Study of James: What is Genuine Faith?
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Peace to Live By Study of James: What is Genuine Faith? - Daniel Litton
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Continuing along in James chapter 2, we come today to verse 14. This is the famous passage from James wherein he discusses our faith versus our works, and how these work in cooperation with each other. Let’s go ahead and read this paragraph in full so that we can understand where James is coming from:
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (14-17, ESV)
I kind of ended our sermon last week discussing this very thing, and that is that we can say this or that, but if we really don’t mean it, it doesn’t really matter. But really James is zooming out I think more than that. His picture here is bigger. He brought up the word faith. We noted that faith is one of the characteristics of the Level Three person on the Inner-Self scale (which I refreshed us on last week). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please go back to last week and refer to that sermon. Nonetheless, it is the Level Three person who understands faith. In level two, a person chooses anxiety over having faith.
If you stop and think about it, isn’t James really saying that the person who has faith but fails to display it as actual, genuine faith, is like the Level One or Level Two persons. In the Depression State, a person is only thinking about themselves and is full of self-pity. Within the Negative Existence, a person can do the right things (show interest in others), but it’s often for the wrong reasons. It’s often to get something out of someone in return, to use the person for their own, personal benefit. It can also be to keep true to a rule, a commandment, that the person feels he or she needs to fulfill. So, the good work is done out of obligation and not from the heart. This, of course, isn’t pleasing to God. The person feels if they stay true to a rule then they will make God happy. Their salvation has become about works (which is really trying to keep God happy).
We need to understand something here, and I think this point often gets lost when coming to this passage. What James is saying is that if we have a genuine faith, that faith will manifest itself in works which come from our hearts. Do you see? There are a lot of people who have faith and works. The problem is that those works don’t come from the right place. But we don’t believe that someone who tries to come to the real God from a God-absent perspective is really righteous before God. Jesus Christ is needed for true righteousness. So, it’s not a matter of doing this or that to try to prove that we know God. If we are trying to prove that we are righteous, then something is wrong. Righteousness will manifest itself in our outward actions naturally.
This can be even harder for us to see in our setup here in American society, here in the twenty-first century. In certain areas of behavior, people have been taught as a child certain things, and those behaviors stem from Christianity. Kindness and generosity toward others immediately come to my mind. Many are taught, whether they personally believe in Jesus Christ or not, to be kind and generous. Many practice these principles. Many of those who do not necessarily identity as a Christian. Because of our setting then, it can be even harder to see who knows God and who doesn’t based on certain external works. The line has been blurred due to positive influences on society. This wasn’t the case in James’ day. Yes, his readers here are Jewish, and as Jesus demonstrated in the Sermon on the Mount, they weren’t always taught the right things. So, James also had to show them another way.
We can get all caught up in who we want to say is a real Christian versus who we want to try to label as not a real Christian. It’s definitely tempting to go that route. Therein lies self-righteousness, however. The point is that we can know if we are a real Christian by what is proceeding from our hearts. Jesus told us the bad things that can proceed from our hearts. We are familiar with those things. Hopefully, we have been Giving Up Control of those bad thoughts, which is begetting better and better actions in our lives. When we surrender those bad thoughts, we gain victory over them. But, as we evaluate our own behaviors, do we see genuine good coming from ourselves? Be honest, and definitely don’t be too hard on yourself. Honestly look at your own outward actions. Do good things come from your heart toward others?
Remember what Jesus said on one occasion: he said, “the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16, ESV). It can be easy to forget this important truth. One of the concepts behind Jesus’ parable there in Matthew chapter 20 is that it doesn’t matter how much we have worked—how much we have done, as pertains to arriving at, getting into, the kingdom of Heaven. The guys who only worked one hour get in, along with the guys who worked all day. What is behind the outcry of the people who’ve been there all day? Easy enough, it is pride. It is self-righteousness. It is the belief that, “We are better than you because we have worked all day. We have spend our whole lives keeping the commandments and doing good works. Yes, we are superior.” Notice that God doesn’t see things this way. As a matter of fact, Jesus said on another occasion those with that kind of attitude will what? They will get less. So, those of us who are self-righteous better wake-up.
