Faith Sacrifices

So with Abraham as our example, let's ask, "How does all of this work?" According to both James and Paul, faith creates works. James says in verses 22-23,

James quotes here from Genesis 15 and the story of Abraham. There's a progression in Abraham's life to which both Paul and James refer. God enters into covenant with Abraham, and here's how it happens:

God gave Abraham His promise, and Abraham believed God. Abraham's faith in God was credited to him as righteousness. Then we turn to Genesis 22 where God has given Abraham a son, Isaac. In verses 1-2 God tells Abraham to offer his son as a burnt offering. Abraham goes to the mountain with Isaac, raises the knife to sacrifice his only son, and then we read the following:

So when did Abraham first believe God? In Genesis 22? No. Abraham believed God a long time before that. Some scholars say that up to 30 years passed between Genesis 15 and 22. Abraham's faith resulted in works of obedience when God called him to sacrifice his son. And James is saying in chapter 2 that this is the fruit of faith. Just as when you take an apple seed and plant it in the ground, you will one day see an apple tree, so in the same way, when faith is born in a person's heart, it will bear fruit. By its nature faith creates works, and then in turn works complete faith. James says of Abraham in verse 22 that "by works, faith was perfected." Now, what does that word perfected mean? It means "to bring to maturity." Abraham's works matured his faith, brought his faith to its finished goal. James is saying that when we obey God (i.e., when we work), our faith grows up, matures, and is brought to completion.

To apply James's point practically, we might say the more you obey God, the more your faith grows. Faith leads you to obedience, and obedience matures faith. This is a wonderful reality. Works are good when they are the fruit of faith. Consider how this plays out in some of the most basic of Christian actions:

Coming to corporate worship. If you come to a worship gathering fueled by the flesh in order to put on a face before men or to earn favor before God, then this work of worship does not bring honor to God. But if your coming is the fruit of faith, if you believe and love God, and if you trust that He knows what He is saying when He tells us not to forsake gathering together (Heb 10:25), your actions do honor God. When your faith drives you to corporate worship with God's people, leading you to sing spiritual songs, listen to the Word of God, and fellowship with other believers, this is a part of bringing your faith to maturity.

Spending concentrated time in prayer and Bible study. If you are doing these things in the flesh because you feel like this is a religious routine you must do in order to earn favor before God, then this is not a good work. But if you believe your supreme delight is found in God and you want to know Him, hear from Him, and express the longings of your heart to Him, then a quiet time is a really good work.

Caring for the poor. If you do this in the flesh because you feel like you have to in order to earn favor before God, then caring for the poor 53will not bring honor to God. But if you believe God when He says this is important to Him and His people are to spend themselves on behalf of the poor, then you will care radically for the poor, and your faith will be made complete in what you do.

I love what Luther said about faith: "O it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them, and is constantly doing them" ("Preface," 370).

We now move to verse 24, the most controversial verse in this passage: "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." So what does James mean that we are not justified by "faith alone"? We have to remember that throughout this passage James is talking with imaginary people who claim to have faith but don't really have it. Such faith is dead; it's not really faith at all. Thus, when we get to verse 24, James is communicating the same thing. He's saying, once again, that this kind of faith does not justify. It does not save. Why? Because this so-called faith is not really faith at all. All James is saying is that we are not justified by faith that claims to believe in Jesus but does nothing. This kind of faith is no different from demons' belief, and ultimately it is dead. And to that Paul himself would say, "Amen." When James refers to "faith alone" in verse 24, he is not talking about the same kind of faith Paul talks about or even the same kind of faith he (James) himself talks about in the rest of the book of James, namely, living faith. No, when James says "faith alone" in verse 24, he is referring to the dead, demonic, intellectual faith that he is countering throughout this passage.

Two Pictures of Justification

James 2:24

We've seen there is no contradiction between James and Paul on the fact that living faith produces works, but there is still another big idea at the beginning of verse 24 that needs to be examined. James says a man is justified "by works." In other words, works, in some sense, play into our justification. This leads us to the last word we need to think about: justification.

A simple definition of justification is "to be declared right." As we think about salvation, the picture is that we are declared right before God. But how are we declared right before God? By faith or by works?

54The answer to this question is huge, and the gospel hinges on it. This is where Paul and James both use Abraham to talk about justification, but interestingly they reference different points in Abraham's life. Paul's main point in the book of Romans is that Abraham was justified by faith before he did anything. Before he was circumcised, before he had Isaac, before he was willing to sacrifice Isaac, before all of this, Abraham had faith, and his faith was credited as righteousness (Rom 4:3). But James is emphasizing something altogether different. He is talking about when Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to God, and James says that Abraham was considered righteous when he did that. In these two perspectives on Abraham's life—one from the standpoint of his initial faith and the other looking back on his life of obedience—separated by some 30 years, we see two pictures of justification.

