“14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
25 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? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. ”
A couple years ago, Bethany and the kids bought me an aquarium for my birthday. I set it up and later that week we went to Sioux Falls to get some fish. I set it to the right temperature. I gave them the proper food. Everything was going great and then one morning I came down and they were all dead.
How did I know they were dead? Did I hook them up to a heart monitor? Did I listen for breathing? How did I know they were dead? I knew because they were floating upside down. Dead fish float. Living fish swim.
Shortly after I got that aquarium, I removed a dead Japanese Maple from our yard. I thought the tree would be small enough to pull it up by the trunk. If you ever have any illusions that you are strong, try to pull up a small tree by its trunk. It didn’t budge. I spent the next hour digging and a hacking at the roots and when there was just one root left in the ground, I was still unable to pull it out.
Now how did I decide that tree was dead and needed to be removed in the first place? Did I use a syringe and check its fluids? Did I call in a tree expert? No, I just noticed that it hadn’t grown any leaves that whole summer. Living trees bear leaves. Dead trees don’t.
The same principle works with faith. You don’t need to find a stethoscope for the soul to see if your faith is alive. You don’t need to find your assurance in feeling ‘just right’ about your eternal destiny. There are ways you can tell if you have living faith. If a fish is alive, it swims. If faith is alive, it is busy. If a tree is alive, it bears leaves. If faith is alive, it bears fruit.
Dead faith is barren. Living faith is busy. That’s the claim of this sermon: dead faith is barren. Living faith is busy.
First: barren, dead faith. Second: busy, living faith. We see barren faith in verses 14-19. We see busy, living faith in verses 20-26.
First, let’s see the danger of barren, dead faith. Barren faith is dead and since it is dead, it is unable to do what faith must do. That’s what James’ hypothetical questions in verse 14 are all about. “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?” The answer is, ‘no good. Faith without deeds is no good.’ “Can such faith save him?” asks James. James answer is, ‘no’. That sort of faith won’t save you any more than pushing a dead guppy back underwater will save that fish.
You must inspect your faith. You must check to see whether your faith is swimming or floating upside down. You must check to see whether your faith is sprouting leaves or is barren. You make this inspection by looking at your deeds. “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?”
Check your deeds of charity. God will show no charity to the uncharitable man because his faith is dead. You see that in verse 15, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?”
Some commentators think that those words, “I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” are actually a prayer,“‘Father, I wish this man well; may he be warm and well fed.’” Now, why should you ask God to provide something for someone else that you can provide? Why ask God to do something generous so you can avoid generosity?
A fish floating upside down in an aquarium is dead. A tree that won’t bear leaves is dead. Faith that won’t move is dead. Faith without works of charity is dead.
Faith without those works can’t save you. James was clear about that, and Martin Luther despised that clarity. Luther called the book of James an “epistle of straw” because of these verses we are studying. He wanted James removed from the Bible. He vehemently disagreed with James’ words, “You see that a man is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.”
Luther was so angry, as is often the case when someone is angry at the Bible, for biographical reasons. Luther had spent years trying to earn God’s favor. He had spent years believing what he thought James said, “You see that a man is justified by what he does.” He wanted to know how much confession was enough to be saved. He wanted to know how many works of charity were enough to be saved. Luther became a monk of a very strict persuasion, but that wasn’t enough. If you have a sensitive conscience, you know Luther’s struggle.
When Luther read the apostle Paul’s words that we are saved by faith alone and not by any good works, he was a man set free. He wrote, “this passage of Paul became to me a gate of heaven.”
Luther thought that James was slamming that gate shut. He would not tolerate any hint of salvation by works because he had tried to save himself and he knew it was a cage from hell; but James did write that “you see that a man is justified by what he does.”
Who is right – Paul – we are justified by faith alone – or James – we are justified by what we do? Both. I want you to consider that James is right to say that no one, including you, is justified by faith alone, you must have works, and I want you to consider that Paul is right to say that salvation is only by faith alone. Paul is right; it is faith alone that saves the sinner. James is right; faith expresses itself through works. Works are faith in action.
Think of it this way—imagine James and Paul sitting down over dinner. James asks Paul the question that he asked his readers, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If you say to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?’” Paul would say, ‘that’s no good. That man doesn’t have faith. Faith expresses itself through works.’
