Faith According To The Apostle James
John MacArthur
The release of The Gospel According to Jesus sparked a more spirited discussion than either I or my publisher anticipated. The book’s central premise is that the gospel summons sinners to yield to Christ’s authority. I was aware, of course, of those who decry that teaching as “lordship salvation.” They propound the notion that any demand for surrender in the gospel invitation amounts to salvation by works.
Realizing that the book would confront these sensitive and controversial issues, I was nevertheless unprepared for the mass of letters I have received from thousands of readers. Thankfully the great majority have been positive and encouraging, coming from Christians who have struggled with the difficult questions the book addresses and are thankful for its head-on approach.
Not everyone has been affirmative, of course. A few have written to challenge the book’s conclusions, dispute this or that assertion, question my exegesis, argue the theological fine points, object to my terminology, or even voice doubts about my orthodoxy. I have carefully read every such letter, weighing the criticisms and attempting to understand what those who disagree are saying. A common thread manifests itself in nearly every area of dispute: Our differences all seem related to our conflicting perceptions of what Scripture means when it speaks of faith.
Michael Cocoris, for example, is distributing a lengthy review in which he has written: “MacArthur charges those who reject lordship salvation with teaching that salvation is merely giving intellectual assent to biblical facts … He leveled that charge against me (pp. 38, 45) and… he accuses Dr. Tom Constable, a faculty member at Dallas Seminary, of the same thing.” Cocoris says, “Neither I nor Tom Constable believes that all a person has to do to be saved is believe facts.” “Faith,” Cocoris continues, “is more than mental assent. It is trust in the person of Jesus Christ … In the chapter by Constable that MacArthur quotes, Constable … constantly refers to believing as trust. He says things like ‘there is nothing more for a man to do but trust in Christ’s work as being sufficient for his salvation.’”
Cocoris presumes that referring to faith by its synonym “trust” sufficiently distinguishes it from mental acquiescence, though in his review he does not describe specific characteristics of trust that make it more than an intellectual matter.
Zane Hodges, on the other hand, is uncomfortable with the “prejudicial connotation.” of the expression “intellectual assent,” but he appears to acknowledge that the phrase adequately describes his view of faith. “Assent,” he points out, simply means “meaningful agreement.” The negative undertone, he suggests, is caused by modifiers like “mental” or “intellectual,” meaning “nothing more than ‘of or pertaining to the intellect’” but often taken to imply “detachment and personal disinterest.” “In this context we should discard words like mental or intellectual altogether,” Hodges adds. “The Bible knows nothing about an intellectual faith as over against some other kind of faith (like emotional or volitional). What the Bible does recognize is the obvious distinction between faith and unbelief!”
Hodges never specifically defines what it means to believe. He is troubled by attempts to analyze faith from a theological perspective or explain in detail what it means to believe. To him the meaning of faith is self-evident. His latest book includes a chapter titled “Faith Means Just That—Faith.” He writes:
A Greek reader who met the words “he who believes in me has everlasting life,” would understand the word “believe” exactly as we do. The reader most certainly would not understand this word to imply submission, surrender, repentance or anything else of this sort. For those readers, as for us, “to believe” meant “to believe.”
Surely it is one of the conceits of modern theology to suppose that we can define away simple terms like “belief” and “unbelief” and replace their obvious meanings with complicated elaborations.
He continues: “It is an unproductive waste of time to employ the popular categories—intellect, emotion, or will—as a way of analyzing the mechanics of faith. Such discussions lie far outside the boundaries of biblical thought. People know whether they believe something or not, and that is the real issue where God is concerned.”
In the end, Hodges proposes something of a description of faith, though not really a full definition: “What faith really is, in biblical language, is receiving the testimony of God. It is the inward conviction that what God says to us in the gospel is true. That—and that alone—is saving faith.”
Is that an adequate characterization of what it means to believe? Can faith be passive? Is it true that people know intuitively whether their faith is real? Do all genuinely saved people have full assurance that they really do believe—never doubting? And cannot someone be deceived into thinking he is a believer when in fact he is not? Can a person think he believes, yet not truly believe? Is there no such thing as spurious faith?
Scripture plainly and repeatedly answers those questions. Imitation faith was seen as a very real danger by NT writers. Many of the epistles, though addressed to churches, contain warnings that reveal the apostles’ concern over church members who they suspected were not genuine believers. Paul, for example, wrote to the Corinthian church: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Cor 13:5). Peter wrote: “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble” (2 Pet 1:10).
I. James’ Assault On Spurious Faith
Evidently there were some in the early Church who flirted with the notion that faith could be a static, inert, inanimate assent to facts. The book of James probably the earliest NT epistle, confronts this error. James sounds almost as if he were writing to twentieth-century “no-lordship” advocates. He says that people can be deluded into thinking they believe when in fact they do not, and he says that the single factor that distinguishes counterfeit faith from the real thing is the righteous behavior inevitably produced in those who have authentic faith.
