Is it Faith or is it Works?

James 2:14-26
Andrew Hendrick

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As we continue in the study of James, we reach the point to where James is clearly beginning to outline some major problems he sees in the hearts of the early believers who are scattered throughout. In James 2:14-26, James outlines what he has really been building up to in regards to faith. There are two kinds of faith. There is saving faith that is a gift from the Lord Himself as we see in Ephesians 2:8-10. This kind of faith should always be completed or evidenced by the works we carry out that He has set before us to complete. The other kind of faith is one either without works completely or works alone, both of which are worldly faith.

The world will confuse and deceive us into believing the lie that we are enough, we must have faith in ourselves or others, we can place our faith in better circumstances, faith in the products of the world will bring happiness, and that we really don’t have a need for Jesus. False faith like this will also tell us that by our works, by all the checklists we do, that we can somehow earn and swindle our way into Heaven by providing a large enough deposit into God’s account.

The only one who has deposited any righteousness is Jesus. There has never been anyone who had merit to walk into Heaven. There has never been anyone to earn seeing Jesus face to face. The grace through faith given by The Lord Himself is a gift we couldn’t earn. But we see the pitfall in this passage of either claiming we have faith with no works to back it up or thinking that our works are all we need to inherit the Kingdom of God. The modern hymn we sang last week entitled “All Sufficient Merit” by Shane and Shane says, “All sufficient merit shining like the sun, a fortune I inherent, by no work I have done“.

Our merit is because of the death and resurrection of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus. Our merit must then be clearly evidenced through our obedience to Jesus to carry out the works He has set out for us before the foundations of the world were spoken into existence. James is clearly calling us to realize that the answer to our first question is a nuanced “both.”

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The deeds that come forth from your own

and

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are indeed the evidences of the true content and nature of your heart.
(Matt. 12:33-34, Heb 4:12-13)

We are only truly

when we are lured and enticed by our own

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.(James 1:14-15)

Jesus did not come to

you but to save you from the condemning power of sin, which is

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.
(John 3:17)

Depend on the power of the

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to put to death the deeds of the

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and awaken and stir up the deeds that build His kingdom and love Him through our obedience.
(Rom. 8:13-17)

Jesus is

. But yet we still

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.
(Rom. 7:15-25)

We often try to

our own sin by loudly declaring the sins of others, or even worse, we hide our own sin behind the

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we do.
(Matt. 7:1-5, Prov. 28:9-14, Luke 8:16-18, Num. 32:23)

Every one of us is

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of every sinful action that has ever been, is, or is to come. If we are a transgressor of one sin, we are transgressors of all sins.
(Rom. 3:22-26)

Faith evidenced by

is a sign of holy stewardship of the

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we have been given.
(Rom. 12:1-8, 2 Tim. 1)

does not equal Godliness.
(Luke 10:38-42)

The

of God will enable faithful works toward Him.
(Gen. 15:1-6, Gen. 22:1-14)

We have been set apart for His good works that God prepared before hand that we might

in them.
(Eph. 2:10)

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COMMUNITY GROUP QUESTIONS:

1. Have your sins been cast as far as the east is from the west?(Ps. 103)
2. What are the things you need to do or abstain from that would be evidences of your faith and love for Jesus?(1 Thess. 5, Rom. 12
3. What is your next step in growing in how you show your faith in Jesus?(James 2:14-26)
4. How does Ephesians 2:1-10 explain where saving faith comes from?
5. How do Paul and James compliment each other rather than disagree?(Rom. 3:28 VS James 2:14-26)
6. How are you stewarding the gift of faith? Explain. (Hint-this is not an explanation of some merit based holiness based on what you are doing. You are holy because God made you holy, not you. In other words, do your works make evident your God given faith and if so, what are they?)(2 Tim. 1)