Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: James 2:14-26 “Are You a Friend of God?”
## Pastor Dennis R. Tuuri | April 27, 2014

Sermon text for today is found in James chapter 2, the second half of the chapter, verses 14–26. Some commentators say that this is the most controversial passage in the entire Bible. James 2:14–26, please stand.

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body—what does it profit?

Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered Isaac, his son, on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Let’s pray. Father, we need your Holy Spirit to help us to understand this text, every text, and to do more than that—to change our lives that we might be more fully those who bring forth works that redound to your glory and the well-being of the world. Bless us, Lord God, with an understanding and transformational power of this text by your Holy Spirit given to us on the basis of the resurrection that we rejoice in today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Please be seated.

In addition to some commentators calling this text the most difficult one of the scriptures, other people have said that this seems to be the theological heart of the book of James—that the rest of the epistle that James writes here really has its theological foundation or heart in this particular text. So it’s an important text, one that’s not to be taken lightly. But it’s a particularly important one for us—particularly for us who bask in the glow of the Reformation, who affirm the five solas, right? And who affirm sola fide—faith alone—as the basis for our salvation, who delight in that great truth that our works don’t merit us salvation. Particularly for us, we can feel particularly challenged by the text before us, because James on the face of it seems to be counterstating what we read in Paul about being saved by faith alone.

Now, of course, I believe in the unity of the Scriptures, and I don’t believe James and Paul do contradict one another. We’ll get into that as we go through this text. But it’s a significant text for lots of reasons, and I’ll try to draw a bigger application of this than just the specific meaning in its context here as we get to the end of the sermon today.

So what I want to do is begin by looking at this saving faith that’s described in these verses. We’ll read through the text and make some comments on it, and then at some point we’ll want to turn to the three examples that James gives us of faith with works. I think they’re significant and very interesting. And then we’ll talk about the relationship of all this to the gospel.

## A Saving Faith and a Tremendous Warning

First of all, a saving faith. This is an important text to get, because there are some very blunt, powerful statements that, if we’re reading the text with belief, should scare us. This is a threatening text. He’s talking to people—he’s talking to the body of Christ, those that have been dispersed abroad—but Christians, right? To the elect. And he’s telling them, you know, you think you have faith, but if you have the kind of faith that you seem to be talking about, your faith is dead.

Now, if their faith is dead, that means they’re still in their trespasses and sins. That means their future is one of damnation, not salvation. So as we read this text ourselves, we should hear James saying to us: If your faith is the sort of faith I’m describing here and critiquing, don’t think that you’re on the path to eternal relationship with God. Don’t think you’re a friend of Jesus unless you have the kind of faith that James describes for us here.

Now, this is stated in several ways. The very first verse: “What does it profit if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” In other words, he says he declares he has faith, but that kind of faith is of no profit—both in terms of the world and what’s happening in the world, but also it can’t save him. It can’t save him from the judgment of God, the righteous judgment of God, from hell.

So he’s talking here about a topic the apprehension of which is central to our salvation. It’s a very important text. And James throughout the text gives us various warnings. Down in verse 16 again, he says, “What does it profit?”—this sort of faith. It doesn’t profit, as the implied answer goes. And that’s rather obvious. He says in verse 19 that even the demons have that kind of faith. So do you see yourself in line with the demons, humans?

And he says that there’s a possibility that your apprehension of faith in your life—if it isn’t mixed with works, if it isn’t demonstrated by works—we could say (we’ll get more into that as we go along), but there’s some kind of condition that can exist in the church, both taught and believed, that will result in people ending up in the same eternal destination as demons. Okay, so this is an important thing to get right, or at least not to get this kind of thing wrong.

He says in verse 24 that we’re justified by works. Now, one of the ways to get around this text—many people have tried to use—is to say this is a different kind of justification. I don’t believe that’s true. That’s not the right place to look for a distinction of terms, I don’t think, between Paul and James. And I’ll talk more about that later. But for now, just recognize that he says Abraham is justified by these works, and indeed also Rahab—same thing. The implication of that is that if we have a kind of faith that isn’t the kind he’s describing here, we’re not justified. We’re not in right relationship to God. We’re not a friend of Jesus. We’re not a friend of God. We’re not justified. And our eternal destination is the same as the demons who believe, or have some kind of faith, in God.

And then, you know, he ends with this: “faith without works again is dead.” Dead. Dead. Dead. Not deficient, not weak. This kind of faith, he says, is dead.

So he begins a tremendous warning. I’ve got this word “fugazi,” which I don’t really—I suppose someone could give us a proper understanding of this word, but it’s an Italian term, right? And it means a nothing. It means something that purports to be something, but actually is a nothing, okay? It’s a fugazi. It’s like nothing.

