WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:00.640 Good morning. 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:07.679 This is today's reading is from uh the book of James, uh chapter two, verses fourteen to twenty-six. 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:13.279 It says, What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:15.279 Can that faith save him? 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:27.760 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? 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:32.960 So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:37.359 But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:42.399 Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:45.359 You believe that God is one, you do well. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.240 Even the demons believe and shudder. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:52.640 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:58.320 Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:04.959 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works. 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:14.159 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. 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:17.920 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:27.200 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. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:34.560 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:35.840 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:37.200 Please be seated. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:46.400 It's great to look out and see human people. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:47.840 Uh my name is James. 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.560 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:54.079 And uh also welcome if you're joining us on the live stream. 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:55.680 Thank you for being with us. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:06.719 Uh we want to keep that running as as long as needed uh so that we can still gather together around the word, although we can't all be together in person uh yet. 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:10.080 Uh but it's great to gather together, hear voices, and sing. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:11.199 Uh, it's a joy to be here. 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:18.560 I've been on vacation for the past two weeks, and so I want to say uh thank you to Chris Rhyme and Ed Fuller for filling in. 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:26.000 I think they did a great job, and it was wonderful uh to be able to step away for a bit and go camping. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:33.039 Um actually we borrowed we borrowed our in-laws like camper that you tob behind in their F-150. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:34.800 So it was glamping. 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:38.479 We went to the wilderness and brought a whole room with us. 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:40.639 Uh it was pretty awesome. 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:46.960 Um so uh before we pray and get into unpacking today's text, which should be easy. 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:48.240 Faith Without Works is dead. 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:51.520 James says you're justified by works, which we all knew that, right? 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:58.319 Um then uh uh I want to announce something that we have coming up uh in August, beginning in August. 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:07.199 And this is a Bible study that we're going to begin um in August, and it's called Your Place in the Story of Redemption. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:11.520 So the Bible, you might be aware, is a story. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:17.680 And it's not just a story, but it's the story, the story of the whole world from beginning to end. 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:24.080 And we people happen to find ourselves thrown into this big story that's taking place. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:27.439 And your life as well has a story. 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:35.120 And we learn to live wisely when we incorporate our life story into the grand narrative of scripture. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:47.280 We learn our context and why the world is the way that it is, what we're aiming towards with our lives, and develop a true sense of purpose that's grounded in the true story of the Bible. 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:55.360 So we're going to be going over that story from creation to fall to redemption to our glorious future uh over a four-week class. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:58.960 Uh, this is going to be the first of one four-week class. 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:02.240 It's uh four weeks and we meet bi-weekly. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:03.759 Do you know what that means? 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:05.520 Means twice a week. 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:06.800 No, it doesn't. 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:08.560 It means every other week. 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:13.680 So it's four weeks every other week on alternating schedules with redemption groups. 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:14.719 See how we're doing that? 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:16.240 It's very seamless. 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:20.079 And we are uh here's what's really cool about these. 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:27.360 At each class, food is provided and childcare is provided. 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:29.759 Yeah. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:35.920 So by signing up for one of these, you're literally having something taken off your plate. 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:39.680 You're doing less by going to this Bible study. 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:41.199 So that's pretty cool. 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:50.319 Uh so food and childcare are provided, and they'll each kick off with a really good dinner where no study is required for the dinner. 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:56.160 Uh we'll just feast together, get to know each other a bit, and then go into the Word throughout the study. 