A Fruitful Faith

I taught Bible Study on Sunday evening.  The lesson was based on grace. It seems that people can accept that grace is a free gift, but then get stuck in James' writing: "Faith without works is dead."

What does this mean?  Does it mean that we really MUST do good works to earn salvation? Does God really count the "stars in our crowns?" Or are we missing an important link?

There is an apple tree in our backyard.  Each year it does what apple trees must do, by their nature - yield apples.  In years when the apple count is low, my husband will say, "I think the apple tree is dying."  He doesn't mean that without enough apples, the life of the tree will fade; he means that the fruit is evidence of the state of the life of the tree.  Fruit indicates a healthy tree.

I think the same could be said of faith.  Good works are the fruit of a healthy faith.  A healthy faith, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, does what it must do by its nature - yield fruit.  James was not saying that without the fruit, the faith withers.  He was saying that good works are the fruit of a healthy faith.  Without their evidence, one must question the health of the faith.

As we are sanctified by grace, moved closer by God to God's image, the fruit of good works will become the inevitable outcome.

Faith without works

Rather a long scripture (relatively) today:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters,* if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith without works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’, and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. James 2:14-26

This was one of the scriptures we were asked to read for our Disciple class last night. We were then to consider the question, "What does it mean that faith without works is dead?"

From my musing --

Our faith in God calls us to action. Faith without works is faith without obedience. We are called by God to a particular rule of life -- called to live a life that shows forth love in action. We are motivated to that life by our awareness of being loved by God and by our willingness to be obedient and to be transformed by God so that we can do what he calls us to do. We do not earn grace and love through our works; we give evidence of love and grace through our actions.

The Fruit of Belief

Still thinking about James....

There always seems to be a conflicting thought in my mind when it comes to James. James seems to be so centered to doing that the case could be made that one must do in order to earn grace.

For a person who believe that grace is an unearned gift, this presents a challenge.

Every once and a while, God gives me a reminder -- a gift -- that untangles my thoughts where this is concerned. Read this verse from James 1:

Verse 22: But be doers of the word, not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

And then in Disciple again this week (R. Dean Lueking's writing really spoke to me), I found this:

Hearing but not doing the truth is unthinkable in the new creation Christ Jesus has brought.

To say that one believes in Christ, believes in God, has devoted oneself to following God, and then to do nothing is evidence of self-deception. How can one believe, and then not respond? It's not the response that earns the grace, it's the response that confirms the belief in the grace, in the Christ, in the God.

Don't deceive yourself; instead, believe, and your belief can't help but yield fruit.