In this message from David Platt from James 2:14–26, we see the difference between dead faith and living faith.
In this message from David Platt from James 2:14–26, we see the difference between dead faith and living faith.
You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author and teacher David Platt. If you have a Bible and I hope you or somebody around you does that you can look on with. Let me invite you to open the meat to James, chapter two. Feel free to use Table Contest if you need to James two and, as you're turning, I want to welcome those of you in Arlington and MoCo and PW and Loudoun, as well as others online, who are physically unable to be with us together today. It's good to be together around God's Word and I can't wait for what is about to happen. We're about to tackle one of the most challenging passages about salvation and all of the Bible and at the same time, we're going to change what I hope is hundreds, if not thousands, of people's lives in the next few minutes. So here we go. Let's just dive right in to this next passage in James, as we consider the beauty of faith according to the Bible James two, 14 through 26. This is the Word of God. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 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? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 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. You believe that God is one you do well, even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that if faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works and the scripture is fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way, it was not also around the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. All right. So here's what I want to do. I want to take James 2, 24, which we just read as a part of this passage, and compare it with another verse in the Bible, romans 3 28. So here's James 2, 24. It says, you see, that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. But then you turn back in the Bible to Romans 3 28, and here's what it says, for we hold that one is justified by faith, apart from the works of the law. Now, this word justified is really significant. It means to be declared right with God. These verses are talking about what is the most important thing in every single one of our lives our standing, your standing before God himself. And for those who are visiting today, maybe you're exploring Christianity. This is, in a sense, what the entire Bible is about. The Bible is a story about how all of us are created by God for relationship with God. We're loved by God, but we've all sinned against God. We've all turned aside from God. In his ways to ourselves and our own ways, we've rebelled against God. Yet God, and his love for us, has not left us in this state. He's come to us in the person of Jesus and he's lived a life we could not live no sin, and then, even though he had no sin for which to die, he chose to die to pay the price for our sin. He died the death we deserve to die, and then he didn't stay dead for long Three days later he rose from the grave, conquering sin and death, so that anyone, anywhere, who turns from their sin and trusts in Jesus as Savior and Lord of their life will be forgiven of all their sin and restored to right relationship with God. It's the greatest news in all the world and justified as a word that summarizes what that means. Now it's interesting in these verses because one of them says a person is justified by works and not by faith alone, and the other verse says a person is justified by faith apart from works. So which is it? Are we justified by works plus faith? Are we justified by faith apart from works? That's a really important question, not just because we're trying to understand the Bible. It's really important because we want to know we have our right standing with God. And I should add, these verses are not isolated, obscure verses in the Bible. There's a sense in which James 2.24 summarizes the whole book of James, and there's a sense in which Romans 3.28 summarizes the whole book of Romans. So is the Bible contradicting itself at this point? And the answer is absolutely not so. James and Paul who's the author of Romans are both writing about the exact same gospel, the exact same good news about how we can be made right before God, but they're writing from two very different perspectives as they address two very different problems in the churches they're writing to. Here's how I pictured it. I don't picture James and Paul standing toe-to-toe with one another with different gospels. Instead, james and Paul are standing back-to-back with one another, fighting two different enemies of the same gospel that they're both defending. Paul is fighting against the false idea that we can earn a right standing before God by our works, and James is fighting against an easy believism. It says all you have to do is believe a couple of things about God or Jesus in your head and that will make you right before God. And what's interesting that is, I think we actually need to fight both today, even in this gathering right now, some of you think that your works in some way earn you status before God, a right relationship with God, and you do certain things, like even coming to church under the impression that these things will increase your status before God or help you get to a right relationship with God. Others of you think salvation is not by works. So you're not working. You believe in Jesus, you come to church, but your life looks pretty much like everybody else's in the world, which means we all need to hear what both Paul and James are saying. In order to do that, we have to understand how they're using words like works and faith, because, well, the meaning of words matters, and we know this In everyday life. I was in an Uber this last week with a driver who was born in Africa, west Africa, lived for a while in London, found out he's a follower of Jesus. We were having just delightful conversations. Somehow we got on the topic of sports and he told me about how, right after he moved here to Metro DC, people invited him to watch the Super Bowl with him a football game and when he showed up, he was so confused because nobody on TV was kicking the ball with their foot, or a couple guys every once in a while. They were playing a totally different sport than what he thought of when they said football. And that's because, as you know the rest of the world calls football what we call soccer, and he just kept laughing. He was like this makes no sense, what's the matter? So the same word can have different meanings to different people, which is why it's important to be clear about what words mean. That's all the more true with God's word. So I want to show you what James and Paul mean when they say works and faith in these verses, not just so that we can understand it, but once we see what these words mean, it's life changing. So if you're taking notes or if you're not taking notes, I would