Works Without Faith is Dead
By Brad Eggerton
The book of James, with it’s obliteration of the idea of fruitless faith – reiterating what Paul touched on earlier in the New Testament in Romans 6 – utters the shocking truth to many unregenerate professing Christians: “Even the demons believe, and shudder!” (2:19)
It really is a great tool to use in the lukewarm Bible belt, however, ever since I started doing a great deal of mission work in Utah outreaching to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it has prompted me to do a more in-depth study of certain passages in the book. Many Latter-day Saints fuse the doctrines of sanctification and justification together, thus confusing the true relationship between faith and works that both James and the Apostle Paul were getting at.
First, let me assert the general LDS understanding of this passage. James 2:14 says,
What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? (NASB)
A Latter-day Saint will look at this verse and say, “Bingo! The Protestants are wrong. You must have works and not just faith.” Why? Because this verse, very plainly, says that faith without works cannot save. One can then only pragmatically conclude that in order to have a saving faith, one must work. The LDS typically believe that Protestants generally just wish to say that they merely only believe in God, and then choose to ignore the ideas of having to strive to live a holy life of repentance and taking up one’s own cross, which the New Testament so adamantly demands. Point blank, my LDS friends, that is not what Protestants believe (or should believe, unfortunately). However, I do not believe the LDS interpretation of this text to be accurate. Allow me to explain:
Notice the key words, “If someone says…”. That is the key to this verse. James never indicates that the person in question did indeed have a true faith, but only that the person said that he had faith. This is very well documented in our culture today; one needn’t go any further than outside the Bible belt, where a majority of people will profess a merely academic faith in the existence and acknowledgement of Christ’s death on the cross and payment for sin, but still will hold to an ignorance of the true Gospel of reconciliation and imputation of righteousness.
The King James Version (the translation that the LDS Church uses), misses an important part of verse 14 as well. In the NASB (my favorite translation – so loyal to the Greek), it says “Can that faith save him?” whereas in the KJV it says, “Can faith save him?” The way this translates into modern English understanding does not communicate well enough what James was meaning. James never intended for his readers to think that this person genuinely had faith to begin with. James only wished to show that a true saving faith will always be accompanied by fruit.
Think of it like this: Imagine that Christ came down to earth and told you that all he wanted you to do to inherit eternal life is to plant and grow an apple tree. You do what he says – you go and plant the tree, and then, months (years? Don’t know…) later, Christ returns to see your tree. If you really planted an apple tree, there’s going to be apples on the tree. Both LDS and Christians alike will agree with this. Where the beliefs separate, however, is by what Christ looks at. What was Christ’s command? To plant an apple tree. Was it to grow apples? No… Christ does not care about apples. He has plenty of them already. He just wants an apple tree.
In the same manner, it is our FAITH that Christ wants. It is our FAITH that makes us whole. It is our FAITH that Christ uses as an agent to impute his righteousness unto us.
Take note of Romans 4:3-5 (NASB):
For what does the Scripture say? ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.4Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.
“Abraham believed God…” God looked at Abraham’s faith after having told him that his elderly wife was going to bear a child. There was no work present here, and God credited righteousness unto Abraham. Later on,
“His wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.” This is what many Latter-day Saints fail to realize. I like to ask many of them, “Why do you think I do good works but yet still think salvation is by faith alone?” Many of them are baffled by this. Why is it? Simply, because it is due and God ordained me to do them. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” I belong to Christ, I have been found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own (Phil. 3), so now I can bear fruit for Him, even though that fruit is not a favor I am doing for God. My works do not contribute to my right standing with God! That was taken care of the moment I was born again, by grace through faith. (John 3:5, Eph. 2:8-10)
“To him that does not work…” There is the answer to the question. We need to stop working! Yes, we MUST stop working… for righteousness. Righteousness/right standing with God does NOT come through our works. The quest for righteousness by good deeds or by trying to be a good person is infinitely futile. Stop working, TRUST in God, get Christ’s righteousness, and start bearing fruit for God… TRUE fruit. The kind that does not think any favors are being done for God…. The kind that does not think any extra righteousness is being earned.
One last illustration, which brings me to the point of the title of this article: James 2:21:22 says,
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
In this example given by James, he is showing how Abraham’s faith was justified by his works. When Abraham, by faith, decided to trust God and take Isaac to be stabbed to death, dismembered, and burned on an altar on Mount Moriah, God credited righteousness unto him. Abraham trusted God, whether it was he thought God would bring Isaac back to life or simply just call it off before he went through with it, he trusted God’s plan. On the flip side, what if Abraham did the exact same thing externally, but yet internally, the only reason he did it was because he was afraid that God might strike him down along with his son if he disobeyed. He would care very little about pleasing God. Obviously, God would not be pleased with this at all. As you can see, the work is not what impresses God. God merely only looks at our heart to see if we love Him and trust Him… the works that follow are merely only a reflection of our heart condition.
I’ll state this once again: Stop working for “righteousness”. Stop repenting for “righteousness”. Trust in God. Get Christ’s real righteousness. Then start bearing fruit for God.