Another way we could read this text from Jesus is to perhaps paraphrase, “Many you think won’t be Heaven will be, and many you think will be there won’t be.” Now it’s getting ever scarier. This is pride in it’s full manifestation, it top-level power. It is the pride of the Scribes and Pharisees during Jesus’ time. Who displays this kind of pride during our time? I have thought about this from time to time as I have know several evangelical leaders on a first-hand basis. These are people that no one would question their faith—no one would even give it a second thought about their right standing with God. But, for one or two I have known personally, I have grown to question whether they really are in right standing with God. Something just doesn’t seem right. Something is amiss. All is not surrendered. Now, there’s no way for me obviously to know for certain, but just be mindful that the appearances of the greatest aren’t always what they seem.
On the flip side of this, what about people we would label as secular people whom we are certain won’t be in the kingdom of Heaven? Yes, the surprise. Those people who are famous in the world perhaps. People look at these kind of people and say, “There’s no way she’ll be there. She supports this and that.” Or, “Look, that actor has been divorced four times. His moral life is a joke.” Yes, both you and I can look at the Hollywood folks or famous politicians, or popular singers, or famous YouTube personalities, whatever, and say, “Yeah, I don’t think that person is going to be in Heaven when I get there.” And yet, surprise, surprise. We notice when we get there that there are people who are actually there that we didn’t think would be. And then we look around at those whom obviously we know are there but can’t find them. Where are they? And we look and look and look.
Next, verse 18: "But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
As James is trying to make clear here, this is not about one person having ‘faith’ and another having ‘works.’ I think the implication here is that one cannot just have faith without works. It’s not that one can just have works apart from faith. You either have faith and works, or you have nothing at all. You can’t just have faith, and you can’t just have works. The second of these two, just having works, is what we identify as the secular person—the person who does this good thing and that good thing, but it’s not in the name of God. This is the humanitarian or just good person. However, without knowing God one cannot be with him for all eternity. One cannot transcend into peace after this life without that proper relationship.
Let me try to provide an example here, an illustration, for us to better understand what we are talking about in this section. I’ll take the example of two psychologists. There is first a practicing psychologist, who practices day in and day out in counseling people to try to help them with their problems. Now let’s pretend for a second that this person is not using his doctorate and doesn’t have a practice—doesn’t try to help people. Instead, let’s say this person works in a factory building cars. If this person were to say, “I am a psychologist. I have a doctorate in psychology. I am a doctor,” and yet didn’t do anything with that schooling, another practicing psychologist might respond, “Well, you have the qualifications to be a psychologist, but you’re not a currently practicing psychologist.” The other psychologist would be correct in that response. So, we might re-phrase the sentence from James in this instance, “Show me your doctorate apart from your practice, and I will show you my doctorate by my practice.”
You see, if the first psychologist doesn’t use his degree, if he doesn’t have a practice or use it in some other way, really, the degree is dead. It is there. He obtained it, but it isn’t in official use. The second psychologist also has a doctorate and a practice, so she uses her degree in what she does with her life in order to try to help people. In other words, our faith in Jesus Christ isn’t displayed but something obtained in the past, but rather it is shown forth by what we do with that faith we have obtained. It, like the word of God, is living and active. It is shown before others. The doctorate has a manifestation in life work.
This whole concept of faith versus works isn’t about appearances either. There are all kinds of ways people can ‘have works’ in theirs lives. One doesn’t have to be a Christian to show that he or she can demonstrate works. People can be a part of another religion, a humanitarian, charitable, kind to others, giving, a helper of the homeless, a philanthropist, a do-gooder, a Good Samaritan. All of these attitudes, these ways of helping others, can be demonstrated no matter what a person’s creed is. Perhaps this is seen more today in our world then in James’ world. I mean, after all, whether it is done on behalf of another religion, or even out of the belief that a person, in and of themselves, is inherently good without God, whatever we see, lots of people are demonstrating good. They have works. They just aren’t in right relationship with the God of the Universe, and that matters greatly.
You can’t just have faith, and you can’t just have works. Neither will do independently of one another. James tells us we need to have both—that our faith in God is demonstrated by our works. Again, this comes from the upper two Levels of Inner-Self, the Positive Existence and Above State. The person in these two categories of Inner-Self can demonstrate their faith well because they naturally have others in mind. Giving assistance to others doesn’t require great effort, or going against their will. It’s not a burden to help others. Like the Good Samaritan did in Jesus’ story, he quickly and willingly helps the person struck down in the roadway, expending time and even money. But Jesus didn’t make the guy doing it have a begrudging attitude. He didn’t put that in there.