00:04:56.319 --> 00:04:59.600 So it's$50 to participate in the study. 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:01.600 That includes food and childcare. 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:05.279 And uh, if price is an issue, then just sign up anyway. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:08.560 Let us know that cost is an issue, and we'll cover you. 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:13.759 Um so$50, unless you can't pay$50, then it's nothing. 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:19.279 Um come to the Bible study and take from Bible study without payment. 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:22.319 Um so yeah, that's coming up. 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:24.240 I'm super excited to be moving through this together. 00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:25.120 I think it'll be really great. 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:26.959 So recommend joining. 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:34.399 Uh all right, let's pray, and we'll get into the word for today. 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:37.519 Holy Father, thank you so much for our church. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:40.079 Thank you so much for the assembled body. 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:49.920 And I pray that in your great mercy that you would teach us how to have a living faith. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:06:07.519 Father, a faith that is not uh uh dead or absent or just locked into one part of our life, but not uh present in another part of our life, but Lord, that we might have a truly living and embodied faith in you. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:09.600 Would you teach us what that looks like this morning? 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:11.519 Lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:12.399 Amen. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:30.000 So uh in the 1640s, uh there's a French guy named René Descartes, and he was about to do something that will really shape the way that we think uh basically ever since then. 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:43.279 Uh he sat down in front of his fire with uh a wax candle burning and in uh a nice comfortable chair, and he committed himself to doubt everything that he couldn't be absolutely certain of. 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:58.879 So what he was doing is he was looking for a foundation, sort of the rock bottom of his thinking, from which he could then build up his entire view of the world on absolute certainty. 00:06:59.279 --> 00:07:10.560 And so he sort of gets in this mental submarine and he goes down looking further and further for the very bottom, and he realizes, you know what, I can doubt the existence of the outside world. 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:15.439 Perhaps everything that I see and this thing that I touch isn't actually there. 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:18.079 None of you are there, and there are no other minds. 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:23.839 Then he realizes, you know, I can go even further, and I can doubt the existence of my own body. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:31.680 Perhaps the thing that's that I'm in that's sending me these signals doesn't actually exist either, and there is no body there. 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:34.319 No body there. 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:41.680 Sometimes the jokes find you. 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:48.879 And then he thinks, this one's weird, but but then he thinks, perhaps a demon is just deceiving me. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:59.519 And all of the thoughts that I'm receiving in my head are just being fed to me by a demon, and they're all these these bizarre deceptions, and it he's deceiving me that something like this actually exists. 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:10.160 I think if we were to do this meditation now, we would say something like, perhaps I'm just a brain and a vat, and the brain and the vat is being sent signals, and that's all that's really there. 00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:12.160 How could I possibly know the difference? 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:22.000 But then, a turn, Descartes finally reaches the bottom and he realizes I am doubting that all of these things exist, but you know what I can't doubt? 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:25.120 The fact that I'm doubting. 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:30.160 I know for certain that I'm doubting. 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:33.360 And if I'm doubting, then I'm thinking. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:37.759 And if I think, I exist. 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:43.120 So I think, therefore I am. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:43.679 Right. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:45.440 Which is the classic Descartes joke. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:48.480 Descartes walks into a bar and the bartender says, Would you like something to drink? 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:51.279 And Descartes says, I think not, and he vanishes. 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:57.120 Sometimes you find the jokes. 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:09.039 So he finds the very bottom, and he says, I can be absolutely certain of my existence because of my thinking. 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:14.799 And so Descartes himself becomes the center of his world. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:25.759 The only thing he can know for certain is his own existence in his own thinking, and that becomes the center of the world. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:30.559 And ever since then, that's the way we've thought of knowledge. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:37.279 That's what we've thought it means to know something with absolute certainty. 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:45.600 Notice it's purely logical, it's disembodied, and it's absolutely certain. 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:48.240 That's what we think of knowledge. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:56.879 Descartes was tapping into something here that uh I think this thought was so influential because Descartes is tapping into something that's very human. 