Masterwork Sample Lesson
James, Mercy Triumphs, Lesson #4
Good Questions Have Small Groups Talking
www.joshhunt.com
I’d challenge our people to read through the book of
James every week during this study.
James 2.17 - 26
OPEN
Let’s each share your name and one thing good about
your life these days.
DIG
1.
Let’s read this section as a whole. How
would you summarize the message of this section?
This brings James to the core of his message to the
scattered Jewish Christians: real faith for real life. Here he moves away
from a writing style of semiconnected one-liners and gives a longer,
focused, intense blast against fruitless faith. There have been readers
over the centuries who were offended by the great emphasis James lays on
the importance of good works, supposing that this contradicted Paul’s
clear teaching of justification by faith alone, “not by works, so that no
one can boast” (Ephesians 2:9). Even Martin Luther himself at times had
doubts about whether or not James even belonged in the Bible. A deeper and
more careful and sympathetic reading, however, reveals no conflict between
James and Paul.
Sometimes when people hear the gospel for the first
time, the good news that Jesus Christ gives comfort, forgiveness,
spiritual life, and a place in heaven to all who repent and believe in him
sounds too easy. “You mean,” they say, “all you have to do is say the
Apostles’ Creed and then you can live any way you want?” It is to this
false notion that James speaks.
Our own attempts at good works are worthless in
God’s court in order to gain forgiveness of our sins and his verdict of
not guilty. Only the righteous life, death, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ (grace) can do that. And we who believe it have it (faith).
Now—here is where the works come in. As I come to faith in my Savior, I am
justified, I am born again, I begin to understand God’s will for me, and
the Spirit helps me to want God’s will and gives me the power to do God’s
will. Real faith inevitably yields good works. And if the works are
absent, the faith claimed must be phony. Paul says, “We are God’s
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared
in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). James gives the example of a
cold and heartless attitude toward a brother or sister without clothes or
food, all talk and no action. “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied
by action, is dead.” — Mark A. Jeske,
James, Peter, John, Jude, The People’s Bible (Milwaukee, WI:
Northwestern Pub. House, 2002), 27–28.
2.
What do you think the situation was like in
the churches James was addressing?
The first thing people do when they get The New
Yorker is read the cartoons, because a good cartoon not only entertains,
but often humors the truth home in a powerful way. Recently I came across
a cartoon in another publication that did just that for me. It pictured a
conventional-looking church with a large billboard in the foreground
advertising its ministry. The sign read:
The Lite Church
24% FEWER COMMITMENTS,
HOME OF THE 5% TITHE,
15-MINUTE SERMONS,
45-MINUTE WORSHIP SERVICES.
WE HAVE ONLY 8 COMMANDMENTS—YOUR CHOICE.
WE USE JUST 3 SPIRITUAL LAWS.
EVERYTHING YOU’VE WANTED IN A CHURCH … AND LESS!
That is the stained-glass experience of so many in
the modern church today—no quickening of the conscience, no feeding of the
mind, no opening of the heart, no commitment—no real faith.
This was James’ concern millennia ago, because it
was just as likely then as today for church attenders to slide along with
a bogus faith that made no real difference in the way they lived. James
wants to make crystal-clear what makes faith real faith, and in doing so
he sheds eternal wisdom on the relationship of faith and action. James’
teaching, taken to heart, will steel the church against a “lite” faith. —
R. Kent Hughes, James: Faith That
Works, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991),
107–108.
3.
Historically, this passage has been quite
controversial. What do you know about that controversy?
Arguing that faith without works is dead, the Book
of James so incensed Martin Luther that the reformer called it “a
veritable straw Epistle that should be thrown into the Rhine River.” Yet
James proves that faith without works is dead by pointing to the example
of Abraham. It’s not that Abraham was saved by taking Isaac up the
mountain to sacrifice him in obedience to God. No, James says the work
that saved Abraham took place years before that when he simply believed in
God (verse 23).
When was Abraham declared righteous? As James
quotes Genesis 15:6, we understand that Abraham was declared righteous
when he simply believed God would do what He said He would do when He told
Abraham He would make his descendants more numerable than the sand on the
seashore. Interestingly, Paul would also point to Abraham as proof that
man is justified by faith apart from works (Romans 4:3).
James and Paul are in full agreement because they
both maintain that the moment Abraham simply believed God was the moment
God imputed righteousness unto him.
It is not faith and works that saves a man. It is
not faith or works. It is faith that works. All Abraham was doing on Mount
Moriah was showing the reality of what had taken place in his life years
earlier when he simply believed God.
If your faith is real, it will show itself. How? By
obeying the Word of God and following the leading of the Lord, even though
you may not understand where it will lead. At the time, Abraham could not
have understood the significance of what he had done on Mount Moriah. But
this side of Calvary, we see it was a perfect picture of what God the
Father would do in sending His Son to that same mountain to die for the
sins of the world.