Now, sometimes people in the lower levels of Inner-Self can help others so they feel better about themselves, but that’s not a valid drive to help another. If we are doing that, then we are insecure and something is wrong inside ourselves. I know firsthand, because in the past I used to spend time helping others with the attitude, “Look how great I am for taking time to help this person for a couple of hours. Yes, I am totally awesome.” You see, though, if this is our attitude, what happens? Well, after we’ve done whatever good work it was, then the good feeling we got about ourselves from doing that good work fades over time. A week later, we may feel empty inside of ourselves because, in doing that good work last week, we had attributed to ourselves that we were a worthy person because of what we did. Now that the work has faded, we are back to feeling like we aren’t adequate. We are basing our worth off of what we do for others, which isn’t coming from a right heart attitude.
All of us in the faith—all of us who know Jesus—should do good things for others based on the fact that we really want to. We do it cheerfully as Paul said in another book when he was discussing money. You see, we aren’t ranked in our lives in God’s eyes based on what we do for him or for others. Let me demonstrate. Is a person in the Christian community who is famous, say, a famous minister, is that person more valued in God’s eyes? Someone might say, “Well, yes of course. So and so is much more valuable in God’s eyes than me. Look at all the work they do.” I would replay, “You are correct. This person does a lot of work, but that doesn’t make him a more valuable person.” The same person might reply, “How so? They have given lots of sermons, write many books, gone around the country. You’re crazy if you think that this person is not more valuable than us normal folk.” I would then say, “Yes, this person has done a lot of good. He’s spent his whole life and a lot of time doing that good. However, how does this make him more valuable than you or me in God’s eyes?”
The reality is, the correct answer is, we are all equal in value in God’s eyes, no matter what we do with our lives. God has purchased us with a price, and yes, it’s the same price for all. We are all valued the same—the price for each one of us is the same. The cost to make each of us right costs the same. How has he purchased us? With the blood of his Son, Jesus. By Christ’s righteousness, we have all been made new creations in God’s sight. It is true that we were valuable before our belief in Jesus. I mean, Jesus died for all of us before we even knew him. Yet, how much more valuable are we now on the other side of the cross, after having believed in God’s provision for our problem? Within our new group, though, we aren’t more valuable than another based on external works. Jesus did say, and this may not be something a lot of people want to hear, he did say that those who have been forgiven much, they what? They love much. So, those of us who have been forgiven little, then, in return, don’t love as much. Those who were really bad, then, often are able to help others even more, but again, this doesn’t make them more valuable in God’s eyes.
Within our liberty then, within the Law of Liberty (that freedom from God we have as new creations, that which I have defined), it is in that then that we actually choose to practice works, to help others. We help others out of our great compassion that we have found in being free. Since we have a true sense of our value in our correct understanding of who we are as a new creation, as so greatly valued by God, we seek to be an imitator of God’s display of value and therefore value others the same. Of course, we will do this in different ways—in ways that are characteristic of God’s gifting within each one of us. We have the ability to help with basic needs, and even specific needs of our fellow people based on God’s gifting to us. Our gifting helps us to give out of the abundance of our gift to others.
Back in James, he says, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (ESV)
Not too long ago I spent some time with Thomas Jefferson. I mean, I’ve was reading a book that went over the last fifteen years or so of his life at his home, Monticello, in Virginia (1). And Mr. Jefferson was definitely interested in a vast variety of philosophical writings during his time. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t one much interested in the supernatural. He believed that, at least pertains to the earth, everything needs to be able to be explained by science, and that anything that couldn’t be simply wasn’t true. Most of us are aware that he complied a version on the Gospels which excluded any supernatural occurrences and only sought to show the moral teachings of Jesus. He even excluded the resurrection and just made Jesus die, and his disciples bury him.
