James 2:14-26
Faith Without Works Is Dead (cf. Gen. 22; Josh. 2)
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Our faith is proven by its resultant good works prepared for us by the Lord to do (Ephesians 2:10) from before we were born. We are certainly saved by grace and not our good deeds to earn God’s grace to bestow salvation on us, yet we cannot pretend that salvation does not yield fruit of good works we are to cultivate and labor to produce in His wisdom and ability (Philippians 2:12-13) in response. We are saved to willingly obey all the things Jesus taught us as the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) makes clear. This means if we say we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then our lives will be exhibiting some amount of evidence to back up the claim. The example here of doing good to meet the needs of the poor is made to expose those who claim Christ but only give lip service to loving God first and others as themselves (Luke 10:27) second. There is no faith without a life changed to give freely to others as Christ has freely given (Matthew 10:8) all to us, including His own life. This is why James spoke on God’s behalf by telling us that faith by itself is dead if there are no resulting works of love (1 John 3:10, 14, 4:8, 20) as the fruit and proof of our conversion. Faith is the root of our salvation that yields fruit in its season (John 12:24-26) as we are planted into Jesus Christ and grow in knowing and in conformity to Him. The rebuke some make against this by stating that they can demonstrate their faith without accompanying works is easily answered from God’s word as by showing that faith is seen in the works as the proof of its existence in us. We show we have faith by our desire to live according to the word written in our hearts (Exodus 24:12, Romans 2:15, 2 Corinthians 3:3) and not on stone cold tablets of religious checklists which only can move us to go through the motions of compliance and not the true heartfelt desire to please God. Consider the faith statement that we believe there is only one God, understanding that the fallen disobedient angels also can state this truth by rote yet remain unchanged in heart. If we know this truth and are changed by it according to a living faith, then we do not tremble at the prospect of eternal punishment (1 John 4:17-18) but we know the promise in trusting God by grace to have escaped this punishment and gladly serve Him as a result (Ephesians 1:4, 2:8-9, 10) with the good works (2 Timothy 2:19, 21) prepared for us from before time (2 Timothy 1:8-9) and our birth upon the earth. Faith is therefore demonstrated as proof in resulting actions as the example of Abraham given who trusted that God was able to raise his son back to life (Hebrews 11:17-19) after being commanded to offer him as a sacrifice. That trust in God’s word was unconditional and unwavering, resulting in moving to action according to God’s word, just as we trust His Son sacrificed for us on the tree of our curse of sin earned by disobedience which we inherited from Adam. Abraham’s faith was worked out in action as proof of his conviction of and by God to perfect his faith and be accounted as righteousness, just as we are accounted righteousness of our work of faith in trusting the gospel message of God’s work of sacrifice for us that accounts us righteous even though our works fall short of perfection (Romans 3:23, 6:23). It is by faith in Jesus Christ and His work that we act by receiving (John 1:12) Him for His work that we are able to work out our salvation’s sanctification by our works of this faith in action. Without these works we have a dead faith; with resulting works, we have a living and proven faith. This is faith that works, not faith by works.
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