Faith and Works are Inseparable (Cause and Effect)
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”; and yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. You see then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.” (James 2:14-26 WEB)
A so-called faith that doesn’t produce good works cannot save anyone.
True faith in Jesus will always produce the fruit of good works.
Faith and works are inseparable. There’s no such thing as faith that doesn’t result in good works—that’s not faith at all.
A truly saved person will do good works. His invisible salvation will be clearly demonstrated by a visible transformation in the way he lives and what he does.
If a person claims to be a Christian and yet there’s no proof at all of his faith, then he’s probably lying about believing in Jesus.
God does not need to see our good works to know whether we really placed our faith in Jesus.
Man is the one who needs to see our good works in order to know if we are saved.
We justify (prove and demonstrate) our faith in the eyes of other people through our good works.
We aren’t saved by good works—good works just proves to others that we are really saved.
It’s not enough to believe that God is one. Even the demons believe that but their faith and allegiance is not to Him.
They fear God and shudder at the thought of future judgment.
Believing that Jesus is God doesn’t save—the religious leaders of Israel who caused Jesus to be crucified knew that He fulfilled the signs of the Messiah, learnt of His resurrection from the dead from the Roman soldiers and still chose to reject Him.
It is placing your faith in Jesus and making Him your Lord and Savior that results in your salvation.
How do we, readers of the Scriptures, know that Abraham really had faith in Yahweh?
By the fact that he was ready to even sacrifice Isaac, his beloved and only son—a miracle child and a fulfillment of Yahweh’s promise.
But when was Abraham saved? When he first had faith in Yahweh’s promise that his offspring would be more numerous than the stars of the heavens and the sand on the seashore. This was long before Isaac was even born.
At that time, Abraham already became righteous through faith.
Abraham’s faith in Yahweh produced his act of obedience.
Faith is perfected when what is believed in the heart is demonstrated outwardly by one’s works.
How does God know that Abraham believed Him? By looking at Abraham’s heart.
How does man know that Abraham believed God? By looking at Abraham’s works.
When was Rahab the prostitute from Jericho saved?
Not when she helped the spies, but long before that when she heard what Yahweh did for the children of Israel in Egypt, at the Red Sea and in the wilderness.
Faith came through hearing about Yahweh and Rahab placed her faith in Yahweh as the God of Heaven above and earth beneath. (Joshua 2:9-11).
How do we—the readers of the Scriptures, know that Rahab truly had faith in Yahweh?
Through her works of helping the two spies from the children of Israel, she demonstrated that she really believed and thus justified her faith in our eyes.
Using these two examples of Biblical characters, James showed that faith in Jesus will surely be accompanied by the fruit of good works.
Anyone who professes to have faith in Jesus and has no good works at all to show for it, is still spiritually dead in his sins—his absence of good works proves that he is still not saved.
James’ message is aligned with what the apostle Paul taught in his letters as well.
Paul taught that we are justified (made right with God) by faith apart from the works of the Law, and that after we are saved, we should be fruitful in good works which befits our new identify as children of God.
Paul goes on to teach that good works will surely be rewarded with eternal rewards when we stand before Jesus’ throne for judgment in the future.
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