Thomas Jefferson definitely believed in God. He definitely admired Jesus Christ and a lot of what he had to say. He noted that he was the most noble of all the philosophers because of his focus on others instead of just the self (2). The issue is that—while Jefferson believed all of this—while he believed in God and believed Jesus existed—that’s still not enough to gain entrance in to the kingdom of Heaven. Any person needs to accept the atoning work that Christ accomplished on the cross for him or herself. They need to recognize that the Holy God demands perfection for us to be in his presence. Since we obviously cannot accomplish that, we leave that part to Jesus. So, for any of us to see Mr. Jefferson in the future, he needed to recognize and accept this truth. This is the way a person comes into relationship with God.
Do you see, though, that it’s not enough to just believe in God, as James tells us, rather, warns us? Demons, of whom the Bible says are supernatural beings, they believe in God. Some of them saw Jesus firsthand during his earthly ministry. He would have encounters with them from time to time as he went about preaching. They knew who he was. Remember in Luke chapter 4 for instance. he demon said there, “"Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God"” (Luke 4:34, ESV). See, they knew Jesus was the Messiah. They knew he was the Son of God. They knew, actually, that he was the Creator of the Universe. Was that enough, however? Obviously not. Salivation isn’t available to demons. So, while they know the truth, they don’t accept it. As a matter of fact, the strive to work against it. Yes, people can know the truth, that Jesus really is God, and yet rather than embrace that, they harden their heart against it.
I mean, think about this whole concept. A person can know that he or she shouldn’t live with their significant other before marriage. They have the thoughts in their head before they do it. They know there is a better way. Intuitively, the persons thoughts works against them. However, because they don’t want to take the harder road, but rather the one more frequently traveled, the end up going against what they feel down within themselves is the right thing to do. And people do this with having a relationship with God. People know that they should spend time with God. As I just talked about, they know they should be more careful to keep his commandments. They know they should care more about others and not just themselves. All of this knowing though, realizing this fact and that fact, doesn’t count does it? God isn’t going to count the ‘knowing’ to our credit. He only counts the faith within ourselves the is manifested in what we actually do, our outward actions, in the name of Jesus.
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements
Psychologist David D. Burns
(1) I would recommend the book 'Twilight at Monticello' by Alan Pell Crawford. This is an excellent account of Jefferson's post-presidency, and really his whole life.
(2) See Thomas Jefferson's 'Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus.'
Continuing along in James chapter 2, we come today to verse 14. This is the famous passage from James wherein he discusses our faith versus our works, and how these work in cooperation with each other. Let’s go ahead and read this paragraph in full so that we can understand where James is coming from:
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (14-17, ESV)
I kind of ended our sermon last week discussing this very thing, and that is that we can say this or that, but if we really don’t mean it, it doesn’t really matter. But really James is zooming out I think more than that. His picture here is bigger. He brought up the word faith. We noted that faith is one of the characteristics of the Level Three person on the Inner-Self scale (which I refreshed us on last week). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please go back to last week and refer to that sermon. Nonetheless, it is the Level Three person who understands faith. In level two, a person chooses anxiety over having faith.
If you stop and think about it, isn’t James really saying that the person who has faith but fails to display it as actual, genuine faith, is like the Level One or Level Two persons. In the Depression State, a person is only thinking about themselves and is full of self-pity. Within the Negative Existence, a person can do the right things (show interest in others), but it’s often for the wrong reasons. It’s often to get something out of someone in return, to use the person for their own, personal benefit. It can also be to keep true to a rule, a commandment, that the person feels he or she needs to fulfill. So, the good work is done out of obligation and not from the heart. This, of course, isn’t pleasing to God. The person feels if they stay true to a rule then they will make God happy. Their salvation has become about works (which is really trying to keep God happy).
We need to understand something here, and I think this point often gets lost when coming to this passage. What James is saying is that if we have a genuine faith, that faith will manifest itself in works which come from our hearts. Do you see? There are a lot of people who have faith and works. The problem is that those works don’t come from the right place. But we don’t believe that someone who tries to come to the real God from a God-absent perspective is really righteous before God. Jesus Christ is needed for true righteousness. So, it’s not a matter of doing this or that to try to prove that we know God. If we are trying to prove that we are righteous, then something is wrong. Righteousness will manifest itself in our outward actions naturally.