You know you’re truly born again when you find
yourself obeying God. We’re not saved by obedience. But our obedience
proves we’re saved, for true faith works. — Jon Courson,
Jon Courson’s Application
Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 1525.
4.
Compare this passage with Romans 3.28. Do
these passage seem to contradict?
James begins his argument with two rhetorical
questions which (in the Greek) demand negative answers:2 “What good is it,
my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such
faith save him?” (v. 14). James seems at first glance to be saying that
faith alone does not save, a truth he will again express in verse 24: “You
see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.”
This puts James in apparent contradiction with the Apostle Paul who argues
for faith alone in Romans 3:28—”For we maintain that a man is justified by
faith apart from the works of the law” (NASB) (cf. Romans 4:5; Galatians
3:6–14; Ephesians 2:8–10). Paul says unequivocally that salvation is sola
fide, by faith alone. Is this a huge contradiction within the New
Testament Scriptures? Martin Luther, who was battling for the Reformation
doctrine of salvation through faith alone, thought so, and in the preface
to his 1522 edition of the New Testament he called James a “right strawy
epistle.”3
However, there is no real contradiction between
James and Paul regarding faith, for Paul’s teaching about faith and works
focuses on the time before conversion, and James’ focus is after
conversion. As Douglas Moo has pointed out, “Paul denies any efficacy to
pre-conversion works, but James is pleading for the absolute necessity of
post-conversion works.”4 Paul was fighting against tradition which
promoted a false works salvation. James was fighting against a “lite”
faith which minimized the necessity of works after coming to Christ. Paul
says works cannot bring us to Christ. James says after we come to Christ
they are imperative. — R. Kent Hughes,
James: Faith That Works, Preaching
the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), 108.
5.
What does this passage teach us about
faith?
True faith requires compassion and action. An
English preacher happened across a friend whose horse had been
accidentally killed. While the crowd of onlookers expressed empty words of
sympathy, the preacher stepped forward and said to the loudest
sympathizer, “I am sorry five pounds. How much are you sorry?” Then he
passed the hat. Profession requires action or it is not real! — R. Kent
Hughes, James: Faith That Works,
Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), 109–110.
6.
Think of the thief on the cross. Did he do
any good works? Was he saved?
Someone may ask, “But what if genuine belief never
really gets a chance to demonstrate itself in action?” One instance of
genuine faith given little time is the case of the thief on the cross who
believed in Jesus (Luke 23:32–43). In sight of death, this man
acknowledged Jesus as the Christ. Did even this man’s short-lived, genuine
faith lead to real action? Certainly it did! The dying thief said a few
words of profound eloquence: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your
Kingdom” (Luke 23:42). The thief could not possibly have known how many
times his simple trusting witness during his final agony would give hope
to others who felt they were beyond God’s help.
Most of us have a great deal more time than the
thief on the cross. Do our lives count for as much? Do we declare our
faith and then demonstrate its vitality throughout our life? — Bruce
Barton et al., Life Application New
Testament Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2001), 1079.
7.
Let’s look at the teaching of John the
Baptist (Matt 3:8; Lk 3:8) and Jesus (Matt 5:16). How does James’ teaching
compare with those?
We begin by noting that James’ emphasis is in fact
a universal New Testament emphasis. It was the preaching of John the
Baptist that men should prove the reality of their repentance by the
excellence of their deeds (Matt 3:8; Lk 3:8). It was Jesus’ preaching that
men should so live that the world might see their good works and give the
glory to God (Matt 5:16). He insisted that it was by their fruits that men
must be known and that a faith which expressed itself in words only could
never take the place of one which expressed itself in the doing of the
will of God (Matt 7:15-21).
Nor is this emphasis missing from Paul himself.
Apart from anything else, there can be few teachers who have ever stressed
the ethical effect of Christianity as Paul does. However doctrinal and
theological his letters may be, they never fail to end with a section in
which the expression of Christianity in deeds is insisted upon. Apart from
that general custom Paul repeatedly makes clear the importance he attaches
to deeds as part of the Christian life. He speaks of God who will render
to every man according to his works (Rom 2:6). He insists that every one
of us shall give account of himself to God (Rom 14:12). He urges men to
put off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light (Rom 13:12).
Every man shall receive his own reward according to his labour (1 Cor
3:8). We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that every
one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body (2
Cor 5:10). The Christian has to put off the old nature and all its deeds
(Col 3:9).
The fact that Christianity must be ethically
demonstrated is an essential part of the Christian faith throughout the
New Testament. — Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT).
8.
How did Jesus’ life demonstrate a doing
kind of faith?
Does one person make a difference? Let me ask you,
did Christ? God so loved the world that He did something. He didn’t select
a committee. He didn’t theorize how great it would be for someone to come
to our rescue. He didn’t simply grieve over our waywardness and wring His
hands in sorrow. He did something! And, in turn, the Son of God said to
God the Father, “I will go.” He did something about it. And that’s why we
can be saved. We don’t believe in a theory; we believe in the person of
Christ, who died and rose again that we might live and make a difference.
