Sermon post - James 2:14-26 - Paul & James are on the same page!

 

I like how this frames what James is getting at when he talks about us being justified by works and not faith alone.  I kept going back in the sermon to the phrase, "James is speaking to the saved, 'the justified by faith alone,' about works that show or 'justify' that they are 'justified.'" I worked through this chart that put Paul and James side by side to highlight their use of the word "justify" with their audience and what they were dealing with at the time.

Paul                                                                          James

*Ro. 3:28 - "justified by faith"                             *Ja. 2:24 - "justified by works"

*faith alone                                                             *faith & works

*justify = declared righteous by God                  *justify = being demonstrated and proved

*speaking to unsaved Gentiles & Jews                *speaking to saved Jews

*dealing with Jesus (+) Judaizers &                    *dealing with saved dispersed Christians

  pagan works religions                                           in survival mode

*faith alone - Ep. 2:8-9                                           *faith alone - Ja. 1:18

*good works - Ep. 2:10                                           *good works - Ja. 2:14-26

I am so thankful for Acts 15 and seeing the agreement among "the quad" as I call them, Peter, James (the half-brother of Jesus and author of this book), Paul, and John.  I am assuming John is there with the rest of the apostles when they agree about salvation by faith alone to not only the Jews but also to the Gentiles also citing the Old Testament scriptures that backed up that this would happen.  But they were also in agreement about the good works or deeds that would come from someone who is saved.  I love the quote from Martin Lloyd Jones, "There is no value in a profession unless it leads to results in our lives."

I love going through a whole book of the Bible at a time because the author carries through thoughts from one section to another.  James' illustrations of Abraham and Rahab in this section dealing with faith and works reinforces what he said earlier about having no partiality previously.  He puts these two on the same level with each other.  One is a Jew, the other is a Gentile.  One is a man, the other is a woman.  One would be thought of as good and the other thought of as bad.  One is a rich in many ways and one is poor in many ways.  But when it comes to faith and also the justification or verification of their faith, they are the same.  You will find both in the Hebrews 11 "heroes of faith" and you will find both in the genealogy of Jesus!

A dead faith is not alive and therefore it is also not a saving faith.  Saving faith is alive and it has works that verify it is so.  What verifies your saving faith are good works and not just good words.  As a famous theologian said, "Faith alone justifies, but faith that justifies is never alone.  Never."

I have dropped partiality out of one hand and picked up good works to go along with the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which I have in the other hand.  I am saved by faith and saved to work.  Those little words are so important and the proper order is always faith first and followed with verifying works.

Adam