Examples of the Faith

Transcription

1 Examples of the Faith James 2:21-26 Introduction There was a young Texas boy who was 9 years old when he came down with a case of mononucleosis. The doctor prescribed that the boy needed to stay inside for the entire summer. The young boy thought this was going to be the end of the world [no swimming / camping / baseball / etc.] but his father decided to try and bring something good out of the quarantine. He bought his son a guitar and each morning before he left for work he taught his son a new chord told him to practice it that day. The boy did and it turned out that he had a knack for playing the guitar. By the end of the summer he was teaching himself the instrument by strumming along to Willie Nelson tunes and writing a few of his own songs. Within a few years he was leading worship in churches. At one point his dad said: this guitar thing is a hobby son you need a real job. The young man went to college to become a physical therapist but the Lord had other plans. You and I know the boy as: Chris Tomlin who has been labeled as the most sung songwriter in the world because of all the churches which sing his songs - such as Jesus Messiah / God of Angel Armies / How Great is our God Chris had grown up in the church and remembers trusting Christ at a young age but he also remembers a time at a Bible camp in the 8 th grade where after a time of worship music he ran out the back of the chapel and committed himself to God saying: God whatever you want me to do I will do. His faith has led him down the path God had chosen for Him. / writing worship songs used in the church. Another woman from a different era she was actually a prostitute living in a Canaanite city. No doubt she probably went along with the Canaanite worship practices polytheism / idolatry. But something was happening she began to hear stories about a people who were brought out of Egypt by the one true God and that their God was giving to them the land of Canaan as an inheritance. She had heard how this people had been brought miraculously thru the Red Sea on dry land how Pharaoh and the Egyptians could not hold them in bondage and now how other peoples were not able to stand before them either. When two Hebrew men came amongst her city to spy out the fortress Jericho they lodged at this woman s house. The woman made a life-changing decision. She expressed her faith in the God of Israel and asked the men if they could spare her house and its guests from the conquest to come. They agreed and not too long after she became folded into the community of the people of faith married an Israelite of the tribe of Judah and found her way into the genealogy of Christ 1

2 We know her as Rahab She is just one of two examples James will refer to in our passage this morning when he gives to us examples of the faith the other being Abraham James has been making the point that faith in Christ is something that evidences itself in the life of the believer with some degree of corresponding action For Abraham his faith was put on display when he was tested by God and called upon to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice Abraham went to the place where God instructed but was stopped by the angel But by his obedience He displayed a living faith In the same way Rahab by choosing to be identified with the people of Israel / turning her back on everything she knew of Canaanite life she displayed a living faith as well James wants to hold up the picture of these two individuals as models of the faith Their faith was displayed in very different ways but at root it was the same faith the same faith held by Chris Tomlin trust in the God of the Bible / believing His promises / looking to Him for His mercy I. The Example of Abraham vv This whole section is a warning against having a barren intellectual belief that makes no practical difference in the way one lives their life Some people wrestle with James because they feel that He is contradicting Paul who teaches justification by faith apart from works Paul / justification by faith alone is the elephant in the room The google dictionary defines elephant in the room as: a major problem or controversial issue that is obviously present but avoided as a subject for discussion because it is more comfortable to do so. Generally with the elephant in the room we simply avoid the topic because it s too difficult / thorny We however are going to drag the elephant out and say, James what about Paul? Rom. 3:28 for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 2

