You can turn with me to the book of James. We're continuing our series there. And the title of the series is James: Faith in Gear. And this morning we get to see why we picked that title. What you're going to see this morning is James probably at his most theological in this letter. So we've talked about the fact that James is sort of the Proverbs of the New Testament. And so it's a letter filled with practical insight for what it looks to live as a believer in Christ. And it's filled with application. It's filled with exhortations and commands, so it's got tons of imperatives. Do this, don't do this, right? Well, in this section, we drop in at the middle of the letter and we see James becoming very theological and really giving us a theology that orients and gives us a sense for why he is so practical in the other parts. And it's also a hard text. This is not a text that most preachers run to to preach. It's tricky. It's got theology that isn't easy to unpack. You don't look at this text and know how you're gonna preach it 10 minutes later.
So this is a text that I would point out as one of the reasons why we commend and commit ourselves to expository preaching, to preaching through books of the Bible. We do this because it forces your pastors to preach texts like this, that if we were left to ourselves, we probably wouldn't choose. This wouldn't be a go-to for me on a given Sunday because we're committed to preaching through God's word and through whole books of the Bible. We land on texts like this, and I'm excited about this, and I'm excited about preaching hard texts. And this is why hard texts humble us. Hard texts remind us that God is bigger than we are, that he is transcendent and majestic. And He's mysterious.
And we sung these words this morning, and I don't know if you thought about this, I was thinking about it because I knew what I was going to preach on. In the song 'Behold Our God,' there's a verse specifically saying, 'Who has given counsel to the Lord? Who can question any of His words? Who can teach the One who knows all things? Who can fathom all His wondrous deeds?' Behold our God seated on his throne. Come, let us adore him. We get to do that this morning in this hard text, and that's an awesome thing. It allows us to humble ourselves under God, and we're going to experience in this text the trickiness of words.
You ever had a conversation with someone from Europe talking about football and realize pretty quickly you're talking about two different things? I had a friend I knew a few years back who was from South America, and he would talk about fútbol. He did not mean pigskin. He meant that weird game with the round ball and the checkers of black and white. A different thing. Same word, but the context meant everything. We're going to see that in our text this morning. What do words like faith and works and justification mean to James in this text. And I say all that because we're going to face a temptation and a pressure to take this passage in James and read it like we're reading Paul. A lot of us have read a lot of Paul. That's a good thing. But we can't imagine Paul sitting on our shoulders whispering in our ear telling us how these words are supposed to mean in James. We have to let James speak for himself. So we're going to set Paul aside for a bit this morning, and then at the end we're gonna show how they're reconciled together. Paul and James aren't against each other in this text, but to see that, I want us to let James speak with his full authority, and I want us to recognize and remember hard texts are still fully God's Word.
If we believe, as we do at this church, that God's Word is inerrant and inspired and carries His full authority, then all the words in this book are His words and are good and profitable for us. So I want us to approach the text with that sense this morning.
Before we read the text, let me pray. Father, we always need Your grace. We need your grace for life itself. We need your grace to comprehend who you are. We experience the extension of your grace when we turn to your word, which is inspired by your Spirit. Lord, especially this morning, we need grace to help us to comprehend the mystery of justification and sanctification. Would you bring clarity? Would your Spirit work as you love to do in the preaching of your word? And Lord, may it stir up, may it stir up a heart for good works. Not good works born out of legalism, not good works born out of a desire to prove that we are saved. But good works flowing out of an abundance of assurance, knowing that in Christ we have been bought and purchased and sealed, and that through that faith it will express itself in love. Pray that you do that this morning, Jesus. In your name, amen.
6 · Reads the entire passage aloud (James 2:14-26), establishing the text the sermon will exegete
Now turn with me to James chapter 2, starting in verse 14 and reading through to the end of the chapter. Here, God's holy and authoritative word. 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 be 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. And in the same way also, 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? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. Thanks be to God for His holy word. He writes truth upon our hearts.
