I was thinking . . . It’s not any good. At all. Worthless and pointless. Just plain dead. And dead things don’t do anything. They don’t accomplish anything. They’re just dead. That’s what our Christian faith is like if there are no deeds to accompany it. And this is serious business. It’s not merely that our faith fails to be as good as it could be or is just a tad deficient. It’s dead. As a hammer. Here’s the quote from Jesus’ half-brother, James: “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” That’s kind of harsh, especially for someone like me who grew up believing that I’m saved by grace through faith and not works. Good deeds don’t save me. They don’t reconcile me to God. They don’t cause my sins to be forgiven and they don’t make my relationship to God possible. Good deeds do nothing about my sin problem. They just don’t. I believe that. And so do a lot of other church folks. But I’m afraid we’ve cheapened that reality. We’ve cheapened God’s grace. We’ve turned it into some kind of easy-believism in which we just believe facts about God and then everything’s hunky dory. But what kind of faith is that? Dead faith. That’s what kind it is. Dead. It’s dead because merely believing facts about God is not that big of a deal. After all, the demons of hell believe there is a God. They know it. But I wouldn’t call their belief faith, certainly not the Christian faith we’re speaking of in this conversation. James makes it simple for us. He gives us an illustration of faith that is dead. He writes, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 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? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” People can, and have, and will discuss and debate the whole grace and works relationship. But after we’ve written all the articles, discussed all the angles, and talked it to death, at the end of the day it’s still true. Faith without works is dead.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 11:35:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015