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One word can make a huge difference. A priest in Phoenix, Arizona, found this out recently. Instead of using “I” in his baptism formula for 8-day-old infants, he used the word “We.” “We (not “I”) baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” He did this for twenty years! Thousands of babies were baptized the wrong way. And the Roman Catholic Church says baptism is the sacrament that removes original sin, infuses God’s grace into that little soul, and makes them part of the church. That’s how you’re saved according to Rome. And now poor Andres Arango is guilty of performing invalid baptisms and all those he baptized will have to be rebaptized. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that if you aren’t baptized using “I” (representing Jesus) instead of “we,” all hopes of heaven are gone.
There’s another word that actually changed the world. We have it five times on our banner as you enter the building. It’s that word “sola” or “alone.” When God opened Martin Luther’s heart to the true gospel back in the 1500s, he began preaching and teaching justification by faith alone, and it turned the world upside down. Rather than faith plus the sacraments of the church, Luther discovered from Romans 1:16-17 that the gospel is justification by faith alone.
How important is this? The most important question you can ever ask is, “How can I, a guilty sinner, be accepted by a holy God?” This question tormented Luther until he discovered in Romans that God receives sinners based on the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, and this gift of righteousness is received by faith alone, not by faith plus works of any kind. Luther said the church stands or falls on this doctrine of justification by faith alone. John Calvin said this doctrine is the hinge on which everything else turns. To this very day we strongly and clearly teach and preach that we are justified or declared righteous by faith alone, not by works of any sort.
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE OR FAITH PLUS WORKS?
Before we get to James 2, we’re going to take a detour over to Paul in Romans. Paul clearly taught justification by faith alone in Romans 3. Verses 24, 26, and 28.
Romans 3:24, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:26, for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:28, For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
Paul makes it even clearer in Romans 4:5.
Romans 4:5, But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
And yet James is going to teach us that we are not justified by faith alone; he boldly declares we are justified by faith plus works.
James 2:17, Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
James 2:24, You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
What is the solution to this apparent contradiction? First and foremost, Paul and James are not contradicting themselves. Both statements are true. We are saved or justified by faith alone and we are not saved by faith alone. Paul meant one thing and James meant another. Paul and James are two gospel warriors standing back to back defending the same truth from different angles and for different reasons. One is talking about acceptance with God and the other is talking about proof of being accepted.
FAITH ALONE
Paul is talking about the basis of our acceptance with God; James is talking about the proof of it. Paul said in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to save those who believe.” First, you need God’s righteousness in order to be accepted by Him. God’s righteousness is a perfect righteousness that you do not have. You are a guilty sinner under God’s condemnation and wrath. No amount of works will make you righteous. To die without God’s righteousness is to die in your sin and under God’s wrath, which means forever in the lake of fire. That’s why this is so important. You want to get this right.
The good news is that God has provided His perfect righteousness for sinners through Jesus Christ. When Christ became your propitiation, God’s wrath for your sin was poured out on His Son so that you don’t have to bear it. But the gospel is more. Christ lived a perfectly righteous life, keeping God’s law perfectly. When you believe in Christ, His righteousness is imputed or given to you as a free gift. Now, even though you are still a sinner, God sees you as perfectly righteous because He sees you in His Son. That’s the gospel. Christ took your sins and you gained His righteousness, freely, as a gift. That’s been called the JOYFUL EXCHANGE. There isn’t a thing you can do to merit that righteousness. Your church or baptism or sacraments or trying to be and do the best you can, or devotion to a religion or trying to make the world a better place, nothing you do earns you that righteousness. You could crawl on your knees from here to Philadelphia to try to earn it, but never can. So how do you get it this righteousness? By faith alone. Paul says exactly the same thing in Ephesians 2.
Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
God’s grace means God gives you what you don’t deserve. Grace is the source of your justification. The ground of your justification is Christ alone and all He accomplished for sinners in His incarnation. But what is the means or the instrument that brings Christ to you as your righteousness and justification? Faith. Faith alone is the means, and never faith plus your sinful efforts.
WHAT IS FAITH?
But what is faith? It is the gift of God. But how do you know if you have true saving faith and not the dead faith that James talks about? Here’s where Paul and James meet. Faith means three things. True saving faith means you have to know something. Faith includes knowledge about Christ. Romans 10:17 says “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.” You have to hear that Christ is God’s Son who came to save His people from their sin. And that God made Christ who was sinless to be sin for you when He bore your sin on that cross. And that Christ is the perfect righteousness that you need. (see 2 Corinthians 5:21)
But faith means more than just knowing these truths. Many people know these facts, but are not saved. Martyn Lloyd Jones in his sermons on Romans 3 said, “A man can give intellectual assent to the teaching of the whole Bible and go straight to hell.” (p. 123) Knowing isn’t enough. Faith also means agreeing with them, believing them to be true. “Yes, I know about Christ and I agree that all of this is true.” Calvin says the gospel must not just flit around in your brain as knowledge, but must sink into your heart as conviction that all this is true.
