Dead Faith

James 2:14‑20

We come now to our study of God's Word and how grateful I am in my own heart for this wonderful occasion to look at the precious revelation of our blessed Lord.  Let's open our Bibles to James chapter 2 looking at verses 14 through 20.  Let me read it to you. 

What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith and has not works?  Can faith save him?  If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled.  Not withstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit?  Even so, faith if it has not works is dead being alone.  Yea, a man may say thou hast faith and I have works, show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works.  Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well.  The demons also believe and tremble.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. 

The psychologist, Dr.  Alfred Adler, holds an interesting theory of individual psychology.  When dealing with people, he says, "Trust only in movement, life happens at the level of action."  In fact, Adler goes on to say, "We are not what we say but we are what we do.  What we do,"  he says, "is the real key to our intentions."  Trust only in movement.  He has discovered what the Word of God teaches.  He has discovered what James is saying here.  He has observed in human behavior from the viewpoint of psychology that the only real revelation of a person is through that person's behavior. 

To sort of paraphrase James, faith plus nothing equals nothing.  James, for example, describes the kind of faith that equals nothing, he calls it "dead faith"  in verse 17, verse 20 and again at the end of the chapter in verse 26...dead faith. 

Now inevitably, people with dead faith always substitute words for deeds.  They want you to believe that they are what they say when you must understand that we are what we do.  Trust not in words, trust only in movement.  True faith will always be seen in works.  Dead faith will not be seen at all. 

Now the point that you want to understand as you approach this passage is that there is a kind of faith that does not save.

There is a kind of faith in God that does not save.  There is a kind of faith in Jesus Christ that does not save. 

In Matthew, for example, chapter 3, the ministry of John the Baptist draws our attention..."And many people were being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River confessing their sins."  In verse 7, "When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of snakes, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bring forth therefore fruits fitting repentance and think not to say within yourself, We have Abraham as our father."  In other words, don't count on your heritage, demonstrate by your works the legitimacy of your faith.

 In chapter 5 of Matthew and verse 16, Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."  In other words, the light that shines out of the life of a believer is the light of good works, demonstrated deeds.

 In chapter 7 of Matthew, the same Sermon on the Mount, verse 21, "Not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of My Father."  It is not the sayers, it is the doers.  Trust not in what people say, trust in what they do.

This goes on throughout the ministry of Jesus as an emphasis.  It is particularly emphasized again in the gospel of John.  For example, look with me for a moment at John chapter 2.

In John chapter 2 and verse 23, it says this, "Now when He...being the Lord Jesus...was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feastday, many...follow this...many believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them because He knew all men and needed not that any man should testify of man for He knew what was in man."

Everybody needs a man to show what he believes or to say what he believes but Jesus, He knows what men believe.  And He said they believed but their belief was less than sufficient.

In fact, chapter 3 follows up the same idea.  "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews."  He is one of those who believed.  "He came to Jesus by night and he said, Rabbi...notice the pronoun..., we know that You are a teacher come from God, for no man can do the miracles that You do except God be with him."  Now we just saw back in verse 23 that the people who saw the miracles believed in His name.  They believed He was sent from God.  They may have well believed that He was a Messiah.  And Nicodemus says "we"  believe, it's a whole group.  "Jesus answered and said, Truly, truly I say to you, unless you are born again you won't even see the Kingdom of God."

Now what's the point?  The point is he believed, he may have well have believed in the Messiahship of Jesus Christ.  He believed in the miracles.  He believed in the name.  He believed Jesus was sent from God.  But Jesus said to him and to all like him, believing is not enough unless you are transformed.  There is such a thing then as a non‑saving faith.

In John chapter 8 we find again a graphic illustration of this very same kind of faith.  Verse 30 and 31, "As Jesus spoke again the words relating Himself and His Father,"  it says in verse 30, "many believed on Him.  Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in My Word...that is in obedience...you are My mathetes alethos, My real disciples and then you will know the truth and then the truth will set you free from bondage to sin and death and hell and judgment...all implied."