7 · Uses an extended personal story about childhood roller skating rinks and fake gold chains to establish the central metaphor: fool's gold—something that appears precious but is worthless
I don't know about the rest of you. Maybe you had a different experience growing up. Maybe it's a generational thing. I don't even know if they still exist anymore, but when I was growing up, they had skating rinks. And I'm not talking ice skating rinks. I'm talking about roller skating rinks. And we would get to go there on special occasions. Actually, sometimes we'd get to go there for school field trips. And I actually, I think it was in first grade or second grade, actually got to have a birthday party at the roller skating rink. And the roller skating rink was just a cool place. And if you were a really cool kid, you actually had like rollerblades. You didn't rent your skates. I wasn't one of those cool kids, so I just had the regular skates. But you would skate around, and for me it was all about going as fast as I could and passing as many people as I could every lap. And they'd play those games, like the big dice game where they'd throw the dice out and there's numbers on the wall that you had to go sit by. Weird games. The limbo game, which I could never win. But there were also, off to the side in the skating rink, all of these arcade games. And one of them was Skee-Ball. So you know skee-ball, you could take your coins and throw them in the machine, you get the balls, and whatever your point total was, it would spit out tickets. And how many tickets you had, you could go to the counter, and they had just this glamorous display of glorious items. And when you're in first grade, these things seem sweet. As an adult, you realize they are absolutely worthless trash. But when you're a kid, you look at these and you just, you just salivate. You would hoard your tickets. And there was even— this is really not that honest, but I would do it. If you were careful when the ticket would come out, if you pulled with just the right amount of pressure, you could actually milk out probably 5 or 6 more tickets. So you're probably stealing like a quarter of a penny by doing that. But one of the items they had behind that counter were these quote-unquote gold chains. And you could get these chains, and they had basically sort of like a dog tag. Shape at the bottom was the pendant, and you could get them engraved. You get whatever you wanted written on them. And I remember I would always save up for the gold chain. And I would wear it around my, you know, and then I would go back out and it was like, now I might not have rollerblades, but I had the gold chain, baby. I was in the cool crowd. And then inevitably you'd get home, and because it was a piece of junk, the clasps would break. And it would start to fall apart, and pretty soon you're using masking tape to hold it together. Bottom line was, it was a reminder: all that glitters is not gold. That chain was fool's gold. It was cheap metal spray-painted to look like it was precious.
8 · Articulates the sermon's main thesis: authentic Christianity requires a living, active faith
What we see this morning is that James has seen some fool's gold in his day as well. James is familiar with that, and one of his goals in this letter is helping us to differentiate between fool's gold and real gold, or false faith and real faith, false Christianity and true Christianity. He wants us to be able to tell what is fraudulent and what is authentic and genuine. And so we're gonna see James give us his most fundamental evidence. What is authentic and real in terms of Christian— Christianity and its belief is the title of this series. It's faith in gear. Here's really the main point of this whole passage. There can be no authentic Christianity without a living, active faith. You are not an authentic believer if there is not an activeness a life, a vitality to your faith. So all true believers express their faith in obedience and in action. James is trying to establish exactly what defines such a real faith. And to do it this morning, he's going to show us 4 illustrations. The first 2 negative illustrations, so showing us false fraudulent faith, and then the latter 2 positive illustrations showing us real faith, what it looks like, how to identify it.
9 · Begins exposition of James 2:14 with close attention to the Greek behind 'good' (profit, gain) and the crucial modifier 'that faith
So first thing we see this morning: dead faith merely spectates. Dead faith merely spectates. Verse 14, it says this: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? Now, good here literally means, can it Is it for his gain? Is it for his profit? What he's really asking becomes clear in the second question in v. 14. Can that faith devoid of works, can it save? Now, from the outset, remember we said words have meaning and that meaning is defined by context. And we see that immediately when James starts talking about works. Works according to James and his mindset means something that's a deed or an action or an accomplishment. And as we'll go through this passage, we'll see exactly how James refers to works. He doesn't mean works like Paul means works. And Paul will use works in a variety of ways, but one of the most common ways he uses works and the way that we're probably most instinctively prone to think of works is in works of the law, right? Paul uses them that way in Romans and Galatians, all sorts of places. That's not what James means by works. So, so push that aside, right? James is speaking more generally. When James talks about works, he's talking about any sort of action, any sort of activity that is done out of obedience to God. That's what he means by it. And then notice carefully what James doesn't deny. His second question is not, 'Can faith save him?' but, 'Can that faith save him?' James is not denying that faith saves, that faith is the doorway into salvation. As he'll show us in a few verses, he clearly believes faith does save. What James is denying is that a faith totally devoid and divorced from obedience was ever saving faith to begin with. It's an important distinction.
10 · Expounds James 2:15-16 (the first negative illustration) by analyzing the scenario of empty words offered to a believer in physical need
Read now verses 15 to 16. 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? This is the first of the four illustrations, the first negative illustration James is using to argue his point. He's describing a fellow believer that's in a desperate situation. Remember last week when Seth preached, this is a real issue for this church. This is a church that's got a division. Some are wealthy, they have possessions, they have power, they have influence. And others are impoverished. They're lacking basic physical needs. So he's writing this as a real point of application to this body. And as he says this, he's giving us a concrete example for what it looks like to identify authentic faith. And that concrete example shows us authentic faith is gives concrete aid where there is concrete need. That make sense? The illustration would be similar to sitting there, if you can imagine, I actually had a couple instances in the Twin Cities with a good friend of mine. We were in downtown Minneapolis at a place called Block E and we met a homeless guy and so we took him with us into the restaurant we were planning to eat at. And we shared the Gospel with him. What good would it be doing to share the Gospel with this homeless guy if we didn't also share our food with him? And so we shared our food. I mean, you can imagine what James is essentially saying here with this illustration would be someone who says, 'Oh, come into the restaurant. I see that you're hungry. Sit down at my table.' And then between bites of a burger asks them questions. How hungry are you? Have you been hungry for a long time? This burger is really good. This is one of the best burgers I've ever had. So where are you going to sleep tonight? Boy, can I pray for you? Empty words. That's James' point. He's revealing to us the dead faith of empty words. And here James shows us exactly why this is the problem. He shows us what faith lacking words looks like. But it's not the pious words that are so reprehensible. It's the fact that they're used as a cover for actually doing something. Oh, let me pray for you. I care so much. But so much easier to say that I care than it is to actually do something about it.
