Faith Demonstrated | Sermon 05/01/2022

James 2:20-21 and the Meaning of Faith Without Works

In James chapter 2 again, but this is the last sermon in chapter 2. The final sermon of James chapter 2. We're going to be looking at verses 20 through 26. I want to mention, you might be thinking, oh wow, well we still have chapters 3, 4, and 5 to go through, but actually, the way my sermons have been planned out, this is the 13th sermon in James, and we only have 10 more after this.

We only have 10 more. After that, I am praying through what the Lord would have us go through next. I'm thinking possibly the Gospel of John, or possibly an Old Testament text. So, if you would please pray for me as I ask the Lord for wisdom on what to exposit through next.

But we are in James chapter 2. The title of this sermon is Faith Demonstrated. Faith Demonstrated. Starting in verse 20,. Hear now the words of the living and one true God. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says,.

And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by way of another.

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray real quick. Father, would you please teach your people today?

Would you speak through me, dear Lord? Would you be among us? Father, would you help us to focus on what you're trying to teach us today? Lord, please be with us in such a way that we can understand your word and we can see how perfectly inerrant and infallible it truly is.

There are no contradictions in your word. So Lord, please help me to speak today in a way that is clear and helpful and let it always be true. In Christ's name, amen. There is a man who kisses his wife and says goodbye as he's leaving for a work trip to go out of state.

And she says, don't forget, honey. Update your flight for the earlier takeoff for Friday so you're back on time for our anniversary dinner. He smiles and he tells her he wouldn't miss it for the world.

He closes the door and she thinks, we have a great marriage. He is faithful to me. But as he gets in his car, he takes off his ring and he plans to spend a few days with a high school sweetheart who he reconnected with online, who is now his mistress.

There is another man. This man walks into his high-paying corporate job. He rides the elevator up to his floor. The front desk woman greets him cheerfully as she recognizes he was the one who got the award for having longstanding tenure with the company.

The office smell of fresh brewed coffee, computers, carpet tiles, competing perfumes hits his nostrils. He gets to his office. He sits down and presses the on button for his computer. The man's boss walks by and gives him a hearty good morning.

He loves that no one really knows how to do the unique functions of his job except him because little do they know but a couple of years ago, a technology update that he helped implement made it so that it rendered his job almost completely obsolete.

They don't know that they pay him to play games and watch movies, but he could care less about the company. He's going to ride this wave until it flattens out. He doesn't care. Finally, there is a third man.

It's Sunday and he's got to get to church. Last year, finding a potential wife in a church seemed more probable than in his favorite corner bar. But in his first service, he was emotionally moved more than he had been in years.

He had never felt like he had felt before in that church service. He raised his hand when the pastor asked if anyone wanted to be saved. He repeated a prayer to have Jesus to come into his heart. After that, he figured he should keep attending.

He gets to the Bible study. It's present day. He gets there before the service starts. Friendly faces turn sour as he walks into the room. They open Romans chapter one. He always has to be the one he thinks that advocates for liberal ideologies.

He argues in that Bible study like he did in the Exodus study. He says homosexuals can be Christians. You guys take something that was meant to be cultural and apply it across time and over the whole globe.

He says they're wrong. They wrap up the study and he walks out proud. He's done his duty for the least of these, he thinks. And the service is like a concert, which he likes. But he's always been a fan of things like TED Talks and he tells his friends who don't know what church is like.

He says it's like a TED Talk. He loves it. He's so glad he prayed that prayer a year ago. He's going to keep coming. Now what these three men have in common, church, is that they say they are one thing, but their actions condemn them, showing them to be something completely different.

They are frauds. They are pretenders, hypocrites and play actors. The married man acts like a faithful husband to his wife and to everyone else. But he is an effeminate and adulterous man who has performed a dereliction of duty.

The man shows the covenant he made on his wedding day is based on falsehood, not on truth. He is no husband. The employee of the flashy corporation is no worker because he does no work at all. He doesn't know how to give back, but he simply takes.