And so the idea here—this is what James is saying. That kind of Christian faith that’s being described by these people that he’s attacking—it’s a fugazi. It’s not faith at all. You’re saying you’ve got faith, but it’s an illusion. It’s a puff of smoke that there’s no substance to.

Now, a fugazi, as I understand it, the original etymology was from an Italian word that referred to one of the original IEDs way back when, you know, decades back, where they would make—take an explosive and put it in a rock, right? So it was pretending to be a rock, but it wasn’t a rock. It was actually deadly. And that’s the way to think of this. James says, “There’s an illusory sort of faith that you’re declaring you think you’ve got, and maybe some of your teachers are teaching this.” He says, “By the way, what’s going to happen next in chapter 3? ‘Let not many of you be teachers.’” The implication seems to be this is being taught in some of these churches—this kind of faith.

And we have to ask ourselves, you know, properly: Is this being taught here? Is this being taught in churches today around the world? And if it is, it’s not just an illusion. It’s an illusion that will blow you to hell—is what he’s saying here, okay?

So a tremendous warning. He gets our attention throughout the text, and it’s a very significant verse. Earlier here, just before this—verse 14, at the end of verse 13—he says this: “Judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” We can’t take the time today, but the first half of chapter 2 and the second half of chapter 2 really are tightly linked together. There’s a repetition of terms and phrases. And at the end of the first half of chapter 2—and you remember he’s talking about partiality and favoring the rich over the poor, this kind of thing—he concludes it with this same kind of warning. He says that judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, to the one who hasn’t worked, right? He doesn’t have faith, and judgment will be without mercy to him. To him, mercy doesn’t triumph over judgment, right? Judgment is what he’s going to experience from the hand of the just God.

Again, earlier in chapter 1, he says, “If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.” Same thing we’re talking about here. So James talks about a religion that’s useless, a faith that can’t profit, that only brings the same sort of judgment as the demons have.

And those things should again make us look back at the end of chapter 1 and say, “Boy, those three criteria of good religion—bridling our tongue, visiting people that have needs, right? And keeping oneself unspotted from the world—those are important criteria for us. We need to think about those things.” And remember that in the context—certainly we don’t want to be spotted by the world’s sin and all that sort of stuff—but in the context it seems like what he’s saying is using the world’s methods to try to achieve God’s ends, and he says that don’t work. That don’t work. So it’s a great warning of a problem that will blow up in our faces.

And as I said, it seems here that some people want to then redefine this justification term and remove it from the phrase “is a friend of God.” But what James does—look at that verse where he talks about this—he talks about Abraham. He says verse 23, the Scripture was fulfilled by Abraham’s work. He says, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” People say, “Well, that’s a different kind of righteousness.” Well, it seems like this is the same verse that Paul is using in the book of Romans to talk about faith being the sole basis for justification.

So it seems like it’s the same thing. But then the killer argument here is: and he was called the friend of God. Now being called the friend of God means you’ve got right relationship with God. Remember, Jesus right told his disciples, “I no longer call you servants. I call you friends. And I’m going to reveal to you, to my friends, what’s coming down the pike.” And he tells them what’s going to happen to him in his death and resurrection, and then later he reveals to them the flow of history in the book of Revelation. That’s what God does for his friends. That’s what God did to Abraham. He is approached by God, is going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, and he says, “Well, shouldn’t I reveal what I’m going to do to my friend, to the one who has great relationship with me?”

So to be a friend of God is to have relationship with God. And God gives us understanding then of the flow of history. We all are recipients of the book of Revelation. We know what history is about. We know what happened between 30 and 70 AD, and we know what those things are that will provide then an understanding of the history and the times in which we live as well. That’s because we’re friends of God.

So what’s at stake? If you don’t have the kind of faith that James is commending, and if your faith is the kind that he is instead contrasting with good faith, that he’s condemning—if you have that inferior faith, useless faith—you’re not a friend of God. You’re not justified. That’s what’s going on here.

So that is a very important statement. We may get, you know, we may have legitimate exegetical debates about the nature of justification and what that word means in this particular context, but there’s no doubt about what a friend of God means: someone in right relationship to him. And that what he’s saying is that, you know, apart from works, we’re not friends of God. And if we’re not friends of God, then we’re on the wrong side of the equation, and again, we’re lumped in together with those demons.