11 · Applies the negative illustration positively: caring for the needy is human evidence of living faith, while failure to provide is a barometer of one's spiritual condition
But from the negative illustration actually comes a positive application. James is pointing us to what the correct response should look like. Here we have human evidence of living faith, that the hungry are fed, that the weak are cared for. And it's also a gut check for us, right? Have any of you been a man or woman of empty encouragement, encountering real need and offering empty words. That's the point. Failure to provide for people in need doesn't just leave brothers in distress. James is showing us it gives a powerful barometer of a person's own spiritual condition. Or, as James would wonder, is their faith alive? Of course, the opposite is also true. What does it say when people do suffer and the rest of the body responds? It prays and it provides. It offers real care. Well, it gives us powerful evidence that when that happens, faith is alive. It's well. The Spirit is active. As we like to say, there's an evidence of grace at work.
12 · Quotes James 2:17 (the thesis statement: 'faith without works is dead') and begins expositing James 2:18-19 (the second negative illustration involving demons)
Of course, James answers that question in verse 17. Here's the implication of everything he's saying. So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. And that's really the thesis of this passage. Faith without works is dead. In other words, it can't save. That's the first point. Here's the second point. That dead faith, that faith without any sort of works, merely believes. Read verses 18-19. But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' To which James responds, '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 they shudder. Here's his point. He raises another objection and responds in a crucial way. I'll show you my faith. I'll show you that my faith is real, not by showing you more faith, but by showing you the works that express themselves out of my faith. That's a key statement for interpreting James. And as we go through this, it's going to be some deep sledding, right? There's going to be some things we really have to think through this morning. And that's good for us. It's good to tackle God's Word sometimes and have to really chew and digest.
13 · Clarifies James's hermeneutical strategy: he does not pit faith against works as two competing paths to salvation
So as we continue going, consider what James is doing here. This is a key statement on interpreting the relationship between faith and works. His opponents are claiming that it's possible to gain salvation one of two ways. You can either do it solely by faith or you can do it by working. It's a false dichotomy. But notice when James gives his rebuttal, he doesn't pit faith against works. That's not what James is doing here. His goal is not a theology that contrasts faith and works as if in themselves they were two separate ways of approaching God. Instead, what James contrasts is a faith that leads to no obedience, a defective faith, with a faith that by its very nature acts and so is legitimate. To show us this, he gives us the second negative illustration. Verse 19: 'Do you believe that God is one? You do well.' He's paraphrasing or alluding to Deuteronomy 6:4. It's that faith famous passage from the Old Testament. It's called the Shema, Hebrew word for 'hear.' This verse was a central and basic statement of orthodoxy in Judaism. If you're a Jew, this verse was something you would recite multiple times a day to remind you of the most basic components of your faith, the fact that God is one. It was a banner statement for a Jew surrounded by polytheistic paganism. Right? So people who worship all sorts of different gods and idols and all sorts of things. A reminder in the midst of that context: you, Israel, you worship one God, the true God. Well, James alludes to that here. He says it's a true statement. You know what? Even the demons agree with that statement. Even the demons say orthodox things about God, and yet it means nothing in their lives.
14 · Contextualizes the Shema illustration for a modern Johnson County audience by transposing it into Christian orthodoxy ('Jesus is Lord')
So let's apply this to ourselves. Most of us aren't reciting the Shema in Hebrew each morning, right? How would James preach this to us? What if this letter wasn't to Jewish Christians but to Johnson County Christians? Well, I think he would be expected to say something like, 'You say Jesus is Lord. He died for sins and rose again. You do well. And even the demons believe that. And they quake in terror.' And isn't that exactly what we see in the Gospels? If you've ever read through the Gospels, and if you have never done that, if you've never opened up the Bible and read those Gospels, they're at the very beginning of the New Testament, and they're accounts, they're portraits of who Jesus is. These amazing stories of what it looks like when God takes on flesh and dwells on earth, lives obediently, and then dies for sin and rises from the grave. That's the Gospels. Well, in those Gospels, if you read them, if you've ever read them, you're familiar with those accounts of Jesus encountering the demonic, right? These evil spirits, and some of these evil spirits literally, when they see Him, when He approaches, they cry out. Literally, they scream in terror. 'You are the Son of God! What do You want to do with us? What have You to do with us? Leave us alone!' The Gospels show us the demons confess that Jesus is Lord, but it brings them terror. James' point is this: what good is the gospel if you merely believe? It's a sobering indictment against the arrogance that thinks, as long as I have the right theology, I'm saved. As long as I have the right doctrines, I can win the right doctrinal arguments, I'm going to heaven.