In fact, he steals time and money from his company. The man demonstrates the terms of employment he agreed to so many years ago don't matter to him anymore. He's a thief. And worst of all, the third man calls himself a follower of Christ.

He is doing what he believes is required to be saved by God. That is, he thinks if there is a God, he's still not sure. This type of person has been around since the time of Christ. They go to churches all over the country.

People who go to church, go to Bible studies, do all the things to play the part, but they are unchanged, unsaved, and dead inside. He believes he will hear on that faithful day, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.

While in reality, after he says all that he's done that he thinks he's done for the kingdom, he will hear, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. As James finishes up his discourse on faith and works, he will give us examples of people who not only professed their faith, but they actually lived it out.

They were who they said they were. We're gonna see that today. So if you're truly a follower of Christ, he says, you'll be able to demonstrate it, not just in word, not just the way these three men said what they wanted you to think they were, but by their life and by their deeds.

James calls us to demonstrate it. So with that, let's finish out chapter two today, starting in verse 20. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Although there is a slight change in direction for James, starting in verse 20, our text today ought to be considered in light of and among verses 14 through 19 that we covered last week, okay?

14 through 26 are one long discourse. He addresses the imaginary opponent from verse 18 that we learned about with a typical tool of argumentation. He says, but do you want to know? Are you wishing to understand?

Are you willing to accept the truth, foolish fellow? And James calls him a kene anthrope. But this is no ordinary fool. This is not like Maros from where we get the word moron. It's not that kind of fool.

This is different kenos means empty or empty handed. So as to say, but are you willing to recognize you empty man that faith without works is useless? He is not full of true faith. James tells his opponent, there's nothing inside of you.

Repent. Be full of active faith. Remember that when James is talking about this hypothetical faith, it is that merely spoken faith that is derived from verse 14. Do you remember that? He said, if a man says he has faith, it is in the spoken realm.

We talked about that last week. That's the kind of faith he's talking about in this verse, a merely spoken faith. A quick look at useless and you'll see he changed words even though the NASB, our text translates it the same.

Our gay is typically translated lazy or idle. But that doesn't paint a full enough picture of the empty man. Our gay is actually a contraction in the Greek. It is combined with a and air gay, which is no and work.

No work. That's what that last word means. No work. No work. It could literally say faith without works doesn't work. Faith without works doesn't work. That kind of faith is barren. It's untilled. It's without fruit.

Nothing will come of no work. Nothing will come of no work. A husband that doesn't work doesn't provide for his family. An ox that doesn't tow the plow is no true working ox. A car with a blown engine doesn't move anymore.

And unless you flintstone that puppy, you're staying where you're at. It's not a car anymore at that point. It's a heavy paperweight. So also, a spoken faith that doesn't work doesn't work. It's not really faith.

In the Greek, faith is the word pistis. Pistis. And the root word of pistis of faith is pastuo, which is amazing. The root of the word faith is belief. The root of the word faith is belief. So it stands to say that faith is belief in action.

Faith is belief in action. If faith is inactive, the belief isn't genuine. Okay? Go to verse 21. He says, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar?

So now, James brings up evidence to his claims all the way from verse 14 to now. This is the evidence. These are the ones who actually, this is one of the ones who actually lived out what he said he was.

He brings up the patriarch, Father Abraham. Some of you can't hear that without singing, Father Abraham who had many sons. Yep, okay. Just my family? Alright, we're the weirdos. We'll learn it. I'm just kidding.

I showed you last week how Paul and James, two New Testament writers are in harmony. And I'm gonna have to do that again. Because people will distort these verses as well as verses 14 through 19. We're gonna have to talk about that.

I say that because it's important for you to understand that James isn't bringing up Abraham as a way to correct the letter to the Romans. So if you remember Romans 4, Paul brings up Abraham. He brings up Genesis 15 -6.

And so this isn't, some people have said, look, James is bringing up Abraham as a way to combat Paul. That's not, that's not what's happening in this letter. In our first sermon, our research showed that this letter of James may be one of the earliest circulated in the early church and it's fairly unlikely the Romans epistle was even around.

