Justified By Works

Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 18th January service and hymns are below.

_________________________________

Our principal verses are:

Jas 2:21  Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Jas 2:22  Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

Jas 2:23  And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Jas 2:24  Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

Jas 2:25  Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

Jas 2:26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Justified By Works

It is the whole tenor of God’s Word that salvation is freely granted to men and women as sinners while in their sin. Paul tells us, ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15). This saying is faithful because it is consistent with the whole of scripture and agrees with all of God’s revelation for the redemption and recovery of fallen corrupt creatures. It is sinners, not good men and good women, whom Christ came to save. It is while we were ‘without strength’, ‘yet sinners’ and ‘enemies’ that God’s love was commended to us and Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6-10).

Discerning the truth

James uses the phrase ‘justified by works’ two times in today’s passage. Some have tried to suggest from this that James is teaching that faith and good works must join together and co-operate for a sinner to be truly righteous in God’s sight. Under this construction God provides faith as a gift, a man brings his good works, his moral obedience, and by a process of symbiosis, a merging of both faith and works, he earns and enjoys justification and acceptance with God. This perverse theory we utterly reject.

Cause and effect

It is not at all what James is saying. James is not speaking of the causes of a man’s justification before God. He is showing, rather, the effects, the practical, lively effects of implanted righteousness in the heart of a converted sinner. Righteousness is imputed in justification and the desire to live as befits God’s glory and Christ’s praise is imparted into the heart of the new man at conversion. James is teaching the church that justifying righteousness is not a dormant declaration but an activating impulse. Believers have Christ in them and it shows!

We know by faith

God’s gift of faith confirms to us our righteousness and justification before God. Faith does not gain righteousness, it experiences it. Faith brings with it knowledge of divine grace and life-changing conversion. Transformation of life follows the creation of the new man. Faith is a free, unconditional gift bestowed to God’s elect people whom He has loved everlastingly and eternally secured in Christ Jesus. Salvation is entirely by God’s grace. It is founded upon covenant promises and rests wholly upon the merits of Christ’s sacrifice and death.

Faith is not meritorious

When James says, ‘faith wrought with his (Abraham’s) works, and by works was faith made perfect’ he is not speaking of faith that earns righteousness or meritoriously justifies a sinner before God, with or without works! The Bible never uses such language. We are not saved because of our faith! Faith is the means by which justification and salvation are experienced. Faith is the vehicle by which forgiveness is conveyed and delivered. It is the channel by which Christ’s righteousness is applied to a sinner’s conscience and brings a felt sense of peace with God.

Examples in proof

James is telling us that Christ’s faith, the faith of Jesus Christ, the faith of which Christ is both Author and Finisher, having once been implanted in a man’s soul, carries with it spiritual and practical liveliness towards God and towards men. Faith is manifested in Christian worship, evidenced in service and revealed in the believer’s desire to be obedient to and for God. By this practical outworking it is confirmed to be true and genuine faith. The two examples quoted by James, Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac and Rahab’s preservation of the spies, strengthen and re-enforce James’ argument.

They had no good works

For someone to prove that James is teaching justification by a man’s own works, be they works of legal obedience, holy worship or moral integrity, that person must show such works to be present in the subject’s life when grace was first given and righteousness first imputed. It is impossible to do this in the examples quoted by James. Abraham, or Abram, as then named, was an idolator from Ur of the Chaldees. Rahab was a Canaanitish innkeeper called in scripture a ‘harlot’. Neither had ‘good works’ to recommend them to God or to perfect their faith in the first instance. On the contrary, their works flowed from their faith as works of faith.

Friends of God

In our service tomorrow we shall reflect on James’ teaching that works of faith justify our confidence in the grace and mercy of God and adorn our testimony by profiting our brethren. Jesus said, ‘By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another’ (John 13:35). James agrees. Abraham was called the friend of God because Abraham and God were reconciled and at peace, the one with the other. No less was Rahab and every redeemed believer. We all are friends of God who are in Christ Jesus and reconciled by His blood of atonement. When Christ lives in a believer’s heart that sanctified soul aspires to Christlikeness, brotherly love and fruitful service.

Amen

Hymn 852

“Faith without works is dead.” James 2. 20-26

J. Hart        S.M.

1
Vain man, to boast forbear,
 The knowledge in thy head;
 The sacred Scriptures this declare:
 “Faith without works is dead.”

2
When Christ the Judge shall come
 To render each his due,
 He’ll deal thy deeds their righteous doom,
 And set thy works in view.

3
Food to the hungry give;
 Give to the thirsty drink;
 To follow Christ is to believe;
 Dead faith is but to think.

4
The man that loves the Lord
 Will mind whate’er he bid;
 Will pay regard to all his word,
 And do as Jesus did.

5
The dead professor counts
 Good works as legal ties;
 His faith to action seldom mounts;
 On doctrine he relies.

6
But words engender strife;
 Behold the gospel plan:
 Trust in the Lord alone for life,
 And do what good you can.

Hymn 959

“What shall I render unto the Lord?” Ps. 116. 12

J. Newton   C.M.

1
For mercies countless as the sands,
Which daily I receive
From Jesus my Redeemer’s hands,
My soul, what canst thou give?

2
Alas! from such a heart as mine,
What can I bring him forth?
My best is stained and dyed with sin;
My all is nothing worth.

3
The best returns for one like me,
So wretched and so poor,
Is from his gifts to draw a plea,
And ask him still for more.

4
I cannot serve him as I ought;
No works have I to boast;
Yet would I glory in the thought,
That I shall owe him most.

Good works are the fruit of conversion, not the means. Abraham and Rahab acted as they did because they trusted the Lord. The Spirit of God within them motivated their works, their worship and their service.