Word of Salvation - Vol.52 No.25 - July 2007

 

The Nature of Faith Which Justifies

A Sermon by Rev Martin Geluk

on James 2:18

(Sermon 3 of 3 on Faith Alone)

Scripture Readings: Hebrews 11:32-40; James 2:14-26

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is our third sermon on faith alone through Christ alone. In the previous sermon we looked at Abraham and David and saw how God credited them with righteousness on the basis of what Christ has done. Christ took away their sin and guilt by being punished for them on the cross, and He gave them His righteousness by transferring His perfect obedience to them. What God did for Abraham and David is exactly the same as what God does for all who repent and believe. Sinners are not declared right with God on account of their good works, because our works are never good enough; nor on the basis of our faith, because faith is only the hand that receives God's pardon.

Then we also said in the previous sermon that a mere faith in the existence of God is not true faith. We need to also trust God. True faith reveals itself when it has a personal trust in Christ, that He has really made you right with God when He paid for your sin through His substitutionary death. Describing faith as trust says something about the nature of faith.

The letter of James also has something to say about the nature of faith. It says "that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone" (2:24). When you first hear that, you could easily think that the apostle James disagreed with the apostle Paul who said, "we have been justified through faith" (Rom 5:1). But there is no disagreement between these two apostles. There can't be because God inspired both men to say what they said and God does not contradict Himself. Both Paul and James quote from Genesis (15:6) where it says that "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness."

So, what are James and Paul saying? Well, Paul is saying that the believer's righteousness does not come by good works but only by faith alone through Christ alone. And James is saying that whilst the believer's righteousness is by faith through Christ alone, such a faith always results in good works. A person may claim to have faith but if his faith has no fruit, if it doesn't result in good works, then, says James, it is a dead faith.

So let us now in today's sermon say more about THE NATURE OF FAITH WHICH JUSTIFIES.

1. Knowing and believing the gospel message is not yet a biblical faith

We need to clarify that statement, of course, because we often say that in order to be saved one needs to know and believe the gospel. As such that is true. But in the statement 'Knowing and believing the gospel message is not yet a biblical faith' we're using the term 'believing' as a mere acknowledgment that God exists.

And that's how demons and the devil himself believe in God. They acknowledge His existence. The verse following our text says, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder" (Jam 2:19). Genesis 3, which records the fall into sin, shows that the devil believed God existed, because he was twisting God's words to Eve. Look also at the devil's temptation of Jesus at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. He said to Jesus, "Since you are the Son of God..." And then the devil would suggest to Jesus He do things only God can do. Furthermore, the four gospels give accounts of Jesus casting demons out of people. The demons were very much aware that Jesus is God and of what He came to do.

So the devil and his demons believe Jesus is God but they are doing their utmost to prevent Jesus from saving sinners. Their aim is to destroy sinners, not see them saved. But the devil and demons know God has defeated their power with Jesus' death and resurrection and they also know that God at Christ's second coming will destroy them. That's why their belief in God gives them the shivers. They have a faith but it is not the saving kind.

It is quite possible also for people to know and believe the gospel message but not in a saving way. King Agrippa was such a person. The apostle Paul gave him a lengthy testimony about Jesus the Saviour. The King was familiar with what Paul was saying. He believed the prophets, and Paul explained that prophecies about the Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus, who is the Christ. But Agrippa said to Paul, with a touch of sarcasm, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?" (Acts 23:27-28).

King Agrippa was one of those people who know and believe the gospel message like you know and believe that two plus two equals four. Such a faith is just an acknowledgment of things being true but it is not a saving faith. It doesn't do anything. Such a faith does not relate to Jesus personally. It's like believing in an uncle who lives on the other side of the world. You know of him but you hardly ever see him, or never see him. There is no relationship.

We call this kind of faith in God a mere factual faith or a mere historical faith. It looks at Jesus in the same way as it looks at other people in history, people who also might have made an impact on society. Such people from the past may even be admired and respected, but there is no personal attachment to these people.

Australian politicians, generally speaking, seem to have this kind of historical faith. Some will admit they believe in God and admire Jesus but they don't have a personal trust in God. But sometimes among politicians there are exceptions. A book called 'Defiant Birth' is about women who continued their pregnancies despite intense pressures from doctors, family members and social expectations, to abort their babies because abnormalities were suspected. The book includes some words from John Anderson, a former deputy Prime Minister, words that he spoke at the funeral of his son who was born Downs Syndrome and died very young. Instead of having the child aborted, John Anderson spoke freely of the trust he and his wife have in God, and how both of them had learnt so many lessons from God as they struggled with the illness of their child. They discovered that God's grace was sufficient for them and God's strength enabled them to cope in their suffering. They saw in Jesus' suffering that God's power is made perfect in weakness. From what John Anderson said it is obvious that his faith is not a mere historical faith. He and his wife have a faith that expresses itself in a living, personal relationship with God.

