A Living Faith

 

Text: James 2:14-17

Focus: Works

Function: To frame this passage in a positive light about God’s help for us.

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? ¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food ¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Good morning!

I’m gonna talk a little bit about theology here to open the sermon.

In the 1500’s, the man who invented the doctrine “Sola Scriptura,” or Scripture alone, Martin Luther, believed, because of these verses, that the whole book of James should not be in the New Testament.

He said, applying these verses means that a person must do the works necessary to prove they are a Christian, and if they have to do works, then their salvation is not by faith.

But I don’t see that in the book of James. Last week we heard the two terms: The Royal Law and the Law of Liberty. They address the works that we are to do, or the new law that we are under as believers, and that new law is to care about others like as we care for our own: to love another.

However, I want to go back to Martin Luther’s concerns about trying to save ourselves by works instead of having faith in Christ.

The problem, also, with that thinking is that it is dualistic. It is either/or. It doesn’t have room for both/and. Martin Luther saw it black and white as a matter of doctrine and his doctrine won out over what the passage is trying to say, in my opinion.

I believe that there are actually two different ways to be saved in the New Testament. Paul taught salvation by faith and Jesus taught salvation earned by our good works.

And again, if we can earn it, according to Luther and basic theology, then it isn’t a gift from God, it isn’t grace and that seems to make the cross of Christ irrelevant.

But in Matthew 25, Jesus makes it clear that by taking care of the stranger, and that includes those on our border today, visiting the sick and prisoners, which you all do very well, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked we earn eternal rewards and it also says that if we deny people those basic goods and services while we have the means to help, then we will lose our eternal reward.

Jesus makes it clear that our faith means action and if there isn’t action, then there isn’t faith.

And James reiterates that point.

It might be a which came first argument, the chicken or the egg? I believe that acts of charity, forgiveness, and acceptance of others are acts of faith. We are people of faith. We are new creatures in Christ. We are born from above with a new identity and a Spirit that is moved to care for others. We are transformed by the Spirit of God. And when that happens the natural result is acts of faith.

I think there became problem with what salvation means in the present, Post-Augustian age.

Augustus was a theologian who taught us mainly that Christ died and rose again to spare us from the wrath of God, including hell.

By that time, it was a State Church. The Empire had influence over the Church. And the Empire’s influence included dividing people between the saved and the unsaved instead of those who do justice and those who are selfish.

It was in the empire’s interest to divide people into what they called the righteous and the unrighteous so that they could justify conquering them for financial gain in the name of Christ. It got bad. Pope Nicholas V signed the papal bull, decree, permitting the enslaving of the so-called “unrighteous” folks.

Martin Luther used the term “saved” for who was in and who was out.

The problem with that is that according to 1 John 2:2 Jesus died to save our sins and the sins of the world entire.

Everyone is saved.

So where is the disconnect?

I believe it has to do with the understanding of what it means to be saved.

I grew up believing that saved meant I was delivered from the eternal wrath of God when I die, which is hell, and will spend eternity in a mansion of glory when I die.

We were also told it was our responsibility to tell other people about it so that they could escape hell as well. We were told that was basically the only purpose we had left here on planet earth.

But that is not what the scripture about salvation. Jesus came to restore us to God.

The incorrect emphasis I was raised with was that it all had to do with after I die and we were committed to living sacrificially to tell others about it so that they didn’t suffer the fate of an angry God.

I believe in living sacrificially, but not to deliver people from the fate of an angry God, but to do my part to bring about the Kingdom of God and it’s related peace to this world.

Jesus came to heal us.

John 3:16, Jesus came to give us an abundant life here on earth.

Jesus came to restore us not only to God, but to restore us in our personal relationships with others here on earth.

Jesus came not only to do these works in our personal lives. But Jesus came to transform society itself into a people who are loving and who care for each other.

And it worked until it changed and became an agent of the State. Before that, Christianity spread rapidly because the believers were focused on each other and on transforming the culture.

Christians know that they do have a greater reward in heaven and they do indeed live for that reward.

But that doesn’t mean that we don’t and cannot experience the abundance that God has for us here and now.

Salvation is restoration, not merely deliverance from hell.

It isn’t the message about who is in and who is out, 1 John 2:2 tells us that eventually, everyone is in. We are brothers and sisters with the world entire, regardless of their religion or race.

So, what about this faith without works being a dead faith and whether or not we can earn salvation by our works?

Since salvation is restoration to God and to others then the works of salvation are the works of restoration.

That is one of the reasons why I say forgiveness is a spiritual discipline. It restores us. We can forgive but we have no control over how the other will react.

But my experience tells me that forgiveness restores me to God, and then, who knows what God will do?

Forgiveness is one of the works of the Holy Spirit that leads to restoration and that restoration is an healing.

God is still working wonders of love today, as our Higher Power shows us.

Martin Luther didn’t want the epistle in the New Testament but he just didn’t seem to understand the power of the Holy Spirit behind the good works we are called to do.

So yes, don’t worry about it. We are going to have these works of love and charity and forgiveness because the Power of the Holy Spirit is inside of us leading us to do the good that God has saved us to do.

So, a living faith, is a loving faith.