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:01.600 And it's something that James is going to be going over in this section of the letter. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:08.960 It's that we want to be the originator of our beliefs so that they only come from us. 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:11.039 We are the center of them. 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:22.399 And because of that, knowing our beliefs is requires no risk, and to know our beliefs is to know something perfectly objective. 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:25.039 Now, these terms will become more meaningful as we go on. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:35.440 But notice that we are to be the originator of our beliefs, and our beliefs are objective and require no personal risk to say that we believe them. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:58.559 Now, James, 1600 years before Descartes, addresses this very same thing, this very same tendency that we have in the human heart regarding our faith, which is that we desire our faith to originate from us and therefore require nothing of us. 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:09.360 We want a faith that originates just from us and therefore entails no risk because it requires nothing of us. 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:17.039 James will summarize that perspective negatively, and he will call it faith without works. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:22.559 And James argues that faith without works is dead. 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:26.159 That means no faith at all. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:27.919 It is dead. 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:34.000 So as we follow James throughout this passage, it sounds like I'm talking in third person throughout this whole series. 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:35.840 I was named after him. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:37.919 It's not, why should I change my name? 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:38.720 He's the one that. 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:07.200 Okay, belief without responsibility, assent without accountability, faith without life. 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:09.279 A dead faith. 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:12.559 All right, James 2, 14, belief without responsibility. 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:17.279 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:18.960 Can that faith save him? 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:22.080 This is the key question of the text that James is working with. 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:28.080 And I think uh if many of us, if we're being good Protestants, we'd say, faith without works, can that faith save him? 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:28.879 Yes. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:31.360 Yeah, faith is what justifies you. 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:35.360 We are justified by grace through faith in Christ. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:38.480 All of those things are alone, and they require nothing else. 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:43.919 So the question that James is posing may be one that you intuitively have an answer to. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:49.360 But that answer we'll find is incomplete in our understanding. 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:53.039 So here's the question: Can faith without works save you? 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:56.879 James is going to answer no, and he begins his argument with an analogy. 00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:12.799 He says, James, in James 2, 15 to 17, 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? 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:18.159 So also faith itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:20.159 So here's the analogy that he gives. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.720 It's like faith without works is something like this. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:30.399 Imagine you uh cross someone's path and you realize that man, they don't have daily food, they're in their cold, they don't have clothes. 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:36.799 Uh and the construction that he offers is is actually a prayer. 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:39.519 Go in peace, be warmed and filled. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:43.919 We probably wouldn't say that, but we might say something like, I'll pray for you. 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:50.960 And then James zooms out and he asks this question what good is that? 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:53.919 What good took place there? 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:56.480 Because you know what James is thinking? 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:00.559 He's thinking uh not about you who walked away after you prayed. 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:02.639 Yeah, I got too far from the podium there. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:09.759 But he's thinking about the per the person that you saw who's still cold and hungry. 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:11.679 So what was the outcome? 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:18.320 It was useless because the problem was cold and hungry, and you did nothing to account for that. 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:23.360 In the same way, our faith without works is dead. 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:29.440 It's a useless thing, it accomplishes nothing, and there is no outcome. 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:37.279 Many of us treat our faith as only something that removes real outcomes from our life. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:40.559 And in a sense, that's true. 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:53.039 Because here's the way we think of our faith our faith justifies us, and that removes the real outcome of the death and the punishment from sin that we deserve. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:55.360 And our faith really does that. 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:00.080 It really does remove that real tangible outcome. 