In other words, they said they believed and Jesus said your belief is not sufficient unless it involves a new birth, a transformation which leads to a life of obedience.  Valid saving faith has always been verified by fruit.  And a false dead faith is indicated by the absence of righteous actions.

Now it's clear that many people possess that kind of faith.

They believe in God.  They believe in Jesus Christ.  But not to the point of salvation.  They may believe the facts about God, the facts about Christ, but they manifest no irrevocable commitment to Jesus Christ.  They manifest no changed life that comes with true salvation marked by repentance and obedience.

The Lord was so concerned with this He spoke about it in the parable of the soils.  He spoke about it, no doubt, eluding to it part with the wheat and tares.  He spoke about it in John 15 with the abiding and the non‑abiding branches.  He spoke about it in Matthew 7 with the professors and the possessors.  This is a common issue in the ministry of our Lord.  Intellectual belief is not enough.

In Hebrews 12:14 it says, "Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord."  No man ever enters into the presence of the Lord without holiness.  So we conclude that justification must have with it more than just a forensic statement about your position, it must have with it a real sanctification so that saving faith is manifest in works.  The Apostle Paul put it this way, that we are His workmanship, Ephesians 2:10, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

Now, beloved, let me tell you something that burdens my heart greatly.  The church of Jesus Christ must deal with the soul damning impression that a simple knowledge of the gospel is equal to acceptance of saving faith.  We must deal with the deception and the delusion that knowing the truth equals redemption.  It's almost as if people think that what you don't deny, you must believe and that that would be sufficient.  James will not permit any such deception to go unchallenged.  People who believe the facts of the gospel but make no irrevocable commitment to shun sin and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, which commitment is empowered in the saving work itself, must be confronted with the reality of their state.  In fact, the whole of the epistle written by James is a series of tests by which you can evaluate whether your faith is a living faith or whether it is a dead faith.

The first test was the test of trials.  Remember in chapter 1 verses 2 through 13?  The test of trials...and your response to trials is an indicator of dead faith or living faith.  The second was the test of temptation, where you place the blame in temptation was an indicator of living faith or dead faith.  The third was the response to the Word that comes at the end of chapter 1.  And then we have been looking in chapter 2 at the test of your response to the poor and the needy.  James is giving a series of tests by which we can evaluate whether our faith is living or dead.

Now, in this wonderful second chapter and verses 14 through 20, he brings up the test of works.  And by works he means righteous action, righteous behavior, behavior which is obedient to God's Word and which manifests a godly nature.

How we live then, beloved, proves who we are.  This, I believe, is the composite test in this epistle.  It sort of pulls all the other ones together.  For every other test is a righteous work when properly responded to.

Now James has already brought up this issue.  Go back for a moment to verse 22 of chapter 1.  He has already introduced it when he said, "Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your ownselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he's like a man beholding his face, his face of his birth, his Genesis face, as it were, in a mirror.  He looks, goes his way, forgets the manner of man he was."  In other words, he looks, sees his problem, does nothing about it, goes away and forgets it.  "But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty‑‑ which means the Word of God‑‑and continues there, he is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."  In other words, God says you need to be a doer, a continuer in looking into the Word of God and putting it into practice in your life.  And again James brings up the same issue here in chapter 2.

Now may I say that no one is saved by works?  Ephesians 2:8 and 9 says, "Not by works lest we should boast."  We are not saved by works.  If we were saved by works we would adulterate grace and grace would be no more grace.  No one is saved by works‑‑listen carefully‑‑but no one is saved without producing works.  That's the issue.  Without producing works...the work of repentance and submission to Christ being the initial ones.