So what we have been saying confronts you with the question that the apostle James asked in his letter, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him?" (2:14). The Lord warns us about having a faith that is useless. And a faith without deeds is useless (vs 20). It's only a factual faith, a mere historical faith. Abraham's faith was not like that. James says Abraham acted in faith when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham couldn't understand why God would ask such a terrible thing but he trusted that God knew what He was doing. Says James, Abraham's "faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what he did" (vs 22).

You probably know and believe the gospel message. But is your faith truly a biblical faith? Do you personally trust and confide in Christ? Is He more precious to you than your father or mother or your child, whom you also know very well, and love and trust? You might wonder how you can tell if Jesus is as close as that to you. Well, do you personally pray to Jesus every day? Do you read His Word regularly? Not just a routine praying to God and reading His Word, like, say brushing your teeth every day. No, I mean praying and reading God's Word because you can't do without it. Because you look forward to have God speak to you through His written Word and you want to respond to Him in prayer. You want to have this personal contact with the Lord because you need to talk with God about the ins and outs of every day. You are dependent on God to guide and direct you in Christian living, to teach you, uphold and strengthen you in everything. And not only for what God is doing for you, but also praising and thanking God for who He is in His greatness and majesty. That He is God Almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal, everywhere present, Creator and Ruler, perfect and just, merciful and full of compassion, and sacrificing His own Son for your justification.

What we're saying is that a true faith expresses itself in a daily surrendering to Christ for His mercy and pardon, a daily committing of yourself to God's grace, an abandoning of yourself to Him who knows you and cares for you.

It comes down to this: how precious is Christ to you? Remember Jesus' parables about the hidden treasure and the pearl (Mt 13:44-46)? Both parables teach the same truth. They are meant for people who have begun to see how important Christ is. They are starting to discover Christ's true worth and value. They begin to see how the things of everyday life are connected to God. God's Spirit is opening their mind and is making them see from the Bible the greatness of God and the riches of Christ. These become very precious. It's like a man finding a treasure that was hidden in a field. He wants it at all costs. So he hides it again in order to give him time to sell whatever he's got and buy that field. Then when he has bought the field the treasure is his and he is very happy. Or it is like a merchant who is looking for fine pearls. Here the person senses that there is more to life than the ordinary things of every day. So he searches for things with more meaning and purpose. When the merchant finds a pearl of great value then he, too, sells everything he has in order to buy that pearl. It has become the one thing that he wants most of all. So, are you aware of the riches of Christ? And do you want these riches more than anything else? Are you willing to give up everything that stands in the way of you having that personal relationship with Christ?

A personal faith in God that characterises itself in close fellowship with God, that has you surrender your all to God, is not just for a special category of super believers. Sometimes we look at Christian believers who seem very close to God as some special breed and think that most Christians are not like that. But Jesus did not have super believers in mind when He said, "If anyone (notice, if anyone) would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever (notice, whoever) wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mt 16:24-26)

Biblical faith is like that. It causes us to turn away from sin, away from all the glitter and gold the world has to offer, it makes you want to throw out all your idols, to ask the Lord to help you surrender to Him unconditionally.

2. Wrong view of what faith is

There are good reasons for challenging you to look at your faith to see if it is a biblical faith, because many times in the history of the church the faith of some people was nothing more that a mere acceptance of orthodox teachings. During the Middle Ages, in the period prior to the Reformation, the church mostly taught that you were saved if you believed whatever the church taught. Faith in God was trusting the church as a teacher. God was someone impersonal, the Bible was not read much and many church members were living worldly lives. But many such people believed they were saved because they accepted what the church leaders said.

There were some voices who went against this and said that biblical faith is trusting Christ, not the church. But for a long time these people were no match for the influence and power of bishops, cardinals and popes. The church at the time also had a lot of influence in politics; and kings and rulers were careful not to go against the church too much. And if the church publicly punished you because you dared to protest then you also became an outcast from society because all of society was church-focussed. Sadly the church's influence in politics and society had little to do with the teachings of Christ but more to do with maintaining the power of the church.

In the Middle Ages it meant most of Europe was considered Christian because people trusted that what the church taught was what the Bible taught. But they didn't read the Bible in order to see for themselves what the Bible really taught. In fact, many didn't have a Bible because the church kept the Bible away from the people, fearing that people would misunderstand and misinterpret it. The church told you what the Bible said. Thus the people's faith was not in Christ but in the church.

That's why Martin Luther struggled so much early in his life. Doing what the church told him to do gave him no peace with God. As a priest and a teacher of the faith he had a Bible but it took some time before he realised that what the church of his day taught was not the same as what the Bible taught. He had to transfer his trust from the church to Christ. Luther discovered that salvation did not come through the religious practices that the church prescribed, like daily mass, devotion to Mary, inflicting physical punishment on yourself, pilgrimages to Rome, indulgences, and the like. Luther came to see that salvation was by faith alone in Christ alone.

