EPIC: High-Impact Truths in the New Testament – Part 16

Well, the year was 2009, and my first book had just been released, The Naked Gospel. A friend came to me and he said, I've read your book, and I agree with most of it, except what you say about James. I think you're wrong on the book of James, because I don't believe James understood grace, he said. Now, I had known this person for a decade prior, since the early 2000s, and this was a surprise to me, but he got me thinking. And in the months and years that followed, I wrestled with his words. Did James, the author of an epistle in the New Testament, not understand grace? You know, could the same thing be said about Peter, who had a disagreement with Paul, and Paul had to oppose him? Should we look through 1st and 2nd Peter, deciding that maybe Peter didn't understand grace either? And then, where does that put us? In the place of picking and choosing who understands grace, and which paragraphs and which verses apply to us, and which don't? Well, I'm not buying it, and today we'll see exactly why. First, I want to have you ask a question about James 2. You know, that infamous FaithWorks passage, we're asking a central question about this Bible verse, aren't we? And in James 2, in this chapter, we're basically asking, did James and Paul agree on the law? Did they agree on God's grace? Did they agree on salvation? Well, first, let me say a resounding yes, they did agree with each other. James and Paul do not disagree with regard to the law. We see that here. As you notice, James 2, verse 10, and you see Galatians 3, verse 10. First, we see the words of James, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. And then we see the words of Paul, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things

written in the book of the law to perform them. Sound familiar? Paul is echoing the same thought as James. They agree about the law. They're saying the law is an all or nothing proposition. You could keep 99% of the law. You could obey everything written in the book of the law, except for one point. And then you'd be cursed and you would score a zero as you are guilty of all of it. So Paul and James agree on the law. Now what about the idea of being justified or being righteous or being saved by faith instead of works of the law? Do James and Paul disagree on this? Once again, we see the answer is no. They are in full agreement together about faith. Watch this. We see in James chapter 2, verse 23, and also in Romans 4, verse 3, the scripture was fulfilled. James writes, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. James is quoting this and then Paul. For what does the scripture say, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness? No, you don't need to do a double take there. Yeah, you're seeing it clearly. James wrote it and Paul wrote it. James quoted it and Paul quoted it. It's the same idea. It's called righteousness by faith, not by the law. And so we're asking, did James, the author of a New Testament epistle, did he understand righteousness by faith? Yes, he did. Is he saying that we are justified by the works of the law? No, he is not.

In fact, he's saying you could keep the whole law and mess up in one point and you would not be justified. You would be guilty of all of it. So he's making the same point as the apostle Paul. There is no disagreement. Now we continue by asking another question. Can we say that James did not understand grace in his epistle? Now let me tell you why this is dangerous and foolish. We can certainly talk about the book of Acts. We can talk about the book of Galatians where there was a history of disagreement between certain apostles. fossils, but in their letters, when it comes to the epistles, we got to be careful because if we start saying this author or that author didn't understand grace, well now we are putting ourselves in the role of God deciding which epistles might apply to us and which epistles do not. That's a dangerous game where we are playing the role of God. So certainly we can recount history. Did James and Paul ever disagree? Yes they did. Did Peter and Paul ever disagree? Of course they did. We read about it at least a couple of times in the New Testament. But does that mean that we then go rummaging through Peter's letters and decide that, well, he just didn't get it. He just didn't understand. So then, are those letters less inspired? Are those letters now arbitrarily chosen as something to ignore or to put to the wayside because Peter just didn't get it? James just didn't get it? Well, let's dive a little deeper and see if we can find an answer to that question.

Look at this point. It's in our face staring right at us. James chapter 2 addresses what justifies and saves a person. Therefore, to claim that James doesn't understand grace is the same thing as claiming that he doesn't understand salvation. Making him an unsaved New Testament author writing New Testament scripture. That makes no sense. Do you see it? What is James' topic? In James 2, is he talking about growing by grace? Is he talking about growing by law? No, that's not his topic. His topic is salvation. His topic is, will that faith save him, he asks. His topic is salvation and justification. Therefore, if any person says that James did not understand grace, they are saying that James did not understand salvation. Therefore, they are saying that James is unsaved. And so, we put ourselves in the role of God deciding who gets it and who didn't and then we arbitrarily go through the New Testament, all the letters, and we decide what applies and what doesn't. A dangerous game, in fact. Well, let's keep going because we're still asking, did James not understand justification by faith? Was James unsaved? I mean, survey the New Testament and clearly, what does Paul say? Romans chapter 3, we're justified by faith apart from the works of the law. We're not justified by the works of the law. Galatians 2. How about Philippians 3?

Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law. How about Galatians 5? You're severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law. So are we saying James is cut off from Christ because we're claiming falsely that he believed in justification by the works of the law? That's what we're ultimately claiming if we claim that James did not understand grace, he therefore did not understand justification, he therefore did not understand salvation, and he was cut off from Christ, severed from our Lord, not a saved person. Do you see the fallacy in all of this? It is a false belief system and it deserves our attention because we're talking about the inerrancy of scripture here, we're talking about whether Martin Luther was right when he wanted to toss James from the canon. Of course, we shouldn't toss it, it's a perfect fit and James did understand justification by faith. In fact, what we're saying is, look, folks, you can't have it both ways, right? You can't claim that James didn't understand grace and then claim that he's saved. Look at this, James's topic is what justifies a person and James's topic is what saves a person. So if James doesn't understand grace, then he doesn't understand salvation. But remember, we've already answered that question, haven't we? Look at this, we've already answered that question about James. He does... understand salvation remember chapter 2 verse 23 and the scripture says fulfilled it was fulfilled and it said Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness does James understand righteousness yes he does does he understand righteousness by faith yes he does does he understand what happened to Abraham was all of faith and not of works yes he does he is just quoted as Paul quotes this passage to make the same point so it is a grand mistake to say that James doesn't understand grace and so we must keep asking important questions to understand how all of the new testament letters fit together with a resounding message of grace and faith look dismissing James's grasp of grace means that he misunderstood

salvation itself and that would make him an unsaved new testament author who wrongly believed in justification by works if James is wrong then the new testament contains error and we become the judges of scripture wow so you see why this is important i mean we got to get to the bottom of this we got to ask what is James actually saying right now that's the big question you see it right here what is James actually saying in chapter 2 all right let's press forward and see first is James unsaved believing he is justified by the works of the law of course no the answer is a resounding no James is simply referring to a response of faith like Abraham and Rahab had let me explain when James is talking about works he's not talking about Moses he's talking about somebody that lived long before Moses 400 plus years before Moses when James is talking about works he's not talking about Moses he's talking about Abraham and Rahab people that never met Moses so do you see what's happening here i mean this is not about the works of the law this is about something else it has to be because of the examples that James gives now to explain even further Abraham offered Isaac how many times once and it was a response of faith it wasn't a lifelong record of works it was once how about Rahab she opened the door once it was a response of faith it wasn't a lifelong record of good deeds it was a one-time response of faith so what is James saying James is simply saying that faith without a response is dead faith so in summary what are we about to see in this landmark passage James chapter 2 we're gonna see that Abraham offering Isaac and Rahab opening a door were not works of the law they were one-time responses of faith James certainly believed that justification comes through responding in faith not by the works of the law so here's a bit of evidence before we dive into James 2 let's look at the whole letter in one picture in one moment let's see the whole letter this epistle of James here we go evidence that James is a saved justified author who is addressing the church watch this here James is teaching the gospel to the church we start in chapter 1 he says I'm a bondservant of the Lord Jesus how about verse 24 hey if you're not a doer of the word guess what your problem is you have forgotten your identity in Christ you need to go back and look in the mirror you have forgotten your identity how about chapter 2 he talks about your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ who's he writing he's writing the church yes they're Jews yes some of them are unsaved yes some of it's evangelistic of course but he's writing also to believers how about in chapter 2 verse 10 about the law if you stumble in one point you're guilty See, of all of it, that is a grace teaching.

