So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:17
With the words of James, we are thrown into an age-old debate. It is a debate that is more often sparked by the words that follow in verse 26: "faith apart from works is dead." The problem we have is understanding how these words jive with others of Scripture, like Paul’s in Romans 1: "The righteous shall live by faith" (1:17). But ours is a tradition based on faith alone, grace alone, and Word alone.
It’s all about order. Works do not count for our salvation. We are saved only through the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness carried out in His perfect life, His suffering, death, and resurrection and given to us by the grace of God in our Baptisms. We know the words. But then it’s the actions that follow that seem so inconsistent.
There are two sinful outcomes of a Christian’s life when he or she dismisses works because they can’t save. We either do whatever we want because God’s grace is there to pick us up (which is exactly the problem Paul had to warn the Romans against), OR, we do nothing because it counts for nothing. Instead, it’s important for us to understand that what we do or don’t do does matter. It matters to God and your neighbor. Moreover, those actions are connected to our faith, not in order to be saved, but because we are saved.
And so James is writing also to each one of us. In his day, James was confronting a problem in the
Church. There was a disconnect between the faith they professed and how they lived out their faith.
The same caution is extended to us in our day, especially as we hear the example of this disconnect that James gives. Two men enter the assembly, the gathering of believers in the presence of God. One is dressed well, the other not. The one dressed well is distinguished among the church family. The other is given a lower place because he doesn’t measure up. "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself, well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it" (vv 8–10).
So what we do really does matter! And what do we do now? It can seem as though all of James’s words, including those about faith being dead without works, all add up to this: "Do better!" Is that it? Do better? Do better so people can see you’re a Christian? Do better so God knows you’re serious about Him? If that’s all James is saying, then why don’t we simply do better? Why don’t we just do everything God says? After all, God said to do it; just do it! But we don’t. In fact, we can’t. If James is saying nothing more than "Do better!" he’s actually doing exactly what he condemns in vss. 15–16 of our text: "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, filled, body, what good is that?"
On our own, we can’t "do better" just because James says so any more than the indigent person can be warmed and filled by our words alone. That’s because our sinful nature always has its own selfish agenda. Our sinful nature always looks out for itself, not for our neighbor in need; that’s just what the sinful nature is: all out for itself.
So the age-old debate is set before us: Either James’s words are empty encouragement for us as we live our lives in perpetual disappointment to God, or there’s more...
Indeed, there is more! We don’t have to look far for a hint at where to turn in our confusion. In verse 7, James makes what seems to be just a passing comment in the middle of his encouragement to do good. He refers to the "name by which you were called." However, it’s not just a passing comment; it’s filled with the answer to the problem here. It suggests there was action prior to ours. That action is the action of the One who called us, for we can’t call ourselves. It’s God, of course, who has called us. He’s called us into a relationship with Him that is lived out in relationship to one another. It really is all about order.
It all begins with God’s action toward us and continues as we live out His action toward us in our actions toward others. To understand, let’s put the shoe on the other foot. What if God made distinctions? What if God analyzed our worthiness and acted accordingly? What if God analyzed our works and dealt with us according to what He saw? - and He sees all!! What if God kept a scorecard and awarded our place before Him based on that scorecard?
Here’s the content of our faith: God does not! If God did make such distinctions, we would be left
to work out our own salvation. And as hard as we might work, we would never know if we had done enough. Instead, He has worked out our salvation for us. The content of our faith is Jesus Christ and His work of salvation on our behalf. He lived the perfect life we cannot live. He died to pay the price we cannot pay. He rose to defeat death and make it possible for His righteousness to become ours. Our faith is in a labor, but not our own. Our faith is in a labor accomplished on a cross and emanating from an empty tomb. Our faith, without Christ, is dead! Our life begins, continues, and ends with Him and in Him, which is why what we do and what we don’t do really matters.
The life we live is the life God has labored for us in Christ. His life—what He has done for us and what He has given to us—animates and motivates our lives. He is the content of our faith and the content of our living. Therefore, He is the content of our labor. Any other understanding of the relationship between faith and works creates an either/or proposition—either faith or works. Rather, Christ in us and Christ through us creates a both/and proposition—both faith and works; first faith, then works, and never ever one without the other.
Now, what about when I fail? In the either/or proposition, our failure means one of two things. Our
failure means either we have no faith OR our failure doesn’t matter. We know our failures can’t simply be overlooked, so in the either/or proposition, we’re sent back within ourselves to do better. We’re left to find our own inner strength. Our faith, though, isn’t in ourselves; it’s in Christ and in His atoning work. This is where the both/and proposition of both faith and works finds a firm hold on
our lives as God’s children. Because if everything begins with Christ, then He is where we go when we fail. When we fail to live as we should, we’re sent back to Christ. We’re sent back to His Word and Sacraments and the reassurance of God’s grace given in Baptism as we hear His Word of forgiveness. We’re sent back to feed on Him in His Supper in order to receive from Him strengthening of our faith and strengthening of our lives lived in that faith. We’re sent back to the One true God, who holds no distinctions but lived and died for all. That is, He loves us whom He has graciously called and to whom He has given His name. His grace is our salvation, and His grace is our strength to live, to live lives that look like what they are—God’s Labor of love – Christ in us and Christ through us.
"So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (v 17). However, we are not dead. We are alive in Christ, and so we live and labor in Christ who works in and through each one of us!