So very important thing to note as we go through that portion of the text. What it means—this friend of God—is that we have an established status or relationship with God. So if you want a personal relationship with Jesus, you can’t do it by the faith he’s condemning, which is a faith that doesn’t result in any action, any works done to glorify God and help the created order. So he’s saying you don’t have, you’re not a friend of Jesus, right? If you aren’t doing this kind of stuff, you’re not. Friends of God are the way to identify who are the proper sons of Abraham.

Abraham’s a friend of God. If we’re sons of Abraham—and that’s another term that the Bible uses to denote those who are in right relationship with God and Jesus—if we’re not true sons of Abraham, then we’re going to go off again to the place of judgment and death. So that’s a very important point being made here by James: that he’s relating this to Abraham, who are the sons of Abraham, who has relationship with Jesus, who are the friends of God now.

## Justification and Works of the Law

So what is going on then? What is the—you know, how do we understand this problem? As we primarily first look where James is saying you’re justified by works and Paul is saying you’re justified by faith without works—explicitly denying that works is part of the equation.

Jeff Meyer, in lecturing on this at a Biblical Horizons conference several years ago, told a series of jokes which were of varying value as humor. They’re pretty good. But let me just tell you one of them, right? And this is a way of illustrating what’s going on in the text relating it to Paul. He said, “So the young boy goes to his dad and he says, ‘Dad, could you make a sound like a frog?’ And his dad said, ‘Well, why do you want me to do that?’ Well, ‘Mom said if you croak, we get to go to Disneyland.’”

Yeah. So it’s funny because “croak” on the one hand means “make a sound like a frog.” On the other hand, it means “die.” So you can use the same word with different meanings. And that’s the basis of an awful lot of humor—is that kind of use of language. So when we get to this text, I think that’s a significant element of what’s happening here.

If you look at Romans, chapter 3—this is where, at least maybe the most preeminent place where people see this problem between James and Paul. If you want to turn there, it’s Romans 3. I’ll be looking at verses 28–30. And this is the section where Paul is actually talking about Abraham, and he’s talking about who are the sons of Abraham, and this is specifically where he’s talking about justification and works. Pick up in verse 28:

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Not to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.”

Right? We say amen to that. Amen to what Paul’s saying here. It’s not our works meriting anything that produce right standing with God, right? And that’s kind of the key. If we look carefully at the context and see what “croak” means in this verse as opposed to how James is using the term, we see a very important distinction.

The distinction begins in verse 28: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works or deeds of the law.” Now, what Paul is talking about is the deeds of the law. He’s talking about a system of looking at how we get right with God that’s based upon merit. So when he’s talking about works here, he’s talking about works of the law or deeds of the law. He’s talking about some sort of, you know, obedience, a number of right things that we do to merit right relationship with God. That’s how he’s using the term. That’s the kind of “croak” he’s using. He’s talking about meritorious works. And this phrase “works of the law” is related to that throughout the New Testament, and very explicitly from what I just read, he’s clearly articulating that when he’s using works here, he’s talking about works that merit something for Abraham apart from the free grace of God. That’s how Paul is using the term.

But that’s not how James is using the term. If it was, then yeah, James and Paul are in opposition. The Scriptures contradict them. Somebody made a mistake. Luther’s original take on James is right: it’s an epistle of straw, should be ripped out of the canon. But that’s not what James is doing. There is nothing to indicate that James is using that word “works.” He never says “works of the law.” He says “works” or “deeds” or “actions”—whatever you want to translate the term by. But that is, he’s not using the specialized theological argument that Paul is—to speak against meritorious works, works that merit us something.

Now, look at this. The idea is simple here. So you do things for your parents, right? You do the dishes or you sweep the floor, whatever it is—you do things. Now, do you do those things so that you’ll have a relationship with your parents? Do you do them so that they’ll be your parents? Of course not. You do them because they’re your parents, and at some level you love them. And if you love them, you obey them, and you do the works for that reason. That’s James’ kind of works.

If you were to say, “Well, I’m going to sweep the floor, and that’s what’s going to make mom love me. My sweeping the floor, right? That’s what’s going to get me a relationship with mom. I have nothing apart from my works, and if I can do enough good things, then my parents will love me,” you see, that’s the kind of meritorious works. That’s the use of “croak” that Paul is using.

And so there’s no reason to see these texts in opposition to one another. They’re talking about different things. Why are they talking about different things? Because the Scriptures, particularly the epistles, are written to address very specific situations.

What is Paul addressing? He’s addressing people—and there are these people in the church today. He’s addressing people who say, “Hey, I’ve got to be a good enough person so I can go to heaven.” He’s saying, “Forget it. You’ll never do it. You’re not going to heaven if that’s what you believe.”

