8/25/2019
Faith That Works
James 2:14-26 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 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 it 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.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
2 Corinthians 13:5-6
Salvation: Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
How are we saved?
Romans 3:24,28 all are justified (saved) freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…For we maintain that a person is justified (saved) by faith
Ephesians 2:4-5 …it is by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:8
James 1:18
Faith: confident trust based on God’s promises
Hebrews 11:1
Belief in action, not what we say, but what we do.
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
James 2:17 and 26
Dead Faith
James 2:9; Matthew 7:21-23
Works (Deeds, Actions)
James 2:18
“works”: what we do; behavior that is obedient to God’s Word; faith in action
Contradiction?
Romans 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
Romans 9:30-32
Ephesians 2:8-9 ….through faith……………..not by works……..
James 2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
James 2:26 ………faith without deeds (or works) is dead.
The whole argument of James is to present a real, practical Christianity that is not content with words merely (2:15-16), but shows itself in deeds. He is not trying to show, as Paul, how men get rid of their guilt and become Christians, but how they prove the reality of their profession after they receive the faith.
James 2:21-22 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
James 2:18 Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Ephesians 2:10; Matthew 7:16-20; John 15:5-6; Matthew 5:14-16
2 Corinthians 2:1-5