The danger of having a faith based on what the church teaches without a personal trust in Christ is always present. John Wesley went to the new world, America, to bring the gospel to the heathen, but on his way there by ship, he was terrified of dying in a storm at sea. When he saw how other Christians were calmly trusting God in whatever might happen, Wesley realised that his faith was not yet a biblical faith because it lacked personal trust in God.

Today our Australian society has largely lost its Christian character. Evolutionary thinking, secularism and humanism have taken over. Many people now believe that humans are just a higher form of animal. Pleasure, materialism and seeking your own worth are now seen as the meaning of life. Whereas before people placed their trust in what the church taught, people now place their trust in themselves. We often hear expression such as, believe in yourself, you can do it, you've got what it takes, you deserve it, you're worth it.

But be careful that your life does not centre on yourself. One can easily enjoy the good life with all the mod cons, thinking that this is what it is all about, and in addition to that also believe that you are right with God by going to church and believing the teachings of the church. In all that you can easily be misled into thinking you get by without having a personal trust in God but just having a historical faith.

You might even seek to attain and maintain a Christian lifestyle, assuming that this makes you right with God whilst at the same time seek to live comfortably with your goods and possessions. But what did the letter of James ask? "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do" (vss 14,18).

3. A biblical faith comprises obedience and assurance

The question has sometimes been asked, if justification by faith alone through Christ alone makes for lazy Christians. If the sinner has nothing to contribute to his salvation, if he only has to trust that Christ saves him, if he only has to believe that God declares him just in Christ, then is that person not inclined to sit back and do nothing? To not accompany his faith with action? The Roman Catholic Church, even today, rejects justification by faith alone. And so do some Protestant churches. They agree that a sinner needs Christ in order to be saved but that a sinner has also to cooperate with Christ by doing good works. If the believer does not do this, then he could lose his salvation.

But what James' letter is teaching is that a true biblical faith will always produce good works. Such a believer can't help but do good works. But these are not done to help Christ save you, but they are done out of thankfulness for what Christ has done. In other words, a sinner who has been justified by faith alone through Christ alone, will want to live a sanctified life. True faith actually provides the proper ground for being obedient to God. Look at Abraham again. He believed God and obeyed when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac. His trust in God, his living in close fellowship with God resulted from his faith in God. Yes, believers like Abraham sometimes have moral lapses. There are times we sin badly. But because God has justified those He saves, He brings them back to repentance and faith, and when confronted by our sin, we want to be restored to God's fellowship again.

When you know and trust all that Christ has done for you, then you love God. And that love motivates you to want to serve and obey the Lord. That's what biblical faith does. It produces obedience. Look at all true believers in the Bible, they all served and obeyed God. They did not do so perfectly, because this side of heaven we will always struggle with sin. But a biblical faith will hate sin. For a moment the believer might love to sin, but in time he will begin hating the wrong he does and despise himself for allowing sin to get the better of him. Such believers know that without holiness no one will see the Lord (Heb 12:14).

Biblical faith does not only result in obedience but it also works assurance of salvation in the heart of the believer. You see, when God justifies us through Christ, then we cannot lose it. When Christ has placed us in the Father's hand by what He did for us on the cross, then who is going to pluck us out of the Father's hand? Isn't God more powerful than all others? The saving work He has begun in those whom He saves will be brought to completion, precisely because it is God who justifies.

Now if justification was a process that took a long time to complete, and we had to contribute to our salvation with good works, then we might well lose our salvation if our good works were to slacken off, or if we committed a terrible sin. But justification is not a process over time, it is an instant declaration from God when He says we are right with Him through Christ. We do not win salvation, therefore we cannot lose it. We do not merit salvation, therefore we cannot forfeit it by demerit points. Christians are often weak but it is the weak who in Christ are made strong. Christians with a biblical faith are sometimes foolish, but in Christ we become wise. Christians are sometimes fearful but in Christ we are made to feel safe. Christians often sin but once in Christ always in Christ, and we cannot be lost.

You see what a biblical faith does? When we are weak or foolish or fearful or sinful, then we seek the Lord again. We confess that we cannot do it or our own. The Christian prays: I need You, O Lord. I cannot live without You. I am sorry for my failures, when I do not honour You. But You are my heavenly Father, I want to obey You again. Help me do that. Be near to me and keep me close to You. Help me to honour You. Make me a salt and a light to those around me, so that they too may believe and trust Christ for their salvation.

You see what a biblical faith is doing? It makes the believer trust God, it causes you to pray to God, it makes you want to hear God speak to you through His Word. The believer with a biblical faith lives with God.

Amen.