James is talking about people who say, “Hey, I’m going to heaven. I believe in Jesus. He’s my friend. And no, I’m not going to help anybody, and I’m not going to, you know, change my life around because of who Jesus is. I’m not going to put Jesus at the center of my life. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m just believing in him so I can go to heaven.”

And James tells that guy, “No, that’s the wrong way to think about this thing. You’re not going to heaven either.”

So those are the two settings, and those are always throughout history two of the great errors that can happen in a church and in the ministry of the church, and particularly the preaching and teaching ministry. Those are the two ditches. We can fall into saying we’re going to earn our way to heaven. And we can fall into saying that what we mean by “sola fide”—faith alone—is nothing. There’s no requirement. There’s no evidence that’s shown by our works that’s necessary, that has anything to do with our justification. Those are the two opposite extremes that these men are teaching to.

What’s the context of the five solas? What was the context of the Reformation? The context was a church, broadly speaking (and it’s always lots of exceptions), but a church broadly speaking that really did believe in meritorious work. That’s what they were selling indulgences for—to get people out of purgatory into heaven. Meritorious works. They were teaching in the church at that day and age that you could work your way to heaven, that based on what you did, then you could be accepted with God. If you did enough stuff, right? That’s wrong. That’s what the Reformation was addressing.

Is that the same problem we’re addressing today? Think to yourself: Is it the same problem? No, I don’t think so. That’s not my experience. I don’t know anybody feeling that way. Now, some people may think it, some people may act like it. I’m not saying it’s absent from the church totally. But far more predominantly, it seems to me, as we’ve got a situation like James was facing—of easy believism, cheap grace. “All you need is a personal relationship with Jesus, you know, and everything’s cool. And if you keep on living the same way you’ve always lived, that’s all right. No problem eternally.” And that’s a lie. It’s a lie from the pit of hell—is what James says. You’re going to end up in hell with the demons if that’s what you believe.

Okay? Now, a lot of people believe that, but they actually are committed to Christ. I’m not trying to determine who’s going to heaven or hell. I’m saying there’s a context that this text comes to us in. And James is a very important text, not regularly preached upon because it’s difficult and controversial, but it’s a very important text for the church in America today and probably around the world to hear.

It’s an important text that tells us, look, you’re justified by your works because they evidence true faith. And the two are not separated. They’re one thing. And you need to know that, and you need to understand that’s what being a Christian is all about. That’s how you’re a friend of Jesus. You want a personal relationship with Jesus? He says, “Then you want to be a friend of God, friend of Jesus?” Got to do some things. Got to do some things. And if you don’t do those things, your faith is a fugazi. It’s an illusion. And worse than that, it’s going to blow you to hell.

So I think that’s what’s going on in this text. And Romans helps us to understand that, as does this idea of the different uses of different words in different contexts, and the same thing with the phrase “sola fide.”

## The Pearly Gate Interview

Another problem that has contributed to a misunderstanding of James is the pearly gate interview. What happens when you die and go to see Jesus or see Peter at the pearly gate? How do you get in? Well, I think it was Evangelism Explosion that encouraged people to evangelize. Excellent. And they would encourage people to ask people, “Well, you know, if you died tonight and were standing before Jesus or Peter at the pearly gates or whatever it is, what would you say is your basis? He says, ‘How? Why should I let you in? What do you say?’”

And the answer, of course, was: “Because I believe in Jesus, that he died for my sins and was raised for my justification.” And there’s a lot of truth in that, of course, as Paul emphasizes. But there’s error in that as well, right? That’s the kind of answer that—if it’s just an intellectual assent on your part, if that’s the kind of faith that you think will merit relationship—not merit, but create relationship—with Jesus and enter you into eternal salvation, James says: “No, not quite right. Close, but no cigar.”

Now, listen—all kinds of other texts say the same thing. Matthew 3:8–9: What does John the Baptist say to people that were coming to be baptized for repentance? He says, “Wait a minute. Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Okay.” James insisted that some works be evident to evidence the repentance, the faith that we had in the coming Messiah.

Second Corinthians 5:10: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Folks, it sounds like works righteousness, well, it isn’t, of course. It’s saying just what James says: There’s an absolute integrated whole between faith and the way you live. The way you live doesn’t merit faith, right? But faith is never seen apart from the way you live. If you’ve got relationship with God, you’re doing things for him. Your life is different. So you’re going to be judged on the basis of that.

Romans chapter 2:6–11: “God will render to each one according to his deeds, not according to his profession of faith, not according to how well he understands justification by faith. God’s not going to say, ‘Do you get the five solas? Do you profess faith in that? Do you intellectually assent to the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Reformation Covenant Church’s doctrinal statement?’ That’s not what it says. What it says here is: He’ll render to each one of us according to our deeds eternal life.