But there’s a third element to faith, and that is trust. The Puritans called it recumbency, resting your soul on Christ alone. You go from trusting your own works, your own goodness, or even your own knowledge, to confessing that Christ is your Lord and Savior. Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Repentance is included right here, when you make that 180-degree turn around from following your own ways, false beliefs, false religion, sinful ways and you turn to God, trusting in His Son. We are justified or declared righteous by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone based on the Scriptures alone to the glory of God alone.
This is how you are saved, by faith alone. But is there a faith that doesn’t save you? James says yes there is, and Paul would agree. Now we come to James 2.
THERE IS A FAITH THAT DOES NOT SAVE – v. 14
James 2:14, What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
James would not deny that faith is absolutely essential for salvation. Apart from faith in Christ there is no salvation. James would agree with Paul that we are justified by faith alone. But Paul and James would also agree that the kind of faith that saves is a faith that doesn’t remain alone. We are saved by a faith that brings change into the believer’s life. If your faith has not brought a change into your life where you now desire to obey Christ as your Lord, then your faith is useless. James implies, “No, that kind of faith cannot save him.”
Notice verse 14, “if someone says he has faith.” This was the problem of the “sayers” vs. the “doers” in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 7:21, Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
There are tons of people who would say they believe in Jesus, but show no evidence of a changed life or submission to the Lordship of Christ. Liberal Protestants, Roman Catholics, many false teachers, many Americans, and many misled professing Christians say they believe in Jesus, but they live just like unbelievers. A school of thought came out of Dallas Seminary in the l940s that we call easy believism. This thought basically said salvation by grace through faith means all you need to do is say you believe in Christ, with no need of repentance or submission to the Lordship of Christ. Easy believism says you are saved if you say the right words, but does not go on to say you should be committed to live as a follower of Christ; that’s up to you. It is kind of like salvation being only a free ticket out of hell.
Here’s Joe marrying Jill. They are standing before witnesses and in God’s presence vowing their lives to one another, for better or for worse. The preacher declares them “husband and wife.” But immediately after the recessional Joe jumps into a car with his buddies and they take off for Louisiana to live as if Joe was still single. Is he married? It’s a ridiculous illustration, but the point is that a wedding immediately turns into a marriage. Their wedding vows mean their lives changed and they are now committed to each other.
In the same way, we’re saved by faith alone, but never by a faith that remains alone. True faith always bears fruit because true faith is always the fruit of regeneration. God gives you a new heart so that you want to believe in Jesus. Regeneration precedes and enables faith. That why faith is the gift of God. R. C. Sproul explains:
One who has real faith is regenerate and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. The effect of this change is not only necessary and inevitable, but immediate. If no fruit follows, then no faith is present. If no faith is present, then there is no justification.” (Grace Unknown, p. 71)
THE ABSURDITY OF USELESS FAITH – vv. 15-16
James 2:15-16, If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
Now James illustrates a useless, dead faith. Here comes this destitute man or woman in need of food and clothing. Here comes a church member with several thousand bucks in his pocket, half a million in his 401K, munching on a delicious Philly Cheesesteak. Back home his closet is stuffed with brand name slacks, shirts, shoes, socks, coats. He sees this poor brother and says, “Hey, peace brother. I sure hope you can find some clothes to wear, some food to eat. I’ll be praying for you, man.” Then he gets into his Lamborghini and roars away. That’s absurd, but not more so than faith that doesn’t prove itself by its works.
What good is that? It’s useless! In the same way, you can wave your faith card all over the place, but if you have no godly life to back it up, your life is no different than lost people except you go to church occasionally. If all you have are words, your faith is useless. And Paul would readily agree. Some have said, “Whoopee, we’re saved by grace through faith alone.” They are just like that person who said to Paul in Romans 6:1, “Let us sin that grace may abound.” Paul strongly replied, “May it never be. You’re a new creature in Christ. It’s impossible to live in sin.” Sin is still in us, but true believers don’t live in sin.
THE DEADLY NATURE OF A DEAD FAITH- 17
James 2:17, Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
A faith that doesn’t change a person and doesn’t result in a life serving Christ is a dead faith. Wiersbe says a dead faith is “a counterfeit faith and lulls the person into a false confidence of eternal life.” Where there is true faith, there is spiritual life; and where there is spiritual life, there is the kind of faith that saves. A faith without any life has no fruit and is dead and therefore useless. James isn’t saying true believers always obey God. And he isn’t saying that no Christian ever falls into sin. What he is saying is that every true believer has some outward evidence of his heart faith. As John MacArthur said, “There may not be a lot of life, but if there is a little grape on that vine, it is alive!”
SO WHAT?
Let me ask you a question – is your faith dead or alive? Is it just a human thing that doesn’t influence your life, or is your faith something God has given you and it influences every area of your life? Nothing is more important than having a living faith so that when you die you can stand before God, not in your own works, but clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Examine your faith in the light of God’s Word and be sure to end up right there at the foot of the cross with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the ruler of your life. Anything less will not do.