“Justified By Works?”
James 2:14-26
Last
week we read one of the most important passages for our understanding of
salvation from Paul’s letter to the Romans.
In the text we read last week, we discovered one of the great truths of
the Christian faith, that we have been justified by grace through faith. Without any merit of our own, we have been
made righteous before God. Our
relationship, which was once broken and hostile to God, has been made right
again through the cross of Jesus Christ, who is himself the proof of God’s love
for us.
To know that we have been made right with God by God’s grace is not just music to our ears, it is a symphony to our heart. In a world where every day we must prove ourselves worthy, to know that we are made worthy simply by God’s grace is as freeing a statement as we could ever possibly hear. No longer do we have to prove our worth, because God already considers us worthy. No longer do we have to try to earn God’s love because God loves us first. No longer do we have to worry about having strings attached to our salvation, because God has demonstrated once and for all, through the blood of Jesus Christ, that there are no prerequisites to God’s love and acceptance of us. Without any merit of our own, God alone has restored our relationship and made us right with God again.
Justification
by grace through faith is one of the hallmark confessions of the Reformed
faith. It was what got the Protestant
Reformation started, and changed the course of church history forever. With this new understanding of God’s work of
salvation, we have been set free from our vain attempts at trying to appease
God. We have been set free from any despair
we might have wondering whether or not we will be good enough to be saved. We have even been set free from any fear we
might have over the possibility of losing our salvation. As Jesus says, “if
the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.”
The truth of Jesus Christ has set us free indeed, and this freedom is
found in no other but the God of salvation.
If
justification by grace through faith is like a warm blanket on a cold night,
then our text for this morning from James is like an ice-cold cooler of water
being dumped on our heads. It seems that
the clear skies of the good news of last week as suddenly turned overcast with
the threat of rain on our parade. Like
fingernails on a chalkboard, hearing James say that we are justified by works
makes us reel back and cringe, and we find ourselves wanting to quickly cover
our ears. Certainly this cannot be the
good news we have come to know and love from God’s word. How in the world could a letter like this
make its way into the Bible? It seems to
go against everything Paul was saying.
It seems to go against everything we have come to believe about the God
we know in Jesus Christ. It seems to go
against everything we believe about how God saves humanity. Well, this letter is in the Bible for a very
good reason, because it too makes an important statement about salvation for
Christians.
At
first glance, when reading this text from James, one could very easily conclude
that James is proposing a new way of salvation, a proposition that seems to
distort the very heart of the Christian faith with its emphasis on grace. And often times, our immediate reaction is to
dismiss this letter outright. The great
reformer, Martin Luther, once called this letter an “epistle of straw” saying
that James has “nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.” Even the people who put the lectionary
together do not include this portion of James letter in the lectionary
readings.
We are
so used to hearing and relying on justification by grace through faith that any
notion of works righteousness immediately gets placed in the category of
heresy. Yet, there are plenty of people
who lift up this text to us of the Reformed faith as evidence that we are saved
by works. They point to the claim that
James makes when he says, “a person is justified by works and not by faith
alone” as proof that a person as to do works in order to be saved. And the truth is they are right, but only if
that person is already a Christian.
Now
I know what you are probably thinking.
You are thinking to yourself that last week I preached a sermon on
justification by grace through faith and now I’m preaching a sermon on
justification by works. And your are asking yourselves, which is it? Are we saved by grace, or are we saved by
works? And my answer to you is,
“Yes!” We are saved by both. Let me explain.
In his
letter to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion, to the Jewish Christians, James
is addressing one of the most fundamental misunderstandings and
misinterpretations of Paul’s justification by grace. The Christians at that time had taken Paul’s
justification by grace and turned it into a permission to do as they
pleased. They argued that since they had
been saved by grace through faith and had been made right with God, then it
didn’t matter what they did because they had been saved. They argued that being obedient to God’s
commandments made no difference anymore because they were not saved by
following them anyway. For them, the
freedom of grace became the freedom from commitment, obligation, and obedience
as saved people.
But
James says to them, “No, you’re missing the point. I’m not talking about when a
person is first saved at the beginning of their Christian life. I’m talking about when a person is already
saved. It’s the difference between
having faith and having a faith that saves.”
The Christians at that time were going around saying they had faith, but
they were not demonstrating their faith in concrete, visible actions. They were content to hold onto their belief
as nothing more than an intellectual exercise rather than allowing it to have
any influence on their lives.
For
James, simply believing all the right things does not make one a
Christian. Christianity is not just an
intellectual exercise. At its core is an
ethical and moral reorientation that must be demonstrated concretely and
visibly in a person’s day-to-day living.
Even the demons are orthodox in their belief. They too believe God is one, but that belief
has no influence on their lives. It does
not alter them in the slightest way, so all they can do is shudder. Even today, people still argue the same thing
as the early Christians did, that all I have to do is believe and I’m good to
go. I don’t need church. I don’t need the Bible. I don’t need to be in fellowship. I don’t need to change how I’m living,
because I’m already right with God.
Faith without works spares individuals the embarrassment of a radical
disruption in their lives or relationships.
Just look at the numbers. Twice
as many Americans claim to be members of churches as compared to those who
actually participate in the life and ministry of the church.
On the surface, what seems
like a contradiction between Paul and James is in fact a wholehearted
agreement. What people forget about when
reading Paul’s justification by grace is all the times when Paul turns to all
those who are already saved and calls upon them to begin living as saved
people. Keep in mind that the person who
said that one is justified by grace is also the same person who said in the
same letter to the Romans that “God will repay according to each one’s deeds”
(Romans 2:6), is also the same person who said in the first letter to the
Corinthians that “each will receive wages according to the labor of each” (1Cor
3:8), is also the same person who said in the second letter to the Corinthians
that “all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each
may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or
evil” ( 2 Corinthians 5:10).
The difference between Paul and
James is not in their understanding of salvation, but in how a person’s
salvation is made manifest at the different times of a Christian’s life. When Paul speaks about justification by grace
he is talking about when a person becomes a new person in Christ, at the beginning
of their Christian life, which cannot be done by works, but is only done by
God’s grace. And when James speaks about
justification by works, he is talking about when a person is already a new
person in Christ, when a person is already a professing Christian, when a
person is already claiming to be made right with God and in a new relationship
with God. Paul and James are not a
contradiction to each other, they are a complement to each other, both of them
lifting up the great truth of the Christian faith that no one can be saved by
works, but no one can be saved apart from works. Faith and works must go hand in hand.
Profession and practice, words and actions, faith and works are the twin components of what it means to be a Christian. Being justified is not a one-time deal; justification is an ongoing work of the Spirit of the living Christ in us. Every day, we Christians, who have already been made right with God, are still being made right with God through the work we do as God’s people. It is our works that turns our belief into what it is supposed to be, something living and active that influences our lives and calls us to commitment, obligation, and obedience to God’s commandments. It is our works that turns our belief into a saving faith that sets us apart as God’s people, secures for us a place in God’s kingdom, and calls us to be God’s people in and for the world. It is our works that turns our belief into what it really is to be – the fullest expression of our love, devotion, and trust in the God who saves us by grace. Amen.