GIG 213 - Faith, Works and Dead Works

"Faith without works is dead," says James. We talked about that a little bit last week, and we'll talk about it a little more this week. We'll dig into the idea of how faith and works work together, so to speak, and we'll show how we believe this phrase from James does not mean that we do works in order to "prove" our faith or in order to make our faith genuine. We'll also talk a bit about how "works without faith are dead works!" (See how we cleverly moved the words around a bit). ;)  Anyone, even people without faith, can do good works.  People can be good imitators, and their imitations can appear very close to the real thing, and yet just as an imitation is not the real thing, in the same way people can do works that appear really, really good, but are nevertheless dead works.

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Doubt without works is dead

We've all heard it said at one point or another (and probably more often) that James' words "faith without works is dead" (James 2:20) means that faith is a work, or at least that in order for our faith to be legitimate we have to add works to it.

But James doesn't say, "if you say you have faith, then do something to prove it." Rather I believe his sentiment in his words, "Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works" (James 2:18) is simply this: Your actions simply show what is already true and alive in you. If you try to "add" works to faith, then it's not really faith through which the works are produced! It's dead works!

If you truly believe something, your actions will naturally reflect your belief. This applies to all people, regardless of any relationship with the Lord. If a burglar believes (has faith) that he can get away with burglarizing a house, his actions will justify his faith. If a man believes he can get a better job or career by going to college for four years, his actions will show his faith to be genuine. If you believe the bogeyman is under your bed, your feet won't get anywhere near the floor until the light of morning!

On the same token, doubt without works is dead as well! If a person doubts that he is worth anything to God or to other people, his actions will go right along with the doubt. If he doubts that his gas tank has enough gas to get him to the next town, he will put gas in it before driving that far. But it's not as if a person says, "I have doubt," and then he goes about trying to add doubtful actions to try to prove his doubt to be true! You don't add works to doubt in order to prove it. Again, the works (actions) simply go along naturally with what is already true. If you try to "add" works to doubt, then it's not really doubt through which the works are produced! It's dead works!

Do we really understand this?

We don't add works to faith to try to prove it. Our lives in Christ are not a matter of going about trying to prove our faith by doing good works. Our lives in Christ are based upon taking God at His word... believing Him... having faith in Him... and allowing the "works" (accompanying actions) to be worked out naturally as we rest and trust in Him.

Make-up

I was looking for something on AOL Video tonight and this video was on the home page.

The way my mind works:

As I viewed this video, I saw it as a picture of dead works. People can put on a lot of "make up" (dead, religious, good works) and they can indeed have a very beautiful outward appearance. But when all alone, and the make up is removed, all you're left with is "whitewashed tombs" (Matt 23:27). Please note, I am not attempting in any way to judge the individual people in the video! I simply see this as a good illustration of the deceitfulness and hypocrisy of a good outward appearance when matched up with true righteousness. In Christ, we can indeed have a good outward appearance, but it's not the result of good make up (fleshly, religious strivings). It's the result of the living God taking up residence on the inside and displaying Himself on the outside as we rest in Him.



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