Friday: Further Study: Faith that Works
Further Study: “When self is put entirely away, then you can obtain a new and rich experience, you will discern your own imperfections as you lie low at the foot of the cross, and as you view the perfections of Christ, self will sink into insignificance.
-Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Southern Africa, p. 26.
Christ will appear to the discerning eye the perfection of attractive loveliness; then His mould will be upon mind and heart, and will be revealed in the character. The impress of the divine mind should be made upon the heart, and manifested in the life. Come to Jesus in your need, pray in living faith, hold fast to the hand of divine power, believe, only believe, and you will see the salvation of God. If you will be taught, God will teach you; if you will be led, He will lead you to fountains of living waters.
Discussion Questions:
- Read over James 2 in one quick sitting. What is the essential message there for those who trust only in the merits of Christ’s righteousness for their salvation?
- Some argue that James talks about faith and works without reference to Paul, and that we should interpret James on his own terms. What’s wrong with that kind of thinking? Why, especially in this case, is it important to keep in mind what other texts say about faith and works? In fact, in the heat of the Protestant Reformation, Catholic apologists often ran to the book of James to defend the Roman Church against the Protestants. Why does this show us how important it is to build our doctrines on all the texts we have at our disposal?
- It is often said that faith and works should be kept in
balance.
In light of this lesson, do you agree with that statement? Discuss your answer with others in the class. - Why do we find no mention in James (or the rest of the New Testament) of Abraham’s failure of faith in connection with Ishmael or about Rahab’s lying? What does this fact teach us about what it means to be covered by Christ’s righteousness?
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When we understand what an earth shattering, humanly impossible event it is for a person to become a new person, to be born again, to be a new creation, to be transformed from a worm to a beautiful butterfly, to be "saved", then we will realize that this amazing event is totally a miracle. It is absolutely a miracle, think of the miracles Jesus performed through the divine power He received from God.
He healed blind, lame, leper people that no known human medicine could heal. He raised the dead to life, he fed a multitude from a few loaves & fishes, he kicked demons out of individuals lives. These were all amazing miracles. Once he had performed these miracles the lives of all these people were changed forever, the blind and lame did not go back to being blind and lame, they could see & walk for the rest of their lives. What was the part of those who were healed? We need to break the process down, there is the pre-miracle period, the miracle, the post-miracle period.
Pre-miracle: they come to Jesus, acknowledge their illness and that they can do nothing about it, ask Jesus for help, believe He can heal them, trust that He will heal them, surrender their will to Him, obey Him (eg go & wash)
Then THE MIRACLE performed only by Jesus through the divine power of God
Post-miracle: the people are completely transformed, they are no longer sick, their lives have been completely transformed
- he went forth leaping and jumping and praising God
- he went into the temple and told everyone he could see
Jesus told the woman - I don't condemn you, go and sin no more.
FAITH - pre-miracle
SAVED - miracle
WORKS - post-miracle
Between faith and works is where the actual miracle takes place, neither is responsible for the miracle - only God can do miracles - but both are part and parcel of the whole miracle experience.
If I say I have been saved by faith in Jesus but I am not changed then I need to go back on my knees and ask God to perform the miracle He has promised, because that is my desire - to be transformed to be like Him, for Him to be my forever friend, for Him to dwell in my heart, for me to go out and live as a changed person.
Amen thank you very much Shirley for a wonderful message. As a Christian it's going to help me to grow spiritually
Truly an inspired and anointed comment.
Thanks Shirley. What a perspective on Faith and Works!
Hi Synodia & Norma,
Praise the LORD for His wonderful message of Love and Transformation!
I am worried about the experience of the doctor in the introduction of our lesson. Who trained him in the first place to be a "good-doer" SDA? Was it not the church?
Is it possible that through our programs and many ministries in the church we might be teaching the church to be "good doers" only and not "genuine faithers"?
