Faith and Works

These notes are taken from Pastor Tony Butler's sermon on James 2 preached at Fountain of Grace on Sunday night September 23, 2007. I've added to them a little (specifically all the things that occurred in Abraham's life between the 1st and 2nd pronouncement of righteousness).

James begins this passage by asking a question:

14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

Next he backs up his argument that both are needed with an illustration to show that faith is useless if there is nothing connected with it.

15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

There must be an integration of works with genuine faith (Rom 4, Gal 3:6-14, James 2)

Romans 4:11 He received the seal of righteousness he had by faith

Gal 3:6-14 The law represents you doing works, we receive salvation through faith not works

You might ask, Does a person have to ask Jesus into their life and only after a certain amount of good works over time are saved? Or is a person saved immediately?

The answer is that faith gives us salvation the moment we believe. Works are proof to others that we are saved. Works are not something that save us.

The passage continues with an illustration of Abraham.

19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

We must look in Gen 15:5-6 to see where Abraham was first counted righteous. In this passage, God appeared to him and promised him that he would have a son. Then we read in Gen 15:6 that "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." Abraham was about 75 and this time, and because he believed that God could make his descendants like the stars, God counted him as righteousness.

Fast forward in time until Abraham was around 113. Abraham has gone through many things in this time period. He had Ishmael through Sarai's maidservant Hagar (at age 86), he received circumcision (at age 99) and had his name changed by God to Abraham, he spoke to the angles about Sodom and Gomorrah, he tried to trick the Abimelech king into thinking that his wife was only his sister, his promised son Isaac has been born (at age 100), and he was now being tested by God.

God told Abraham to take his "only son, Isaac, whom you love. . . Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering (Gen 22:2)". Abraham did what God said and actually tied up his son, laid him on the alter and took out a knife. The Lord appeared to him just before it was too late and told him to stop. He said (Gen 22:12), "Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

Then he says (Gen 22:16-18) "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

This willingness to kill his only descendant linked by context his faith with an action. Hebrews 11:17-19 shows us that Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead. His believe did not manifest until the trial of offering up Isaac This was the seal of his faith. It couldn't be shown unless the faith was genuine. Abraham found out through the trial what he really believed.

Gen 22:16. Because Abraham was willing to offer up Isaac, God said he would make his descendants like the stars. God promised him that same thing before in Gen 15. God knew what Abraham would do, so that's how he could say it in the past and in Gen 22:16 that is was because of his obedience (in time/space history). The reality and power of it are visible at that point of belief.

We also know that Rahab believed because we see what she did.

25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

In other passages, Paul is arguing from a point in time showing the process of salvation. We are saved at the moment we believed. Those who try to use this passage in James to show that works are required for salvation should think about whether that means that only 1 work is required every 35 years (as it was with Abraham)?

James is talking about practical salvation. Righteousness that accompanies genuine faith is seen through good works.

Today's Decisions Determine Who You'll Be Tomorrow

I just finished listening to a great sermon by Rany Alcorn in which he challenges us to:

"Live a life of endurance. The closing question: at the end of this life, what will you wish you’d done more of? What will you wish you’d done less of?

Why not ask God to empower you to spend the rest of your life closing the gap between what you’ll wish you would have done and what you are now doing today in the little choices of life that will make us the people we will be"

If you can find the time, I totally recommend listening to this sermon, or at least reading the highlights of the message. You can do both by clicking here.

New Blog! Kevin's Shadowlands

Check out the Kevin's blog called Shadowlands! I met Kevin and Candi and their family through our church years ago. I think they've been at Fountain of Grace as long as I have. In the last 5 years of teaching sparks, I've thoroughly enjoyed teaching their three oldest children. I've had fun with the whole family on countless camping trips and games nights! Lydia, Anna and I have had enjoyed babysitting their kids many times, and Jubilee and Rachael an inseparable when together. One cool thing about their family is that they love to have fun and take crazy pictures. I don't know too many families who each have their own "funny face" they tend to make for cameras! As a family, they enjoy each other and are real about following God. Kevin may not have time to blog a lot, but I for one will enjoy reading whatever he has time to write!