Well, maybe he’s talking about something other than, you know, hell and heaven. No, eternal life—to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory. How do you seek for glory? Just by believing a bunch, or by patient continuance in doing good? And by doing this, they seek for glory, honor, and immortality—eternal life. How do you get eternal life? By patiently seeking to do good, not by believing alone apart from anything you do.

Now, doing good doesn’t merit any of it. It’s not the works of the law. It’s not that kind of “croak.” But it’s an evidence of life. You can’t split up life into its constituent parts. More about that in just a minute. But to those—he goes on to say—who are self-seeking, don’t help the poor, don’t give sacrificially for the work of God in the world, don’t contribute to the conquest of the culture that’s opposed to God, to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth—obey the truth, that’s excellent. But obey unrighteousness—”indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles.”

And listen, here’s the last thing that text says: “For there is no partiality with God.” Isn’t that interesting? It kind of ties it back to James. James is saying the same thing that Paul did there about works and relationship and eternal destination. And James has just told us leading up to this—he’s warned us against partiality. And Paul goes on to say, “There’s no partiality with God.”

Paul read James. Paul wasn’t opposed to James. Paul was working out the implications of James in terms of the particular settings that he was writing to. And he can write things that sound just like James, and he can write things that on their face don’t sound like James, but actually, once you sit back and take a big breath and look at it realistically and carefully, it’s the same.

Our Savior says the same thing in Matthew 25:32–46: “All the nations will be gathered before him. He’ll separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Kids, you know that song—sheep go to heaven, goats… Maybe not. Your parents probably—some of them—know it, okay?

Then the king will say to those on his right—it’s best to be a sheep here, kids, in this story. You want to be a sheep. Okay, goats ain’t going there. Now, maybe your pet goat will go there, but okay.

Then the king will say to those on his right hand (that’s the sheep), “Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Because you knew what justification by faith was? Because you believed in grace alone? Because you believed the five solas? Because you signed that confessional statement of RCC? No. Why? “For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.”

And then the righteous will answer him saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Thirsty and give you drink?” They’re like, surprised by that. “Well, wait a minute. We didn’t actually do that to you, Jesus. When did we see you as a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you, or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?”

That’s a great list of to-dos for the next few months in your life, right? Right there. Visiting the sick, visiting the poor, helping the poor, giving them good things, helping people who have poverty of spirit. You learned—some of you learned today in the Sunday school class—poverty is different than the way we normally define it. And you know there’s a poverty of relationship, for instance—isolation. Put it on your to-do list, because Jesus says, “Really and truly, when you get to the pearly gates, the interview isn’t a theological test. Well, it sort of is, but it’s a test demonstrating your theology by what you did in your life.”

And if you know that Jesus clothed you and you were naked—without the righteousness of Christ—and he feeds you at this table, and without the feeding of Jesus you’re hungry. He gives you eyes for your eyes, right? If you know that, if you know you’ve been such a recipient of the grace and blessing and mercy of God, how could you help but… and if you’re united to the Jesus the Bible gives us here and his Spirit fills you, how could you help but being his fingers, as it were, into the world and minister those same things to others? How could you help but do it?

Jesus, the king, answers them and he says to them, “Assuredly I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, man, we love doing it to the best. We love doing it to the top of the brothers. We love doing it to people that are like us that we like. But to the least of my brethren, right? To the extent you’re doing it to the least of my brethren—he says—you did it to me.”

Then he will also say to those on the left hand, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” He’s saying the same thing as James: You’re going to be where the demons are. The demons believe in God. They know he’s real, right? And if that’s it for you, that’s where you’re going.

Why do they go there? Because of a failure of a test? Yeah, but not an intellectual test. “For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty. You gave me no drink. I was a stranger. You did not take me in. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.”

Folks, I don’t know about your community groups—if you go to them or not. This is what we’re supposed to be doing in those groups, okay? Caring for people, caring for them. And James tells us that our caring for people is really important, as Jesus does here as well.

Then they also will answer him saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry?” “Well, if it was you, we would have given you food.” “When did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?”

And he’ll answer them saying, “Assuredly I say to you, in as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

See, this isn’t just the message of James. This is what our Savior says over and over. This is what Paul writes over and over. We’re evaluated by our works because our works show whether there’s life there or no life, whether there’s faith or it’s just a fugazi. That’s what it shows. And so it’s throughout the Scriptures.

