Stop Trying to Prove Your Faith

May 6, 2016 — James 2:18–26

But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 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? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Christians spend a lot of time trying to be good Christians.

We are so afraid that people will take into question our faith that we do everything we can to cover up the fact that the faith that we do have isn’t stirring up the kind of works that the Scriptures seem to indicate are supposed to follow from our faith. We know that we are saved by grace through faith, and yet our day-to-day lives are so tied to walking by sight that it is hard to believe the reality that we are any different than anyone else in the world.

Some of the nicest people I know in the world aren’t Christians, and that just doesn’t make sense to me. Ultimately Christians are supposed to be living out the life of Christ in all that they do and say, and yet some of them are not exactly the most pleasant to be around.

When we are putting our trust in the faith and works of ourselves we are going to constantly find ourselves lacking by our own standards. There are several responses to this reality, be it lowering standards, or working hard enough to trick yourself into thinking that it is enough. We know that faith in God ought to produce works, so we focus on showing Him just how thankful we are for His goodness to us.

But that is not the faith that we need to be trusting in. When we stop putting our trust in the faith that we are able to stir up, and believe the reality that Christ’s faith is the one that saves us, we will find that trying to stir up works isn’t part of the program. Stirring up these works can come from so many places and with perfectly good intentions, but if any of those intentions are not about aligning ourselves with the person of Christ they are going to be found lacking.

Our personal faith is dead — there is nothing that we can show for it. The fact that we are so unable to back up our faith with works reveals it to us, and shows us our need for a Savior. The examples that James gave of faith in action showed that the moments of faith of Rahab and Abraham was genuine, but they were not permanent. It was not by their single actions of doing works by faith that they were saved or justified.

Jesus is the only human whose every action was motivated out of the outflowing of the Sprit. We do not need to recreate the wheel. Rather we ought to align ourselves to the one who is perfect, not trying to re-create the life of Jesus, but putting our lives down in order that the truth of His faith is revealed.