In Matthew 13:44 to 46, our Lord gives two parables about a man who found a treasure in a field and then a man who found a pearl of great price.  In both cases they sold all to purchase the pearl.  There is a sense in which salvation comes to those who give all they are and have to Christ to take all that He is and has for their own.  But the self‑deceived, for them faith is nothing more than a carnal glance and acknowledgement of the facts about God and Christ.  There's no irrevocable commitment to an obedient life, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to obey His will.

So, James is dealing with dead faith, non‑saving faith.

That is the issue.  And as I told you some months ago, I think I have a great passion for this because of what I've experienced in my life with many of my close friends.  And I gave you some months ago a long list of people that I have known in my life who walked away from everything I thought they believed and gave evidence to me of the deadness of their faith.  They left such an impression in me, they are unforgetable.  I see their faces.  My mind echoes their names again and again and again and again.

They had dead faith.  When it came down to the test of righteous deeds no matter how much they claimed, their faith proved to be dead.

And then I think to myself, "Buy how many other people are like them who in this life will never manifest dead faith?  In fact, they may never know till they wake up in hell that their faith was dead faith because they're so deceived."

Now the background of this text, let me just see if I can't help you to understand that to which James really writes, the epistle was written to Jews.  Back in verse 1 of chapter 1, it says, "The twelve tribes scattered abroad."  He's writing to Jewish readers.  They had identified themselves with the Christian faith.  Some of them obviously were genuine and some of them were less than genuine, hence all of these tests are given in the epistle.  But they had outwardly identified with the Christian faith.

In fact, verse 21 of chapter 2, he says, "Was not Abraham our father?"  And again he embraces the idea that his audience is Jewish.

Let me give you a little bit of an idea of what they were thinking.  Some of these Jews had gone from one extreme to another on the matter of works.  They had experienced in all the years of their Judaism a tremendous amount of stress because Judaism by this particular time had become totally a works righteousness system.  They were raised to believe in the efficacy of works.  And along came the gracious gospel of salvation...the gospel that was to them joyous.  Imagine living all your life under a system of works knowing you couldn't live up to the system.  Imagine being required to keep laws you know you couldn't keep.  Imagine being absolutely overwhelmed with a myriad of rules that no human being could ever live up, and believing that your salvation was dependent on your ability to do what you couldn't do.  A tremendous burden.  In fact, in Matthew 23, Jesus said, "The leaders who espoused that system bind on people burdens far too heavy for them to bear."  And so here are these Jewish people typically oppressed by a guilt producing burden and along comes somebody preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ which is all about grace and all about liberation and all about freedom and all about joy.  And they hear that gospel and they say that's for me...wow, freedom from legalism sounded too good to be true.

And could it be that some of them misunderstood that freedom and went too far the other way?  Going all the way from legalism to an unfounded and abusive liberty.  They were under the mistaken notion that since works were not efficacious for salvation, maybe they weren't efficacious for anything and maybe they weren't even necessary.  And could it be that James was recognizing in the congregation to which he wrote some people who were trying to espouse a salvation that was simply believing the facts and requiring nothing?

That doesn't sound too far‑fetched.  It's been espoused in every generation since.  An illustration of this kind of legalism that these Jews might have been under has come out of some of the ancient rabbinic writings.  For example, one that I found in The Expositor's Greek Testament says, "When Mar(?)  Ukba(?)  lay dying, he asked for his account.  It amounted to 7,000 zuzim(?)  which is the sum total of all of his alms giving."  In other words, that was his account in heaven...all that he had given God had kept a record of and he had 7,000 laid up.  "Then he cried out, The way is far‑‑that is into the presence of God‑‑and the provision is small‑‑he didn't think this sum would be sufficient to insure his justification in the sight of God and thus gain him salvation.

So he gave away half his fortune in order to make himself quite secure,"  end quote.