15 · Applies the demon illustration positively: regenerate believers, unlike demons, delight in God's presence rather than shudder in terror
Again, there's a positive application to appropriate to our lives. He gives a negative example, but the flip side is also true. Godward evidence of living faith, unlike the demons, produces peace with God. If that faith is real, where the demons shudder with terror, Because the demons know the truth of God, but deep down in their dead hearts, they are against the knowledge that they know is true. Remember how James describes believers? But for those who God brought forth by the word of truth, that terror before God is replaced. It's replaced by a joyful desire to enter into His presence. His presence. Two groups, both knowing the truth of the statement that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is Lord, that God is one. And for those who know the truth but merely believe it and are against it, it's horrible. It's frightening. But for those who've been born again, there's excitement. And joy, that they would say with the psalmist in Psalm 84 upon hearing that Jesus is Lord, 'How lovely is your dwelling place, O Yahweh, Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of Yahweh the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy.' to the living God. Here's the point: if that describes you, you should be encouraged. James is giving you implicit assurances that your faith is genuine. So while dead faith merely believes, living faith is never easy-believism.
16 · Contextualizes James pastorally: as the first senior pastor of the Jerusalem church, he ministers to the epicenter of cultural Judaism and confronts the danger of unconverted believers—those with orthodox heads but unregenerate hearts
I think it would be fair to say, actually very fair to say, James knows a little bit about what it's like to be a pastor in the Bible Belt. Remember, James is the first senior pastor of the Jerusalem church, we could say. So you want to talk about the Bible Belt? Well, Jerusalem is like Mount Zion of the Bible Belt, you could say, literally. That's where he ministers. And now he's writing this letter to displaced Jewish believers who've been spread out around Palestine. But these are still people who have grown up with the Bible. And so he's combating this sense that my head is filled with knowledge and I've always culturally grown up as someone who believed in God. But he knows pastorally that many in his congregation, many of those who have been scattered, are in grave danger of being unconverted believers. Like the demons knowing the truth but not having their hearts regenerated. They're religious Christians, right? Culturally Christian. But they don't have any real affections for Christ. He shows us here faith that believes but fails to act, fails to obey, it's an imposter. It's dead faith masquerading as saving faith.
17 · Marks the structural pivot from the two negative illustrations (dead faith) to the two positive illustrations (living faith)
That's our second point. Here's the third. Turning now to the living faith examples.
18 · Quotes James 2:20-24 and acknowledges the interpretive crisis: James appears to contradict Paul's doctrine of justification by faith alone
Living faith, in contrast to what dead faith does, actually obeys. We've been alluding to that already. Look at verses 20-24. 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. So here's where the passage gets trickier. Actually, get some water too. Someone can grab some. Here's where the passage gets tricky. In this third point, we might have been tracking up to here, right? Okay, I get what you're saying, James, about dead faith. I get that there needs to be some reality too. It can't just be mere belief. I totally track what you're saying. But now, when you drop v. 24 on us, now it really seems like you're going too far. Wasn't Abraham justified by works? That people aren't justified by faith alone? Don't you know Paul? Aren't you aware of him? You read that and you start to have some sympathy for Luther, right? Remember what Luther called James? That straw epistle. Now he would come around to recognize it was inspired like all the other books. But there was that temptation as he read it at first glance to think this is contrary to the Gospel that Paul teaches. It's not. James is not assaulting justification by faith alone. So we need to resist the impulse. Resist that urging to pull out the big guns and to call on Paul and call Paul in to do to James what he did to Peter. We need Paul, Galatian version, to come in here and drop some on James Take him to Jerusalem, put him in front of a council, and show him you don't know what you're talking about. Well, hold on. Just resist the apostolic cage match for a moment. Let's let James speak for himself. So put Paul right here on the stool, okay? Paul's listening. And Paul's been nodding along. He'll keep nodding with us. We'll call him back in in a second as a witness.
