Sermon Tone Analysis

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A Faith that Works (James 2:14-26)

A diamond!

The word diamond implies value, durability, and brilliance.

A diamond began by God's creative initiative in the hidden places under the earth's surface.

In a mystery that human effort cannot duplicate, heat and pressure transformed carbon into a diamond.

In 1955, General Electric synthesized a poor, industrial-grade diamond.

That took 1,500,000 pounds of pressure per square inch at a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Similarly, at God's intiative, He makes salvation available by faith.

What He has provided is beyond human effort.

He worked that salvation in the heat and pressure of Calvary.

People cannot do that.

Salvation is God's greatest creation.

On the other hand, no one knows a diamond's genuineness until an expert examines it for the "four C's" that determine the value of every stone: carat, cut, clarity, and color.

Paul and James wrote about saving faith and authenticating works.

Paul's interest fastened on the beginning of faith.

Just as a diamond originates in the hidden mystery of God's initiative, faith begins in God's saving act.

However, James focused on the continuing evidence of faith.

Just as a jeweler examines a stone for evidence, James examined professed faith for marks of reality.

Like a miner who discovered a diamond and wondered at its origin, Paul wrote of faith's origin in God's grace.

Like a jeweler appraising a stone, James looked at the works which vindicate faith.

!! The Critical Concern (2:14)

Every sincere seeker confronts a crucial concern: What is the nature of faith that ultimately saves at God's final judgment?

In 2:14, James held a written dialogue with himself, his readers, and a straw man.

"What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works?

Can his faith save him?"

(2:14).

James's interrupter claimed to have genuine faith.

By this, he must have meant the basic attitude toward a doctrine that made one a Christian.

Sometimes, the word /faith/ emphasizes warm personal trust in Christ.

At other times, faith signifies the body of beliefs that a Christian holds.

James's straw man claimed to have habitual, personal trust in the right doctrine of faith.

James made an additional observation and asked two questions.

The observation was: This man had a wordy but workless faith.

Words without deeds marked his "faith."

First, James questioned the value of such a profession: "What does it profit?"

Alternatively, this means: What use is it?

Or, What good is it?

The phrase in Greek implies: It is no use at all.

Wordy but workless faith is worthless.

James's second question looked ahead to the judgment: "Can his faith save him?"

My paraphrase reads: /Can such a faith as this acquit him in the final judgment?/

The question demands a sharp, unyielding, No! In the final appraisal, this diamond will be revealed to be an imitation which is made of worthless glass.

Faith based on no more than words and ritual will be unmasked as counterfeit.

!!! James and Paul: Friends, not Foes

In every generation, an apparent difficulty baffles students of James.

Superficially, James seemed to challenge Paul on the relationship between faith and works in salvation.

This apparent difficulty may be seen by comparing Paul's words, "For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" (Rom.

3:28), with James 2:14, 24: "What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works?

Can his faith save him?"

"You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone."

Sometimes, sincere readers have misunderstood James.

These include Martin Luther.

He called James "an epistle of straw" and without evangelical character.

Luther's Reformation cried: "Salvation by faith alone."

Reacting against the Roman church's works-oriented salvation, Luther misunderstood James.

Others continue to misunderstand him.

Five crucial facts clear up this disturbing misunderstanding: (1) Paul and James believed in salvation by God's grace alone through faith; (2) the remainder of the New Testament agrees with James that good works give evidence of faith's genuineness; (3) Paul insisted that faith always produces good works; (4) Paul and James used the key words works and /faith/ with significant differences in meaning; (5) Paul and James fought different opponents, not one another.

These five facts deserve more detailed study.

1. James believed that God's grace grants salvation just as Paul believed.

James wrote: "Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (1:21).

God graciously implants the saving Word while the believer waits in meek receptivity.

In James's section on repentance (4:1-10), he wrote that God "gives grace to the humble" (4:6).

God's grace comes to those who humble themselves in repentance.

A recognized authority on James, James Hardy Ropes, insisted: "He [James] has no idea of disparaging faith, which he everywhere assumes as present and which he highly values.

His point is that faith and works are inseparable in any properly constituted Christian life, and he argues this clearly and effectively."

2. The remainder of the New Testament agrees with James on the necessity of obedience as proof of real faith.

Jesus warned: "'Not every one who says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven'" (Matt.

7:21).

James and Jesus agreed that verbal profession is not enough.

Real faith works.

Jesus insisted that final judgment would include the same concerns that James repeated: food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and help for the helpless.

These will be evidences on which the reality of professed faith will be judged (Matt.

25:31-46).

John the Baptist stood solidly with Jesus and James.

He insisted that a real relationship with God must "'bear fruits that befit repentance'" (Luke 3:7).

John the Baptist insisted on exactly the same works that James did for proof of real salvation: clothes for the naked, food for the hungry, and no extortion of the helpless.

(See Luke 3:10-14; Jas.

2:15-16; 5:4-6.)

3. Paul agreed with James that faith produces a radical change in one's deeds.

After Paul's strongest statement on salvation by grace through faith alone, he insisted that saving faith does work:

"We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph.

2:10).

In grace, God purposes a new creation so that good works may result.

From eternity, God prepared a road of good deeds on which every believer invariably will walk.

No exception exists.

By God's divine decree, faith works.

4. James and Paul used the same words with different meanings.

This should not surprise anyone.

The English language does this often.

Take the word rest.

If a friend says, /I got some/ rest last night, the statement means a brief period of refreshing sleep.

If a doctor says, /You need more rest/, that indicates a much longer, more serious period of relaxation.

If a funeral director tells a caller, /We will lay him to rest today,/ that indicates a longer period of rest!

The meaning obviously depends on the context.

In the same way, Paul and James used the words works, /faith,/ and /justify/ with some important differences.

For Paul, the word works included especially the ceremonial law of Judaism: ritual washings, dietary laws, feast days, and so on.

By "works of the law" (Rom.

3:20), Paul meant human activities by which a person attempts to earn salvation.

On the other hand, when James spoke of works, he meant moral deeds of love which result from living faith.

For Paul, *faith* usually meant warm, personal trust in Jesus.

In James 2:14, *faith* may mean/ intellectual agreement to a creed/, not effective, saving trust in Christ.

The word /justify/ will be discussed in the treatment of 2:24.

5. Finally, Paul and James stood back to back fighting different opponents, not face to face fighting one another.

Paul opposed legalistic believers.

By keeping the law, these people sought to obligate God to save them.