Typically the Jews were earning their way in with their works.  In fact, early pagans...we have writings to indicate early pagans accused the Jews of joining Christianity because it was a cheaper religion than Judaism.  And the new message of Christianity, grace and freedom and liberty and faith and mercy and forgiveness, looked like total relief, just believe.  What a way to go.  And so they went from legalism to antinomianism.  It may well be that there were some like that in this association to which James writes.  Obviously, whatever the cause and the background, there were some who felt themselves secure just being hearers of the world and were self‑deceived.  They were saying, "Oh yes, that's true...oh yes, that's true..."  but never was it fleshed out in their life.

I daresay you know people like that, don't you?  Do you know people if you approach them and said do you believe in God, they'd say yes?  Do you believe Jesus Christ lived and died and rose from the dead?  Yes.  And you know as well as I do that they're not Christians.  That's not uncommon.  They possess a dead faith.

I remember a song we used to sing as a little kids in church, "Only believe, only believe."  And I've often thought about that song.  Now wait a minute, is that all there is?

Nicodemus believed before he came to Christ and was told he needed to be born again.  It is not enough to just believe unless that faith is the faith that saves and transforms.

Now what is the character of dead faith?  This is what James wants to point out to us.  Let's look at our text.  What is the character of dead faith?  He gives us three marks of dead faith, three descriptions of the nature of dead faith.

First of all, dead faith is identified by an empty confession.  It is identified by an empty confession, verse 14.

"What does it profit,"  or of what benefit is it, "my brethren,"

and I think he's speaking at that point to a Jewish brethren, Jewish audience, and of course collectively to the church that are identified outwardly as brethren.  "What does it profit, or of what benefit is it though a man say he has faith but has not works?"  What good is such a claim?  "Can faith save him?"

Now look at it.  If a man says he has faith...for the sake of argument, a man comes along, he makes that claim.  "I have faith, I believe.  I believe in God.  I believe in Christ."  He confesses to believe in the death of Christ.  He may confess to believe in the resurrection of Christ.  By the way, it's a present tense, what does it profit, my brothers, though a man continually go on making the claim that he believes?  The word in the Greek text means anyone...anyone.  What good is such a claim from anyone if he has not erga, works...if he has not product‑‑if he has not good works, righteous deeds as the pattern of his life what good is such faith?  The answer is it's no good at all.

That's the obvious answer.  It's nothing but an empty confession, an empty profession, a claim with no evidence.  If there are no works and no righteous deeds, you cannot demonstrate a changed life.  If when true faith is placed in Christ, we receive a new nature, that new nature will manifest itself.  And as we go to the parable of the soils again we see that good soil always produces what?  Fruit...the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of righteousness.

If we were to just look at James, we might see what some of those works were.  If we went back to chapter 1 and verse 12, we might see endurance, patiently and triumphantly enduring through trials as a good work demonstrating true faith.  That's one of the tests.

If we went to verse 18 through 20, we might there understand that another one of the good works is a proper hearing of the Word of God, an eager hearing of the Word of God.  If we looked at verse 21, we would assume that purity of life, putting away filthiness is another mark, another righteous work.  If we looked at verses 22 and following, we would see the fact of obedience to Scripture.  If we came down to verse 27, again we would see love and compassion for the needy as another righteous work in keeping oneself unspotted from the world.

We might even look in chapter 3 and see things like control of the tongue, a proper kind of divine wisdom.  We might look into chapter 4 and see humility.  James himself identifies many of these good works and that's why I say in a way this particular portion is the compendium and the summary and the sum of all the other tests that he gives.  What good is it to make an empty confession about your saving faith if you don't have any of those kinds of works in your life?  If your life is not manifest by endurance...if your life does not manifest endurance, if it does not manifest a proper response to the Word of God, if it does not demonstrate the putting away of filthiness and wickedness, if it does not have a heart of obedience to the Word of God, if it does not have compassion toward those in need, if it does not keep itself unspotted from the world, where's the evidence?