But of course, Paul's teaching was. Paul's teachings were known. As I said previously, he could have been helping to combat wrong thoughts about Paul's teaching in verses 14 through 19. What he said in 14 through 19 could have been talking against people who have said, Paul says we're justified by faith alone.

Oh, he says we can, we basically can do whatever we want. We can live however we want, Paul is teaching. And James may have been coming there for his buddy and giving an apologia, a defense for what is biblically true concerning faith and good works.

Abraham is brought up because when the word faith is even mentioned, every Jew and Christian would have Abraham pop up in their minds. It's like if I were to say great basketball player, a lot of you would probably think Michael Jordan or something like that.

It's almost like if the word faith is mentioned, everyone's mind in that day would be considering Abraham. They would think of him. He is a central figure to these early Jewish Christians. He was brought up in dialogues all the time.

You can even see that in some of the gospels. Jews would always talk about their faith in relation to the faith of Abraham. Do you have faith like Father Abraham? He was the benchmark of faith. Although James is a Jewish Christian writing to other Jewish Christians, he says our father Abraham.

That's not to point to a promised bloodline of men and women, but it's to point to that future that saved Christ's community. That's even the people who he's addressing to now addressing all of us. We are the true descendants of Abraham in this room.

That's why he says our father Abraham. Although not Scripture, even 1st Maccabees during the intertestamental period, 1st Maccabees chapter 2, verse 51 through 52 says, Remember the deeds of the fathers which they did in their generations and received great honor with an everlasting name.

Was not Abraham our father found faithful when tested and it was reckoned to him as righteousness? It sounds very much like our like our verse right here. So they would have been well accustomed to hearing about Abraham.

Even the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 11 the hall of faith the heroes of the faith Abraham is mentioned there. He says that faith led him to obedience. Now here's where this verse confuses people. Was not our father Abraham justified by works?

And again you'd be like whoa, whoa, whoa Pastor Wade you cleared things up last week about this but what about now? I thought we were justified by faith. Let's figure this out. Let's look into this. Paul demonstrated how one is justified before God.

James like I told you has been contrasting dead faith opposed to living faith. Those have been their focuses. But Paul said faith Paul said justified Paul said the word works he said those three words and so does James.

They say faith they say justified they say works. Isn't it the same thing? Like I said different context different situations. Paul speaks of justification of right standing before Holy God. He speaks of justification quote before God in Romans.

He speaks of justification in his sight in Galatians. It's obviously a justification before God. While James is saying things like show me demonstrate to me show me show me your faith by your works show me.

This isn't justification before a Holy God. What we find in this whole discourse from James is it's something that can be seen something that can be demonstrated or shown. In verse 18 like I said I will show you my faith by my works.

Two other times we'll observe James say you see you see here look here let me demonstrate to you what faith looks like. This word justified is what people get hung up on. It says justified. It is etikaiothe etikaiothe It is indeed the same word used in Romans 3 4 and 5.

I won't I won't beat around the bush. It is the same justified from the letter to the Romans. But if we've learned anything from our discussions about Greek it's that there are often different meanings based on context which is true for any language.

Context can change the meaning of words. Not by some large degree but by some small degree. The word appears in Matthew 11 19 and Luke 7 35 justified and there it is translated vindicated. He says wisdom Jesus says wisdom is vindicated or proven right by her deeds.

This would not be wisdom is put into right standing before God. That just doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. First Timothy 3 16 uses it talking about Christ. It says by common confession great is the mystery of godliness.

He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit seen by an angel seen by angels proclaimed among the nations believed on in the world taken up in glory. This is one of the first confessions in the New Testament.

New Testament period. So that's amazing first but second if we were to use the Pauline context and understanding of Edekei Othe here we would have to say that Jesus was put into right standing before God in the spirit because he said Jesus was vindicated in the spirit.

So was Jesus in sin and then justified before God in the spirit? That wouldn't make sense. So obviously there's multiple ways to use this word. There's multiple understandings of the definition of this word.

Acts 13 39 in Romans 6 7 translate it freed. Freed. So there are several ways to do it. Therefore the way the Bible defines justified here is not the forensic legal justification of right standing before God that God alone declares.