First, when Paul talks about justification, he is most often talking about initial justification, which is the inception of the Christian's life. When you turn from yourself and trust in Jesus as the only One who can save you, God clothes you with the righteousness of Christ and by His grace declares you right before Him (Rom 4:3-5; Gal 2:16). In Ephesians 2:8 Paul says, "For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift." See the danger Paul wants us to avoid: thinking that works are a necessary basis or means of our salvation. Paul in Scripture is calling us to believe in God, not in the sense that demons believe (which James is combating in 2:19), but in the sense that you believe Jesus is the sovereign Lord and King who alone has paid the price for your sins on the cross and who has finished the work of salvation for you so that nothing more is to be added to that work. Believe in Him and be saved. That's what Paul means when he talks about justification in Romans 3:21-26: at the moment you trust in Christ, you are justified before God. But that doesn't mean James is using the word in the same way.

In the Old Testament and in Jesus' teachings, this term justification is oftentimes used in reference not just to the initial point of salvation but to the final judgment where we will stand before God.

In Matthew 12:37 Jesus says, "For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." The word there for "acquitted" is akin to being "justified." Jesus is saying that by your words you will be declared innocent, and the picture here is of something that will happen in the future at the day of judgment. When we come to 55James, who has already shown us how much he leans on Jesus' teachings and who has already talked about the judgment of God that is coming (2:12-13), it seems clear that he is not referring to initial justification, that is, the time when we first believe and are declared right before God but rather to final justification. Final justification refers to what will happen on the day of judgment when God declares us right in His sight. As opposed to talking about the inception of the Christian's life, James is talking about the confirmation of the Christian's life. This is what happens on the final day when what was declared initially is declared openly.

What James is confronting in his letter is different from what Paul is confronting. Paul wants us to avoid thinking we need to work in order to earn salvation. Then there's the danger James wants us to avoid: thinking that works are not necessary as evidence of our salvation. Again, works are not the basis of our justification. Final justification is not based on our works, but rather James is wanting us to see that when we stand before God on the day of judgment, it will be clear whether we had real, true, and authentic faith or dead, demonic faith.

You may ask, "How will I know if my faith was real?" And the answer is, "Was there any fruit?" Because if there was faith, then there will be fruit. Paul says Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness at the moment he believed. That leads us to ask questions like, "How do we know Abraham's faith was real?" And James tells us Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son in obedience to God. This can only be the fruit of faith. When Paul says, "For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law" (Rom 3:28), he is saying a man is justified by wholehearted trust in the grace of Christ, not from any work he can do to earn his way to God. And James is in the background saying, "Amen!" And when James says, "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone" (Jas 2:24), he is saying a man is not justified by a cold, intellectual belief in Jesus that even the demons have. Instead, a man is justified by a faith that produces radical obedience and sacrifice. And Paul is in the background saying, "Amen!" If this sounds confusing, we'll try to summarize everything with two truths below.

Two Truths to Remember

Two truths summarize everything we've seen so far. First, salvation is through faith. We are not saved through works; we are saved through faith. This is particularly what we saw in Paul: Through initial faith in 56Christ, we are made right before God the Father. If you were to ask Paul or James, "How can I be saved?" they would both answer by saying that Christ is the basis for our salvation. James speaks of having "faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ" (2:1). Jesus has done the work. He has conquered sin, and He has purchased righteousness for us, so there is no work for us to do. His work on the cross and in the resurrection is the basis of our salvation. But how is that work applied to my life? The answer is this: faith is the means of our salvation. Trust in the person and work of Christ, and this is how you can be saved (Acts 16:31). Turn from yourself and trust in Him to save you from your sins and to be the Lord over your life, and you will be made right before God the Father. This gives us radical confidence. When God gives you birth through the word of truth (Jas 1:18), you don't ever have to fear anything in this life. You don't have to fear death itself because you are right before God the Father for all of eternity. Salvation is through faith.

The second truth to summarize this passage is that faith works. When Christ gives you spiritual birth, He gives you spiritual life—a life that is radically different and a life that bears great fruit. Look at Abraham: Yes, through His initial trust in God, He was made right before God the Father, but through continual faith in Christ, we walk with God as friend. An easy believism is rampant today in contemporary (so-called) Christianity where all kinds of people are claiming and believing they are right before God the Father, but they have absolutely no interest in walking with God as friend. And James says such people don't have faith; their faith is dead.

This picture of Abraham being called God's friend in James 2:23 is not an exact quote from the Old Testament although it is somewhat similar to descriptions of Abraham in 2 Chronicles 20:7 and Isaiah 41:8 (Moo, James, 139; Blomberg and Kamell, James, 138). Yet the picture is the same as what we hear from the mouth of Jesus when He says to His disciples in John 15:14, "You are My friends if you do what I command you." It is the natural overflow of knowing God as Father to enjoy God as friend. Such faith results in radical obedience. When your faith is in God as Father and as friend, then you do not need to be afraid to obey Him. You do not need to fear His commands. Even when He says to do things that make no sense to us or to the world around us, and even when He calls us to take steps that risk everything, we can obey. Why? Because we trust God wholeheartedly. This is why Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son: because he trusted God. And when we trust God, we 57will follow God sacrificially. We'll sacrifice everything in obedience to His commands.

Reflect and Discuss