do; even when it meant sacrificing his own son…the only offspring he had that God had promised he would build a great nation (God’s Nation) from. I believe that Abraham was ready to follow through with plunging the knife into Issaac because he believed God would somehow either intervene or maybe even miraculously heal his son. Abraham put his faith to work in obedience.
24 You see that a man is justified (pronounced righteous before God) through what he does and not alone through faith [through works of obedience as well as by what he believes]. 25 So also with Rahab the harlot—was she not shown to be justified (pronounced righteous before God) by [good] deeds when she took in the scouts (spies) and sent them away by a different route? 26 For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from [its] works of obedience is also dead. James 2:24-26 [AMP]
At the end of the day here is what I believe James is getting at -> James does not dispute the power of faith to justify or to save. What he is concerned to do is to define the true nature of faith. As he does throughout his letter, James attacks superficial and inconsistent Christians who claim they have faith but fail to act on the basis of their faith. It is absolutely vital to understand that the main point of this argument, expressed three times, is not that works are a kind of second, unrelated, addition to faith but that genuine faith naturally produces works. That is its very nature. So, as a professing born again Christian, if I am not producing works associated with obedience to God’s Word through sanctification, caring for people, and building God’s Kingdom through a deep knowledge/understanding of Him gained through daily study in His Word, I better take a second look at the genuineness of my Salvation through Faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ.