Devo 23
July 15, 2000
"Faith and Works"
Wow, it's been awhile, but I'm hoping that your summer is going so well that you don't even have time to read this until sch*** starts again. Of course, the fact that I'm actually writing this means that I hope some of you have the time to read...but aside from that, as I've mentioned before, this writing is for my own benefit as well. So whether you read this now, or a month from now (wow, it's that close already!), here it is...
"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." James 2:26 KJV
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8,9 KJV
I haven't counted the instances, but I know that several times in my life I have been a participant (whether active or passive) in the great debate between works and faith. All Christians know and have known since their rebirth that salvation is by God's grace through our faith in Jesus Christ. It seems straightforward enough. But the confusion enters and the debates begin when the idea of works enters the picture. Of course, we realize, that no amount of works or good deeds will win us a mansion in heaven--like we said, salvation is through God's grace, it is unearned. So what are we to make of James statement that 'faith without works is dead'? It would be foolish to just ignore the verse as something too hard to understand. For if we never struggle with the difficult questions, how is our knowledge and understanding of God ever to grow?
As Christians, we realize that we are to be kind to each other, 'love your neighbor as thyself', but we also realize that we are not to do these kind acts out of selfish ambition. And certainly, we shouldn't be good to try an elicit a favor from God--what good is a kind deed if I expect some payment in return? And if left at just that, I don't think there would be much a problem beyond the mental exercise of removing ulterior motives from our actions. But then James throws in the monkey wrench.
I think the main controversy over this passage is the assumed implication that salvation can be lost. Does this passage say, people wonder, that if I don't do good works after becoming a Christian that my faith, and thereby my salvation, consequently die? IF so, then are not my good works only done to ensure my salvation? If this is the case, what is the use of saying that it is only though grace that I am saved since it is also said that faith with no works is dead? Can you see the dilemma here? I don't know if any of the discussions I was ever a part of came up with a really good explanation. The best we could get was the fairly standard response that our good works after salvation are not to ensure continued salvation, but rather to express our gratitude to God. As the band DeGarmo and Key put it, "He died for me, I'll live for Him."
Have you seen the movie 'Perfect Storm' yet? (Don't worry, I won't say anything beyond what they tell you in the preview). In this movie three separate storm systems (one a dying hurricane) converged in one spot over the Atlantic. These three systems combined to form a storm the proportions of which had never been seen before, and which meteorologists now call the 'perfect storm'. Well, something similar happened to me one day; three separate thoughts or events converged in one instant and exploded in my mind with a startling new thought. The three were this:
1) I had been reading 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis and here is a quote which I think pretty well sums up the message in the last section of the book, "I cannot, by direct moral effort, give myself new motives. After the first few steps in the Christian life we realize that everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God...it is God who does everything." This basically boils down to the familiar principle that the Christian life is a life of surrendering our will to Christ who in greater and greater steps makes our life His. (Don't let that quick summary think that this all the book teaches though--there's a lot more!) This is a fairly standard way of thinking of the Christian life which I recognized and didn't dwell on too much at the time.
2) Driving home from the bank a couple of days later, I turned off of one street to another to find a biker coming across the road. I put on the brakes to let him in front of me--he was far enough away that I could have zipped on by, but he would have had to brake pretty hard to avoid collision. He passed and I thought to myself, "That was a good thing you did, your good deed for the day."
3) Immediately after this thought I caught the words being sung on the radio by Caedmon's Call, "I'm so thankful that I'm incapable of doing any good on my own."
CRASH No, not the car, though it easily could have happened since my mind was not on driving at that moment. Like in the movie, the three separate events collided in an epiphany. If I am incapable of doing any good on my own, than it wasn't me who stopped for that biker. Who was it then? Well, I'm a Christian so I am seeking to be more Chirst-like by surrendering my will to His--It was God who stopped for that biker, acting through me because I had given at least some of my life over to His control (though I still have a long way to go!). And if it applies to that one good deed, shouldn't also apply to all my good deeds?
Do you believe that the Christian's aim is Christ-likeness? Do you also believe that this is possible on our own? I don't think any good Christian would tell you that perfection is attainable by our own devices. That is why surrender to God is important. "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices"
Paul says. Only then can God truly use us, when we have sacrificed our own selfish desires and allowed God the free reign of our body. And then we will see ourselves becoming more and more Christ-like, because Christ is actually in us. And the more of our lives we give over to Him, the more our lives will resemble Christ's.
Bringing in the part at the beginning about works and looking at it in this new light, to me anyway, the whole debate between works and faith fades away. Because no longer is it me doing the works for whatever purpose, but rather it is God working through me in accordance with the amount of my life I've given over to Him. In my walk as a Christian, I seek to live a life like Christ lived. On my own this is impossible which is why God sent His Spirit to guide and help us and live inside us. As I surrender more and more of my life to God's control, His actions and desires become more and more my desires. You could, in a sense, then say that our works are a measure of our faith in God; the greater the works, the greater the presence of God in my life, the less the works, the less the presence of God. When James says that faith without works is dead he is not saying that works supplies the faith, but that faith supplies the works. And so a workless faith is no faith at all because Christ is not present.
"Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will she thee my faith by my works." James 2:18b KJV