19 · Introduces the third illustration (Abraham offering Isaac on the altar) by narrating the Abrahamic covenant story from beginning to climax
Again, James gives an illustration, the third one this morning. Now, instead of a negative illustration, though, it's a positive illustration. In verses 21 to 23, instead of examining dead faith, he now points to living faith. And to do that, he points to the paragon of Jewish trust in God. Does he point to Abraham? Father Abraham. James argues that Abraham is justified by works. Namely, justified by what work? By the activity of placing Isaac on the altar. Now that's a reference to Genesis 22. So to understand what James is saying here, we have to go back and kind of set the context. He's writing this to Jewish Christians who were raised on the story of Abraham. It wasn't just the song 'Father Abraham.' And they'd wave their arms around like they memorized, memorized word perfectly this story. It's the story of this man, Abram, who's a moon worshiper. He's a pagan. And the true and living God descends and reveals himself to Abram. Tells Abram, leave your home. And your family and go where I call you to go and believe in me and believe in the promises that I give to you. And I will give you an heir and I will give you a land and I will make your name great. And through your name and this heir that I will give you, I will give you, he says, descendants as numerous as the stars. And through your descendant, through your heir, I will bless all the nations and peoples of the earth. That's Abraham, the man God comes and covenants with. Now fast forward to Genesis 22. So all of that's happened to Abraham on multiple occasions. God has come and made promises to Abraham. And he's been fulfilling those promises to Abraham. Abraham has even cut a covenant. He's been circumcised as the sign of the covenant, right? And then in Genesis 22, and part of the story, you got to remember, if you're not familiar, Abraham and Sarah, his wife, can't have children. And it's not just can't have children. And so they go to the fertility clinic. It's can't have children. And they live in the ancient Near East where there's not really any sort of doctors. And not only can they not have children, but Sarah is like, way beyond, decades beyond, like doubly past the age of being able to bear a child. The double whammy of infertility. But God, faithful to his promise, gives them a son, the son Isaac. And it's that son that we see now in Genesis 22 that James alludes to. When James speaks of faith being tested, there is no doubt that this is the most extreme example. Consider what's happening here in the story of Abraham. What is Abraham's faith placed in? Placed in God and the fact that God has made a promise and that God will be faithful to that promise. And who's Isaac? Isaac is the child of the promise. Abraham's faith is being put to the ultimate test. God didn't just ask Abraham, Abraham, do you trust me? He said, show me the substance of your trust. Prove you have faith in my commitment to the promises by taking your only son, the son that I gave to you to prove my faithfulness, and go 3 days' journey and place him on an altar and sacrifice him to me. Plunge a knife into his body so that he dies. Show me that you really believe I'm faithful to my promises. Get a sense for why the Jews regarded Genesis 22 as the ultimate work of obedience, right? Dads, can you wrap your minds around that?
20 · Provides the exegetical key to James 2:22 by parsing the two critical phrases: 'was active along with' (faith promotes works; they always work together) and 'was completed by' (faith is brought to maturity/proven authentic by obedience)
Apparently, James agrees. Look at verse 22. He says, 'You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works.' Now, the interpretive key to James here is what he means by two phrases: 'was active along with' and 'was completed by.' It's an analogy that's twofold. So the first part of that analogy is that faith promotes works. They're active together. Obedience never operates alone. Just James' way of saying if you've got works happening and there's no faith, it's not really obedience. They always work together. That obedience flows out of faith. The second thing he's saying is that works completes faith. And the meaning of that verb is crucial. The idea being communicated is that faith is completed or perfected. James is arguing faith is brought to maturity, or better, it's proven authentic by obedience. So when James says that Abraham was justified by works, he's saying that obedience proved his faith wasn't dead. The obedience legitimized his faith. Remember the point we're in. Living faith obeys. So, what does James mean by faith and works? Hang with me here. I realize this is deep water. Well, as we've seen, when faith is used negatively, he means dead faith. So, when we see him seeming to denigrate faith in the passage, we have to keep in mind He's not ragging on real faith. He is lambasting useless, lifeless faith. And when he speaks of works, he doesn't mean works in the same sense as Paul often does. He's not talking about works of the law. He's not talking about legalism. He's not talking about something that's done to earn salvation. For James, the concept of works communicates those actions or deeds of obedience.
21 · Anticipates the objection that James 2:24 directly contradicts Romans 3:28
So when James argues, that Abraham is willing to offer up his son, James is saying, in essence, what happened in Genesis 22 is that Abraham's faith worked. His faith obeyed. Or as the sermon series says, his faith was in gear. Now if you're looking at the text, your question that should still be lingering is, Yeah, okay. But what about verse 24? 'You see then,' after I've made these arguments, 'that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.' Isn't that Paul's very argument? I mean, what does Paul say in Romans 3:28? 'For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from or alone from works of the law.' How can James and Paul not be contradicting each other? Well, first of all, they're not. It's both in God's Word. It's both fully inspired. God's not schizophrenic. James and Paul knew each other. They knew each other's theology. When Paul writes his letters, he's aware of this letter by James. He's not trying to combat it or counteract it. He sees— if Paul is sitting here and James is reading his letter aloud for the first time, Paul will be nodding right along. Amen, James. Preach it, brother! That's what Paul would be saying. I think. I don't know if he'd say, 'Preach it, brother.'
22 · Begins resolving the tension by examining what James means by 'justified
So what's going on? One says works justify and not by faith alone. The other seems to say the exact opposite. Faith justifies and this is apart from works. Well, we've seen part of the tension is understanding what they mean by works, right? Works of the law. Legalism. Versus works of obedience, right? Now let's examine what James means by justified. So he alludes to Genesis 22. We've already seen that. The place where Abraham is commanded to take Isaac and put him on the altar. After that, Genesis 22, in declaring that Abraham was justified by works, James quotes Genesis 15:6 and he says this: the Scripture (Genesis 15:6) was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. Now, you see what James did there? He reversed the chronology of the events, right? He tells us about Genesis 22 first, and then he references Genesis 15. He flips the order and he does that Intentionally. That's not a mistake on his part. He knows the order of how the story goes. Here's what he's doing. He's referred to Abraham's greatest work of obedience, the work that proved Abraham's faith, so that now he can refer back to Genesis 15:6, the place where that faith first began. What does James recall for us? He says, what about that faith? That faith was counted to him, to Abraham, as righteousness. You know what that sounds like? That sounds like Paul. That sounds like Paul's definition of justification. What does it mean to be justified as Paul uses the word? It means that you're counted righteous. You're declared righteous in Christ. That's what Genesis 15:6 is alluding to. That's what James is alluding to. Without using the word.
23 · Explains Paul's use of 'justified' as a forensic legal category—God the Judge declares the guilty righteous, and His declaration creates reality (just as 'Let there be light' created light)
But James isn't talking out of both sides of his mouth. He's not just throwing different ideas about justification around. He's using it very carefully. Follow along and see what he's saying. In Genesis 15:6, Abraham's salvation, his justification because he believes in the God of the promise, is secured for all eternity. That's what it means when it says God counted his faith as righteousness. God has no doubt. Those that God brings to faith, the ones that He brings out by the word of His truth as James says earlier, the ones that He declares righteous, they are really, truly, eternally saved. This is why he can say that Abraham is reckoned righteous. It can't be undone. You get the concept of what happens there. Words are key, right? Is this football or football? Well, for Paul, justified is a forensic legal category. That's a big phrase, right? Forensic legal category means that for Paul, justification is a declaration from God the judge. It's God the judge looking at a guilty person and declaring justification, declaring you're forgiven, and not just forgiven, you're righteous. What does the Bible tell us about God's words? What happens when God speaks? When God speaks, his words create reality. When God speaks, let there be light, light comes into being. There's not even a category for darkness before that because there just was no light and darkness. There's just nothing. And God says, let there be light, and it happens. And the same thing is happening in justification when God declares the sinner justified, when he declares Abraham, when he counts him righteous. He's looking at Abraham, who used to worship the moon, used to worship pagan gods. Abraham, who is going to do some dumb things with his wife, pretend like it's not his wife when he goes to Egypt because he's afraid of Pharaoh and doesn't trust God enough. He's going to tell that sinner, you are forgiven, you are righteous. So it's a legal declaration that creates reality, even though Abraham is still a sinner. God has now declared him righteous, created him righteous, counted him righteous.
24 · Explains James's use of 'justified' as vindication or validation—proof of authenticity
Well, for James, he uses that word in a different sense. The football version. Justification means to be vindicated, to be validated, right? An example that came to me while I was preparing. We talk about justifiable homicide, right? That's the word justification, justifiable homicide. What's a justifiable homicide? Well, if there's war, there are homicides happening, it's justifiable, it's happening in the context of war. Capital punishment would be a justifiable homicide. There are reasons that vindicate the taking of someone's life. The Old Testament is filled with examples of justifiable homicides, where God's law dictates because they've done this, they must lose their life. It's justified, it's vindicated. Here are two passages that help us to see this. Both of these passages use the same verb that we see translated justified. 1 Timothy 3:16, talking about Jesus. Great indeed, Paul says— this is Paul— Using justified like James uses it. We confess is the mystery of godliness. He, Jesus, was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit. Same verb, same verbal group. What's he saying? That Jesus who dies is vindicated by the Spirit when he's raised from the grave. The Spirit vindicates everything Jesus said about himself. It's true. It's proven. He was authentic. Isaiah 53:11, that famous passage in Isaiah 53, talking about Jesus. This is a great one. It uses the same word, the same verb that gets translated justify. So in the Greek Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the same word that gets translated justification in the New Testament is used here to translate a Hebrew word. This is what they say: Out of the anguish of His soul, This is the Messiah who is Jesus. He shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant. So get the context. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant Jesus, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. You hear what's happening there? The first instance of righteous means vindication. The second instance means justified, like Paul tends to use. This one, Jesus, the righteous one, the vindicated one, the one whose life has shown itself to be an authentic display of obedience and the righteousness of God. That servant, by his life of vindicated righteousness, will make many to be accounted justified. Declared by the judge righteous. You see what's happening there?
