Fruits: Faith vs. Faith
Notes
Transcript
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Faith vs. Faith
Faith vs. Faith
A compelling vision of Christianity
Legalism
De
A Useful Example
An Offensive Example
“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Embodied faith.
What does he mean by faith?
What does he mean by deeds?
Two Examples
Living Faith vs. Dead Faith
Dead faith= ‘shadow’ ‘shade’ ‘impostor’
Heidelberg Catechism:
Correct order of things
When we get the order wrong
Laws argues for three types of faith:
Saving Faith
Dead Faith
Evil Faith
“Faith and deeds cannot be sundered”
Lego my ego:
“ Faith without works (ergon) does not work (arge= a + ergos).” NIV Commentary
Difference between Paul and James
Righteousness:
James here presents a thoroughly Jewish notion of righteousness, that is, righteousness as covenant fidelity- and fidelity is nothing if it is not about conduct.” NIV Commentary
Paul in : “faith working through love.”
Faith without works (ergon) does not work (arge= a + ergos).
faith working through love.
“Summarily put, here is the problem. In Paul says “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” But in we read, “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.”
Paul: We are made right with God by faith apart from legalism.
James: We are made right by God when our faith produces fruit.
Paul is proving that the Lord saves, not the Law.
James is comparing dead faith vs. saving faith.
Paul teaches the Law (deeds of Torah) can’t save
James teaches that dead faith can’t save.
Deeds:
Paul: Torah obedience
James: Christian Love
Paul defines righteousness as the exchange that happens to the soul with conversion. The Christian is clothed with righteousness.
Paul defines righteousness as the exchange that happens to the soul with conversion. The Christian is clothed with righteousness.
James defines righteousness as the requirements of covenant loyalty.
James: The Word saves. “Faith is this monotheistic belief, plus a determination to nurture the word planted within, resulting in acts of Christian love.” NIV
James: The Word saves. “Faith is this monotheistic belief, plus a determination to nurture the word planted within, resulting in acts of Christian love.” NIV
English Standard Version Chapter 1
21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Implanted Word saves! We need to nurture this implanted word which means loving others!
Implanted Word saves! We need to nurture this implanted word which means loving others!
:
Paul: Justification granted to Abraham because of God’s past promises.
James: Focuses on the moment- the action. “A present demonstration of what God has done in Abraham.”
Righteousness:
“What God gives us” vs. “How what God gives us changes our behavior.”
Making righteous decision in the moment!
Giving into temptation
Giving into anger
Giving into partiality
“But amid this flurry of theology it must be remembered that James, like Jesus, calls us to obedience—a radical obedience. To paraphrase Bonhoeffer, when Christ calls you, he calls you to come and die.”
“Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian conception of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins.… Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline.… Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian conception of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins.… Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline.… Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace: “the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble.… Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.”
Abraham: Patriarch
Foreigner
Introduction
Story of my Mom in elevator with cadaver
Question? What good is it if someone claims to have faith without deeds?
Question? What good is it if someone claims to have faith without deeds?
Answer: Good for nothing
Faith without works is a cadaver
Dead Faith
Story of my Mom in elevator with cadaver
Dead Faith
Faith without works is a cadaver
Diatribe:
Separation of Faith and Deeds
Orthodoxy: Right beliefs
Orthopraxis: Right behavior
Orthopathos: Right desires
Evil Faith?
Evil Faith?
“ The biblical truth can be taught this way: If sin is our act of managing our own lives instead of giving God his place of rule, then we cannot legitimately ask Christ to save us from sin and then go on managing our own lives; it is self-contradictory.” George Stulac
The biblical truth can be taught this way: If sin is our act of managing our own lives instead of giving God his place of rule, then we cannot legitimately ask Christ to save us from sin and then go on managing our own lives; it is self-contradictory.
Living Faith
What Deeds?
“It was a call for actions that may be painful and sacrificial (like Abraham’s), or risky and frightening (like Rahab’s), or uncomfortable and inconvenient (like getting to know poor and homeless people face to face by spending nights helping at a homeless shelter, or by building friendship with a poor family for long-term help out of a lifestyle of poverty).” George Stulac
Painful and Sacrificial Deeds
Risky and Frightening Deeds
Uncomfortable and Inconvenient Deeds
What is our greatest need?
Stories to consider
India pictures
Nicaragua pictures
“costly grace” as “the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble.… Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.”