The pearly gates interview will be on the basis of works. There’ll be believers in hell, right? They’re going to be believers in hell. See, that’s what he’s saying. Some of you declare you have faith. You’ve got some kind of belief. Well, that’s great. The demons believe too. They’re going to be in hell as believers. They don’t believe in the saving faith of Christ. They don’t believe in their sins and trespasses being forgiven by Jesus and as a result come to newness of life. But they believe in God. And if that’s it for you, you’re going to be a believer in hell.

You know, Jericho is an interesting example—more in a couple minutes—but one of the examples of works producing justification is Rahab. And one way to think of that is, you know, everybody in that town believed—at least that’s what the Bible seems to say. They all knew that Israel was on the march and Israel’s God was defeating Israel’s enemies. That’s what they were all scared of, right? That kind of belief didn’t merit them salvation. Only Rahab, right? In her house—only they are saved because only Rahab puts that faith and belief in God into a submission to him and a desire to be united to him and to turn her back on her own city, her own friends, her culture.

She is a Canaanite, and she wants to—not, didn’t just believe God like the demons. The rest of that city is going to be in hell as believers, but she really believes and trusts in God for her right relationship with him and then shows that by her works. So they’ll be believers in hell.

## The Obviousness of the Message

Now, put this way, this is all rather obvious, isn’t it? Why am I going on so long about it, Dennis? Well, because people have a tough time with this text. They do all kinds of funky things to justification, or belief, or faith. But it seems quite obvious on the face of it.

You know, R.J. Rushdoony—let me read a couple of quotes here. I’ve got in your outlines: “Life versus Dissection.” I was reading this and Dan P. will remember that, years ago, some of you might too. There was a book by Cornelius Van Til—who was the son-in-law of Herman Dooyeweerd—and the book was called something like “In the Beginning” or an inquiry into the meaning and purpose of life or something like this. And P&R published it. And one of the things that Van Til points out is, you know, your kids do it too, probably. You’re going to figure out, you know, what a frog’s life is like. And the way you understand life is to cut it up. Take that frog and you slice and dice him, right? To get an understanding of life. And of course, as soon as the frog is pinned and skewered, you don’t have life anymore. You got something else there, but you don’t have life.

And in a way, that’s what these theological formulas—that’s what a belief that the pearly gate interview is a theology test, and a belief that if we just believe the right things, how we live doesn’t matter—all of that results from this unhealthy idea that dissection—you know, which is proper theologically—but somehow that’s the same as life.

Let me read these Rushdoony quotes. “Those who would separate faith and works can only do so theologically, and they should do so. So there’s a proper purpose to it. But in life, the two are inseparable. To take a theological distinction and assume that in life what is an otherwise valid and necessary difference is a radical separation of one from the other—this is to confuse dissection with life.”

So he can systematize theology and talk about faith and talk about works as separate things, but in life they’re one thing—is the point he’s making here. And we can’t let those theological exercises that we do, which are proper, you know, to break things down into their component elements, but we can’t let that get in the way of our understanding of what the Christian life is.

Another quote: “We need to recognize that much can be separated in analysis that cannot be separated in life. Right? That’s good. Much can be separated in analysis that cannot be separated in life. We can and of necessity do analyze the human respiratory system and the circulatory system separately. Kids, that’s your air system and your blood system. You got lungs and a heart, right? But neither can exist without the other.

“Faith in theology is tied—the doctrine of salvation—and works to sanctification. But just as breathing is necessary for the life of the heart, so too are works for a living faith. So there is a distinction. You can talk about these things separately, but in life they’re united together. And that’s what James is saying.”

So if you think you’ve got just a circulatory system and are alive, if you’ve got just a heart and are alive, no—your daddy, he says it’s a fugazi. James is not anti-theology. What he is against is the separation of theology from life, the reduction of faith to easy believism, and the negation of action as the expression of faith.

Excellent quotes. This is from Rushdoony’s commentary on the book of James. One more: “James continues, ‘See you how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect.’ This is talking about Abraham. Literally, James says faith worked with his works. Faith became, works, a realization of itself. Faith expressed itself or revealed itself in works. There is an essential connection—essential connection—between the two. They can’t be broken up into distinct things. Well, they can be theologically, but to try to do so in terms of life is absolutely wrong.”

One last quote: “James concludes with another blunt statement: ‘For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.’ James does not say it is weak, but rather that it is dead. Here again, as in the Sermon on the Mount and all the Gospels and Epistles, we are told how to judge—righteous judgment. There are many who follow ancient Greek thinking to say that we cannot know a man’s heart, and therefore cannot judge him. Whereas our Lord Word says plainly, ‘By their fruits you shall know them,’ Matthew 7:20. Works or faith in action, faith made manifest, Matthew 7:20 says, ‘Therefore, by their fruits you shall know them.’ John 7:24, ‘Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.’”