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:09.600 But we often stunt our understanding of our faith to just the removal and the distancing of our lives from real outcomes. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:21.039 We don't remember that our faith connects us to another real outcome, which is the embodied, spirit-empowered life of Christ. 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:28.720 And the outcome of that is the kingdom of heaven that is testified to, that gets proclaimed. 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:32.159 And that's a real outcome that our life is connected to. 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:37.519 We aren't merely connected to Christ's death and therefore atoned for, and that outcome is removed. 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:40.480 We're also connected to Christ's life. 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:44.159 And so that outcome is participated in. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:56.879 So we desire a faith that requires us to take no responsibility for the real outcomes that our life has. 00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:01.600 A faith that only distances us from responsibility. 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:07.360 The faith that saves is one that draws us into responsibility. 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:09.919 We live in an age of influencers. 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:17.679 Now that we're back together, it feels less like this, but I would joke, once COVID-19 started, I went from being a pastor to an Instagram influencer overnight. 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:20.240 We live in an age of influencers. 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:22.799 And you know what the you know what the difference is? 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:24.320 Well, I'll use my own example. 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:28.159 The difference is between an Instagram influencer and a pastor. 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:30.000 It's responsibility. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.039 Influence, that sounds nice. 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:35.120 Because you know what influence requires of you? 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:35.600 Nothing. 00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:37.279 It's just you influence. 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:40.799 Responsibility, that's a different thing. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:47.279 Our faith entails a real responsibility as we're participating in the life of Christ. 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:50.399 Next, assent without accountability. 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:52.879 This is James 2, 18 and 19. 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:56.480 But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. 00:16:57.279 --> 00:16:58.879 James says, Fine. 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:05.039 Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:08.160 You believe that God is one, you do well. 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:11.519 Even the demons believe and shudder. 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:23.759 So there's this other desire that we have, which is to believe something without having to be accountable in any way for that belief. 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:38.559 This is a way that the fact, like the idea of the fact, it plays this sort of mythological role in our culture, where there's something that's so self-evident that you don't have to have any skin in the game in order to assert it. 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:44.079 To assert something that's a fact, you don't need to participate with it in any way. 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:52.319 You can stand objectively back from a fact and in a disinterested way just relay it, and then your work is done. 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:54.559 You need no further participation with it. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:18:01.440 That's assent to something is true without being accountable for that truth. 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:08.799 Your faith, on the other hand, requires you to have skin in the game. 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:12.480 We aren't discussing unrelated facts. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:26.640 Now, James is talking about a type of faith that is just the assent to Christianity as a set of facts that you can disinterestedly say are true. 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:28.240 So consider this. 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:29.759 This is what the demons say. 00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:33.359 They say, you say that you believe that God is one. 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:44.000 Now that's the beginning of a prayer called the Shema, which is something that was recited for Jewish people, like we recite the creeds uh on Sunday morning. 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:50.640 And it says, it says, I believe that the Lord is one, and this is a true statement about who God is. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:54.400 And James says, but you know what? 00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:56.880 The demons also believe that. 00:18:57.359 --> 00:19:01.039 And and when they believe that, they shudder. 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:03.359 They're scared of it. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:08.240 They assent to that fact, and you both agree that it's true. 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:15.920 The fact stands, whether you're a demon or whether you're a Christian, you're believing the same fact. 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:17.839 So what's the difference? 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:20.559 It's our relatedness. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:29.200 We relate to these facts in a completely different way. 00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:35.519 So it's not just the fact of the resurrection that changes our hearts. 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:43.440 But instead, it's how we relate to the resurrection that our hearts are changed. 00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:52.960 So it's not it's not merely that Jesus came back from the dead, it's that when he came back from the dead, he he came back as our Lord and Savior. 