3 Eph. 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Sola Fide Faith alone was the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformers How do we reconcile James with Paul and the Reformers? The answer is found in the context When the Reformers talked about faith alone they were talking about the fact that the only meritorious grounds of our justification is Christ crucified / risen again we add nothing to the finished work of Christ works do not save Even our best works done by faith are still tainted by sin / nobody lives a perfect life this side of heaven we stand by grace Abraham was faithful in being willing to offer up Isaac but He was not perfect he still stumbled at times he lied to Abimelech about Sarah being his wife / nearly compromised his marriage the Hagar incident / etc. R.C. Sproul: For the Reformers the good works that flow out of justification are not good enough to meet the perfect demands of the law of God. Our best works remain tainted or soiled by the vestigial remnants of sin. [Faith Alone, p. 157] John Piper: My confidence on the last day will not rest on my transformation. I have too far to go to put any confidence in what I have accomplished. Instead, I rest on Jesus Christ. He is my righteousness. He is the guarantor of my salvation. I am justified by faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. [Faith Alone, p. 12] That is the Reformation principle of Faith Alone / Sola Fide For James he uses it to refer to a bogus profession of faith that has no corresponding action it is in a sense not faith We saw this with: James 1:22 Prove yourselves doers of the Word and not hearers only who delude themselves. 3

4 There the focus is upon a miscalculation being made The person says, I have faith I have faith but he doesn t and James wants to help him see where he has made the miscalculation He says he believes the Bible but he doesn t obey any of it / in fact he ignores it James says that is not faith and won t save anyone Is there room for the Reformers and Paul and James all to be correct? What did the Reformers do with James? John Calvin: Those who are justified by true faith prove their justification by obedience and good works, not by a bare and imaginary semblance of faith. [Faith Alone, p. 167] Calvin: Faith alone saves but the faith that saves is not alone. Martin Luther: There is no faith where there are no good works. [Works 30, p. 34] James gives two examples of living faith from two opposite ends of the social spectrum Abraham the father of the Jews Rahab the harlot a Canaanite spared by the Israelite army when they conquered the city of Jericho Both individuals show us that faith evidences itself in the life of the believer with some degree of good works James begins with Abraham refers to an event that occurred quite late in the Abraham narrative Gen where Abraham was called upon to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice That was a test of his faith / a command from God to obey The interesting thing in the Genesis narrative and which Paul points to is that Abraham had already been declared righteous by this point Gen. 15:1-6 Here Abraham is given a reiteration of the promises of God to be made a great nation even though he is old and has no children 4

5 Gen. 15:6 [Abraham] believed in the Lord and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. In Romans 4 Paul points out this was before circumcision the sign of the covenant as well It is also before Abraham was willing to offer up Isaac because Isaac hadn t even been born yet! But Abraham is reckoned as righteous right here Gen. 15: he exercises faith in God The event which James refers to the offering of Isaac takes place some 30 years later Calvin: since faith was imputed to Abraham 15 years before the birth of Isaac, this could not surely have been done through the work of sacrificing him... it hence necessarily follows that something posterior is pointed out here. So what is James pointing to 15 years after the birth of Isaac and 30 years after Abraham was declared righteous? James is pointing to something we call the vindication or display of faith It is interesting the term for justify is used in a couple of important ways in the NT / in the Greek language 1) to justify or declare righteous 2) to vindicate 1) To declare righteous Rom. 3:28 for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Rom. 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Warren Wiersbe: Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous on the basis of Christ s finished work on the cross. Calvin: When Paul says that we are justified by faith, he means no other thing than that by faith we are counted righteous before God. But James has quite 5

6 another thing in view, even to show that he who professes that he has faith, must prove the reality of his faith by works. 2) What Calvin is pointing to is the fact that justify can also be used in a secondary sense meaning to vindicate We see this in a few passages of Scripture Matt. 11:18-19 wisdom vindicated by her deeds Jesus says, I don t need to answer for my actions wisdom is vindicated by her deeds / the righteousness of His actions are manifest by what He does [whether they acknowledge it or not] Consider an example of folly One woman tells a story of how she and her husband were travelling along a highway when they happened to notice a Cadillac along the roadside with hood up and the driver standing beside the car looking agitated. The couple pulled over to see if they could help. The stranded driver offered up rather sheepishly that he had known when he left home he was low on fuel. But because he was in such a hurry to get to an important business meeting he neglected to fill up his tank with gas. The Cadillac needed nothing more than some gas. The couple happened to have a spare gallon of fuel in their trunk so they emptied it into the other man s tank and told him of a service station down the road where he could fill up. Thanking them profusely he then sped off. About 15 miles or so down the road they come across the same driver stranded again even more agitated at this time. You guessed it he was in such a hurry for his meeting he decided he didn t have time to stop holding out hope that his one gallon of gas would get him there. His deeds vindicated or displayed not that the fellow had a lot of wisdom upstairs but rather folly It s the same for us we can show the wisdom of faith in our lives / demonstrate it by our deeds trusting God s Word Or instead choose to show folly when we fail to take God at His Word In facts James will go in this direction James 3:13 i.e. if you say you have wisdom show it in this manner / vindicate your claim 6