These are the questions the “lordship salvation” debate must ultimately answer: Is it enough to know and understand and assent to the facts of the gospel—even holding the “inward conviction” that these truths apply to me personally—and yet never shun sin or submit to the Lord Jesus? Is a person who holds that kind of belief guaranteed eternal life? Does such a hope constitute faith in the sense in which Scripture uses the term?
James expressly teaches that it does not. Real faith, he says, will produce righteous behavior. And the true character of saving faith may be examined in light of the believer’s works. This is consistent with all of OT and NT soteriology. One enters into salvation by grace through faith (Eph 2:8–9). Faith is by nature turned toward obedience (Acts 5:32; Rom 1:5; 2:8; 16:26), so good works are inevitable in the life of one who truly believes. These works have no part in bringing about salvation (Eph 2:9; Rom 3:20, 24; 4:5; Titus 3:5), but they show that salvation is indeed present (Eph 2:10; 5:9; 1 John 2:5). Put another way, “faith is always obedient faith. Salvation by faith does not negate the necessity and importance of works. Rather it calls for good works as a consequence of faith.” Works, then, distinguish true faith from counterfeit varieties.
“It is evident that there is faith and FAITH,” Roy Aldrich wrote in reference to James 2. “There is nominal faith and real faith. There is intellectual faith and heart faith. There is sensual faith and there is spiritual faith. There is dead faith and there is vital faith. There is traditional faith which may fall short of transforming personal faith. There is a faith that may be commended as orthodox and yet have no more saving value than the faith of demons.” James attacks all brands of “faith” that fall short of the Biblical standard. What I and others have sometimes termed “mental assent” James characterizes as mere hearing, empty profession, demonic orthodoxy, and dead faith.
1. Mere hearing. James wrote: “Prove yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (1:22). James uses a substantive (poietai), “doers of the Word” or “Word-doers,” instead of a straightforward imperative (“do the Word”). He is describing characteristic behavior, not occasional activity. It is one thing to fight; it is something else to be a soldier. It is one thing to build a shed; it is something else to be a builder. James is not merely challenging his readers to do the Word; he is telling them that real Christians are doers of the Word. That describes the basic disposition of those who believe unto salvation.
Hearing is important, as James has emphasized in 1:19–21. Faith comes by hearing (Rom 10:17). Actual faith, however, must be something more than mere hearing. Lenski writes: “To be only a hearer means more than to be lazy in doing; only a hearer means hearing without real faith. Like Paul, James knows that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing is by the word of God (Rom 10:18) [sic] which is to be heard in faith. Its first and foremost call is: ‘Believe!’ That is why we do the Word by faith, and why faith is called obeying the Word. Where true faith is found all ‘else follows.” Hearing is a means, not an end. The end is faith, which results in obedience.
True believers cannot be hearers-only. The Greek word for “hearer” (v. 22) is akroates, a term used to describe students who audited a class. An auditor usually listens to the lectures but is permitted to treat assignments and exams as optional. Many people in the Church today approach spiritual truth with an auditor’s mentality, receiving God’s Word only passively. But James’ point, shown by his illustrations in vv. 23–27, is that merely hearing the Word results in worthless religion (v. 26). In other words, mere. hearing is no better than unbelief or outright rejection. The hearer-only is unregenerate. James reiterates truth he undoubtedly heard firsthand from the Lord himself. Jesus warned against the error of hearing without doing (Matt 7:21–27), as did Paul (Rom 2:13–25).
James says that hearing without obeying is self-deception (v. 22). The term for “delude” (paralogizomai)means “to reason against.” It speaks of skewed logic. Those who believe it is enough to hear the Word without obeying make a gross miscalculation. They deceive themselves. Robert Johnstone wrote:
Knowing that the study of divine truth, through reading the Bible, giving attendance on the public ordinances of grace, and otherwise, is a most important duty,—is, indeed, the road leading toward the gate of everlasting life,—they allow themselves, through man’s natural aversion to all genuine spirituality, to be persuaded by the wicked one that this is the sum of all Christian duty, and itself the gate of life, so that in mere “hearing” they enter in, and all is well with them. To rest satisfied with the means of grace, without yielding up our hearts to their power as means, so as to receive the grace and exhibit its working in our lives, is manifestly folly of the same class as that of a workman who should content himself with possessing tools, without using them,—madness of the same class as that of a man perishing with hunger, who should exult in having bread in his hands, without eating it,—but folly and madness as immeasurably greater than these, as the “work of God” (John vi. 29) transcends in importance the work of an earthly artisan, and “life with Christ in God” the perishable existence of earth.
