Faith and Works

James 2:22 "Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect."

Faith and Works. This is a big controversy in the Christian church. Some churches teach that in order to enter the pearly gates, you have to do a ton of good works. It is almost like when you get before God He has this huge set of scales. He puts your good works on one side and your bad works on the other and if the good out weight the bad, then you can enter into His kingdom. It isn't just some "Christian" churches that teach this...it seems like it is every faith tradition. The problem is, no one knows how many good works you have to do. If I mess up and don't do one good work, then am I disqualified? The question that needs to be asked is the name of a book by Andy Stanley. If this is the way it is, then "How Good is Good Enough?". No one seems to know.

The deal however is this: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us..." Titus 3:5. And: "For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, that no one can boast." Eph 2:8,9 And: "...for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." Gal 2:21 It is clear that Scripture teaches that there is no way that we can work our way into heaven. If we could, then Jesus did not need to die. If we could then when we get there we could say: "Look how great I am." If we could, then nothing is up to God.

So what is James talking about in this chapter that faith without works is dead? That works perfects faith? I think it is this way: God gives us the faith to believe. That is clear in Eph 2:8,9. Faith is a gift. God gives it and then by grace He saves us. But that is not the end of the story...it is just the beginning. True faith is revealed in what it produces. True faith in a person's life is evidenced by what they do. If a person claims to have faith but has nothing to show that his faith is real, what good is that? It is not true faith. It is only a sham. I know that I have to look at my life and ask the question: "What fruit am I producing? What am I doing that proves that I have genuine faith?" It there is nothing there, then I need to be concerned. This is what James is talking about. Not that works comes first, but that genuine faith comes first that produces good work.

Then this is the cool thing, the more I do, the greater my faith becomes. I have never noticed this before, but this verse shows how I can grow my faith. We have always heard: "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." But we rarely hear: "by works faith is made perfect". By works faith is made complete. By works faith grows. So it is like this: Faith produces works and works produces more faith.

Question: What am I doing too prove my faith? What am I doing to grow my faith?