You gotta see that you can't keep the law, and that's his point. Then he gives the solution in verse 12. You want the solution, don't look to the law of Moses, look to the law of liberty, he says. So then, operating under the law of liberty, you won't be judging other people because you'll know that God is not judging you. How about verse 23? Abraham believed God, it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Folks, that is righteousness by faith, so obvious. How about chapter three? The spirit which he has made to dwell within us. All right, that's a saved person talking. He's got the spirit of Christ in him. How about we go further? He says in chapter five, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Or how about chapter five, verse 14? He's talking to the church about calling the elders forward to pray for others. All right, what did you see there? A snapshot from chapter one all the way to chapter five, all of this evidence that James is, number one, a saved person that understands justification, and that it's by faith, quoting the situation of Abraham, clearly he gets it. Furthermore, he's addressing the church, the ecclesia. He's talking about their assembly.

He's talking about their elders. He's talking about our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about his return in the clouds. Clearly, he is a believer who's been justified by faith, and he gets it. So now we get to the passage. Starting in verse 14 of chapter two, we're gonna dive in and see what in the world does James really mean then. Now, as we start this, let's not sweep it under the carpet. There's some radical statements here. I mean, he talks about works. There are some radical statements here about works. So we better understand works the way that James understands works. Notice, he's not gonna be quoting about all kinds of dietary laws. He's not gonna be quoting about how you need to avoid pork and shellfish. He's not gonna be quoting about how you need to avoid shrimp cocktail or work on Saturday. He's not gonna be talking about any of that. He's gonna talk about Abraham and Rahab, and he's gonna talk about an active faith that responds to the message of God. Here we go. James chapter two, verse 14. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

All right, right from the beginning, we are seeing right from the beginning that we got a faith that saves and a faith that doesn't save. Right from the beginning, we're seeing that the topic is not growing. The topic is not growth in Christ. The topic is not a bunch of works later. The topic is what is it exactly that saves you? Now, you see why this is important? Because if the topic is what saves you, and if James didn't understand it, then James doesn't understand what saves him, and therefore, James is unsaved. That's why we gotta get to the bottom of this. Clearly, his topic is salvation, not works done a year later, not works done a decade later, not a lifetime record of works, but what saves a person? That is his topic. All right, now, verse 15 and 16. If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed, and be filled. Oh, that sounds so holy and amazing. Problem is, you didn't give what was necessary. The problem is, you sounded real helpful with some sort of blessing.

Go and be warmed, be filled, but you didn't do what was necessary. There was no response. You were just miming back, imitating, mimicking what was said to you at some other occasion, and you weren't really offering what was needed. That's his point. Your faith did not respond. Your faith recited some mumbo jumbo, but your faith did not respond. That's dead faith. All right, let's keep going. Verse 16, he says, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body. What use is that? All right, so the first example of works is giving what is necessary. Now, you could see how this applies. lies, a person could hear the gospel but not give what is necessary. What do I mean? Well, we say, Lord, take me, Lord, save me, Lord, I'm responding to this gospel, Lord, I'm calling upon your name to be saved, Lord, I'm opening the door of my life to be saved by you, Lord, here, take me. That would be doing what is necessary in light of the message of the gospel. But if we don't do that, if we sit on our hands and just say, yep, I'm a Christian, grew up a Christian, my family's a Christian, my faith, my faith, my heritage, my lineage, my family name, we've always had faith. Faith in what? Is it a responsive faith?

Did you open a door with your faith? Did you offer yourself to God with your faith? Have you been crucified with Christ by your faith? Do you see the problem? Even the demons believe, but their faith is not a living faith. All right, verse 17, even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself. Now, I'll have you notice, first of all, he's not talking about works all by themselves. He's talking about a combo here. When he gives us this idea of faith and works, he's saying faith alone by itself is not enough. There's got to be faith plus works, okay? So nobody is teaching works here. It is faith plus works he's saying, but now I think he's been misunderstood. I think my friend in 2009 misunderstood James. I think Martin Luther centuries ago misunderstood James because when he saw the word works, he thought of the law. When he saw the word works, he thought of Moses, and he should have been thinking of Rahab and Abraham because they tell a different story. What story do they tell? They weren't busy obeying Moses. They never knew him. They were busy responding to the message of God. All right, so let's keep going, looking at dead faith versus living faith. Here in verse 18, someone may well say, oh, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. So what do we see here? This is a demonstration. It is a demonstration of living faith. How do you demonstrate your faith? By calling on the Lord. How do you demonstrate your faith?