This can be even harder for us to see in our setup here in American society, here in the twenty-first century. In certain areas of behavior, people have been taught as a child certain things, and those behaviors stem from Christianity. Kindness and generosity toward others immediately come to my mind. Many are taught, whether they personally believe in Jesus Christ or not, to be kind and generous. Many practice these principles. Many of those who do not necessarily identity as a Christian. Because of our setting then, it can be even harder to see who knows God and who doesn’t based on certain external works. The line has been blurred due to positive influences on society. This wasn’t the case in James’ day. Yes, his readers here are Jewish, and as Jesus demonstrated in the Sermon on the Mount, they weren’t always taught the right things. So, James also had to show them another way.
We can get all caught up in who we want to say is a real Christian versus who we want to try to label as not a real Christian. It’s definitely tempting to go that route. Therein lies self-righteousness, however. The point is that we can know if we are a real Christian by what is proceeding from our hearts. Jesus told us the bad things that can proceed from our hearts. We are familiar with those things. Hopefully, we have been Giving Up Control of those bad thoughts, which is begetting better and better actions in our lives. When we surrender those bad thoughts, we gain victory over them. But, as we evaluate our own behaviors, do we see genuine good coming from ourselves? Be honest, and definitely don’t be too hard on yourself. Honestly look at your own outward actions. Do good things come from your heart toward others?
Remember what Jesus said on one occasion: he said, “the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16, ESV). It can be easy to forget this important truth. One of the concepts behind Jesus’ parable there in Matthew chapter 20 is that it doesn’t matter how much we have worked—how much we have done, as pertains to arriving at, getting into, the kingdom of Heaven. The guys who only worked one hour get in, along with the guys who worked all day. What is behind the outcry of the people who’ve been there all day? Easy enough, it is pride. It is self-righteousness. It is the belief that, “We are better than you because we have worked all day. We have spend our whole lives keeping the commandments and doing good works. Yes, we are superior.” Notice that God doesn’t see things this way. As a matter of fact, Jesus said on another occasion those with that kind of attitude will what? They will get less. So, those of us who are self-righteous better wake-up.
Another way we could read this text from Jesus is to perhaps paraphrase, “Many you think won’t be Heaven will be, and many you think will be there won’t be.” Now it’s getting ever scarier. This is pride in it’s full manifestation, it top-level power. It is the pride of the Scribes and Pharisees during Jesus’ time. Who displays this kind of pride during our time? I have thought about this from time to time as I have know several evangelical leaders on a first-hand basis. These are people that no one would question their faith—no one would even give it a second thought about their right standing with God. But, for one or two I have known personally, I have grown to question whether they really are in right standing with God. Something just doesn’t seem right. Something is amiss. All is not surrendered. Now, there’s no way for me obviously to know for certain, but just be mindful that the appearances of the greatest aren’t always what they seem.
On the flip side of this, what about people we would label as secular people whom we are certain won’t be in the kingdom of Heaven? Yes, the surprise. Those people who are famous in the world perhaps. People look at these kind of people and say, “There’s no way she’ll be there. She supports this and that.” Or, “Look, that actor has been divorced four times. His moral life is a joke.” Yes, both you and I can look at the Hollywood folks or famous politicians, or popular singers, or famous YouTube personalities, whatever, and say, “Yeah, I don’t think that person is going to be in Heaven when I get there.” And yet, surprise, surprise. We notice when we get there that there are people who are actually there that we didn’t think would be. And then we look around at those whom obviously we know are there but can’t find them. Where are they? And we look and look and look.
Next, verse 18: "But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
As James is trying to make clear here, this is not about one person having ‘faith’ and another having ‘works.’ I think the implication here is that one cannot just have faith without works. It’s not that one can just have works apart from faith. You either have faith and works, or you have nothing at all. You can’t just have faith, and you can’t just have works. The second of these two, just having works, is what we identify as the secular person—the person who does this good thing and that good thing, but it’s not in the name of God. This is the humanitarian or just good person. However, without knowing God one cannot be with him for all eternity. One cannot transcend into peace after this life without that proper relationship.