James gives two illustrations that contrast hearers-only with obedient hearers. The first is that of the mirror: “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does” (1:23–25).
“Not a doer” is literally “anot-doer,” someone whose disposition is to hear without doing. Contrary to some commentators, “looks… in a mirror” does not describe a hasty or casual glance. The verb (katanoeo)means “to look carefully, cautiously, observantly.” “The man carefully studies his face and becomes thoroughly familiar with its features. [He] listens to the Word, apparently not momentarily but at length, so that he understands what he hears. He knows what God expects him to do. Any failure to respond cannot be blamed on lack of understanding.” James’ point is not that this man failed to look long enough, or intently enough, or sincerely enough—but that he turned away without taking action. “He has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” (v. 24). This passage is reminiscent of the unproductive soils in Matthew 13. The person who hears the Word does not have the proper heart response, and therefore that which has been sown cannot bear fruit.
James’ point is twofold. First, he is illustrating the urgency of obedience. If you do not deal with what you see while you are looking into the mirror, you will forget about it later. By Monday morning you may forget the impact of Sunday’s sermon. By this afternoon, this morning’s readings might be a dim memory. If you do not make the necessary responses while God is convicting your heart, you will probably not get around to it. The image reflected in the mirror of God’s Word will soon fade.
Second, and more pointedly, James is illustrating the uselessness of passively receiving the Word. Verse 21 spoke of how we are to receive the Word: “Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” The conjunction “but” (de)at the beginning of v. 22 is used in a continuatire or emphatic sense. It is equivalent to “moreover” or “now,” implying that what follows is not a contrast but an amplification of the command in v. 21. In other words, James is saying that it is wonderful to be receptive to the Word—to hear with approval and agreement—but that is not enough. We must receive it as those who would be doers. Nondoers are not true believers.
James gives a contrasting example. This is the effectual doer: “One who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does” (1:25). The word translated “looks intently” is parakypto, the same word used in John 20:5, 11 to describe how John stooped to peer into Jesus’ empty tomb. The word is also used in 1 Pet 1:12 of the angels who long to look into things concerning the gospel. It speaks of a deep and absorbing look, as when someone stoops for a closer examination. Hiebert says the word “pictures the man as bending over the mirror on the table in order to examine more minutely what is revealed therein.” Implied is a longing to understand for reasons that go beyond the academic.
This is a description of the true believer. In contrast to the hearer-only, “he bent over the mirror, and, gripped by what he saw, he continued looking and obeying its precepts. This feature marks his crucial difference to the first man.” This man is gazing into “the perfect law, the law of liberty” (v. 25). That refers to the gospel in its fullest sense—the whole counsel of God, the implanted word that saves (v. 21). Burdick writes:
It is not merely the OT law, nor is it the Mosaic law perverted to become a legalistic system for earning salvation by good works. When James calls it the “perfect law,” he has in mind the sum total of God’s revealed truth—not merely the preliminary portion found in the OT, but also the final revelation made through Christ and his Apostles that was soon to be inscripturated in the NT. Thus it is complete, in contrast to that which is preliminary and preparatory. Furthermore, it is the “law of liberty” (Gr.), by which James means that it does not enslave. It is not forced by external compulsion. Instead, it is freely accepted and fulfilled with glad devotion under the enablements of the Spirit of God (Gal. 5:22–23).
James is not speaking of law in contrast to gospel. “The perfect law of liberty” is the law written on the heart, the implanted Word (v. 21). Those who understand the phrase “the perfect law of liberty” to mean something separate from the gospel miss James’ point. In describing the man who looks at the Word and continues in it and is blessed. he is portraying the effect of true conversion.
Does this mean that all true believers are doers of the Word? Yes. Do they always put the Word into practice? No—or a pastor’s task would be relatively simple. Believers fail, sometimes miserably, as we see in Scripture. But even when they fail, true believers will not altogether cease having the disposition and motivation of one who is a doer. James, then, offers these words as both a reminder to the true believer (the “effectual doer,” v. 25) and a challenge to unbelievers who have identified with the truth but are not obedient to it (the “forgetful hearer[s]”).
James’ second illustration of the deceptive nature of hearing without obeying is that of the unbridled tongue: “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (1:26–27).
The word translated “religious” in v. 26 is threskos, often used in reference to ceremonial public worship. It is the word Josephus used, for example, when he described the worship of the Temple. Threskeia(“religion,” vv. 26, 27) is the same word Paul used in Acts 26:5 to refer to the tradition of the Pharisees. It emphasizes the externals of ceremony, ritual, liturgy, and so on. James is saying that all such things, when divorced from meaningful obedience, are worthless.
All of us struggle to control our tongues. James wrote: “For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well” (3:2). But this man’s