In John 15, as I mentioned earlier, Jesus said, "Take the branch that has no fruit, cut it down, tie it up and throw it in the fire."  That fruitless branch, I believe, represents a Judas disciple, represents somebody who is outwardly attached but there's no life flow and therefore there's no product.  And you know these things.  And so, James adds at the end of verse 14, "Can...and I might imply...that faith save him?  Such faith as that?"  Can that kind of faith acquit a man on judgment day?  Can faith not accompanied by a dramatic change in moral character and conduct be true saving faith?  What's the answer?  No.  Can such an empty confession save from a God...look at verse 13...who will be merciless to the man who shows no mercy?  And you mean to say to me that a man can believe and show no mercy and still be saved?  Some would say you can believe and have no fruit and still be saved, and Jesus says if I look at your life and I see not the fruit of mercy, there will be no mercy for you.  Why?

Because Jesus Himself can evaluate the validity of faith based upon the product of that faith.  If salvation is a new birth, if salvation is a transformation, if salvation is a total change, then it must demonstrate itself in the behavior consistent with that new nature.  If I am a new person, there will be new factors in how I conduct myself.

Look at Romans 2.  In Romans 2 we have the criteria by which God will judge.  And in verse 6 it says He will render to every man according to his deeds.  The final judgment will be according to his deeds.  You say, "I thought the final judgment would be on our faith."  The final judgment will be on our faith as indicated in our...what?...our deeds.

And he goes on to delineate it.  "To the people who through patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality will come eternal life."  In other words, it isn't that you're saved by those works, it's that those works manifest that you have a new nature.  "But the people who are contentious and don't obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath will come."  The converse of that is, true believers will not be contentious, they will obey the truth, they will obey righteousness.  Tribulation and anguish on every soul of man that does evil.  Glory, honor and peace to every man that works good.

In other words, we're going to be judged on the basis of what we've done because what we've done and what we do is the indicator of who we are.  Can that faith save him?  And the use of "may", the negative, indicates a "no"  answer.

Now somebody's going to say, "Well, wait a minute.  Isn't James in conflict with Paul?"  This is the typical argument.  If we accept what James says that we have to have works, aren't we denying what Paul said when he said faith alone, faith alone, grace alone, grace alone, and if you add any works to grace, you have messed up grace?  Doesn't Paul say we are saved simply and only and totally by grace?

In Romans 11:6, "If by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace.  And if there's any works, then it's no more grace, otherwise work is no more work."  In other words, isn't he stripping grace of any work at all?  Doesn't he say the same thing, in effect, I think it's in Galatians, isn't it, chapter 2 verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even as we believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified?  Isn't Paul saying no works and James saying works?  And aren't they in conflict?

May I suggest to you that James and Paul are not standing face to face in a confrontation but they're standing back to back fighting two common enemies.  Paul is fighting those people who want salvation to be by works.  James is fighting those people who want a salvation that doesn't demand anything.  Paul is saying salvation is only by grace.  James is saying that salvation only by grace produces works.  There's no debate here.

There's no argument here, there's no tension here.  It is not a face to face disagreement, it is a back to back defense against two different attackers.  Paul is defending himself against legalistic salvation and James is defending himself against a libertine approach that says you can believe and have no change in your life and still be saved.

Go back to chapter 1 verse 18 and what did James say?  "Of His own will begot He us with the word of truth."  In other words, he presents a sovereign salvation by grace.  God saved us by His own will through the word of truth.  James affirms a salvation by sovereign grace.  But then he says, "In order that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creation."  In other words, to make us new creatures, to make us different.

Paul says the same thing.  We are saved by grace through faith not of ourselves but we are His workmanship created unto good works.  They both say the same thing.  Both agree that there is a faith that does not save.

