Transcription
So I'm making this video here to explain the faith without works is dead, uh James 2. Because a lot of people unfortunately have a false interpretation of this passage, and many people will say that you need works to be saved in one form or another. And this is not what it's saying. So we're going to dig into this.
So we see that some people will say verses like James 2:17 or James 2:24 mean that we need works to be saved and we're not justified by faith alone. But the Apostle Paul wrote the exact opposite of this, and we know the Bible can't contradict itself. There are numerous passages in the Bible which say believe only. And so we'll see a few of them. The Bible clearly says we're justified by grace through faith alone. Romans 4:5: "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." John 6:47: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."
So we have words coming from the Apostle Paul and Jesus Christ himself that make it abundantly clear that we are saved by having faith in Jesus Christ and not of works. Romans 4:5 and Ephesians 2:8-9. And Jesus says, "Believe." That's it. Like, if there was something else to believing, Jesus would have said it. So we know that we're saved by having faith or believing in Jesus Christ, and works are not a part of it at all.
So before actually digging into the passage, here are some false interpretations of, uh, James 2. Past tense work salvation says you need works to be saved. This is a commonly held view among Catholics. So it's literally making works a requirement in order to be saved. So this is past tense.
The next commonly held view says that you need works to maintain your salvation. So salvation is by faith alone, but if you don't want to lose your salvation, you need works to maintain it. And this is a commonly held view among Armenians, um, who will say, "Yes, you need to do works to stay saved." So again, this is a false view.
So the last view is future tense. This says that works don't save you. You're not saved by works, right? You don't maintain your salvation by works. But if you are truly saved, you will have the works. Works prove that you're saved. Works are evidence of salvation. Works are a result of salvation. So this is what this view says. And a lot of people don't understand that they're actually believing this view. And it's really hard to sort of decode for some people, like this future tense view, because it's more subtle and it's more sneaky. And a lot of people that actually hold this future tense view strongly detest both the past and present tense view of salvation by works. So this is the last view. And in fact, a lot of people will say, "Well, this is the correct interpretation of James 2:26." All the other workspace interpretations are wrong. And this is actually why this James passage has been so, you know, um, falsely misinterpreted. So these are the three forms of misinterpretations of this passage.
So a bit of context in the Book of James. James is talking to saved believers. "And James 1:2, my brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." Um, this is why he says "my brethren." He's talking to saved believers specifically, a group of Jews that heard the gospel and believed it, but they were not really doing anything about their faith. They weren't, you know, they were kind of being lazy, you know, not doing good works. You're like, "We're saved, you know, we don't have to worry about this." And James is correcting them, saying, "No, you should do good works. There's good motivation for that." James 1:22-24: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." So James is saying if you hear the word but you don't do it, you're eventually going to forget what the word was in the first place. And that's the point that he's making it in verses 22 to 24, James 1.
And we also see that Jesus makes this point in Matthew. Matthew 7:24-27: "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." So Jesus and James are really saying the same exact thing. You know, don't be just hearers of the word, be doers of the word as well. And let's be clear, he's not saying if you're not doers of the word, you're unsaved and you didn't believe. That's not what James or Jesus are saying. So this gives us a bit of context into what is going on and what James is talking about to these group of saved Jews.
Okay, let's read the first part of this passage. "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food; And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."
So there are a couple things that we notice from this passage. He says, "Can faith save him?" and "What doth it profit?" Very important. On "What doth it profit?" So he's saying, "What good is it if you don't have works with your faith?" This is the point that he's making. And I have a bit more context as to why he said, "Can faith save him?" Now, this is not talking about salvation from hell, because otherwise what I, you know, said before would have been wrong. And, yeah, so this is not talking about salvation from hell. But we're gonna see what this "save him" means here. Um, but the whole point is that he's illustrating with an example. If you sort of say things with your words but don't do any action, then it's not going to serve that person, you know, well, right? Like if I were to go to a homeless man and say, "Hey, you know, I pray that you get off the streets," but I'm not like doing anything to help him get off the streets, you know, what good is it to him? So this is the point James is making right here.
