James Chapter Two, Part 5

 

James 2:20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

 

This marks the second of three times James comments that “faith without works is dead,” the first being verse 17, the final being verse 26. Verse 17 is preceded by an illustration about how words or intentions void of a corresponding action to reinforce them are useless. Further, James likens faith severed from works to a body without the spirit: incapable of acting for good or evil. A body is simply the container for the person housing it, while the spirit determines the course that body will take. Bereft of the spirit, the body simply rots.

Verse 20 now is another challenge James has for his readers, in case his initial examples of ignoring other Christian’s plights and the puerile faith of demons were insufficient. He poses a simple question. He intends, by virtue of an example most important to his Hebrew readers, to prove how works are an essential outflowing of faith, and how genuine faith would be evidenced by it. For that, he turns to Abraham, the father of faith and of the Hebrew nation.

 

James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? [22] Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? [23] And the Scripture was fulfilled which said, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.

 

Abraham’s offering of Isaac occurs in Genesis chapter 22. Genesis 22:1 begins this way: “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham,” NASB. The Hebrew word for “test” is “Nacah” and in this instance implies “to prove.” The Oxford Dictionary of Current English defines test numerous ways, but the definition is very telling for what God’s intentions for Abraham were. “A procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something…a difficult situation that reveals the strength or quality of someone or something.”

 

This test brought to light the righteousness Abraham already possessed long before this trial occurred, as recorded in Scripture. The passage James quotes from is this, “And [God] took [Abraham] outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness,” Genesis 15:5-6 NASB. Abraham’s faith, which was imputed to him by God decades before Isaac was offered up on the altar was “perfected” or “completed” in this visible demonstration. It was designed by God not to test IF Abraham believed, but to showcase his already present faith to men, demons, and angels. The test was even and not the least of all for Abraham himself. God certainly needed no test because He knows the heart of mankind, 1^st Samuel 16:6-7; Psalm 139:1-6. Works reveal the quality of our faith: “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation (revealing) of Jesus Christ,” 1^st Peter 1:7. The test Abraham received and the trials Peter describes in verse 6 of his epistle are permitted by God to refine us and through His teaching, bring forth works that adorn the salvation we as His children have been blessed with, to the glory of God the Father.

 

James correlates Abraham’s willing choice to trust God to the summit of his faith’s clarity. Faith is never more transparent than when one of His children obeys from the heart, disregarding popular culture, peer pressure, and human convention or wisdom. What did Abraham’s two servants think about this venture? We do not know. But we do know what they saw, and that Abraham undoubtedly related the story of God’s grace by providing a substitute for Isaac. God was glorified through the simple, child-like obedience of a man that trusted him, and whose actions manifested that trust for all to see, see Matthew 18:2-4. As Isaac addressed his father in that passage, so too was Abraham toward Yahweh. As it should be for each of us that confesses the name of Christ.

 

I want to leave with an illustration of my own out of Scripture, though a hundred others could be easily cited to support James’ intentions about faith and works. Hebrews chapter 11 is a cornucopia of stories about the faith of men and women, and their attendant works that made their faith manifest. But I would like to focus on Abel. We read: “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks,” Hebrews 11:4.

 

We learn from this single verse that summarizes Abel’s life that his works, done in faith, witnessed of his righteousness; the same imputed righteousness Abraham would later have conferred to him, too. Verse 39 informs us that Abel obtained “a good testimony through faith.” Abel’s faith manifested in outward obedience. Both brothers knew, it would appear, what an acceptable sacrifice was, since God Himself performed the first sacrifice by killing an animal to clothe their parents, Genesis 3:21. Literally, their shameful nakedness was covered by the death of another. Abel obtained witness from God that his work was accepted. Why? Because it was performed in faith toward God, just like Abraham in Genesis chapter 22. James’ theme of works perfecting faith is complimentary; the saint born again of the household of God does works because we are remade in Christ’s likeness and our nature, now being conformed to His own, brings about this result naturally. A dead faith is the barren ground on which nothing grows, and is in danger of being burned by God, Hebrews 6:8; 1 Corinthians 3:15. The believer in question will suffer loss and forfeit reward at Christ’s judgment seat, 1 Corinthians 9:24.