Faith Without Works is Dead???

James 2:14-26 (NIV)

14 "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 

18 "But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." 
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder."

20 "You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that  a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone."

25 "In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."


Well I've been chewing, praying, meditating, studying and researching over this passage for a few days now and God has most certainly put the light on in more ways than one!

Let's get a bit of context in this first shall we? James is writing to converted Jews who obviously was so wrapped up in the law, that when they received the gift of righteousness by God's grace, thought they didn't have to do anything at all any more. They were also judging on appearances - eg the rich in the font row, the poor and dirty in the back row, ignoring those in need. James 3 talks about praising God one minute, then cursing someone the next. James 4 talks about self-centeredness and greed, how wrong it is to be friends of the world. Their focus was in making money and building up businesses for themselves. Having the best in materialistic things in this earth.

Here we go! In James 2:14 it says "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?"
Now we know that we are saved by grace through faith and NOT BY WORKS (Ephesians 2:8), so James is actually referring to the type of faith. Genuine true faith in grace, with a heart transformation, majority of the time, has a love and compassion from God for others and naturally helps them. From a worldly point of view, that sort of faith in 14, doesn't help / save people at all. He actually goes on to say that this faith is dead (useless and lifeless). He is not saying the person is dead or not going to heaven. He is saying that the faith of that person is dead, lifeless or useless. James is also asking a question here, not making a statement because only God truly knows who is saved and who isn't. There are so called Christians who say they are believers, but are not and don't do any works. There are also Christians who are true believers that don't do any noticeable works, that could be considered by the outside as dead or useless faith. Then there are true believers who are doing dead works, and again there are true believers who are doing God's works.

The works that James is writing about are God's works - they ARE NOT our works. Religious and legalistic teachers look at this passage and think that WE need to DO something to show or prove we have faith, but they don't look at it from God's point of view, just from their own point of view in a self righteous way. The works that do happen as a supernatural flow from the Spirit of God, is a NATURAL EFFECT of our faith. God's works are also not evident to all people, because it is between the individual person and God - especially not evident to believers who are self righteous and because they are God's works, no one can judge or say anything.

Through this whole chapter, James is looking at physical v spiritual and how the world looks at us. He is talking about evidence from a worldly perspective. How the world tries to justify us (24). Because the Jews James was writing to were full of pride and making judgements on others, it was as though they were just like the world, living under the law again, so James was taking all this from a worldly point of view. He was trying to say to them - if you really want to take the law in your hands again by judging others, you have to take the whole law which says you also need to love your neighbor as yourself - which you are not doing. If you think you are helping or saving the world by showing respect to the rich and totally ignoring the poor, when the poor are also your neighbor, it's ridiculous, totally twisted thinking!

Now we come up to James 2:24 "You see that  a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone." We also know that we are already declared righteous and justified through Jesus and His perfect work. (Romans 5:18,19). Because James is taking it from a worldly point of view, this is referring to how we are justified in the world, not by God. God has already justified us, without us doing anything, only believing and accepting Jesus sacrifice! I think we sometimes forget that the world is looking at us and are also making judgements on us. They are seeing if we are the true believers. This is what they want to see and are waiting for - the sons of God being revealed!  (Romans 8:19)

Now in 26 we read "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead" 
Again James is not saying that because we don't have deeds, we are dead and going to hell! He is saying that that type of faith is dead, lifeless and useless - it's not doing anything fruitful in God's kingdom. It does not mean they are not saved!!!

Now I'm going to focus a bit on "As the body without the spirit is dead" in 26. In a physical aspect, the body without the spirit is totally dead, lifeless and useless - just like that type of dead faith. In a spiritual aspect, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Without being guided by, submitted and surrendered to the Holy Spirit, our works are dead! We can do a whole lot of works that we think are God's will and good etc (I have been there more times than one over the last 17 years!), but are actually not what God really wants you to do. When you are doing God's works, you have His supernatural peace, joy, excitement, freedom, grace when doing it. It's not a struggle because it's all through His strength, His grace, His power. You are His vessel that He is flowing through. There's no fear, because you have this amazing love and fire burning inside you, there's no pride because you know it's all about Him, through Him, for Him and for His glory! It's the way God has created us to live! An abundant full life!!!
I know when I have been doing dead works, because it's like my spirit has gone a bit flat, it does actually feel like a bit of life has gone, things start becoming a struggle, I can even let condemnation and intimidation in and it's all because I'm doing things in my own efforts (it's so subtle, which is how the enemy operates!) - even though they are good and godly things. God will let us do it too, because He is not controlling or pushy. He does not force us to do His will. James is actually referring to people putting the law back into their own hands. We sometimes think the law is the 10 commandments, what Moses was under, all the do's and don't's, but the truth is the law is when we are self righteous, when we think and do things our own way. Thank you Jesus that you have delivered us from the law!!!