That is not the justified here. That type of forensic legal justified is being used in Romans 3 4 and 5 and in Galatians. This is not a declaration of innocence or right standing. This word here this means Abraham was proven by his work of offering up Isaac.

He was proven. His faith was proven to be genuine as it resulted in a good work in obedience to God. Dr. James White goes along the same vein and clarifies this. He says justified is shown or proven to be righteous.

In fact let me quote Pastor James. He says the assertion that the verbal parallels when he says verbal parallels that would be those words faith works and justified. Those are all in this verse and they're also all in Romans chapter 3 and 4 and 5.

The assertion that the verbal parallels override the immediate context must be rejected. They don't override it. The context prevails. It would have no basis. James' use of justified must be allowed to stand on its own.

As a result, the translation of edikaiothe as shown to be righteous or considered righteous flows not from a pre-commitment to a theological perspective, but from the context itself. Again, I told you, James wants a demonstration of faith.

Show me, he says. So the verse could be read, was not Abraham our father shown to be righteous by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? He is referencing Genesis 22 here. Abraham was commanded by God to take his son Isaac, the son of his love, to bring him to Mount Moriah to offer him up on the altar.

They ascended the mountain. The wood for the altar was placed upon Isaac's back, which is such an amazing picture. One day I would love to preach on Genesis 22 to see the parallels between the wood was on Isaac's back, Abraham, the son of his love, of whom the many descendants would come, and then Jesus, the wood, was placed on his back as he climbed the mountain as well.

The parallels are just amazing. But this was the son whom God promised Abraham, made a covenant with him, that through this son, he would bless the nations and make him descendants as numerous as the stars.

He told Isaac, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering. And little did Abraham know he was prophesying. It wasn't then that the lamb was offered. It would be a bit later with Jesus Christ.

He believed God and then he did the work, the deed of offering up Isaac, even though it seemed contrary to God's promise. Hebrews 11 gives us some more insight into Abraham's faith. Abraham didn't know why God would ask him to offer his son, to kill his son.

He maybe didn't understand it, but he supposed according to Hebrews 11 that God could raise him from the dead. That's the extra context we're looking for. But here's the key. Nowhere in Genesis 22 does it say there is where Abraham had faith in God, and there in Genesis 22 was where it was accredited to his account as righteousness.

That's not where he was considered righteous by faith, by a saving faith. It wasn't Genesis 22. That was in Genesis 15. Before any works were done, he was declared right with God. So Genesis 22 couldn't mean in the legal sense, this couldn't mean in the legal sense in our verse.

That would contradict Scripture. It would contradict Paul who showed that Abraham wasn't working to earn what God declared in Genesis 15. The offering of Isaac was a test of faith. It was proven true.

The faith was proven true. The Lord said, for now I know that you fear Me. God didn't say there, now I will fully justify you. He didn't say that. Now I'll truly save you at the offering of Isaac. He didn't do that.

Good works are the demonstration of the faith He had. They aren't a replacement for faith. James isn't nullifying faith. James showed that they go hand in hand. And he just argued previously to harmonize faith and works.

The works demonstrate a true saving faith, but could never be the catalyst for the faith. God's execution of justification must be complete before a believer can work in a way that pleases God. Okay? God's execution of justification must be complete before a believer can work in a way that pleases Him.

This goes perfectly with his argument thus far. It's like saying, I'll show you my Genesis 15 is real by my act in Genesis 22. That's kind of what he's saying. So let's move on to verse 22. You see that faith was working with his works.

And as a result of the works, faith was perfected. James, show me. James is saying, show me. He says, you see? You see that? Do you understand? Did you see what Abraham did? Do you see that? Look. Are you willing to see the truth of what I'm saying now?

What Abraham did? An already existent saving faith was working with Abraham's works of offering Isaac. Faith and works are once again harmonized. The word James uses though is sunergeo. Working together.

Cooperating. From that word, we get other words in English language like synergy or synergism. It's the working together aspect. The imaginary opponent from verse 18 was trying to separate faith and works.