encourage you to write these things down, the pictures that Paul and James have in mind when they use certain words. First, in both passages we see two pictures of faith, this word faith. It's interesting. James uses the noun for faith 16 times in this letter that we're walking through. Eleven of those times are in this passage that I just read, and the five times it's used outside of this passage. Faith is always used positively. We've seen this over recent weeks. James 1-3 talked about the testing of genuine faith. James 1-6 talked about praying with faith. But in this passage today, james is having this imaginary dialogue with someone who claims to have faith but doesn't actually have it. So he's not contrasting immature and mature faith. Now, the majority of times he uses faith in this passage, he's actually talking about somebody who doesn't have faith at all. They think they have faith but their faith is dead. So here's one kind of faith dead faith, which does not save. That's the whole way. James starts in verse 14. Right, he says someone says he has faith but does not have works. Can that faith save him? And the answer is no, it doesn't save because it's not actually faith. Verse 17,. Faith by itself, if it doesn't have works, is dead. It's not actual faith. James is saying this is so important. Please listen close. Just because someone says they have faith, does it mean they actually have it? And it doesn't mean they're right before God. Which leads to the question well, how do you know if someone or if you have faith that does save? It makes you right before God. And James says look for fruit, because dead faith does not bear fruit. James is saying the exact same thing that Jesus said in the show on the mountain. Matthew, chapter 7, verses 16 through 20, people will show their faith by the fruit of their lives. If you look at a tree with apples hanging from its limbs. You say that's an apple tree. How do you know it has apples on it. What's on the outside is evidence of what's on the inside, and dead faith doesn't have fruit. Specifically, james says dead faith does not care for the poor, and that's the primary point James is making here. Much like we saw last week in the beginning of James 2, people in the church were ignoring the poor, and James is making clear that if someone claims to have faith in Jesus and ignores the poor, they don't actually have faith in Jesus. Their faith is dead. And what I'm about to say may sound overly strong, but it is the clear and undeniable message from this passage we're looking at. People who claim to be Christians but do not help impoverished brothers and sisters are not actually Christians, no matter what they say they believe. Look at James 2, 19. Every Jewish man or woman believed the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, 4. We looked at this a couple of weeks ago. Hero is your Lord, our God. The Lord is one. James points out yeah, even demons believe that. The question is not do you believe in God? Or even do you believe in Jesus that he died on a cross and rose from the grave. Demons believe that too. That's dead faith, which means there's not really faith at all. When James says you foolish person the word for foolish there means empty he's saying you claim to have faith but there's not actually anything there. Dead faith is no faith. But James says there's another picture of faith, what we'll call living faith, which does save. That's the contrast there. In verse 18, someone will say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works. I will show you my faith by my works. You see, there's two kinds of faith here. One, faith that has no works, that's dead faith, doesn't save, doesn't bear fruit, doesn't care for the poor. There's another kind of faith, though, that does save, and this kind of faith does bear fruit and does care for the poor. This faith sees a brother or sister in need and does something to provide for them. Actual living faith cares for the poor, quite literally. This faith works, which then leads right into the second word so works. The Bible gives us two pictures of works. Sometimes the Bible talks about works in positive ways. Other times the Bible talks about works in negative ways, and we need to know the difference. So let's start with the negative. Sometimes the Bible talks about works we do in order to earn favor before God, which is how Paul often talks about works as things we do to try to earn a right standing with God. All throughout books like Romans and Galatians in the Bible, Paul is speaking against people's attempts to attain God's favor by what they do. And over and over again, paul is saying no, no, no. You cannot earn standing before God through your works. You can't earn salvation through what you do. And, to be clear, james is also not saying that we can earn salvation through our works. We looked at this a couple of weeks ago James, chapter 1, verse 18. God is the one who brings us forth, gives us new life by the word of truth. James 1, 25. Receive with me. That's the implanted word which is able to save your souls. It's God's word that is able to save your souls. Even last week, james 2, 6,. The kingdom of God is for those who love God, so follow this. It's so important. James is nowhere saying that if we do enough work, specifically, if we care enough for the poor, then we will be saved. No, james is pointing to a totally different kind of work. James is not talking about works we do in order to earn favor before God. James is talking about works we do as the fruit of face in God. That's interesting. Before I even show you this in James, I want to point out how Paul, who wrote Romans, talks about works like this too 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 2 and 3,. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord, jesus Christ. You see that language, the work of faith that leads to labors of love. You see the same language in 2 Thessalonians, 1-11. To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling, may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power. So, works of faith. One more Galatians, chapter 5, and a book that's all about how we are saved by God's grace, not our works. Paul writes for in Christ Jesus' day, the circumcision works, uncircumcised accounts for anything. It's all work only faith working through love, faith working. So how does faith work? And I want to show you this. In James, the same applies to Paul. This is how faith works according to the Bible. So again, you might write this down. How does faith work? Faith creates works. It's exactly what James is saying In chapter 2, verse 22 and 23,. Look out in your Bible, it's up here on the screen. You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works and the scripture was fulfilled. That says Abraham believed God and was counted and was righteous, and he was called a friend of God. This is so interesting because Paul and James both refer to Abraham as an example of what they're saying. So let's think