Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19990404.htm

JAMES: OVERCOMING DEAD RELIGIOSITY IN OUR BACKGROUNDS
Part II: Overcoming A False Spirituality's HEARTLESS Errors In Relating To Other Believers
C. Overcoming An Errant View Of Faith And Works That Inhibits Help To Poor Believers
(James 2:14-26)
  1. Introduction
    1. The Roman Catholic Church has used James 2:14-26 to defend its belief that one is saved by faith plus works instead of faith alone, or instead of Martin Luther's "sola fide" call of the Protestant Reformation.
    2. If we look closely at the text, we find that though the Catholic position is in error, James' burden in the text corrects an errant tendency in Bible-believing Churches to be apathetic toward impoverished believers.
  2. Overcoming An Errant View Of Faith And Works That Inhibits Help To Poor Believers.
    1. One of the false spirituality problems that existed in the Early Church was a tendency to promote salvation as being by faith alone to the extent that faith was upheld without good works in the Christian life:
      1. James reports on a typical problem in Early Church believers where an impoverished member of the congregation would be left to dangle in their impoverished state without receiving any aid, 2:15-16.
      2. The cause for this apathy by the "haves" in the body was their misunderstanding of what was faith:
        1. Paul and Peter made a strong, landmark promotion of the doctrine of justification by faith apart from the deeds of the law at the Acts 15 Jerusalem council, cf. Acts 15:1-2, 7-11.
        2. Consequently, some believers extended this emphasis on faith over works to the point that they promoted faith without works in the Christian LIFE, cf. James 2:14a,b.
        3. Accordingly, the impoverished in some congregations were going without having their bare necessities met by the gifts of other believers who were able to help them simply because the "haves" were hiding behind the idea that they were exalting faith instead of works! (James 2:15-16)
    2. Now, since then, the Roman Catholic Church has used James rebuttal in James 2:14-26 to COUNTER Peter and Paul's initial promotion of justification by faith alone, making salvation by faith plus works: accordingly, The Catholic Encyclopedia (Robert C. Broderick, ed., 1987, s. v. "Justification") says: "We are justified by Christ (cf. Is. 53:11) and by good works, as declared in the Epistle of James (2:24-26)."
    3. We thus examine James' argument in the Greek text behind the translation to correct misunderstandings:
      1. Where James asks in the KJV at the end of James 2:14, " . . . can faith save him?", the Greek text reads, " . . . the faith cannot save him, [can it]?" [The presence of the subjunctive negative adverb (may) as opposed to the indicative negative ou indicates that the author expects a negative answer as we have penned his question, UBS Grk. N.T., p. 783; Machan, N.T. Grk. for Beginners, p. 197.]
      2. Well, the article we translate as "the" has the anaphoric use, meaning the word "faith" that it modifies is the faith previously mentioned, Dana & Mantey, A Manual of the Greek New Testament, p. 141.
      3. In other words, James was asking, "What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has 'faith', but he have not works? SUCH a 'faith' can not save him, can it?" (see the NIV) JAMES WAS SAYING THAT A FAITH THAT DOES NOT PRODUCE WORKS IS AN ARTIFICIAL FAITH -- NOT THAT SALVATION WAS BY MEANS OF FAITH PLUS WORKS!
      4. Fitting this understanding into the text, James argument becomes clear as follows, James 2:17-26:
        1. James states that the claim to have faith when one has not demonstrated a life of works following such a faith is in reality a dead, or artificial faith, James 2:17.
        2. In fact, true faith is demonstrated by a life of works just opposite the claims of believers who said they had faith without helping needy fellow believers, James 2:18-20.
        3. James then uses the example of Abraham who demonstrated true faith by his true works, 2:21-23.
        4. Accordingly, James asserts that a true faith produces works as a badge of true salvation, James 2:24.
        5. James then used the example of Rahab's actions that demonstrated her faith, and concludes that a genuine faith will produce genuine works if it is to be seen as a real faith, James 2:25-26.
Lesson: (1) OPPOSITE Catholicism's view that James taught salvation was BY MEANS of faith PLUS works, James taught that a TRULY SAVING faith was EVIDENCED by godly WORKS. (2) As such, we Bible-believing Christians who SAY we believe and are truly saved by faith alone should also LIVE with good works like ministering to destitute brethren! Otherwise, our claim to be saved is invalidated!