25 · Brings the exegetical argument to its climax by showing how James's vocabulary consistently points to vindication: 'show' (prove/demonstrate), 'completed' (perfected/matured), and 'fulfilled' (Genesis 15:6 finds its vindication in Genesis 22)
Okay, so where do we see that in this text? 2:18, I will show you my faith by my works. Show literally means I will prove or demonstrate. In 2:22, faith was completed by his works. Remember, it means to be perfected or brought to maturity. And then finally, the capstone. It's how James quotes Genesis 15:6. The Scripture was what? It was fulfilled. So how was this Scripture fulfilled? So Genesis 15:6, Abraham first believes that the God of the promise will be faithful to the promise. And he's counted righteous. He's justified in the Pauline sense. That's now fulfilled, James says, in Genesis 22. James argues in that what God declared concerning Abraham, Abraham has now vindicated. He's now authenticated. He's now shown to be real. The faith Abraham had in Genesis 15, now in Genesis 22 we see through the test to end all tests, that the faith was perfected. It wasn't dead. It was living. It was obedient. It worked. It was faith in gear.
26 · Articulates the theological synthesis: our works vindicate our faith to the watching world, but they do not establish our standing before God
So, in this sense, our faith, the fact that we've been regenerated by God, James is saying, will be vindicated, will be authenticated through our works. But this does not mean that our standing before God is established by our works. It doesn't mean that we're saved by what we do. What James is laying out is how the church knows that faith is real. It's not as though God counts Abraham righteous in Genesis 15 and says, I count you righteous. And then is up in heaven just wringing his hands like, oh, I hope he obeys Genesis 22. This is going to look really awkward if I counted him righteous and then he kills Isaac. That's not what's going on. When Abraham believes, it's because God's grace is given to his heart, right? The word of truth, God's word of promise brings life to Abraham. He believes and God counts him righteous. God doesn't have a moment of doubt that when the Genesis 2 episode happens, Abraham will prove faithful. Now Abraham is still active in that, and he is still responsible for everything that's happening. What James is saying is that when Genesis 22 happens, we see Abraham who pretends his wife is his sister and almost lets her go sleep with Pharaoh, does the same thing on another occasion with another king. That guy who's really kind of been wishy-washy on a couple points, authenticates and vindicates his faith in Genesis 22. It's human proof. What is validated is what James calls works and what Paul calls fruit.
27 · Quotes Calvin's Institutes at length to provide authoritative theological grounding for the synthesis
Now, this is just good for us. I'm going to give us a quote, and it's a meaty quote. It's a big quote, but it's a hard text. And so in a hard text, we should have a meaty quote that should make us think, right? So here you go. The Institutes of John Calvin. Although we may distinguish them, justification and sanctification, being declared righteous, justification, having that faith vindicated, sanctification, Christ contains both of them inseparably in himself. Do you wish then to attain righteousness in Christ? Sanctification? You must first possess Christ, but you cannot possess Christ without being made partaker in His sanctification, because He cannot be divided into pieces. 1 Corinthians 1:13. Since therefore it is solely by expending Himself that the Lord gives us these benefits to enjoy, He bestows both of them at the same time, the one never without the other. This is James talking. There's no such thing as faith that doesn't work. Thus it is clear how true it is that we are justified not without works, yet not through works. Catch that? If we're justified, the faith always obeys. There's always working. It's always doing stuff. Yet the works aren't the reason we're justified, since in our sharing in Christ— this is good— which justifies us. Sanctification is just as much included as righteousness.
28 · Unpacks Calvin's doctrine of union with Christ and applies it pastorally
Calvin's point is that you can't receive any of Christ's gifts without receiving Christ himself. He is talking about the mystery of a believer's union with Christ. Do you grasp that? That those that God regenerates through the power of his Spirit, those who believe and have entrusted themselves to the gospel, You, Christian, authentic believer, are united with Christ. And if you are united with Christ, you are justified. And because you are united and because you are justified, the very power of God that called your heart into life is now at work to sanctify you, to assist you and empower you in your own effort to grow in sanctification. To vindicate your faith. Living faith doesn't obey to get right with God. It obeys because in Christ it has been made right with God. Living faith doesn't obey to compel or ensure God's love. It obeys because it has already been loved by the Father through Christ. Living faith doesn't obey from the resources and strength of its own heart. This isn't a pull yourself up by your bootstraps sort of obedience. It obeys in the resources and strength of sovereign grace that flow to the believer because they are united with the God-man, Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of God.
29 · Marks the transition to the fourth and final illustration (Rahab)
Final point, briefly: living faith sacrifices.
