“You see that [his] faith was working together with his works, and as a result of the works, his faith was completed [reaching its maturity when he expressed his faith through obedience].”
James 2:22 AMP
Our Scripture today speaks about the obedience of Abraham when God ask him to sacrifice his son. We understand that the story of this is a foreshadowing of the work of God through Christ. The father, Abraham, is going to offer his son in obedience to God. At the crucial moment, God provides another sacrifice as a substitution! A clear picture of the work of The Father in providing His Son to be the substitutional sacrifice for the sin of man. Now, we see two truths at work in this verse. First that faith and works were working together to accomplish the goal. Notice that it says that it was a “result of works” that his faith was matured or complete. It wasn’t only hos works or his faith that produced the result but both working together. Many will say they have faith but never put it to action. Then there are those who have many works but they are lacking faith and only responding from the requirements of a dead religion! God spoke to Isaiah these words,
“Then the Lord said, “Because this nation approaches [Me only] with their words And honors Me [only] with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me is a tradition that is learned by rote [without any regard for its meaning].”
Isaiah 29 13 AMP
Jesus echoed these words,
“You hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders), rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, 8‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 9‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, FOR THEY TEACH AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’”
Matthew 15:7-8 AMP
Our verse today is so important if we want to understand how to grow in faith in our walk with Christ. James reminds us that for us to “mature” in our faith there needs to be obedience to that which we profess or believe! Every time we take a step of faith and apply obedience we are strengthened for next experience of God’s faithfulness. Many today want to have a grand experience worth God but do not want to be in the position to allow God to perform the impossible! A friend of mine once said to me, “Pastor, many people want a testimony but don’t want to go through the test!” How true that is! It isn’t easy to be in situations where if God doesn’t, it will not! It takes determination, endurance, and perseverance to stand when everything else is collapsing!
I want to be perfectly clear that we are not saying that faith and works saves you! That is a lie. Your position in Christ as forgiven is based on your repentant confession of Him as Lord and Savior of your life by faith. Nothing that you can do can justify you before God as our righteousness is like filthy rags before Him. If you could have made it on your own, you would now be expected to do it and then no need for a Savior! It always amazes me to hear words such as “graces” when describing things that you must do? Grace is receiving that which you cannot do! It is a mockery to suggest that anything other than the sacrifice Christ made on your behalf will cleanses you of your sin. The good news is that His sacrifice was made “once and for all” and doesn’t need to be repeated day after day, after day! Apostle James is simply trying to remind us that if we say we have faith enough to be saved, then show it!
Have a blessed day living the life of faith He has called you too demonstrating the love of God to a broken and needy world! Pastor Ken