But James continues to hammer it in. They are together. They are working together. Faith and works work together. But what he is not saying, church, is that faith and works are working together to save him.

That's not what he's saying. That's absent from here. Faith was not working with his works and as a result, he was saved. That's not what it says. That would be against the Scriptures, against the Word of God.

That would be to completely disregard all that James argued from verse 14 until now. It's him showing that dead faith is without work, as he's said all along. Genuine faith works together with works. Works are not an addition to genuine faith to save us.

Remember the flow chart that I had last week? The works flow out of being justified before God. One commentator states, Abraham's offering of Isaac did not change the nature of his faith relationship with God.

It showed that relationship. Begun decades earlier was real, living, vital, and demonstrable. The perfection of the faith by the deeds did not change the faith, but show that it was a real faith. Not just said, not just spoken, but actual.

A matter of the heart, not just of the mind. It says faith was perfected as a result of such works. The word can also be completed or matured. Because listen, it takes faith to do good works, brothers and sisters.

It takes real faith to do real works that please God. It takes faith. And simultaneously, the good works increase the faith. In other words, when you obey God and do the working out of that pure and undefiled religion we talked about, it will increase your faith.

It matures it. It grows you. As you serve your families, as you teach your kids God's Word, as men and women go out and share the Gospel, as we do things to obey the Lord, it will grow our faith. It will grow it.

It matures the one with faith. We saw the apostles, we saw them grow to be ones whom Jesus called at first those of little faith to men who could stand before the Sanhedrin and give the Gospel without regard for their lives.

They went from being simple fishermen to giving full sermons in such a way that made scribes and Pharisees go marvel and say, aren't these just unlearned fishermen? Where did they get this? And that faith matured.

That faith grew. That is what God does for the believer. That is why there is sanctification after justification. First, He gives you the faith and imputes to you His righteousness and brings you into right standing before Him, before a holy God.

Then the good works flow in the sanctification process. That process may have some dips here and there, but God intends for there to be a line of maturity. It may dip here and there, but it's going to grow.

That's what He desires for us. Completion will be increasing for you as a result of sanctification. The believer's faith grows and matures. He is ready one day. She is ready one day to meet their Maker.

This is also saying, the fullest expression of one's faith is shown in their obedience to God. Can you imagine how much Abraham's faith grew in this test of offering up Isaac? Killing his son would have meant the promise that God gave would not be fulfilled.

It must have confused him greatly. But still he believed God. He believed that God would accomplish all that God had promised him even if he didn't know how. And God provided the ram and the thicket. But most of all, He provided the lamb, the spotless lamb later.

Abraham's faith continued in that perfected process. And the Lord is doing that with you and with me. With every test, with every good work, every aspect of your sanctification, everything that you're going through in your walk as a believer is going to bring you to completion in Christ.

That perfection, that faith will be perfected on that last day. He'll bring it exactly to where He wants your faith. We ask God, how can this be working towards perfection? How can this thing, how can this sickness, how can this job loss, how can this death, how can this suffering, how can this lead to perfection?

All it does is hurt. But He says, be like Abraham. You don't see it now. You don't get it now. But He says, I am working. I am working. I'm working all those things together for your good. Let's move on to verse 23.

And the Scripture was fulfilled, which says, and Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. We already spoke on it briefly, but here James quotes Genesis 15 .6.

The offering of Isaac was Genesis 22. Now we're actually talking about Genesis 15 .6. He calls it fulfilled in Genesis 22. Fulfilled can also be filled up, which means to bring to ultimate significance.

You see, Paul in his epistles was concerned about the chronology of events in Genesis. That in Genesis 15, Abraham does no work and he believes God and it's credited to him as righteousness. That's Genesis 15.

Then comes Genesis 17, and there would be the covenant of circumcision. Now works are being added. The works of circumcision would be added. Then Genesis 22, the work of offering up Isaac. So you see there justification occurs in Genesis 15, works in 17, works in 22.

That's what happens with us. We get saved. We get justified before a holy and righteous God. Then the good works follow. Anything that you thought you did that was righteous before that justification was as filthy rags before a holy God, the Word says.