Let me try to provide an example here, an illustration, for us to better understand what we are talking about in this section. I’ll take the example of two psychologists. There is first a practicing psychologist, who practices day in and day out in counseling people to try to help them with their problems. Now let’s pretend for a second that this person is not using his doctorate and doesn’t have a practice—doesn’t try to help people. Instead, let’s say this person works in a factory building cars. If this person were to say, “I am a psychologist. I have a doctorate in psychology. I am a doctor,” and yet didn’t do anything with that schooling, another practicing psychologist might respond, “Well, you have the qualifications to be a psychologist, but you’re not a currently practicing psychologist.” The other psychologist would be correct in that response. So, we might re-phrase the sentence from James in this instance, “Show me your doctorate apart from your practice, and I will show you my doctorate by my practice.”
You see, if the first psychologist doesn’t use his degree, if he doesn’t have a practice or use it in some other way, really, the degree is dead. It is there. He obtained it, but it isn’t in official use. The second psychologist also has a doctorate and a practice, so she uses her degree in what she does with her life in order to try to help people. In other words, our faith in Jesus Christ isn’t displayed but something obtained in the past, but rather it is shown forth by what we do with that faith we have obtained. It, like the word of God, is living and active. It is shown before others. The doctorate has a manifestation in life work.
This whole concept of faith versus works isn’t about appearances either. There are all kinds of ways people can ‘have works’ in theirs lives. One doesn’t have to be a Christian to show that he or she can demonstrate works. People can be a part of another religion, a humanitarian, charitable, kind to others, giving, a helper of the homeless, a philanthropist, a do-gooder, a Good Samaritan. All of these attitudes, these ways of helping others, can be demonstrated no matter what a person’s creed is. Perhaps this is seen more today in our world then in James’ world. I mean, after all, whether it is done on behalf of another religion, or even out of the belief that a person, in and of themselves, is inherently good without God, whatever we see, lots of people are demonstrating good. They have works. They just aren’t in right relationship with the God of the Universe, and that matters greatly.
You can’t just have faith, and you can’t just have works. Neither will do independently of one another. James tells us we need to have both—that our faith in God is demonstrated by our works. Again, this comes from the upper two Levels of Inner-Self, the Positive Existence and Above State. The person in these two categories of Inner-Self can demonstrate their faith well because they naturally have others in mind. Giving assistance to others doesn’t require great effort, or going against their will. It’s not a burden to help others. Like the Good Samaritan did in Jesus’ story, he quickly and willingly helps the person struck down in the roadway, expending time and even money. But Jesus didn’t make the guy doing it have a begrudging attitude. He didn’t put that in there.
Now, sometimes people in the lower levels of Inner-Self can help others so they feel better about themselves, but that’s not a valid drive to help another. If we are doing that, then we are insecure and something is wrong inside ourselves. I know firsthand, because in the past I used to spend time helping others with the attitude, “Look how great I am for taking time to help this person for a couple of hours. Yes, I am totally awesome.” You see, though, if this is our attitude, what happens? Well, after we’ve done whatever good work it was, then the good feeling we got about ourselves from doing that good work fades over time. A week later, we may feel empty inside of ourselves because, in doing that good work last week, we had attributed to ourselves that we were a worthy person because of what we did. Now that the work has faded, we are back to feeling like we aren’t adequate. We are basing our worth off of what we do for others, which isn’t coming from a right heart attitude.
All of us in the faith—all of us who know Jesus—should do good things for others based on the fact that we really want to. We do it cheerfully as Paul said in another book when he was discussing money. You see, we aren’t ranked in our lives in God’s eyes based on what we do for him or for others. Let me demonstrate. Is a person in the Christian community who is famous, say, a famous minister, is that person more valued in God’s eyes? Someone might say, “Well, yes of course. So and so is much more valuable in God’s eyes than me. Look at all the work they do.” I would replay, “You are correct. This person does a lot of work, but that doesn’t make him a more valuable person.” The same person might reply, “How so? They have given lots of sermons, write many books, gone around the country. You’re crazy if you think that this person is not more valuable than us normal folk.” I would then say, “Yes, this person has done a lot of good. He’s spent his whole life and a lot of time doing that good. However, how does this make him more valuable than you or me in God’s eyes?”
