I think this video is an incredibly practical point to make when speaking to a non-christian. When I speak to people who do not yet believe I notice that when I say “believe in Jesus” or “trust Christ” they translate that to “be a better person”. That’s why you must distinguish the gospel of salvation by faith alone from both irreligion and religion. You aren’t saved by ending bad behavior and becoming a good person, going to church and reading the Bible. You are saved AS a bad person who simply trusts in Christ’s free gift righteousness to you on the cross. This is such an important point to make when many non-christians point of contact with Christians will be through the news media covering fundamentalist groups who use Jesus as a club to threaten people who they think are bad. God doesn’t divide the world into good and bad people, he divides it up into bad people and Jesus. That truth is very powerful in explaining the gospel to someone who doesn’t yet understand.
Why you have to distinguish the gospel from religion
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The “faith that works” understanding of “trusting in Christ” is what confused me for many years. The church I grew up in taught “trusting in Christ” as being MORE than mere intellectual assent or easy-believism. They taught faith without works is dead. I thought that doing good works was directly related to believing in Jesus for everlasting life. In other words, I was believing in Christ alone, by doing good works for Him. One night, while talking to a friend, for the first time, I was 100% convinced that Jesus was the granter and guarantor of everlasting life to me, based upon Christ’s work and His promise in John 3:16,17. It was like a huge weight was lifted. That was the day I was born again.
Don faith without works IS dead. That’s word for word in James 2. Works contribute nothing to salvation but they are the fruit of Gods spirit working in people who are already saved.
Sent from my iPhone
Faith is demonstrated by works is the only plain reading of this text. I know some in the assurance movement say “saved” really means “sanctified” in this passage. But you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say as you did above – faith doesn’t sanctify AND say faith without works doesn’t sanctify in reference to this passage. It’s much simpler to read the text plainly along with the rest of Paul and John rather than read a reductionist interpretation of John 3 into the whole rest of the New Testament.
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
James 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Wow, you sent this from your iphone! Pretty impressive. I hope it was not while you were driving.
As I said in my last comment, I was taught the traditional view that James 2:14 is saying that faith has to produce works in order for a person to get to heaven. However that is impossible if you look at what James is actually saying in context. I think Zane Hodges’ book (link below) explains how to look at the context of James to see what “dead faith” really is. For those of you who don’t know who Prof Hodges is, he taught Greek at Dallas Seminary for 27 years and wrote the Bible Knowledge Commentary chapter on “James” ed. by Zuck and Walvoord from Dallas Seminary. Prof Hodges was also a good friend of mine who passed away 2 1/2 years ago.
http://www.freegraceresources.org/deadfaithhodges.pdf
Enjoy. Come to Faithaloneradio.org (my blog) where we will discuss James 2:14 in the next few weeks.
A good friend of mine, Dr. John Hart, who teaches General Epistles (including James) at Moody Bible Institute, delivered a message at a 1999 Grace Evangelical Society conference entitled, “James 2:14-26: How to Energize your Faith.” He gave me his overheads, and I cleaned them up a bit, and I edited them into the video so you can see them better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KZzq1mQULw
I would love to hear what you think about the video. Rather than me further cluttering up Meade’s blog please stop by http://www.faithaloneradio.org, and leave a comment there or else email me.
I pray that John Hart’s video will help you come to a better understanding of James 2. I know it helped me.
- Don
Meade, I have been thinking about what you said about “having it both ways” and especially what you said about “reading a reductionistic interpretation of John 3 into the whole rest of the New Testament.”
I don’t want to clutter things up here, but I ask that people read what my response is to the prospect of “reductionism.”
http://www.faithaloneradio.org/?p=262
- Don