30 · Introduces the fourth illustration (Rahab hiding the spies) and emphasizes the irony: Rahab the prostitute, a lawbreaker, justified by works
Final illustration, final positive example. Read verses 25 to 26. 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? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. Now we're not gonna say everything that could be said about this, but just that one own phrase. Do you realize how ironic and loaded it is? In the same way, was not Rahab the prostitute, the breaker of God's holy law, the one who didn't do the works of the law, wasn't she justified by works? You get how loaded that sentence is? Isn't Rahab the girl you don't want your son to bring home for dinner? Isn't she justified by what she did? Remember Rahab? Old Testament story. After Abraham, Abraham's descendants Israel are finally in the Promised Land with Joshua. Now they got to conquer these people who've been living in their land. They go to Jericho, and Jericho has this massive wall around the city, right? And they're mocking the Israelites from the walls. I'm not going to go into all the details. Before that happens, they have to scout out Jericho. They have to figure out what its weaknesses are. And they send in spies. And Rahab hides the spies. This prostitute of a foreign country who has been worshiping the wrong gods shows evidence of living faith. Amazing stuff. She risks her life. From her perspective, Jericho is in the better position. You want to be Jericho if you're thinking, I'm a betting person, I want to bet who's going to win this battle. You're thinking Jericho is going to mop the floor with these ragtag Israelites. And she hides them. And she puts her faith in the God of these foreigners. She risks her life for a God she barely knows.
31 · Applies the Rahab illustration: authentic faith is willing to lay down its life for others
Here's the application. James shows us another human evidence of living faith. When Rahab protects the spies, she shows us that authentic faith is a faith willing to lay down its life for another. That's why James is so concerned to call believers to care for others. James challenges us, 'If your faith is real, you will consider the weak, you will consider the needy.' Justifying faith reaches out in costly compassion to those in danger. It expresses and proves itself in works of love.
32 · Synthesizes Abraham and Rahab as types of Christ
Here, as we conclude this morning, you can think of the example of both Abraham and Rahab, the evidence they give us of living faith. Think of what they had faith in. For Rahab, it's bare knowledge, vague notion of this God. Of this invading nation and that he is true and that her God of her stronger country is false. For Abraham, it's faith in a God who promises that this God who makes promises, and these are crazy, outlandish, insane promises, will be true to them. And they both give us awesome examples of faith in gear, right? Abraham willing to sacrifice the son of promise. Rahab willing to hide the spies of an invading army at cost to her own life. Now, what should inspire us and challenge us and by the Spirit stir up in us acts of faith? Is that the substance of our faith is so much clearer and so much deeper. What is a foreshadowing for Abraham and Rahab has been revealed to us. The God has sacrificed his own son, the true son of the promise, the one that Isaac just foreshadows, so that we could have life. That Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith. He's the example par excellence of living faith, of faith in the Father that obeys even to the point of agonizing death. Jesus knows what Abraham doesn't. Maybe Abraham goes into thinking, I've got to kill Isaac. Oh Lord, please spare him in the last moment. Jesus knows. He prays in the garden, his human side, 'Take this cup from me,' and he knows. He gets his answer: 'No, this is the way it happens.' He goes to the altar of the cross knowing there will be death. A faith so authentic doesn't see equality equality with God, something to be grasped. In the ultimate display of love, it sacrifices. It gives, it dies for the care of poor, naked, helpless sinners.
33 · Applies the Christological climax to the believer's life: authentic faith is compelled by the love of Christ at the cross and expresses itself in sacrificial love for God and neighbor
True faith doesn't just consent to the gospel. Living faith can't merely believe the truth. It is compelled and overwhelmed by the love of God in the cross. That authentic faith lives out the gospel. It believes in Christ to the point that it lays down its life, that it obeys no matter what the cost, no matter what the sacrifice. It's what Paul declares in Galatians 5:6, faith working through love. Faith compelled first by the love of Christ, but then joyfully expresses itself in love of God and man.
34 · Concludes with a Sinclair Ferguson quotation warning against introspective spirituality
I love the description Sinclair Ferguson gives. Sinclair Ferguson is one of my favorite preachers, and this quote is how we'll conclude, describing living faith. The first thing to remember, of course, is that we must never separate the benefits regeneration, justification, sanctification, everything we've been talking about this morning, from the benefactor, Jesus Christ. The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality— and that could be a danger you could take from this morning, right? You get kind of introspectively obsessed with working. Somebody says the Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being most spiritual spiritual, but from the New Testament's point of view, those who have almost forgotten about their own spirituality because their focus is so exclusively on their union with Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished— what a description— are those who are growing and exhibiting fruitfulness. Historically speaking, whenever the piety of a particular group is focused on our spirituality, that piety will eventually exhaust itself on its own resources. Only when our piety forgets about ourself and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety, nourished by the ongoing resources of the Spirit, bring to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ. That is a Christ-centered vision of piety. Provision for faith vindicating itself through obedience. Our union with Christ ensures that we are no longer listening to the judge give stipulations from Mount Sinai, but through the voice of the Spirit, we hear the Father's tender instructions from Mount Zion, and we receive it with a gracious heart, have been renewed and empowered, and eyes that see, that see Jesus broken, dead, raised, and reigning. Would you bow your heads?