Both Paul and James would say that faith alone saves us, and they would both say that living faith does good works. That’s what James meant in verse 18, “I will show you my faith by what I do.” That’s what James meant last week when he told us that charity triumphs over judgment. A living maple tree will produce leaves. A living fish will swim. Living faith will do good works.
Paul said the same. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Both Paul and James would say that your good works are an expression of your faith. Leaves are an expression of the life of the tree; they aren’t an addition to the tree. Swimming is an expression of the life of a fish; it isn’t an addition to the fish. Living fish swim; living trees bear leaves; living faith does good works.
So, all you need is faith in Jesus to be saved. That is true whether you have been a Christian for fifty years or whether you know almost nothing about Jesus and have just wandered into this sanctuary with no knowledge of Christianity. All you need is faith in Christ to be saved, but if you have a faith that doesn’t produce good works, don’t call it faith. It as dead as a floating guppy or a leafless tree in summertime. In fact, it is more dead. It’s more dead because that guppy was once alive, that tree was once alive. Faith that never does anything for anyone was never alive.
Now, James didn’t write this to warn these people to put the defibrillator of good works on their faith to restart it. He was telling them that if they weren’t doing good works, they never had real faith.
That’s true for you. If you have no desire to be charitable just as Jesus was charitable to you, then you have no life in Christ. Whatever you might consider faith is just a lie. Your attempts to do good works will be like me pushing a dead guppy underwater hoping it will swim again. You are dead in your sins.
If this is you, you don’t need works. You need faith. You need to recognize that whatever faith you thought you had was worthless. You need to ask God to bring you to life by the Holy Spirit. You need to behold Christ crucified. You need to confess that, “it was your sin that held him there until it was accomplished,” as the hymn goes. You don’t need me to appeal to your willpower. You need a miracle—the miracle of new life.
Faith that never expresses itself is hopeless. It is so hopeless that James compares it with the demonic. “You believe that there is one God,” he says in verse 19. “Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”
If your faith is merely a base level agreement of a few truths of God’s word, James’ argument about the demonic should cause you to do some soul searching. James quotes from the Shema, which we studied this morning, “hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.” This was a regular affirmation of faith. This was like our Apostles’ Creed. James didn’t think believing that was true was enough to save. “Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”
The demons can agree with the truth. The demons know that God created the heavens and the earth. The demons know that Jesus is God’s only Son. The demons know that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. Demons wholeheartedly believe that, and I can’t imagine that any of us would think they have saving faith. They know the truth, but what do they do with the truth? Do they obey it? No, they shudder at it.
You might have grown up in the church. You might know a good deal of doctrine. You might be able to find the letter of James or the book of Job or Genesis quite easily in the pages of Scripture. What do you do with what you know? If you have no willingness to obey it, that is no different from the demons who have no willingness to obey the truth.
Consider Jesus. Can you imagine Jesus not putting what he knew into action? Can you imagine Jesus knowing the doctrine that people are created in the image of God and doing nothing to honor that dignity in us? Can you imagine Jesus’ beliefs not manifesting themselves in good works? Of course not. You can’t imagine that for a follower of Jesus either.
Faith that never expresses itself in works is not faith; it is dead. It can’t save. It’s worthless. What does saving faith look like? That’s our second point: busy, living faith.
In some ways it is very strange that Martin Luther had such an argument with James because they spoke the same truths. Luther said, “O it is a living, busy active mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good things incessantly.”
James says the same by giving this early church two examples of busy, active faith. He told them about Abraham and Rahab. He did so because biographies are theology incarnated.
If you want to put flesh on doctrine, read biographies. If you want to see forgiveness in action, read about Corrie TenBoom. Read about her encounter with the prison guard who was involved in the death of her sister. If you want to see the doctrine of hell in action, read about Hudson Taylor and his tear-filled pleas to men and women to flee its torment. If you want to see the justification of sinners in action, read about John Newton leaving a life of slave trading for the gospel. If you want to see the Christian understanding of sexuality in action, read about Rosaria Butterfield leaving her live-in girlfriend because she recognized the pride of her sin. If you want to put flesh on doctrine, read biographies.