What about Judas? Wasn't he a do-gooder as well? A leader among the disciples; keeper of the treasury and directly taught by Jesus. Yet he betrayed Jesus. As followers of Jesus, our focus is to be on Him.
It is unfortunate about the experience of the doctor in the lesson, but this is what this lesson is about--saving faith. The point here is that we are not to place our faith and trust in another human, but only in Jesus!
"Not everyone who keeps saying to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will get into the kingdom from heaven, but only the person who keeps doing the will of my Father in heaven. Matthew 7:21.
salvation is a personal thing, it is not entirely up to the church. we play a roll as a church but your salvation is your choice. remember Revelations when Jesus "says behold I stand at the door and knock", so its up to you to open your heart for Him. What this doctor was doing does not surprise me, "who can know a man's heart?"
It is very good to read James and any other book in the bible on the premise that the bible does not contradict itself. Therefore it we be important to realize that Jame and Paul are not at odds with each other. James seems to be addressing those who made a religious profession while Paul addresses the issue of salvation by depending of the divine alone.James is saying our profession is not all and i think Paul agrees fully with that and Paul is saying trust God to be saved. Both concludes that the saved will work.
When I read the book of James, my heart melts with pain and sorrow, for what is being said is what we do every Sabbath at our churches. we value worldly positions as if Christ came to establish worldly kingdom, NO He came to establish the Heavenly kingdom so we are all equal before him, rich or poor. its better to be poor here on earth and rich in Heaven. We are still far from knowing God beloved.
True Patience! Not surprising that brother Solomon writes that, there is nothing new under the sun. “That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done.” (Ecc 1:8) In other words, history repeats itself. Thanks to God for James 2, He knew we will need it for that same reason.
Is it possible that James was reacting to the popular belief in those days that being rich meant you were blessed and being poor means you had been cursed.
We can understand where it came from if we look at Deut where Moses presented them with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Also Lev 26 which gives something very similar.
It is interesting to learn that Jesus seemed to tell the disciples that this did not apply to the individual concerned.
This makes me think that it was more meant for the nation of Israel as a whole, they prospered as a nation when the King and the people followed God and declined when they didn't.
If we read instruction given to Moses God expected not all people to equally prosper, other wise make allowance for different amounts of offering, or the gleaning law.
So could we read James saying don't favour the rich as saying don't favour those that seem to more favoured by God.
1. Read over James 2 in one quick sitting. What is the essential message there for those who trust only in the merits of Christ’s righteousness for their salvation?
This chorus comes to my mind as I read of James 2:
“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
True we are saved by Grace through faith (Eph 2:8). Unfortunately, faith without works is dead! (James 2:14).
2. Some argue that James talks about faith and works without reference to Paul, and that we should interpret James on his own terms. What’s wrong with that kind of thinking? Why, especially in this case, is it important to keep in mind what other texts say about faith and works?
Well, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” (2 Tim 3:16). This includes the book of James plus other books written by Paul. God cannot contradict Himself, neither can He disown Himself. Whenever we find areas that seem contradicting, we got to go back and review precept upon precept and line upon line. Scripture is its own best interpreter.
I do not see any dispute between faith and works. I can have all the faith in the world, but people will only know about that faith by the way I act. Often, some Christians are so pious and cling to their faith so much that they forget to follow the example of Christ who "went about doing good." The world is so tired of people who proclaim to be believers that the only way it can experience real faith is through acts of kindness and compassion.
Faith and works are complimentary doctrines and only conflict when one view is taken out of context or preferred due to the conviction of our conscience.
I believe that James and Paul compliment and clarify one another. The message is clear, works prove faith, making faith perfect, and when we do so it's faith working through love.
It's also clear that genuine love is the key to all these lessons. Love unfeigned as the KJV says. Without love as the root of our hearts neither faith nor works matters.
What's more is the fact that everyone can come to this ideal, even a woman like Rahab or a man like Abraham, who as we know faultered in his faith a time or two.
This is a beautiful lesson to remember.