Made Alive To A Living Faith

Recently with Heirborne, the middle school ministry here at The Bridge, I have been teaching through the book of James. A couple weeks ago we came to a passage James that is hotly debated among Christians and theologians. The passage is James 2:14-26, where James talks about dead faith. The reason why it is debated is because James makes a bold statement in verse 24 when he says "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." This verse should make alarms go off in your head since the rest of the New Testament seems to fight against the passage, especially the Pauline epistles. What James is seemingly saying is that works have to be present in salvation, something that the evangelical church disagrees with vehemently. Because of this church fathers, such as Martin Luther, have questioned James' biblical-canonical authenticity. The reason why is when you read a passage like Galatians 3:16 which says, "Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified." you notice a contradiction between Galatians and James. Thus when you juxtapose that passage next to James 2, you have a contradiction, at least an apparent one. However, does this mean that the Word of God contradicts itself?

I do not believe so. The Word of God is completely inerrant and infallible and when you understand it in its proper context you realize that these apparent contradictions end up complimenting one another. In regards to these two passages, Paul is talking about justification in a different way than James is. Paul is talking about the moment you are justified before God in Christ, the moment of salvation, while James is talking about the proof of this salvific event taking place. Paul is speaking and complimenting a living and real faith while James is condemning a dead faith. Paul is speaking of faith vs. no faith while James is speaking of dead faith vs. living faith. For example if you are at a restaurant with a friend and your friend pays that bill, you are free to leave the restaurant with no obligations, but if you ask your friend for proof of the payment he will show you the receipt, the proof that he paid the bill. In the same way Paul in Galatians speaks of salvation, the debt (our sin) being paid for in full, and James is talking about the proof that salvation took place. So if you are truly saved you will live differently, not because you are trying to earn God's favor, but instead because you already have God's favor so you are free to live a free life in Christ. Another way to put it is Paul is saying that you are saved by faith alone in Christ, and James is saying that the faith that saves is never alone.

A great example of this is the biblical story of the healing Naaman, a man with leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-19). Naaman goes to this great man of God, Elisha, and and asks to be healed, and Elisha tells him to go dip and wash himself in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman reluctantly does so and is healed. Now the question is poised, what saved him from leprosy? Was it his faith in the fact the God could heal him, or was it the fact that he dipped himself in the Jordan River seven times? Obviously it was his faith in God that saved him, but what proved that he had faith in God was that he was willing to wash himself seven times in the Jordan river. This is precisely what James is explicating in James 2. In essence he is saying, "If you truly believe, live it out!" So ask yourself do you believe, and is that evidenced in your life with action?