So we have the same thing with the idea of judgment. In our culture today, it’s like faith with works—no. So judging now is always wrong, as opposed to judging with a proper set of judgments. And “judge” is now kind of a synonym for being overly critical or, you know, negative towards somebody, or not loving to them. And in the Bible, that is simply an improper synonym, an improper way to use “judge.” And in the Bible, judgment is quite important. And that’s what Paul—what James here does. He makes a judgment based upon the absence of any evidence of faith. And he says that faith is dead.

## Three Examples

Very quickly—almost done. You know, these are very interesting, and you can spend a lot of time thinking about these. Maybe you should in your family worship or something. But you know, we’ve got three examples.

The first is helping the needy, right? And that’s what he uses here. He says, well, you know, don’t just pray for your brother. Your brother says, “I’ve got a need.” And in the case here, it’s like food or clothing, but maybe it’s friends. Maybe it’s, you know, the breakdown of relationships, maybe it’s difficulties at work, maybe it’s difficulties with work. Could be all kinds of things. And he says, if all you do is say, “I’ll pray for you”—no good. Don’t just say, “Be warm and filled.” If you have the ability to help someone, to minister to them, to come alongside as a friend, to spend time with them, to pray for them or to contact them, do it.

If you don’t do it, then you’ve got a reason to suspect what the heck’s going on in your Christian life, because that’s what the Spirit of God compels you to do. So there’s first that example. It’s an obvious one, but so critical for us to think about.

And the last two examples are interesting to me. I’ve got a handout on the back table today—Women in the Bible—because one example is Abraham, the other is Rahab. And there’s a little bit in Rahab in here. But that’s interesting to me because he’s got a man and a woman, first of all, and he’s got a rich man and a probably not-so-rich woman who was a prostitute, right? And he’s got, you know, the father of the Jews, essentially, and he’s got a Canaanite. So they’re radically different—backgrounds, social situations, genders (the modern term would be sexes we would say). And yet in both cases, they’re used as examples. That’s interesting to me. It shows the comprehensiveness of the grace of God, right?

And so it does that. And they’re interesting examples too. Because Abraham isn’t helping anybody with food or clothing. What’s he doing? He’s loving God enough to be sacrificial in obeying God. God says, “Offer your son Isaac on the altar.” Abraham says, “Okay.” Now, Abraham believes God will raise Isaac back up, maybe right at the moment, because he seems to tell his wife, “We’ll both come back.” But he obeys God in a very, very difficult, self-sacrificial task, right? Can you imagine? Right.

So another example of works. I heard a sermon a couple weeks ago by someone on this text, and they said, “Well, you know, the big thing with the text is just tell us to do random acts of kindness.” And no, I mean, that’s certainly important, right? Small acts, great. But he talks about a momentous event here in the life of Abraham and in the life of Rahab. And the event in the life of Abraham seems to be focused on a highly sacrificial obedience to God—obeying God when it costs dearly, right?

And at big moments in your life, there are significant times. All of life is significant, but there are more significant times. There are probably three things this last week that were significant times for me. All of them are important, but this is a significant event in the life of Abraham used as an illustration for James’ point. But understand that it has application to you. It means there are going to be times in your life when you’re going to be called upon to die, basically, right? Because you’re going to obey God in some matter—die in relationship, die in terms of, you know, what people are going to think about you, maybe something very difficult for, you know, your well-being. But God wants you to obey him. There can be times like that. And that’s one of the times that God exhorts you to be faithful—with a faith that works and that obeys him in spite of the cost.

And then the final example is Rahab, right? To me, that’s interesting. She invites them in. So we’ve got hospitality. You know, you guys all think you practice hospitality because you have your friends over. That’s not hospitality. That’s a good thing to do. But in the Bible, hospitality means “love of strangers.” And that’s what Rahab does. She shows hospitality to strangers, to the spies. And then she sends them out another way. In other words, she participates in their victory, their coming defeat of her people and her city. Another huge act of sacrifice on her part. She becomes a traitor, right? She gives up her city. She changes sides. She changes jerseys, okay?

And that’s an example again of who we are in Christ. If you’re really a follower of Jesus, you change jerseys, okay? Quit acting like you’re wearing the old jersey. You got Jesus on now. And that’s what she does.

