Faith and Justification – Patriarch and Prostitute

 James 2:20-26

Biblical evangelism (gospelizing) doesn’t end with conversion. The Christian life doesn’t begin and end with conversion; it includes sanctification (holy living) also. Gospel is just as vital for one as the other. Can no more sanctify ourselves than convert ourselves; not that we’re uninvolved in our growth in holiness, we are. Two vital ingredients for conversion and holy living – Holy Spirit and Word of God. Work of Holy Spirit to prepare ground of heart, mind, will to receive good seed of Gospel is essential for germination and growth. Without Holy Spirit, it’s hydro-seeding on ledge at best. At same time, Holy Spirit relies on seed of God’s Word – “faith comes by hearing, hearing by word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Work of Spirit and Word do not end with conversion; continue throughout all of Christian life – Spirit empowering and Word directing holy living.

Having said all that, the convert is by no means a passive participant, simply going along for the ride with nothing to show for Spirit’s work. James makes abundantly clear what his position on the issue is, holding up one likely, one unlikely example of the point he’s trying to make.

A. uselessness of dead faith v.20

challenge to his questioner: OK, airhead, you get it yet or still need evidence?

“O vain man” is literally, “O empty man,” i.e. empty-headed, empty-handed, and empty-hearted. Empty-headed, in being so deluded as to suppose that a dead faith can save; empty-handed, in being devoid of true spiritual riches; empty-hearted, in having no real love either for God or man.” Alfred Plummer

goes beyond mere intellectual assent or knowledge

more important, gets to heart of individual – are you willing to know, are you teachable

important that heart be engaged; otherwise, works are not of faith; no better than Pharisees

James characterizes work-less faith as: barren, unproductive, useless

not only without life and signs thereof

accomplishes nothing, serves no purpose

B. foundational example of Abraham v.21-24

before dealing with Abraham, must define justification

we are declared to be righteous; an act not process; is important who is declaring: God or others

by God, when God credits the righteousness of Christ to our account through instrumental cause, faith. (Paul, Rom. 4:5; 8:33; 3:28; 5:1)

by works, when they evidence the presence of living faith and righteousness. (James, James 2:24, 25)

declaration by God essential to salvation; declaration by works evidence of salvation; Paul maintains salvation and justification come to us through faith, James that saving and justifying faith displays its living character through works.

Paul addressing nature of justification (by faith, gift of God), James the nature of saving faith (living, accompanied by works).

an incomplete Gospel that stops short of where James takes it – radical change of life in all facets that demonstrates progressive holiness for the duration

offered his son (21)

was promised son, innumerable offspring

response: belief in promise; in God’s eyes, having faith basically equivalent to having righteousness

now the test: sacrifice the promise. Is it real faith? living faith? Will God’s conclusion re: Abraham’s righteousness be validated? Abraham had been credited with righteousness; would he demonstrate that he was truly righteous?

faith cooperated with works (22a)

ongoing action of faith the motivating force; no faith to drive, no works to result

was Abraham’s living faith that produced good work of obedience to God’s command

Faith “is a driving force, a dynamics, that will enable a believer to pass the severest tests, such as bringing the costliest sacrifice without “feeling sacrificial,” against every natural instinct, with unwavering resolve, in total readiness, without succumbing to all too human rationalizations and in immediate obedience.” Krabbendam

works perfected faith (22b)

works are expression, manifestation of living faith

faith arrives at its goal in deeds; branch proves to be genuine by fruit. Faith not shown by works never left starting gate.

believer’s works, then, the substance of sanctification but never the ground of justification

fulfilled declaration of Gen. 15:6 (23)

demonstrates authenticity of righteousness credited to Abraham by God

works of Abraham re: sacrifice of Isaac are natural outworking / consequence / result of belief in God’s promise

as if in Ch. 22, God said, Ok you say you have faith; demonstrate it by passing this test. Develop it by enduring this test.

James’ conclusion at this point: given two kinds of faith, the one proven to be genuine at the end is the one that has been authenticated as active. (24)

C. complementary/crowning example of Rahab v.25

“Likewise” – another example of equal weight; huh?? Several good reasons why James chose this approach.

a “perennial” friend of God is complemented with a “recent” friend of the world

Abraham at top of heap, Rahab at the bottom

Abraham a unique, blessed individual, out of reach for average Christian to emulate

OK, then, how ’bout Rahab: certainly not too hard to surpass her station

every Christian is somewhere on spectrum defined by Abraham and Rahab – no excuses!