The reality is, the correct answer is, we are all equal in value in God’s eyes, no matter what we do with our lives. God has purchased us with a price, and yes, it’s the same price for all. We are all valued the same—the price for each one of us is the same. The cost to make each of us right costs the same. How has he purchased us? With the blood of his Son, Jesus. By Christ’s righteousness, we have all been made new creations in God’s sight. It is true that we were valuable before our belief in Jesus. I mean, Jesus died for all of us before we even knew him. Yet, how much more valuable are we now on the other side of the cross, after having believed in God’s provision for our problem? Within our new group, though, we aren’t more valuable than another based on external works. Jesus did say, and this may not be something a lot of people want to hear, he did say that those who have been forgiven much, they what? They love much. So, those of us who have been forgiven little, then, in return, don’t love as much. Those who were really bad, then, often are able to help others even more, but again, this doesn’t make them more valuable in God’s eyes.
Within our liberty then, within the Law of Liberty (that freedom from God we have as new creations, that which I have defined), it is in that then that we actually choose to practice works, to help others. We help others out of our great compassion that we have found in being free. Since we have a true sense of our value in our correct understanding of who we are as a new creation, as so greatly valued by God, we seek to be an imitator of God’s display of value and therefore value others the same. Of course, we will do this in different ways—in ways that are characteristic of God’s gifting within each one of us. We have the ability to help with basic needs, and even specific needs of our fellow people based on God’s gifting to us. Our gifting helps us to give out of the abundance of our gift to others.
Back in James, he says, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (ESV)
Not too long ago I spent some time with Thomas Jefferson. I mean, I’ve was reading a book that went over the last fifteen years or so of his life at his home, Monticello, in Virginia (1). And Mr. Jefferson was definitely interested in a vast variety of philosophical writings during his time. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t one much interested in the supernatural. He believed that, at least pertains to the earth, everything needs to be able to be explained by science, and that anything that couldn’t be simply wasn’t true. Most of us are aware that he complied a version on the Gospels which excluded any supernatural occurrences and only sought to show the moral teachings of Jesus. He even excluded the resurrection and just made Jesus die, and his disciples bury him.
Thomas Jefferson definitely believed in God. He definitely admired Jesus Christ and a lot of what he had to say. He noted that he was the most noble of all the philosophers because of his focus on others instead of just the self (2). The issue is that—while Jefferson believed all of this—while he believed in God and believed Jesus existed—that’s still not enough to gain entrance in to the kingdom of Heaven. Any person needs to accept the atoning work that Christ accomplished on the cross for him or herself. They need to recognize that the Holy God demands perfection for us to be in his presence. Since we obviously cannot accomplish that, we leave that part to Jesus. So, for any of us to see Mr. Jefferson in the future, he needed to recognize and accept this truth. This is the way a person comes into relationship with God.
Do you see, though, that it’s not enough to just believe in God, as James tells us, rather, warns us? Demons, of whom the Bible says are supernatural beings, they believe in God. Some of them saw Jesus firsthand during his earthly ministry. He would have encounters with them from time to time as he went about preaching. They knew who he was. Remember in Luke chapter 4 for instance. he demon said there, “"Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God"” (Luke 4:34, ESV). See, they knew Jesus was the Messiah. They knew he was the Son of God. They knew, actually, that he was the Creator of the Universe. Was that enough, however? Obviously not. Salivation isn’t available to demons. So, while they know the truth, they don’t accept it. As a matter of fact, the strive to work against it. Yes, people can know the truth, that Jesus really is God, and yet rather than embrace that, they harden their heart against it.
I mean, think about this whole concept. A person can know that he or she shouldn’t live with their significant other before marriage. They have the thoughts in their head before they do it. They know there is a better way. Intuitively, the persons thoughts works against them. However, because they don’t want to take the harder road, but rather the one more frequently traveled, the end up going against what they feel down within themselves is the right thing to do. And people do this with having a relationship with God. People know that they should spend time with God. As I just talked about, they know they should be more careful to keep his commandments. They know they should care more about others and not just themselves. All of this knowing though, realizing this fact and that fact, doesn’t count does it? God isn’t going to count the ‘knowing’ to our credit. He only counts the faith within ourselves the is manifested in what we actually do, our outward actions, in the name of Jesus.
- Daniel Litton
Today’s Acknowledgements
Psychologist David D. Burns
(1) I would recommend the book 'Twilight at Monticello' by Alan Pell Crawford. This is an excellent account of Jefferson's post-presidency, and really his whole life.
(2) See Thomas Jefferson's 'Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus.'