What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. (James 2:14-26, NRSV)
Ok… This is a hard text for Lutherans because “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). So we kind of get hung up on the works part, much to our detriment. I have heard it said that the average Lutheran invites some one to worship once every 27 years… Now that is resting on your faith!
James here asks “Can faith save you?” My answer when I saw that was yes! absolutely faith is the only thing that can save me. This past Sunday before worship, someone asked me about a devotional they had read in which a person had died and gone to heaven and God asked them what they had done to get here. She asked me what I would say, and I replied, “nothing. I have done everything in my power not to be here, but I am here because of Jesus.” And that my friend is the only thing that can save us. Belief in the promises that Christ died for you and because of what He did you can be in a right relationship with God.
Now does that mean that James is wrong? NO! We have to have works. But not because works can save us, but because as James says, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” We have to have works and we have to be filled with love for the other so we are moved to be there and cloth the naked and feed the hungry.
And the continuation of Ephesians 2:8-9 is verse 10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” God had prepared good works for us to through the love of Christ to light and season the world.
So do not allow your relationship with God to be dead… Do the works He has prepared for you before you were conceived and shine a light in the darkness!
aSacredRebel 