(Note, you should be able to see the picture better by clicking on it to open it in another window)

Friday Camping Countdown - 3 weeks!

I'm from a camping family. We have gone camping since before I can remember. I guess the camping tradition begin when my parents got married. Actually, it really started many years before that with my Dad's family. We have pictures of Dad camping with his family in Africa. They played games and had fun as we do today.

Thinking about our upcoming camping trip inspired me to take a look at some of the pictures from past camping trips. I've chosen some pictures - somewhat at random that show many different aspects of camping over the last few years. Instead of using all of them in one post, I've made them into 8 collages and will post 2 collages each Friday from now until our October 19th camping trip.

Before moving to Alabama, we always went camping as a family. I know we went to Mount Nebo in Arkansas at least once, and I'm sure we camped at several other places as well. We would spend time as a family hiking and playing games. Camping was always something I looked forward too.

Some things have changed. . . Our camping trips these days typically involve more than just our family. The many people make it so much fun. Many of our camping friends are busy in other towns, churches, and circles throughout the year. But camping brings us together each spring and/or fall. With 50 or more friends, it's usually not hard to find someone or even a group that wants to play a game or hike together. Its fun to see the children getting older and better at volley ball or the card game of the day. Yes, we still play games, but the games now include things like volley ball, kick ball, and ultimate frisbee. Those games are only possibly when camping with friends! I still look forward to the weekend of camping and can't wait for this fall camping trip to be here!

Sibling Breakfast - Just us Girls!

At our siblings breakfast this week, we enjoyed our conversation and a somewhat unusual breakfast. I wanted to make something a little different, but only had a short time to cook and no time to shop. So, when I found a recipe for a French Omlettes, it was perfect. The girls got to my house before I had finished so together we made the bacon, omelttes and toast. We made a good cheese omlette, and a somewhat unusual (but good) fruit omlette with yogurt and blueberries in it. I never would have thought to mix yogurt and eggs, but it wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good, odd as it was! I've enjoyed continuing the sibling breakfast even with just the three of us. It's nice to get caught up on my sister's lives mid-week! I enjoy their company and am thankful to have a family that likes to hang out together.

Science Experiment - A Smothered Candle

Here's a shortened version of the experiment we did in AWANA this week from Science and the Bible Volume 2.

Theme: The gospel must be shared

Bible Verses: Neither do people light a lamp and put it under the bowl. Instead they put it on the stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house (Matt 5:15)

Materials Used: small candle, matches, large clear bottle or glass, shallow bowl, water and food coloring

Lesson: Light illustrates our new life in Christ which we must share with others. Good deeds come from a Christ-centered life. We are to let others see our good deeds so they can praise God.

Illustration: Light the candle and set it in a shallow container with water in it. Cover the candle with the glass and see how the flame goes out.

Just like the candle could not burn when under a bowl, the Christian life is not designed to be sealed up and kept a secret. The good news is meant to be shared with others.
This is a fun experiment to do since the kids can do most of it themselves (except lighting the candle)! Note that it was crazy hair night at AWANA last night. We don't always look so wild! I always get the candles at the Dollar Tree (4/$1) and let each child have one to take home. That way they can maybe show their siblings the experiment too!

Games and Siblings !

My sister Anna has started a series on Siblings on Maidens of Worth (the blog she and her friend Miriam H. have). Her latest post, Sibling Snapshots: Games! reminded me of these pictures I had in a box.

On the top left you'll see our Aunt Ruth and Dad playing Take 2 with us. Take 2 is a much faster way to use scrabble tiles and is a game we have loved at times. To the right is a fun picture of dutch blitz. As Anna said her her post, it is definitely not a calm game, and is a lot of fun! The bottom left and right picures are just some fun ones showing all of us probably 10 years ago. The center picture was taken after we finished make a Risk board out of a map from Geography Songs. For a little while, we actually had a rule that you had to sing and point to all the contries in any continent you conquered. That took awhile and also took all the fun out of getting places like Africa, so it didn't last too long!

Thanks Anna for doing the siblings posts!