So the example from Rahab isn’t just a random act of kindness. It means you’ve changed jerseys and as a result are a different person. And what you’re going to do, and what you are doing, is you’re called to participate in the destruction of any city that raises itself against God. Right now in many ways, that’s Portland. That’s the cities where you live. And when you change jerseys, you change to enable the conquest of that city through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, okay?

So it’s a significant example. It’s not just some throwaway example. It really brings things to our mind that are quite extraordinary and leads to this next point.

## Walk the Talk or Talk the Walk

“Walk the talk” or “talk the walk.” When many years ago, the phrase was, “Hey, you got to walk your talk, man. Everybody says they’re a Christian. You got to walk like it.” In a way, that’s what James is saying. But you know, there’s another side to that. And that is, if all you’re doing is lots of service and you’re never proclaiming the gospel, you got to learn to talk your walk.

There’s a conference going on in Eastern Canada put on by Christian Governance Apologetics Conference, and that’s the name of it: “Talk Your Walk.” You see, we’re prone to wander, right? “Lord, I feel it.” We go all the way over here, and all we want to do is, you know, have a profession of faith and not do anything. And we go all the way over here. All we want to do is do things for people and never tell them who Jesus is and that, you know, in forty days Tyre will be destroyed. We’re in the middle there, all where we don’t stay in the middle. Rather, we swerve.

I got on your outline “Mission and Ministry.” I was at a Spurgeon Fellowship, was talking to one of the good young pastors from Oregon City on the way back, and he was telling me that he thinks the difficulty right now is the balance of mission and ministry, or we could say “proclamation and service,” right? Those are the two fists of God, right? We’re serving people, but we’re also proclaiming the truth, right? That’s how you conquer the city. That’s how you evangelize people.

And you know, for a while we were always punching with our left—you know, nothing but proclamation. And now it seems like we’ve got that hand tied down, and now we’re punching with the right hand—serve, serve, serve, serve. And really it’s not important whether they become Christians or not. No. The proper understanding of this text—of faith and works, faith which comes by hearing and a profession (proclamation), and works which are ministry or service—the correct understanding of the necessity of both mission and ministry, I think, is what this text tells us as well.

## The Text and the Gospel

Finally, this text is a gospel text. They all are. What’s the gospel? The gospel is the good news that God has put the world to rights. And people that misunderstand James, or reject it, or don’t know how to deal with it, and don’t think about it—we end up thinking that also, we end up with a truncated gospel.

The gospel is about me and Jesus. And not even realizing that maybe you don’t have a “me and Jesus” going on, but let’s say you do. That the gospel is all about my eternal destination. But the gospel is far more comprehensive. We know that in this church. We’ve been saying that for thirty years. But this text shows it again, right? The reason why it’s no good for you just to believe in Jesus and not help anybody—because you’re not doing the work of God in the world.

One last quote. This is from Tim Keller’s book. “The headquarters of Lutheran theology put special stress on the dignity of all work, observing that God cared for, fed, clothed, sheltered, and supported the human race through our human labor. When we work, we are, as those in the Lutheran tradition have often put it, the fingers of God—the agents of his providential love for others. This understanding elevates the purpose of work from making a living to loving our neighbor, and at the same time releases us from the crushing burden of working primarily to prove ourselves. That’s a status thing.

“Those in the Calvinist or Reformed traditions, such as Abraham Kuyper, spoke of another aspect of the idea of work as God’s calling. Work not only cares for creation but also directs and structures it. In his Reformed view—or in this Reformed view—the purpose of work is to create a culture that honors God and enables people to thrive. Yes, we must love our neighbor. But Christianity gives us very specific teachings about human nature and what makes human beings flourish. We must ensure that our work is done in line with these understandings.”

Okay. The point is that’s what we’re doing. That’s what the gospel is: helping people, making bringing people to human flourishing, being the fingers of God to clothe people and feed them, to deliver cities, or to bring God’s judgment against a city, to participate in that endeavor, the transformation of the city, right? To be involved in self-sacrificial acts of obedience to God to affect the changing of human culture so that humanity flourishes.

And they see—they see God at work. Your theology of faith and works together, flowing out of your fingers, as you address the needs of this world and bring people to human flourishing, proclaiming the gospel and serving in the context of this world as well. So this text is all about the full gospel, okay? The fullness of the gospel being affected by the simple, obvious truth that if you’re a friend of Jesus, it manifests itself in your life, and particularly in helping others, being sacrificial in your obedience to God, and participating in the overthrow of all enemies of God through proclamation and service.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this text. Thank you for the wonderful depth of it and the importance of it to our day and age particularly. Bless us, Lord God, with the proper emphasis on ministry and mission, proclamation and service. May we be those who serve one another. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.