This blog will depart from my usual gentle, winsome tone. I’ve avoided using my posts as a bully pulpit, but I can no longer forbear. It’s time for a stern rebuke regarding our spiritual condition. Earth’s probation will soon screech to a halt when Jesus comes with his glorious retinue of angels, and I must … Continue reading –>
Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? (James 2:25, NKJV). Read Joshua 2:1-21. How do we understand this example, again in the context of salvation by faith alone? According to Hebrews 11:31, the inhabitants of Jericho did not believe. Most modern … Continue reading –>
One hot July afternoon at an Oklahoma Camp meeting, I visited a friend in her tent. Just outside sat my friend’s 13-year-old daughter with a friend she had just met. This was her friend’s first camp meeting. He had come with his grandfather who just became a Christian. He did not know what to think about all the meetings … Continue reading –>
[Thought questions for Faith that Works November 4, 2014] 1. Faith without works is dead. James didn’t mince words, did he? Why did he speak so boldly, so plainly, about how faith is as useless as a dead body in the Christian faith? If the doctor-preacher in the story at the beginning of the lesson had … Continue reading –>
Read James 2:21-24 and compare it with Romans 4:1-5, Rom 4:22-24. How is the faith of Abraham described in these texts, and on what is justification based? Interestingly, both James and Paul quote Genesis 15:6, but they seem to arrive at opposite conclusions. According to James, Abraham was justified by works, but Paul seems, in … Continue reading –>
Key Thought : Faith and works cannot be separated. We can’t be saved by our works, but without them, our faith is useless. [Lesson Plan for Faith That Works November 3, 2014] 1. Have a volunteer read James 2:18. a. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text … Continue reading –>
If works are absent, there is only one other way to prove the genuineness of one’s faith: by orthodoxy. If I believe the right things, then I must have faith, right? Read 2 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Timothy 2:4; James 5:19-20; 1 Peter 1:22; and 1 John 3:18-19. What do these verses tell us about how … Continue reading –>
Read James 2:18. What is the main point James is making? How do we show our faith by our works? James uses a common rhetorical technique whereby a potential objector comes forward. In this case, the objector tries to drive a wedge between faith and works by suggesting that as long as a person has … Continue reading –>
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? (James 2:14, NKJV). How do we understand this verse in the context of salvation by faith alone? Read James 2:15-17; compare Rom. 3:27-28. Faith without works. James gives a vivid illustration of this kind … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: James 2:14-26; Rom. 3:27-28;Titus 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:2; Rom. 4:1-5; Josh. 2:1-21. Memory Text: For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also (James 2:26, NKJV). He was a successful doctor and an elder in a high-profile church of several hundred members. He … Continue reading –>