a model Israelite with a shady Gentile

Abraham had all benefits of covenant relationship, Rahab had none

Abraham moved in God-fearing circle, Rahab saturated in paganism

Abraham’s advantages no “help” to living faith, Rahab’s lacks no hindrance; both had what they did by virtue of God’s direct involvement

a respectable man with a disreputable woman

clearly refutes charge that Christianity is sexist: gender and social status not an issue with respect to justifying faith

a veteran believer with a young start-up

might be expected that Abraham would demonstrate strong active faith, he’d been “walking with the Lord a long time”

Rahab as young believer took no second seat to Abraham when depth of faith is measured by risk taken

someone who in actual practice surrenders his son’s life with someone who in manifest principle surrenders her own

Abraham had personally experienced great wonders / blessings performed by God, was equipped to sacrifice his son

Rahab had seen great wonders that potentially put her and family at great risk; put herself actually at risk, putting own life on the line

in “losing her own life” for sake of God’s people, actually gained it

Rahab exercised faith without having received any promise from God

overwhelmed by glory and majesty of God, did only thing she could – trusted in his mercy

James “designedly put together two persons so different in their character, in order more clearly to show that no one, whatever may have been his or her condition, nation, class or society, has ever been accounted righteous without good works” Calvin

clearly shows that no one in same categories is out of reach of God and his saving grace, granting living saving faith

D. conclusion v.26

Faith without deeds / works is a body without breath. Breathing is outward evidence of living person, so works outward evidence of living faith

Dead faith cannot unite individual to living Savior.

Faith without works just as useless as works without faith – neither combination saves.

“Faith without works is dead, and works without faith are dead also. For if we have sound doctrine but fail in living, the doctrine is of no use to us. Likewise if we take pains with life but are careless about doctrine that will not be any good to us either. It is therefore necessary to shore up the spiritual edifice in both directions.” St. John Chrysostom

[Naked profession] is useless, as to all the purposes of faith; it cannot unite you to Christ, that you may possess yourselves of his righteousness, or give you a feeling of his Spirit. In short, it bringeth no glory to God, yieldeth no comfort to him that hath it, and no benefit to others. Thomas Manton

Let words of epileptic boy’s father be our confession and prayer: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24 May God enliven and strengthen the faith he has given us. May each of us depend on him daily for resources we need to live pleasing and obedient lives of service.

Separation, Sorrow and Salvation

Isaiah 59:1-21

Things started out well: perfect place, perfect creatures and people, perfect relationships all around. Perfect communion between man and God, man and woman, man and the rest of creation. No hostility in act or thought, no deception, nothing hidden from sight, no conflict; no sense that something good and necessary was missing from human experience. Then all changed: disobedience, shame, guilt, accusation, blame. Closeness, intimacy, communion lost in a moment of time, never to be fully regained during life. Not content to give sole credit to Eve for what he had lost, Adam pointed finger at God, too. “The woman you gave me”.

What was it that moved Adam to such an outrageous response to God’s questions? Most important thing in Adam’s experience had been wrenched away, pulled out by roots, leaving wounds, scars, empty hole in place God had designed to be center of life. Except that’s not entirely accurate – wasn’t God who uprooted himself from intimacy with Adam and Eve; they tore themselves away from God. Then tried to fill in hole with themselves. Problem was, didn’t work. Adam was left with keen awareness of utter loss, immediately angry and frustrated with own inability to solve problem.

Since he couldn’t fix it, maybe it wasn’t his fault. Maybe he didn’t move away from God; perhaps was God that moved. Must be it: lack of response from God must be God’s fault. Too busy, too much to look at, too many things to listen to, too far away to reach, that’s why Adam couldn’t hear God or see God or sense his caring presence. That model with minor variations what generations of Adam’s descendants have followed. It’s what encourages people to ask “Where was God on 9-11?”; “If There’s a God, Why…?”; “If God is Good, How Come…?”; “How Could God Allow the Great Tsunami?”

Isaiah called his contemporaries on their wrong way of thinking; bluntly set them straight on true nature of the problem. Made clear what needed to change, one source of their only hope for change.

A. separation v.1-8

you’ve blamed it on God

he’s powerless (1a)

he’s inattentive (1b)

dumb things to think; it is God after all, if that were true, wouldn’t be God.