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:56.400 Christianity is in the personal pronouns. 00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:59.839 He came back as my savior. 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:02.400 Came back as my Lord. 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:07.359 And that means that we have skin in the game of his resurrection. 00:20:07.599 --> 00:20:11.599 When I declare him as Lord, that means he is my Lord. 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:16.480 And that what he demands of my life, then what he demands is then demanded of me. 00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:18.720 It's demanded of my life. 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:22.319 That there's a true relatedness in this. 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:26.960 It's not just some bare fact of history. 00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:31.359 We desire to have a sense without accountability. 00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:40.319 We desire to get our arguments so tight that once we say them, everyone will be convinced and we won't even be accountable for what they entail. 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:42.960 But that's not what our faith is like. 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:48.720 Our faith requires responsibility and accountability. 00:20:49.440 --> 00:21:00.480 Now, for our final point, what we're really uh get hung up on, I think, is we desire to have faith without life. 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:02.960 Now here's what I mean. 00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:16.160 James takes us to the ultimate example, the ultimate proof that he has for his argument that it is works that participate in our justification. 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:26.720 Now, he takes us to the ultimate example as he sees it, who is Abraham, to show us and conclude that faith without works will not save you. 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:33.440 James says this in uh chapter 2, verses 23 to 24. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:40.240 And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:42.319 And he was called a friend of God. 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:47.359 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:52.400 Now that should sound familiar, perhaps. 00:21:53.359 --> 00:22:02.720 In fact, you might recognize the same structure of the argument in one of Paul's letters, his letter to the Romans. 00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:13.200 And he also argues from this very same quote in Genesis 15, which is that Abraham's belief was counted to him as righteousness. 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:19.839 Now let's go over to Romans and see how James and Paul interpret this passage. 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:24.240 So James says, Abraham believed God, was counted to him as righteousness. 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:28.880 See, a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:32.240 Paul says, for what does the scripture say? 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:35.839 Verses uh Romans 4, verses 3 to 5. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:37.359 For what does the scripture say? 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:42.160 Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:44.480 Okay, with him so far. 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:49.839 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:59.920 And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:01.200 Okay. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:11.039 James quotes Genesis 15 and then says, See, you're justified by works. 00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:18.480 Paul quotes the same passage in Genesis 15 and says, See, you're justified by faith. 00:23:18.799 --> 00:23:21.039 I hereby tender my resignation. 00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:30.240 Yeah, this is uh Zach was telling me, he was like, Yeah, a friend of mine emailed me a list of all the contradictions in the Bible. 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:32.400 It's like, well, this one should be on there. 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:35.839 It isn't a contradiction. 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:42.960 It feels like it because we don't actually have a category for a living faith. 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:51.440 We don't want our faith to be embodied, to be lived out in time as real people that we are. 00:23:52.319 --> 00:23:55.920 You know, try and treat yourself like you don't live in time. 00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:57.359 Oh, wait. 00:23:58.240 --> 00:23:59.680 Yeah, see, you do. 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:11.279 Try and treat yourself like a static object that can just be uh, you know, written down and then set aside, and then the work is done and you're settled. 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:13.119 You're a settled being. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:15.599 You have no such option. 00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:19.839 But instead, you're a human, a living creature. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:36.480 And your faith is not some static place that exists just in your mind, like Descartes would have it, a settled axiom, one premise that you get to check yes to and move on, one prayer that you get to say and then claim and move on. 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:45.279 No, our faith is a living, embodied thing that actually takes place over the course of our lives. 00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:52.160 So here's how this is being uh brought together by James and by Paul in this. 00:24:52.240 --> 00:25:03.200 And the way that we need to see how these two fit together, because they actually fit together really well, Paul's understanding and James's understanding, is they fit together in this idea of a living faith. 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:06.720 And we see that through the story of Abraham's life. 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:08.640 So this is what James says. 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:15.680 He says in uh uh verses 20 to 22, do you want to be shown, you foolish person? 00:25:15.839 --> 00:25:17.759 It's a good way to win someone over. 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:20.319 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person? 