James puts flesh on this doctrine of faith and works by giving us two biographies—Abraham and Rahab.
First, Abraham. Verse 21, “Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.”
James knew that Abraham’s faith was alive rather than dead because it did something. It swam instead of always floating upside down. It sprouted leaves. James saw Abraham’s faith in Abraham’s biography. He saw it in his obedience in the binding of Isaac.
If you have saving faith, it will show up in your biography. Faith that can be recorded in action is alive. Faith that never makes its way out of the mind or the heart isn’t really faith; it might be a wish; it might be self-affirmation, but it is not faith.
What evidence can you give for your faith? In what ways has your faith swam? In what ways has your faith blossomed leaves? How would you prove to James that you have living faith? More to the point, how would you prove to James’ brother Jesus that you have living faith?
Jesus’ inspection of your faith on that final day will search for works of charity. He will distinguish between those who have faith and those who only thought they had faith. He will distinguish between them by what they did for the hungry, for the thirsty, for the stranger, for those who needed clothing, for the sick, and for the imprisoned. “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me,” and “whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
You might wonder how you would treat God if you met Him on the street. God made clear how you would treat Him if you met Him on the street. “Whoever does not love their brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”
Think local. What does your faith have to do with those who are sick in this church? What does your faith have to do with people who are strangers who move in to this community? When our church takes part in a ministry aimed at feeding the hungry, what happens inside you?
Faith is not simply a mental agreement to some ideas. “I believe in God the Father Almighty.” Even the demons do that. Faith enacts these ideas. ‘You say that you believe in the God the Father Almighty? Show me,’ says James. ‘Show Jesus. In what circumstances are you trusting your Father?’ ‘You say that you believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord? Show me,’ says James. ‘Show Jesus. In what circumstances are you acting as if he is your lord?’
It is clear that some of what passes as faith in Jesus is nothing of the sort. It is only faith in Jesus if it is alive and it is only alive if it acts. You can only see that Abraham’s faith was alive by what he did; you can’t examine his beliefs without his works. You see his faith in what he did. What does your faith do?
James tells you what Rahab’s faith did. Verse 25, “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?”
There were plenty of Israelites who knew far more doctrine than Rahab, but they died in their sins in the wilderness while Rahab lived by faith. Many of those Israelites had seen the plagues on Egypt first-hand; they had witnessed the parting of the Red Sea; they had eaten manna from God’s hand daily in the wilderness and they had dead faith and you know they had dead faith because that faith did nothing; they grumbled; they lived like the nations around them.
The wilderness generation had first-hand experience of all the wonders of the Exodus but they choose to live like unbelievers. They lived that way because they had no faith. Rahab knew comparatively nothing about God but she chose to live like a believer. She lived that way because she had faith. You know she had faith because she chose to flee the sin around her and to join the people of God. You see her faith in her deed of fleeing sin and joining God’s people.
If you have living faith, you will flee the sin around you. Your faith will manifest itself in choices, just like Rahab’s did.
The natural question now is how much fleeing of sin is enough? How many good works are enough? In other words, how busy does faith need to be to be alive?
Well, you don’t determine whether a fish is alive or dead by whether it is swimming enough; you determine that by whether it is swimming at all. You don’t determine whether a tree is alive or dead by whether it is sprouting enough leaves; you determine that by whether it is sprouting leaves at all. You don’t determine whether your faith is dead or alive by whether it is active enough; you determine that by whether it is active at all and whether you want it to be more active.
You don’t assess your salvation by how perfectly you are following Jesus. You assess your salvation by whether you are following Jesus at all and whether you will take steps to follow more perfectly.
You assess your salvation by looking at your good works. You look at your good works not in terms of whether you are doing enough but in terms of an expression of your faith. Your good works are the visible face of your hidden faith. You can’t see faith just like you can’t see the wind, but you can see good works just like you can see leaves blown by the wind.
Don’t leave this sanctuary with dead faith. If you have been resting on what you now recognize as dead faith, repent. Turn from your confidence in your religious knowledge and throw yourself on Christ alone. Put your faith in him, the living Christ, and have a living faith and just as he did good works, you will do good works not to save yourself but because you have faith. Amen.