Faith first, works follow. Declaration of faith and righteousness, then righteous deeds. It's like when a beloved pastor at a church is retiring and a new man is found to replace him, and the applicant tells everyone he's got a Master's of Divinity at a really good seminary.

He went to Bible college, and he did ministry back in Texas for the youth. He is a guy who's more than qualified on paper in a sense. To his account, considered qualified. But until that applicant preaches and teaches, counsels, administers the sacraments, and leads the people over some period of time, those said qualifications are just simply stated to his account.

But when he's proven himself, it almost fulfills in a sense or confirms the statements he's made where he previously said, I'm qualified. You say you're qualified, but let's see how much you're qualified in your actual actions.

So not only did Abraham's whole life demonstrate a saving faith that fulfilled Scripture, but it also made him a friend of God. See that? And he was called the friend of God. What a title to receive in the Scriptures.

You don't see that exact form, the exact language that's used in the Old Testament. You see other times God says Abraham is His beloved. But the NASB translates it as friend as well. So 2 Chronicles 20, verse 7 says, Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever?

Abraham's called a friend. Isaiah 41 .8 But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, My friend. Now, it was possible this was a special title given only to Abraham. Friend of God.

That could be true. But I like to think that this is something that is intimately connected with Jesus' words in John 15. The Lord says this, He says, This is My commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this that one lays down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends.

For all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you may ask of the Father in My name He may give you.

Brothers and sisters, this extends also to us. The Lord Jesus had revealed to us His Word and the Father's intention. He did that also to us. And He calls us friends as well. It's safe to say based off of those words that Christ only lays down His life for His friends.

He says this, that one laid down his life for his friends. Greater love has no one than that. So all for whom Christ died gets lumped in with Abraham. We, church, are also the friends of God. We are the friends of God.

Let's keep moving here. Go to verse 24. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. Alright, that's a little challenging. A man is justified by works and not by faith alone. But I think we're going to see the truth here.

This is one of the most cherry-picked and isolated proof texts given by those in false religions. The context is ignored. The rest of Scripture is ignored. And they quote this all the time. You see, it's not by faith alone.

We must, however, resist the temptation to place this verse into the context of the Pauline Epistles. Don't take James 2 .24 and put it in Romans 4. Resist the temptation to do that. Once again, he says, you see, you see, James is all about show me.

He says, you see, I'm going to demonstrate this. Look at this. Look at this example of Abraham and realize an alone faith cannot demonstrate righteousness. That is the better way to translate it. An alone faith.

An alone faith. Also, we will continue to use the correct translation of the word justified here. The James context of justified. A man is proven to be righteous. What God did in him is proven to be true by his works and not by an alone faith.

You get that? A man is proven that his justification from the past tense is true by his works and not by an alone faith. A faith that doesn't have any works. That's been the thesis of his whole argument.

Faith, an alone faith, a merely spoken faith that doesn't have any works is no faith at all. He's just reaffirming that here. Because saving faith is never alone. Saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.

Amen? Many will say this is the exact opposite of what Paul says in Romans 3 .28. And Romans 3 .28 says this, a man is justified by faith apart from works. A man is justified by faith apart from works.

And then you could read this and go, a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And you're like, what? That is completely opposite. All the things that I've told you thus far, we have to remember.

We have to remember the context. I'll mention it again. My devotional on James highlights it well. It says the people Paul is addressing are people who didn't believe that Jesus was sufficient for salvation.

Jesus alone. Faith alone. So Paul tells them, Jesus is all you need. Don't trust in your obedience to God's law. Trust in Jesus alone. Faith alone. James agrees with that. James agrees that it is faith alone that saves us.

But James is addressing the opposite problem. There are those who have been abusing the truth of faith alone as an excuse not to do good works. As an excuse not to love God and neighbor. That's what he's addressing.

People who are saying they follow Jesus, they keep saying it, saying it, saying it, and he's like, show me you actually do by your life. By your actions. That is the different context. Alone faith would be pointing back to v. 22.