about Abraham, and James quotes here from Genesis, chapter 15, verse 6. What happened in that passage back in the Old Testament is God said to Abraham I'm going to give you a child, a son, in your old age, and from him will come descendences numerous as the stars in the sky. And Abraham believed what God told him, and when he believed God, it was counted to him as righteousness. And when he believed God, it was counted to him as righteousness. His standing before God was right by faith in God. And then what happened after that? Well, you fast forward to Genesis, chapter 22. And this is what James refers to right before this, about when Abraham was told by God go and offer your son Isaac on the altar. And what did Abraham do? He obeyed. He did what God told him to do. He took Isaac, laid him in an altar and God in that moment provided a ram's and the thicket there was offered instead of his son. But the whole picture is Abraham's faith in Genesis 15 was at work in Genesis 22. Faith creates works. That's the point. To go back to the illustration of fruit, when you plant an apple seed in the ground, one day you see an apple tree. In the same way, when faith is planted in someone's heart Genesis 15-6, it yields fruit Genesis 22. Faith creates works, creates works and in turn follow this works, complete faith. So James says Abraham's faith did you hear that language Was completed by his works, and the word complete there means to bring to perfection or maturity. So it's full circle. Faith creates works and works. Complete faith and works like this are really, really good. You just think about how this works in our lives. Practically some of the most basic works in the Christian life, like coming to a worship gathering like this today. If you have come today to earn favor before God, to check off a box because it's something you're supposed to do, then your worship today is not a good work. You're missing the point by trying to earn favor with God. No, but if you come today as the fruit of faith in God, if you love God, you want to gather together with the people of God to express love for God, to hear his word, to adjust your life accordingly, if this work is the fruit of your faith, then your faith is not only a good work. It will grow in a great way as you worship and hear from God. Faith creating work, work completing faith. Same thing tomorrow morning when you wake up and you spend time alone and prayer in the Bible. If you pray or read the Bible tomorrow as a matter of religious routine, that's what you're supposed to do. Thinking, okay, I should do that helps my standing with God. Check off a box in order to earn favor with God, that's not a good work. But if you believe that God is good and you desire time with him and you know you need him, you know this word is your daily bread and you delight to be with him, then, as you do, this will be a really good work and your faith in him and your delight in him and your understanding of him and his word will grow and faith that creates this works will complete your faith day in and day out. And then now think about caring for the poor. If we do this or that for the poor because we feel guilty or we feel like we should, or this will earn favor before God. This will make me a better person before God. Then we'll miss the whole point and even our care for the poor will not be pleasing to God. But if we love who God is and we love how God loves the poor and we want to reflect his love for the poor as the overflow of our faith in Jesus, not because we feel guilty, because we have been transformed by grace, then this is really, really good work, not just for the poor and not just for the glory of God, but good for our own hearts. So now let's come back to these two verses we saw earlier James 2, 24,. Romans 3, 28. Romans 3, 28,. We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of law. James 2, 24,. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. In Romans, paul is saying we are justified by living faith, apart from works that we do in order to earn favor before God. James is saying that if we don't have works that are the fruit of living faith, we don't actually have faith. This kind of faith, if it doesn't have works that are the fruit of that faith, is dead. It's not actually real. So here's how I would summarize all of this and apply God's word to our lives. Two takeaways from God's word. One by faith in Jesus we have the indescribable privilege of friendship with God himself. Paul and James are both saying that ever since Abraham, people have been justified before God by living faith in God. When people truly believe God, they're brought into friendship with God, not based on what they do, but based on the love and promises of God. This is the greatest news in all the world. It is what separates Christianity from every other world religion. God has not given us a list of things in order to do in order to earn our way to Him. No, god has made the way to us. God has come to us in love for us. Jesus has died on the cross for our sins so we could be forgiven and restored to relationship with God by faith in Him. If you have never put your faith in Jesus believed in God's love for you and Jesus. Maybe even you've spent your entire life in church thinking by doing these things, I'm gonna be okay before God. Be free today. It is not based on your works to earn status before God. God loves you so much he's made a way for you to be righteous by faith in His love for you, in Jesus as the Savior and Lord of your life. Trust in Him today. Be free from works to try to earn favor before God. And when you place your faith in Jesus and for all who have, you are a friend of God. Amen. The God who spoke and this world came into being, the God who brought the sun up this morning, god who puts out the stars at night and calls the means by name, this God is your friend for you to know and love and enjoy and walk with and live out that overflow of friendship with God. So, yes, get alone in prayer in His Word tomorrow and all throughout this week. Why? Because you're friends with God. Pursue holiness in your life. Because you're friends with God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Because you're friends with God, and specifically here in James. Second takeaway because of faith in Jesus, we passionately work on behalf of people in need, because this is what living faith in Jesus does. Living faith in Jesus does look at people in need and say I wish you well, doesn't keep scrolling on to something else, turn the channel, move on with life as normal. No, living faith in Jesus works on behalf of the poor, not in order to earn favor before God, but as the fruit of faith in God, and this is the beauty of faith. So here's the deal the book of James has made clear to us. We cannot just hear this word and walk away. We're to do what it says. We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of Radical with David Platt. For more resources from David Platt, we invite you to visit radicalnet.