It has been said that
separating faith and works is like separating the heat and light from a
candle. You know both are produced by the candle. You know they are not the
same thing. You also know you cannot separate them.
-- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard
Publishing Company, 1997).
Faith in God does not just believe he exists, but
doing what he says because you believe he will keep his promises.
-- B. Clayton Bell, Christian Reader, Vol. 32, no. 2.
If you have the faith--God
has the power.
Depending upon man, we get
what man can do; depending on God, we get what God can do.
-- Croft M. Pentz, The Complete Book of Zingers (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc., 1990).
"Faith and holiness are
inextricably linked. Obeying the commands of God usually involves believing
the promises of God." --J. Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness,
p. 145.
Scripture
Text: James 2:14 What good is it,
my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith
save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16
If 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? 17 In
the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18
But 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. 19 You believe
that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder. 20 You
foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless. 21 Was
not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered
his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were
working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the
scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was
credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. 24 You
see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 25 In
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? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds
is dead.
What
is Faith? Hebrews
11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not
see. We
believe, but we do not see with our eyes.
We have given our lives to a God that we cannot see.
What is works?
Works, deeds, or actions are the result of giving our lives to God.
He enters our lives upon our invitation to recreate us in his image.
We are becoming more and more like him.
We are now Christians, so that everything we say and do represent Him
to a lost and dying world.
“The question is asked: how
can justification take place without the works of the law, even though James
says: "Faith without works is dead"? In answer, the apostle
distinguishes between the law and faith, the letter and grace. The 'works of
the law' are works done without faith and grace, by the law, which forces them
to be done through fear or the enticing promise of temporal advantages. But
'works of faith' are those done in the spirit of liberty, purely out of love
to God. And they can be done only by those who are justified by faith. An ape
can cleverly imitate the actions of humans. But he is not therefore a human.
If he became a human, it would undoubtedly be not by vurtue of the works by
which he imitated man but by virtue of something else; namely, by an act of
God. Then, having been made a human, he would perform the works of humans in
proper fashion. Paul does not say that faith is without its characteristic
works, but that it justifies without the works of the law. Therefore
justification does not require the works of the law; but it does require a
living faith, which performs its works.” By Martin Luther.
I remember when I was a boy scout there was
something we memorized called the 12 points of the scout law. It said that a scout was trustworthy, loyal, helpful,
friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and
reverent. These 12 points are
based on biblical principles and should also be representative of who
Christians are. We are to become
like Christ in all his love and sacrifice for others.
Does
God separate the two?
The demons separate faith from actions.
The truth about demons is that they believe but don’t follow.
They want people to follow their example.
They want us to not become who God wants us to be.
Some
examples of Faith with Works: Find
the genuine to determine the false.
Show
me your faith by your deeds. What
is it that God has called you to do? He
has called you to become a Christian. Many
stop at that statement because they aren’t ready to give their life to God. They aren’t ready to live the life. Many want to go to heaven, but few want to believe the
Lord’s promises and give their lives to him.
I
will show you my faith by what I do. Will
you show others your faith?
Do
you Remember Abraham and Isaac? Abraham
believed and followed even though he could not see with his eyes.
Do
you remember Rahab the prostitute? She
helped out the Hebrew spies, even though it was against the laws of her city.
She believed and bet her life on that belief and she was delivered.
Faith
without works is like a body without a spirit.
It is dead.
Will
we practice what we preach? We will put our money where our mouth is?
Will
we step out in faith to become who God wants us to be?
Will our talk and walk be the same?
Will we live the life? Put
your faith into action. Follow
Him today.
The scenario Tom painted was
annoyingly familiar. I'd heard it many times before in many other people's
lives. But the details seemed such a contract to the life that Tom and his
wife lived and the beliefs they embraced. His oldest daughter had become
attached to a boy at school. Shortly after they started going together, they
became sexually involved. Within two months, she was pregnant. Tom's wife
discovered the truth when a packet from Planned Parenthood came in the mail
addressed to her daughter. When confronted with it, the girl admitted she had
requested it when she went to the clinic to find out if she was pregnant.
If we totaled up the number
of girls who have gotten pregnant out of wedlock during the past two hundred
years of our nation's history, the total would be in the millions. Countless
parents through the years have faced the devastating news. Being a member of
such a large fraternity of history, however, does not soften the severity of
the blow to your heart when you discover it's your daughter.
Tom shared the humiliation he
experienced when he realized that all of his teaching and example had been
ignored. Years of spiritual training had been thrust aside. His stomach
churned as he relived the emotional agony of knowing that the little girl he
and his wife loved so much had made a choice that had permanently scarred her
heart.
I'm frequently confronted
with these problems in my ministry and have found that dwelling on the
promiscuous act only makes matters worse. I worship a God of forgiveness and
solutions, and at that moment in our conversation I was anxious to turn toward
hope and healing.
I asked Tom what they had
decided to do. Would they keep the baby, or put it up for adoption? That's
when he delivered the blow. With the fire burning low, Tom paused for a long
time before answering. And even when he spoke he wouldn't look me in the eye.
"We considered the alternatives, Tim. Weighed all the options." He
took a deep breath. "We finally made an appointment with the abortion
clinic. I took her down there myself."
I dropped the stick I'd been
poking the coals with and stared at Tom. Except for the wind in the trees and
the snapping of our fire it was quiet for a long time. I couldn't believe this
was the same man who for years had been so outspoken against abortion. He and
his wife had even volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center in his city.
Heartsick, I pressed him about the decision. Tom then made a statement that
captured the essence of his problem...and the problem many others have in
entering into genuine rest. In a mechanical voice, he said "I know what I
believe, Tim, but that's different than what I had to do. I had to make a
decision that had the least amount of consequences for the people
involved."
Just by the way he said it, I
could tell my friend had rehearsed these lines over and over in his mind. And
by the look in his eyes and the emptiness in his voice, I could tell his words
sounded as hollow to him as they did to me.
By Tim Kimmel, Little House on the Freeway, pp. 67-70.