Turn for a moment to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 19 and listen carefully to what Paul writes here.  To show you how he agrees with James, "Nevertheless,"  says Paul writing to Timothy and speaking of those who err concerning the truth mentioned in verse 18 and verse 17, their word is an evil word, it eats like a disease, like gangrene, he says, "Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure."  There are a lot of people trying to knock the foundation apart, a lot of people trying to offer another foundation, but the foundation of God is immovable and it has this seal.  In other words, here is what seals the truth.  "The Lord knows them that are His."  And how does He know them?  "Let every one that names the name of Christ...what?...depart from iniquity."  The mark of true salvation is a departure from iniquity.

In Titus, if you would notice Paul again making reference to the same thing.  Verse 16 of chapter 1, listen to this, he's talking about people who claim to be believers, he says, "They profess that they know God,"  now follow, "but in works they...what?...they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate."  That word "reprobate"  has the idea of a confused disoriented and wicked mind.  So they profess to know God but the denial comes in their works.  It doesn't matter what you claim, it only matters what you demonstrate.

Chapter 2, he says it again in verse 7, "In all things showing yourself a pattern of good works."  So James is considering an empty profession, an empty confession with no evidence, sort of an intellectual external acceptance of the facts of the gospel as opposed to a whole‑hearted irrevocable commitment to give oneself totally to Christ and to exchange one's life for His life...one's sovereignty for His sovereignty.

That's basic.  And Paul is in his particular ministry emphasizing the beginning of the Christian life, insists that no one can earn forgiveness, no one can earn a right relationship with God, that comes only from God's free sovereign grace.  There are no human pre‑salvation works.  You don't have to repent in your own flesh.

You don't have to set yourself up for salvation by agreeing to do this, or agreeing to do that in your flesh.  But where true salvation takes place, where sovereign grace reaches down and totally transforms a person, there will be an abandonment of sin and abandonment of self to the sovereignty of Christ as a part of that saving work.

I think about Ephesus, the very city to which 1 Timothy was written that we're studying in the mornings, and when the gospel came to Ephesus in Acts 19, immediately the text says the people who were deep into magic and the occult took all of their magic books having heard the gospel and believed...and what did they do with them?  They burned them all.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they had turned from idols to serve the living and true God.  It is an exchange of masters.  So while salvation is all of God, it is also within the saving work that repentance and a turning from sin and an embracing of a new master takes place.

And I don't believe for a moment that a new‑born believer understands the full implications of that.  I don't think when I was saved I understood the full implications of my sin and turning from my sin, I don't think I understood the full implications of what it meant to submit to Jesus Christ, that's an ever increasing awareness even now in my life.  No one is saved by works.  But no one is saved without becoming a new creation and in the new creation comes he product, repentance, submission, obedience, love toward God and all the other works that the Spirit of God would produce.

So, back to James.  In verse 14, he first describes dead faith as an empty confession that has no benefit at all.  And this calls me to say to you again, remember 2 Corinthians 13:5 which says, "Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith,"  and how do you examine yourself?  Not by looking at a point in time in which you went forward, signed a card, or whatever.  You examine yourself by looking at your life and seeing the product.

What do you see?  Because what you see reveals what you are.

Empty confession is nothing but dead faith and dead faith is counterfeit. 

Secondly, James says dead faith is not only marked by empty confession, that is by words without deeds, but secondly, it is marked by false compassion.  And here he moves specifically to the absence of deeds, false compassion.  Look at verse 15, very practical.  "If a brother or sister be naked and deprived of daily food,"  we'll stop there just to set the scene a little bit.

Here is a person who is naked.  This is a kind of continual situation, a past condition brought into the present.  Here is a person who is naked.  It doesn't mean stark naked, without any clothing.  It means poorly clothed, a person who is destitute of the necessities of life, doesn't have enough clothes.  Probably indicating the person has not enough clothes to stay warm.  So here is a person who is cold.

The word "destitute"  means deprived of daily food, starving to death.  Here is a person who is cold and hungry...very common situation, very severe.  No food for the day and no garment to stay warm.  Brother or sister indicates this is a Christian document.  It indicates that he's writing to a group of people who at least outwardly are not only identified with him as a Jew but are identified very likely with the a