00:25:20.799 --> 00:25:23.519 That faith apart from works is useless? 00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:31.680 Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:39.759 Okay, so what is the work that James points to that says, see, Abraham was justified by his works. 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:50.720 It's this scene where Abraham takes his son, his only son, whom he loves, Isaac, and God says, I want you to sacrifice him to me on the altar, on that mountain. 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:59.440 And Abraham takes him and prepares himself, raises the knife above Isaac, uh, and then is called off just in time. 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:09.759 It is that act of faith in God that James says shows Abraham was justified by his works. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:12.720 All right, we've got to move quickly here. 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:18.319 We're gonna move through Genesis 15, Genesis 17, and Genesis 22. 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:22.319 We're gonna look at this trajectory that develops in Abraham's life. 00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:23.440 You ready? 00:26:24.079 --> 00:26:25.839 Oh no, it's only me. 00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:30.480 All right, the trajectory of Abraham's life. 00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:32.960 Come on, it's I know it's hot, but that's exciting. 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:34.559 Genesis 15. 00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:36.720 Here's what happens in Genesis 15. 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:40.400 God establishes his covenant with Abraham. 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:46.720 Now, covenants require two parties, but God establishes this covenant alone with Abraham. 00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:49.200 God is the initiator of his covenant. 00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:51.200 He says, I will bless you. 00:26:51.519 --> 00:27:08.000 And the way that the covenant is established is Abraham is told to take two, uh to take these three different animals and cut them in half and create an aisle of them so that on one half is one half of the animal, the other half is the other half of the animal. 00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:15.519 And uh then to ratify the covenant, both parties walk through the dead animals that are cut in half. 00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:22.640 And this is a way of demonstrating if either of us break this covenant, we will then be like these animals. 00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:26.160 And so you know who walks through? 00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:29.519 God twice. 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:34.319 Abraham never walks through. 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:43.680 The covenant is established by God, and God says, I will take on 100% of the responsibility for this covenant and 100% of the risk. 00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:47.119 If you break the covenant, the risk will fall on me. 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:51.039 That's Genesis 15. 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:52.720 And then you know what it says? 00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:59.359 Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. 00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:01.599 Now zoom forward, Genesis 17. 00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:04.960 God comes down, announces the same covenant. 00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:08.400 And then he says, We're going to make a sign for this covenant. 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:11.440 And he actually calls this sign the covenant. 00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:13.599 It's the covenant of circumcision. 00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:19.119 He says, I promise that through your line I will bless the whole world. 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:25.200 And we're going to mark this by, you know, the thing that you use to make the line? 00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:28.960 Circumcision. 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:40.799 And so now Abraham is in the same covenant, the one that he entered purely by faith, and now there's a sign that accompanies it that Abraham does. 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:44.000 Now move to Genesis 22. 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:52.880 And God, Isaac is now born, the child of promise that was promised at the covenant of circumcision, is now born. 00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:57.119 And God says, Now offer him back to me. 00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:06.720 This gift that I have given you, your son, your only son whom you love, now it now kill him on the mountain. 00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:34.880 Now, when Abraham's hand was raised above his son, the angel of the Lord, uh, it's probably Jesus, just Genesis 22, 12, he said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. 00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:42.319 What is he, what does the angel of the Lord affirm in Abraham? 00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:48.000 Look, now I know your faith was living. 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:57.680 The faith that you had in me before there was any work when I did everything, now that I see it acted out in your life, I know that was real. 00:29:58.240 --> 00:30:00.079 This is real faith. 00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:04.160 That was not just something you assented to at one point and called true. 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:20.559 No, this was a transformed life in a new way of understanding yourself as a being who relates to the living God, who establishes a real, active, functional relationship in the bounds of a covenant with the living God. 00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:21.759 So, how do you do that? 00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:25.039 That's not you sign a contract and it's done. 00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:31.920 No, that's an embodied, lived out, real life faith that is had. 00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:36.480 You see the trajectory in his life. 00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:45.200 So that Paul can say of Genesis 15, there were no works that accompanied Abraham's faith. 