Faith Without Works Is Dead: Pastor Responds | (un)ANSWERED

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Today on Unanswered, we're going to be going through one of the most controversial texts in scripture.

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Throughout church history and even amongst false religions, people have used this particular text to espouse wrong views from the

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Bible. Now, aside from that, there is something that evangelicals have heralded for many, many centuries, and that is sola fide.

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We are saved by faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ alone. And so, many have come up to that doctrine of justification by faith, and they think they have the ultimate retort.

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Faith without works is dead. They are quoting from the epistle of James, chapter 2.

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Wrong answers abound in the explanation of this passage, and some have resigned themselves to never being able to understand this passage in comparison to the faith alone passages.

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The question that I will answer today is, what does faith without works really mean?

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And what does it mean in the context of the epistle of James and in the greater context of the

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Bible? Let's read some of the key verses that people are confused about in James, chapter 2.

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First, James 2 .14. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works?

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Can that faith save him? And then verse 17. Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

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And what many consider to be the nail in the coffin is verse 24.

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You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. Now you might be wondering, what's the problem,

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Pastor Wade? You're simply reading Scripture, and I would agree with you. I ultimately don't see a problem with these passages, but some have argued that these passages in James, chapter 2, are in direct opposition against the things that have been spoken by Jesus, John, Peter, and even

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Paul. For instance, you have in Romans, chapter 3, verse 20, it says, For by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in God's sight.

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For by the works of the law come the knowledge of sin. Then you have in chapter 4, verse 5, it says,

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For the one who doesn't work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness.

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And you see, it's those things that some people have considered are antithetical to James, chapter 2, but what

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I will say, and what I think the Bible is saying, is Paul isn't contradicting James, and neither is

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James contradicting Paul. They are talking about two completely different categories in Scripture.

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A simple look at the text would show that Paul is articulating the passive aspect of faith.

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That is to say, when a dead man is down at the bottom of the sea, he can do nothing.

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He is passive. God has to intervene on his behalf. That is what's passive.

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A man cannot work deeds of the flesh to earn the favor of God.

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Whereas on the completely different category that James is covering is the active aspect of faith.

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That is to say, after that dead man, who's been raised from the bottom of the sea, has come up and now he's alive, he's been giving saving faith that only

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God imparts to the unbeliever, he is now going to do good deeds in conformity with the

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Word of God. It's an active aspect of the faith. The passive was the justification that God gave the man, and now he's going to show that justification by what he does.

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In fact, before I show you the explanation of James chapter 2,

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I want to show you that James is in conformity with what

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Paul is already saying. Salvation by faith alone. That's actually in James chapter 1 verse 18.

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It says, in the exercise of his will, God's will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures.

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Now in the Greek, that phrase, exercise of his will, literally means by God's choice, by his own desire, it's his will.

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It's God's will. In fact, the Greek here that says he brought forth, that is like birthing language.

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It is in total conformity with John chapter 3 that we must be born again. So as to say this, that God, by his choice, made us born by the word of truth.

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James is not against Paul. Paul is not against James. James understands that it's only by God's will and desire that we are born again.

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That we have new life. That this faith has to be given to us. But the whole point of James' letter is, so if you have that faith, it's time to work it out in what you do.

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So what does James chapter 2 truly mean? To understand that, we first have to consider the context surrounding the epistle of James.

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James is a bondservant of God. He is the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is an elder and leader at the

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Jerusalem church. And at this time in the early church, we see after the martyrdom of Stephen, there was a great wave of persecution.

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And in Acts, it details the fact that these Christians were then dispersed abroad throughout the

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Roman Empire. He even addresses them as Christian believers. The dispersed ones who have fled from this persecution, which is amazing because after they have fled, they took the gospel with them.

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So James is writing to people who are already believers, who have already professed in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And they need that pastoral encouragement. They need that pastoral exhortation.

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And they need this brother to continue to push them to live the

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Christian life. They're new believers. Many of them are probably in hiding. Many of them don't have elders in their church yet.

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And they're looking for instruction from this brother in Jerusalem, this pastor, to tell them, this is what the

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Christian life looks like. So let's get into it. Remember, James is addressing people who are already saved, or at least profess to be saved.

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He's not going to teach us how we can be saved, but how we can demonstrate through our life how we are saved.

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So if we go to verse 14, it says, What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works?

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Can that faith, that kind of faith, save him? Because I don't know if you noticed it, but it says, if someone says he has faith.

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If someone says he has faith. That is to say, it's a spoken faith. It's a faith in the spoken realm.

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Can that kind of faith, can that kind of spoken faith save him?

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And the answer, of course, is no. When God justifies a man, when he imparts saving faith to him, that faith won't merely be spoken.

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It'll come out through his deeds and his actions and his words, not just in the spoken realm.

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So the question we ought to ask ourselves after reading verse 14 is, what would be the benefit of merely speaking that you have faith, but it never manifests outwardly in your deeds, in the things that God has commanded in his word?

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It'd be kind of like a man who says he's a surgeon and he gets a job at a hospital, and the day comes for the big surgery, and he can't do any of the things that he promised he could do.