7 Ch. 2 vindicate your claim to faith / show it by your deeds I Tim. 3:16 Jesus was validated / vindicated by the Spirit particularly thru the miracles / the miracle of the resurrection In these contexts the use of refers to vindication / validation / proof In the same way James is telling us that works vindicate the reality of the faith claim When Abraham showed that he was willing to obey God by faith his faith was vindicated / demonstrated in a powerful way In Protestant theology we believe that a man is counted righteous before God when he puts his trust in Christ Imputed righteousness = God credits the righteousness of Christ to our account That faith is vindicated when we act upon it / display it R.C. Sproul: Those who possess saving faith necessarily, inevitably, and immediately begin to manifest the fruits of faith, which are works of obedience. The ground of the person s justification, however, remains solely and exclusively the imputed righteousness of Christ. [Faith Alone, p. 103] James says Abraham s faith was made visible or vindicated effectively by his actions in Ch. 22 Kent Hughes: His works in offering Isaac gave immortal testimony to the reality of the faith and righteousness which had infused his life for over thirty years. *** Faith grows and matures when we act upon it We don t become more saved but we grow in our spiritual life II. The Example of Rahab- vv nd Example Rahab had faith in the God of Israel and showed that faith by how she treated the Israelite spies She hid them from being captured by the king s men in Jericho Then she declared her faith to the Israelites 7

8 Joshua 2:9-11 Look at her profession of faith: Your God is God in heaven above and on earth beneath She goes on to ask for deliverance during the coming conquering of Jericho Jericho had stood for hundreds of years as a fortress It was surrounded by a massive wall and considered by its inhabitants to secure against all threats from outside Yet Rahab saw things differently she believed in the God of Israel and His power If she had not acted on her faith what would have occurred? She would have died when Jericho was destroyed [Joshua 2] and James would say that really wasn t faith The faith and the actions were intricately tied together John Calvin: We dream neither of a faith devoid of good works nor of a justification that stands without them. This alone is of importance: having admitted that faith and good works must cleave together, we still lodge justification in faith, not in works. [Inst., p. 798] As a result she and her household were spared when Israel conquered Jericho Heb. 11:31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. She separated herself from her unbelieving and wicked culture and cast her lot with the people of God v. 25 Rahab recognized the Israelites as being men sent by God / with truth about the one true God She found her way into the genealogy of Christ What do we do with all this? II Cor. 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test? We are called to make sure we have the kind of faith that saves to not be deceived 8

9 Conclusion You may have weak faith / you may have strong faith if it is faith placed in the finished work of Christ it is saving faith and will inevitably result in some degree of corresponding action Luther: It is, of course, true that you and I do not hold and believe the saving truth so firmly as St. Peter does. Yet we have one and the same treasure. Two persons may hold glasses of wine in their hands: the hand of the one trembles, the hand of the other does not. Two persons may hold a purse full of money: one with a weak hand, the other with a strong hand. Whether the hand is strong or weak, please God, it neither increases nor decreases the contents of the purse. So the only difference between me and St. Peter is the fact that he holds this treasure more firmly. [Faith Alone, pp. 81, 82] You may have weak faith / strong faith if your faith is in Jesus Christ and His shed blood for you you are saved The evidence will be seen as you begin to follow Christ in your life 9