Were right to suspect a problem, blaming it on wrong person

real separation

it’s real, black and white, night and day kind of separation (Gen. 1:14, 18) (2a)

without change, outside power, impossible to bring the two together

God has hidden himself, not allowing himself to be found, refusing to hear pleas with intent of acting (2b)

people need to hear truth: problem is sin, not sickness

5 times Isaiah calls problem “iniquity”, willful and purposeful planned acts of disobedience against God. (2,3,4,6,7)

sin a whole body experience

hands, fingers, lips, tongue (3)

mind (4)

feet, thoughts (7)

sin leaves trail of wreckage behind

hurtful (3a), malicious (3b), unjust (4), violent (6b), destructive (7c), dishonest (8b) toward others

mankind’s attempts to make it all better fail to deliver (6a)

don’t even make it up to standard of fig leaves – best they can achieve is spider webs

only one way to fix – get to the root, deal with the sin; that’s what corrupts and defaces and frustrates everything else.

Often is a process – doesn’t happen all at once. Begins with

B. sorrow v.9-15a

over consequences (9-11)

I don’t like my life, I want things to change.

takes more than wave of magic wand to bring someone far from God close to him.

often begins with life getting reeeaaalllly painful, hopeless, fearful

recognition that all of own efforts lead to dead ends

everything going wrong; everything touched breaks, ends in disaster (9a)

no light, only darkness (9b)

no sense of direction (10a)

no strength or energy to move on (10b)

complete frustration – harder you try, worse it gets; at the end of rope (11a)

utterly hopeless, but still haven’t identified / acknowledged real issue (11b)

basically good fellow on road to conversion, suddenly contracted typhoid fever. Soon face to face with death: “I found fear in me for the first time, and when I faced leaving this world and entering an unknown realm, pangs took hold of me, such as I had never felt before. Thank God my parents were not there to take that fear from me. Thank God that human sympathy did not blind me to eternity.” Rees Howells, Intercessor

over sin (12-15a)

I don’t like my sin. Now we’re making real, substantial progress. Situation no longer hopeless.

not only being sorry for consequences; it’s godly sorrow that has led to repentance (2 Cor. 7:10); evident in true confession

repentance – change of mind, way of thinking about previous behavior; confession – agreeing with God about sin

not minimizing: transgressions – sins – iniquities (12)

acknowledge

real guilt – “sins testify against us” (12a)

right object – sins are against God, rebellion and revolt (13)

right source – “from the heart” (13d)

real lack – righteousness / godliness is far away (14a)

C. salvation v.15b-21

judgment first (15b-18)

God won’t / can’t overlook sin (15b)

even though sinners are helpless (16a)

cannot provide worthy intercessor for themselves

God graciously provides his own intercessor, later revealed as Lord Jesus (16b)

God makes first move to deliver (16b)

operates on basis of his character: righteous, desiring to deliver, executing justice (17)

deliverance requires battle against sin; Divine Warrior takes field and thoroughly conquers enemies (18)

eventual deliverance from penalty of sin does not relieve of all consequences

truly repentant who turn to Christ in faith will be delivered from penalty of sin

1 John 5:13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

cannot expect deliverance from natural results of sinful behavior – “way of transgressor is hard” (Prov. 13:15, KJV)

poor health, prison, hardship and loss

possessions, relationships, employment

God may graciously choose to restore; can’t count on country song getting played backward

then deliverance (19-21)

results of great work God has done

fear (obedience) of the Lord from east to west (19a)

recognition of the Lord’s glory (worship) (19a)

natural response from one delivered from bondage in sin – love, praise and worship deliverer

security for all those marching under his banner (19b)

doesn’t matter what enemy or what tactics; God delivers those who are his

redemption applied to the repentant (20)

nothing here about self-help / 12-step / power of positive thinking programs

redeemed have responsibility to do all in their power to please God

at same time depending on God for strength and grace to please him

promise of Spirit and Word (21)

new covenant and its promises not limited to Jeremiah and Ezekiel – here in summary form

promises are to all those who turn from their sin, those who are spiritual descendants of Jacob

Spirit and word granted in fullness to Lord Jesus first – upon you, in your mouth

participation in covenant blessings only available through Lord Jesus

empowering, sanctifying of Holy Spirit

fullness of wisdom and knowledge – in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” Col. 2:3

covenant promises address more than simple quality of life issues

focus not on circumstances, how God might change them

emphasis on individual – guided by God’s Spirit, instructed by God’s Word

effect of covenant relationship – metamorphosis of individual

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor. 5:17

Does your life need to change? More to the point, do you need to change? Is there one thing or whole bucket full of somethings separating you from God? Follow example given in our text:

change your mind, way of thinking

agree with God about your sin, call it what it is

acknowledge guilt and need for God’s forgiveness

ask God to give you a desire for Him

depend on God to change you and help you do what is right

Here’s what Lord Jesus promises:

Matt. 11:28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

John 6:37 the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.