00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:52.160 And he was declared right then, before he had done any work, he was declared righteous. 00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:54.799 How could he have been declared righteous by faith? 00:30:55.119 --> 00:31:05.920 Because he receives the righteousness from God, which God justly accomplishes on the cross in Christ, so that when God says that it's true. 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:09.039 But then it was a living faith. 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:13.759 A faith that James uh elaborates like this in James 2.22. 00:31:13.839 --> 00:31:22.000 He says, See that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works. 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:26.000 This is the development of the covenant. 00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:37.200 God's covenant with us is that I will be your God, and you will be my people. 00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:41.359 I will be your God, and you will be my people. 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:51.839 It is always the movement from a unilateral covenant that just God establishes, like in Genesis 15. 00:31:52.880 --> 00:32:04.880 But it's moving towards, it's always moving towards this glorious new hope that our hearts will be restored in such a way where we respond to him as his people. 00:32:05.119 --> 00:32:11.519 And it's not just that God says, You're my people, it's that we will then respond and say, and you're my God. 00:32:14.480 --> 00:32:29.920 God makes us his people, he does the work, but then he transforms our hearts so that we respond in the right relationship, the true relatedness, as living beings that say, You're my God. 00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:31.599 How do I relate to you? 00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:35.759 You're God, and you're not just God, you're my God. 00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:39.519 Glad you're here, Mike. 00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:40.960 We need some more of that. 00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:48.079 This is the lived faith, the embodied faith. 00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:55.039 It's always a move from a unilateral covenant, which God does, and so we're righteous by faith alone. 00:32:55.200 --> 00:32:55.440 Why? 00:32:55.599 --> 00:32:56.960 Because God says it. 00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:01.440 But it's a transformation of our hearts. 00:33:03.119 --> 00:33:12.720 So that we become, because of our faith in him and the righteousness that by his spirit, which he freely gives, he works in our hearts, we become transformed. 00:33:15.039 --> 00:33:17.200 Right now, the end hasn't come. 00:33:18.079 --> 00:33:23.759 So we live in this tension where we're we're walking towards a more and deeper transformed life. 00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:29.759 We we experience being, we experience saying, You are my God by faith now. 00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:32.880 One day it will be so evident. 00:33:34.319 --> 00:33:38.799 It'll be as evident as knowing your spouse or as knowing your best friend. 00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:42.400 That type of relatedness. 00:33:42.880 --> 00:33:45.039 But now we hold it by faith. 00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:46.160 And what does that mean? 00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:49.839 Our transformed lives demonstrate works. 00:33:52.240 --> 00:33:57.599 You know, the good news is this is available to both patriarchs and prostitutes. 00:33:57.920 --> 00:33:59.839 Which is also the name of my new EP. 00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:05.200 James 2, 25 to 26. 00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:14.639 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. 00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:19.519 Do you know who do you notice who James uses to justify the living faith? 00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:29.280 He goes to the foundation of the Jewish people, and then the next person that he references, a Gentile prostitute. 00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:43.039 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. 00:34:48.239 --> 00:34:49.920 Why is it a living faith? 00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:54.400 Well, there's a new birth. 00:34:54.800 --> 00:35:02.320 We are born again from above by the Spirit, so that our hearts are transformed in Christ by faith alone. 00:35:02.960 --> 00:35:05.599 And to keep living, you need you need some things. 00:35:05.840 --> 00:35:07.119 You're gonna need food. 00:35:08.400 --> 00:35:15.519 Jesus calls himself the bread of life who came down from heaven so that we might be nourished. 00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:17.360 We're gonna need water. 00:35:17.679 --> 00:35:24.639 He gives us the spirit which wells up inside of us into a spring of eternal life. 00:35:27.119 --> 00:35:29.199 This is a living faith. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:35.840 If you think you can know you're a Christian because you you you know you wrote it down one day and you set it up on a shelf. 00:35:36.320 --> 00:35:42.559 If you think that that knowing God takes place in theology books that can be stored on bookshelves, and it's like, where is the theology? 00:35:42.719 --> 00:35:44.159 The theology is right here. 00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:47.119 No, the theology is right here. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:51.840 You see, that's you guys and you at home. 00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:02.079 Okay. 00:36:03.760 --> 00:36:05.519 This is your exhortation. 00:36:06.079 --> 00:36:07.920 Your faith is to be lived. 00:36:08.400 --> 00:36:10.079 That is where you know God. 00:36:10.559 --> 00:36:14.079 So get some skin in the game. 00:36:16.159 --> 00:36:18.639 Get over your head relationally. 00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:32.960 Share this faith that you have, which by the way, is not supported by any of the presuppositions of our culture, dating all the way back to Descartes sitting in a chair alone. 00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:37.840 Do you wonder if he would have thought he was so disembodied if he sat a bit closer to the fire? 00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:39.519 Always wondered that. 00:36:48.159 --> 00:36:49.760 A living faith. 00:36:50.719 --> 00:36:54.719