By opening the door of your heart. How do you demonstrate your faith? By responding like Abraham and Rahab did. So that's what James means when he says, I will show you my faith by my works. Again, he's not showing you his faith as he avoids shrimp and pork. He's not showing you his faith as he tries to keep all the Ten Commandments and more. He's not showing you his faith as he tries to keep 600 plus laws. He has already debunked the idea of keeping the law. You keep the whole thing, you miss one point, you've ruined everything. You're guilty of all of it. James knows what he's talking about. He's talking about responding like Abraham and Rahab. All right, now verse 19. You believe that God is one. Hey, you do pretty well there. Good job. But the demons also believe and they shudder. All right. Can the demons pass a theology test? Yes. Can they get out the Scantron bubble sheet and get them all right? Yes. What would they answer about, is there one God or many gods? They would answer one God. They would get it right. They could score a hundred on their theology quiz. But so what? They're not saved. Yes, they shudder. They're afraid of God and they know there's only one God, but that doesn't save them.

Being scared of God doesn't save you and knowing that there's one God doesn't save you. What is it that saves you? You open the door and you offer yourself to Jesus. What does he do with you? Does he put you on an altar like Isaac? Nope. He puts you on a cross like Jesus. You're crucified with Christ, buried with him and raised to newness of life. Amen? Amen. This is the truth that sets us free. Verse 20, but are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Now it's nekra in the Greek, meaning dead. Faith without works is what? Dead, useless, dead. Dead faith. What does that mean? Oh, it means like the demons. He just said it. This is not rocket science. You got dead faith like the demons and you got living faith like those who've opened a door. That's all James is doing. He's worried about those who might hear the gospel and just say, mm-hmm, well, you know, I'm a Jewish person. Mm-hmm, well, you know, I've been hanging out with the church. Mm-hmm, well, yeah.

I mean, believing in the Lord is my tradition. Mm-hmm, well, guess what? You gotta respond. You gotta open the door of your life. You offer yourself to Christ. He puts you on a cross, crucified, buried, raised. That is living faith. That is faith that saves and justifies. Verse 21, here's where it comes, the controversial language, but in context, we get it. He says, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar? So at first I could freak out. Oh, no, he said justified by works. Oh, no, he disagrees with Paul. Oh, no, we should toss James out of the Bible. James just doesn't get grace. Really? Well, I would ask you, how many times did Abraham offer Isaac on that altar? One time. Did Moses tell him to do it? Nope. Did the law tell him to do it? Nope. He didn't have Moses. He didn't have the law. This was before the law. So this is not an example of trying to get right by law. This is an example of getting right

by responding to the message of the Lord. It is faith plus response. Otherwise, it's dead faith like the demons. All right, verse 22. You see that faith was what? Working with, alongside, together, a combination. Faith was working with his works. And as a result, faith was perfected. If you say you have faith, but you don't open the door, then that faith is not made perfect. If you say you have faith, but you don't offer yourself to God, then that faith is not made perfect. That's dead faith, not living faith. So simple, what he is saying is faith without response is dead faith. And that saves nobody. All right, we're almost done. Verse 23. And scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham, hello, believed God. And it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. So what does that mean? He's not trying to change Paul's theology. He's not trying to wreck Christianity. He's not trying to disagree with the apostle Paul, who wrote so many letters in the New Testament. Just like Paul, he's quoting the situation of Abraham. Abraham believed God. What kind of belief was it?

An active belief, a responsive belief, a belief that resulted in a decision. Have you made a decision about Jesus? I would say you have. You've made a decision about Jesus. And that's all James is talking about. Faith without a decision is dead faith. And it saves nobody. Verse 24. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. Again, oh no. James, you've gone off the reservation. You've gone rogue. You've fallen off the tracks. James, what are you saying, justified by works? Well, notice he says, not by faith alone, but something with faith that makes you different than the demons. Are you different than the demons? Yes, you are. Because your faith has a response, like Abraham and Rahab. Your faith had a decision attached, like Abraham and Rahab. That's why your faith was not alone, like the demons. Wow. All right. So maybe, maybe, just maybe, Martin Luther had some rethinking to do.

