Dead Faith

Martin Luther, progenitor of the Reformation, brought us the understanding of how the Christian is saved, justified, and declared righteous by faith alone in Jesus Christ.  It was his insight to primarily Paul’s writings that introduced us to the power of grace and how it triumphs over works.

But James wrote,

If your faith does not have works, it’s dead.
(James 2:17)

This seems to be contradictory.  Are we saved by faith alone apart from works, or does faith that saves necessitate some kind of works? This question is why Luther had a hard time reconciling Paul’s epistles and James’ one epistle. Here’s what he wrote:

“In a word St. John’s Gospel and his first epistle, St. Paul’s epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St. Peter’s first epistle are the books that show you Christ and teach you all that is necessary and salvatory for you to know, even if you were never to see or hear any other book or doctrine. Therefore St. James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.” 
(Preface to the New Testament, 1522)

Although this statement was later removed from subsequent editions (never formerly retracted however), Luther always held doubts about the canonicity of the Epistle of James.  So it’s important for us to consider exactly what James is talking about.

There are two aspects of faith.  Faith that brings us to salvation, and faith that results in corresponding actions.  Abraham believed God (that is all) “and it was accounted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:3).  But it wasn’t until Abraham obeyed God and took his son Isaac up to offer him as a sacrifice that God said,

“Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son.”
(Genesis 22:12, NIV)

God had already declared Abraham righteous and had made a covenant with him, but it wasn’t until he acted in faith upon God’s instructions that God said, “now I know.”  This is what the writer of Hebrews is referring to when we read, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6).  It was the sacrifice of Christ that pleased God as a payment for our sins (Is. 53:10; Rom. 3:24-25), but it is our stepping out in faith that also pleases God.

James tells is that our faith is dead unless it is active.  Faith that saves should result in faith that acts.  Faith should cause us to act upon what we believe prior to what we see.  Faith operates with confidence that what God has said is true even though what is currently seen is contradictory.  

Faith not only gives us the hope of heaven one day, but it brings the power of heaven here today.