So verses 12 through 13 here says, "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment." So we see that James is talking about judgment, uh, by the law of liberty. And what is the law of liberty? So the Greek word for liberty actually means freedom. So we can say judged by the law of freedom. And we know this is talking about the new law of Christ, which we do out of gratitude and not for fear of going to hell, right? We're not convicted under the law. However, when it's saying judgment, you know, we are going to be judged as believers by Christ at the Bema seat of Christ. This is not the same as the Great White Throne of Judgment where unbelievers are going to be punished and sentenced to hell. So this is talking about a different kind of judgment, specifically our judgment for eternal rewards. And this is what James means when it says, "Can faith save him?" Because if we don't have good works, then, or bad works, are all going to be burned up and destroyed on the Judgment seat of Christ. And so this is why James say it says, "Can faith save him?" This also could be talking about when James said that, uh, temporary consequences, because we know that God chastens those that are his sons. Hebrews 12:6-8: "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." And so if we're not doing good works, then, you know, something is wrong. We're not living like God. And so this is the other reason why James says, "Can faith save him?" He's not talking about salvation, he's talking about heavenly rewards and, uh, temporary consequences.
All right, let's continue reading, uh, 18 for 20. "Yeah, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?"
So what James is essentially saying here is that, yeah, you can't have faith in Jesus Christ, but if you don't have works with that faith, then you can't really show your faith to other people. Like, you can't show what kind of relationship with Jesus that you have, right? Um, you're not going to be justified before other people. People aren't going to see that faith in you. And so this is why you need works is to show that faith to other people, you know, show that you believe in Jesus. And this kind of belief is talking about more of like, uh, personal trust. Like, "I trust that I should give up these sins in my life." You know, "I'm trusting Jesus with that." And so that, you know, sort of stems off from faith. Again, it doesn't result from, you know, the belief that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and he was the son of man, you know, Son of God resurrected, right? Not that kind of belief, because again, there's nothing that we can really do to show that to other people. It's saying like our relationship with God, we can show that to other people, and other people can see that we do believe in God because we have a relationship with God. So this is the point James is saying, it's like to show this to our fellow men, so that's what he's saying.
And he gives us the examples here. "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by his works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God." You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
So he gives an example of this, right? You know, Abraham believed God, and that's why he was saved. But he also believed God in addition, and he said to sacrifice his son Isaac. And he had enough trust and faith in God that he actually did that. And men saw that this outward act that he did, and that's why he was considered such a great friend of God. And this is like why, you know, there's the Abrahamic Covenant and, you know, Father Abraham had many sons, right? This is why God blessed Abraham. So people could see his work and his great sacrifice in Isaac. But they cannot see the fact that he was justified, you know, before God, you know, spiritually, like saved from hell, essentially. They could not see that. But they can see, you know, what a great man of God he was and what great faith he had in God by sacrificing his son. So this is why you said, "You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." Right? This is talking about justification before other men, not before God, because otherwise then that would contradict the fact that we're justified by faith alone. And this is not the case. This is talking about justification before men.
And here's another example. "Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."
And so we see that James is making the point on verse 26, right? "The body without the spirit" does not mean that we're not sealed with the spirit. All believers are sealed with the spirit regardless of whether or not they do good works, right? They have a genuine relationship with God. We know that what James is talking about is, you know, the body with the spirit produces good works. Like we, you know, when we listen to the spirit, when we have a relationship with God, that is going to produce good works. Because, you know, if God wants us to turn from our sins, which he does, right? Then, you know, we should listen to that. And once we listen to that and trust God on that, like, "Hey, you know, it's better for me to not do these sins." And so that's going to result in good works, right? If God wants us to help others and serve others, and we listen to him on that, then that's also going to produce good works. Men can see these works. Men can see that, you know, "Hey, I've struggled with this sin and I've turned from it." Or, "Hey, I've, uh, you know, served people. I've donated. I've helped the poor." Right? Men can see those things. Right? But they cannot see that we just believe that Jesus died on the cross for us. That's something that cannot be seen by men.
And so James is saying that if we want to avoid chastisement from God, if we want to have rewards in heaven and give a good account to Jesus on the Judgment seat of Christ, then we ought to have these good works in our life in addition to our faith. Faith is what justifies us before God, and works are what justifies before men. So this is the takeaway point from James 2. It's not saying that we need good works to be saved. Not saying that good works are an inevitable result of salvation. No, that's not what it's saying at all.
So I pray that you have learned from this message, and I pray that God may allow you to share this message with others. And I pray that people would not be deceived by this verse. All right, take care, guys.