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He says he's a surgeon, he has these certifications and these degrees, but he's failed to demonstrate that he's a true surgeon by his actions.

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He can't perform it. The other thing is, is that Jesus speaks a lot about trees in the

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Gospels. What does he say? You will know them by their fruits. A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.

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But the other aspect is, many trees go dormant during the winter.

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You don't see fruit or leaves anymore, and someone could easily put a tag on that tree and say, ha, this is a fig tree.

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It wouldn't matter if you simply said or labeled that tree as a fig tree, if when spring came and the buds came out and the leaves arrived, and it was shown to be a briar bush, and there was no figs, we would look at that tree and we would understand it wasn't what it says it is.

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So in the same way, just like the surgeon, or the tree that was labeled and said to be a fig tree but was a briar bush, likewise, a man who merely says he has saving faith, but it doesn't manifest in what he does as a

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Christian in his life, that faith can't save him. It's not a real saving faith.

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It's not a genuine faith. That's what's in question here, not how we can be saved, but a genuine faith versus a merely spoken, dead faith.

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So let's now go to verse 17. Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

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You see, what James is now articulating is a merely spoken faith is dead.

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It has no legs on it. It doesn't move. It's inactive. It doesn't work.

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And what he's really even comparing this to is kind of like our bodies. Our blood is in us, and as long as our blood continues to circulate in us, our body moves and our heart beats and our brain works and our functions continue to go round and round year after year, day after day, minute after minute.

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That's what saving faith is like. It's like our blood. But when we've been injured and we bleed out and the blood runs out from us, it shows that we're dead.

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We do nothing. We're inactive. And that's what dead faith is. It never acts. Now, we agree with many of you.

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A man can't say he's a Christian, but live contrary to that of Scripture.

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But also, a man can't say he's a Christian and say that his works are better than the finished works of Jesus Christ.

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You see, what James is doing here is he is showing us the fruit of salvation versus the root.

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He's pitting dead faith against living faith. Not how we are saved by works versus saved by faith.

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That's not what's being addressed here. And now for the most quoted Scripture in this section of James, chapter 2, verse 24, it says,

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

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And people say, aha, don't you see? It's not your sola fide. It's not by faith alone.

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That doesn't justify a man. There, look, that's the word that Paul uses, justify, your favorite word, evangelicals.

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And I would say, no problem. There's still no issue. I'm operating in correct biblical categories.

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Remember, Paul is addressing lost and dead people. He's creating a doctrine of lost and dead people who need to be justified, that is, declared righteous before a holy

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God. Whereas James is addressing, again, people who are already professing faith in Christ, people who are already believers.

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And he's saying, show me your Christian by what you do. Show me that your spoken faith is authentic in your actions.

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In fact, James will continue to say multiple times in this chapter, you see, you see.

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It's something that people are going to be able to see. It's not the forensic legal justification by faith where God declares a man righteous apart from works of the law.

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This is showing your fellow man, indeed, I am a Christian, being justified before men versus being justified before a holy and righteous

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God. In other words, James is addressing believers shown to be righteous, justified before other men versus Paul is saying unbelievers being declared righteous before a holy

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God. Completely different categories, my friends. And so my admonishment to you, especially those of you who argue it's faith plus works equals salvation, is that that's not what's being argued here in Scripture.

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James is in complete union and unity with Paul, with John, with Peter and with Jesus.

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You see, so many of you proof texts, so many of you take these verses in isolation and you pit them against other scriptures in the

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Bible. We're not to do that. Scripture interprets Scripture.

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It's not simply sola scriptura. It's tota scriptura. We need to consider all of it.

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And some of you will even argue that when we mention Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, that we're saved by grace through faith, that we're taking things in isolation, but we've never rejected

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Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, that he, he prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.

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You see, we consider them all. We're saved by faith through grace by Jesus Christ.

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But even Paul argues there in his own letter that we will have good works that will follow that saving faith.

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And that's the whole point of this, guys. As many have said throughout history, we're saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.

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For those of you who think your deeds plus the deeds of Jesus can earn salvation,

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I would argue you have a low view of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

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My call to you is just like James. If you profess and say that you are a

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Christian, then that saving faith that God gave you will manifest not only in good deeds, but in right thoughts and attitudes and doctrines of this word.

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And so James, the bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ, the brother of our Lord, tells us in chapter 1, he,

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God, chose us by his desire, by the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth.

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And then in chapter 2, James, the pastor of Jerusalem, says, so saints, believers,

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Christians, live by that word of truth, abide by it. If you're truly Christians, then you'll live it.

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You'll act it out. It won't be dead faith, it'll be living faith. And that's the heart of this epistle.

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He says, don't be merely hearers of the word, but doers of the word. That if you are part of this pure and undefiled religion, then that religion will act in this world, because there's too many hypocrites, there's too many pretenders who say, even in our country, that they're followers of Jesus Christ, but they don't even look a shred like Jesus Christ.

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So that's the call. That's the question that you have to ask yourself.