A Genuine, Visible Faith
10/30/25 Bible Thought (James 2)
Salvation is much more than a get-out-of-hell-for-free card. It is a whole life transformation. It is a new birth and new allegiance to Christ as Lord.
This reality is showcased so plainly in James 2. The apostle James offers an insightful and charged question:
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” (Jas. 2:14).
He will later answer that this faith is insufficient:
“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Jas. 2:17, see also 2:26).
Some people might think that because salvation is not of works but solely of grace that the way we live is of no consequence in God’s eyes.
Yet even the apostle Paul, whose God-breathed writing makes the gospel of grace arguably clearer than any other New Testament author, also makes it clear that this gospel has expectations:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10).
The believer’s salvation is not of works. As Paul Washer has famously quipped, “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” Yet, while we are not saved by works, we are saved for good works. In fact, God has pre-prepared things for us to do!
A faith without works, that is without any proof in the pudding is dead. It is not genuine. It is not a faith that saves. As one teacher has concluded, “Faith without works doesn’t work!”
James gives a few examples, one being Abraham, the great patriarch who believed God, despite God’s seeming inconsistency.
God promised Abraham a son in old age—a promise that was delayed for 25 years. Partway through the waiting, Abraham went his own way and Ishmael was born, yet God was abundantly clear that there was another son of promise. The promises of God were all laid up in Isaac (Gen. 17:15-21; 21:12). So when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son it logically contradicted the promise. How could God keep His promise through Isaac if Isaac were no more?
Hebrews gives us the answer: Abraham believed God could raise his son from the dead (Heb. 11:19).
Abraham knew God was all-powerful. He knew there was nothing too hard for Him (Gen. 18:14). God had proven that when He took a man as good as dead (Rom. 4:19) and a woman past the age of bearing children (Gen. 18:11) and gave them a miracle baby. Abraham knew that if God could do that, He could raise Isaac back to life again.
God had proven Himself to be faithful, so Abraham believed. God must have been able to bring the promise to pass despite the seemingly insurmountable problem of executing the one in whom the promises lay.
So, Abraham believed, and Abraham also packed his bags and headed for Mount Moriah. He trusted God, but his trust led him on a journey towards sacrifice.
God kept His promise, Isaac was spared by a substitute, and Abraham proved his faith was a whole-hearted trust in the living God. It was proven through action.
What about us?
Is our religion merely surface level and the profession of our lips? Or do we put action to it? Would we pray for a person in need of help while turning away our hand that could actually help them? (Jas. 2:15-16).
Is our belief that “Christ is Lord” merely a trendy thing to say because we are Christians, or is He truly our commanding King?
Faith that is genuine is proven through action. Even the demons believe (Jas. 2:19). If we are not distinguished from them through intellectual assent, are we distinguished through our lives that consist of an obedient and observable faith?