Maybe any of us who are running around saying, James didn't understand grace. Maybe we got some rethinking to do. Because if James didn't understand grace, then he didn't understand justification, which means he didn't understand salvation, which means he's not saved, which means now we're looking at the authority of scripture, which means now we're in the position of God trying to play games about which person, which author, which New Testament author we're going to listen to and which we're going to ignore, which author we have a better understanding than. That's arrogance. That's presumption, and that puts us in the role of the Creator. Verse 25, In the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? Oh, oh, once again we see it, these three words, justified by works. That could create panic, that could create confusion, but don't let it, because his example is a lady, a prostitute, who likely lied, by the way, not telling the truth. Hey, where are the spies? Oh, I don't know. Well, have you seen any spies? Oh, she likely lied. She opened a door. How many times? Once. That's the example James is giving? Come on, James, give us Moses. Give us obeying the Sabbath. Give us tithing. Give us 600 laws. No, he won't do it, because that's not his point. He's giving us a prostitute who lied, most likely told a lie to protect the spies, and furthermore opened a door, did it once, never did it again, and that's his example of works? Yes, it is. This has nothing, zero, to do with Moses. It has everything to do with your response when you heard the gospel. Are you like Rahab? Did you open the door of your heart? Then guess what? Hear me, you have already fulfilled the requirement of James 2. If you have opened the door of your heart, you have

already met this requirement. End of story. Slam dunk. It's over. It's finished. You replied. You RSVP'd to the God of the universe. You opened the door, invited Christ in. He took you not to an altar, but to a cross, crucified, buried, and raised. All right, we finish with this verse, for just as the body without the Spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Dead what? Dead faith. Dead faith versus living faith. Faith that doesn't save, you know, like the demons passing a theology quiz, versus faith that does save, which is attached to a decision. Faith without decision is dead faith. So respond to the gospel. James is being evangelistic. All right, so what do we conclude about this landmark passage in our epic series? Well, first we saw that James and Paul agree on the law. Remember, James 2 and Galatians 3, they both say the same thing. If you keep the whole law and stumble in one point, you're guilty of all of it. James agrees about that. He's saying, don't even bother. If you score 99%, you've scored zero. Secondly, James and Paul agree on faith. James chapter 2 and Romans chapter 4, they both quote saying, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Does James understand grace? Yes. Does he understand salvation? Yes. Does he understand justification by faith? Yes. Is he saying we're justified by Moses? No, not even close. And so, we've asked the question and we've answered it. Is James unsaved, believing he is justified by the works of the law? No way, Jose. James is simply referring to a response of faith like Abraham and Rahab had. Abraham offering Isaac and Rahab opening a door, they weren't works of the law. No, they were one-time responses of faith. James, he believes justification comes through responding in faith, not by the works of the law. Do you see it? We can rest easy knowing that Scripture is trustworthy. We don't have to take on the role of God with some crazy notion that maybe James should be thrown out or maybe James didn't get it. Maybe James should be disregarded or maybe we know more than James. Therefore, we can kind of comb through and pick. No, no, no. James is writing Jews. He is evangelistic. There are passages about worldly riches. There are passages that sound a lot like the Sermon on the Mount, calling the Jews to carpet in an evangelistic fashion, but when James is talking about being saved and when

James is talking about being justified, he is not disagreeing with the Apostle Paul. They are in perfect agreement that we are saved by grace through faith. Jesus said it. They came to him and they said, show us the works of the Father. And he said, the work is to believe in the one whom he sent. Guess what folks, that's what James is saying. He's saying the work is to believe with an active faith that responds and opens the door. If you've done that, then you are saved. The demons can't do it. You've done it and you're saved forever. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this passage. Yes, we wrestle with it. Throughout history, the church has wrestled with it. And yet you've given it to us for a reason so that we can understand. Country club religion won't work. Thinking you're saved because of your bloodline, heritage, tradition, or family name. It won't work. Even you can sit back and pass a theology quiz that mom and dad would agree with. It won't work. The only thing that saves is when we decide Jesus is Lord, that we need him and we open the door and offer ourselves to you. Father, we thank you that once you come in, we are saved forever. There's no laundry list. There's no checklist. There's no boxes to tick. There's no lifelong record of good deeds. There's no keeping Moses. It truly is your finished work. And our work, our work is simply to believe.

In your name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.