The question is not simply, what do you think of
Christ? The question is, what have you done about what you think? —
Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity / Charles R. Swindoll,
Wisdom for the Way: Wise Words for Busy People (Nashville: Thomas
Nelson, 2007).
9.
Verse 18. Is this saying we are saved by
works?
James’ message is bare-knuckled; his style is
bare-boned. Talk is cheap, he argues. Service is invaluable.
It’s not that works save the Christian, but that
works mark the Christian. In James’ book of logic, it only makes sense
that we who have been given much should give much. Not just with words.
But with our lives. — Max Lucado,
Everyday Blessings: Inspirational Thoughts from the Published Works of Max
Lucado. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2004).
10.
Verse 19. What kind of faith does the devil
have?
There is belief which is purely intellectual. For
instance, I believe that the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled
triangle equals the sum of the squares on the other two sides; and if I
had to, I could prove it—but it makes no difference to my life and living.
I accept it, but it has no effect upon me.
There is another kind of belief. I believe that
five and five make ten, and, therefore, I will resolutely refuse to pay
more than ten pence for two fivepenny bars of chocolate. I take that fact,
not only into my mind, but into my life and action.
What James is arguing against is the first kind of
belief, the acceptance of a fact without allowing it to have any influence
upon life. The devils are intellectually convinced of the existence of
God; they, in fact, tremble before him; but their belief does not alter
them in the slightest. What Paul held was the second kind of belief For
him to believe in Jesus meant to take that belief into every section of
life and to live by it. — Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT).
11.
Verse 21. How did Abraham demonstrate a
faith that works?
James offers two illustrations of the point of view
on which he is insisting. Abraham is the great example of faith; but
Abraham’s faith was proved by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac at the
apparent demand of God. Rahab was a famous figure in Jewish legend. She
had sheltered the spies sent to spy out the Promised Land (Josh 2:1-21).
Later legend said that she became a proselyte to the Jewish faith, that
she married Joshua and that she was a direct ancestress of many priests
and prophets, including Ezekiel and Jeremiah. It was her treatment of the
spies which proved that she had faith.
Paul and James are both right here. Unless Abraham
had had faith he would never have answered the summons of God. Unless
Rahab had had faith, she would never have taken the risk of identifying
her future with the fortunes of Israel. And yet, unless Abraham had been
prepared to obey God to the uttermost, his faith would have been unreal;
and unless Rahab had been prepared to risk all to help the spies, her
faith would have been useless.
These two examples show that faith and deeds are
not opposites; they are, in fact, inseparables. No man will ever be moved
to action without faith; and no man’s faith is genuine unless it moves him
to action. Faith and deeds are opposite sides of a man’s experience of
God. — Barclay’s Daily Study Bible
(NT).
12.
Compare verse 15 with 2 Thessalonians 3.10.
What does the Bible teach about feeding the hungry? How are our hungry
different from the hungry back in the day?
Our hungry are overweight and have smart phones.
13.
Are there times when it is the Christian
thing to do to refuse someone’s request for food?
Roger grew up in a well-to-do family in which all
normal responsibilities had been taken care of by his parents or the hired
help. He had never held a summer job, nor had he been held accountable to
make good grades in school. After a few months of marriage, his wife was
amazed to find he had run up thousands of dollars of credit card purchases
and was writing bad checks. When she angrily confronted him over it, he
said resentfully, “Don’t worry; someone will take care of it.”
That someone had always been his parents, who,
because of their own boundary conflicts, had acted as Roger’s financial
safety net. They took responsibility for things inside Roger’s boundary.
He had always assumed someone would absorb the consequences of his
actions, but that someone was never him. Now Roger’s inability to delay
gratification was causing him to violate his wife’s financial boundaries.
He couldn’t hear “no” from her regarding his excesses.
God sees a situation like this quite differently
from the way Roger did. He has ordained a law of the universe we
informally call the “law of sowing and reaping.” Responsibility brings
success; irresponsibility brings failure. As Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians
3:10, “If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.”
An empty stomach would quickly help teach Roger to respect his wife’s
boundaries more! — Dave Carder et al.,
Unlocking Your Family Patterns:
Finding Freedom from a Hurtful Past (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers,
2011).
14.
What does laziness cost us as a society?
“If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” That
may sound hard, but the wisdom of that Scripture is seen in the story of
one New York man.
According to the Associated Press, this
thirty-six-year-old resident of New York was quoted as saying, “I like to
live decent. I like to be clean.” Nothing wrong with that; the only
problem was he didn’t like to work. So he found other ways to satisfy his
cultured tastes.
He would walk into a fine restaurant, order top
cuisine and choice liquor, and then when the check arrived, shrug his
shoulders and wait for the police. The sometimes homeless man actually
wanted to end up in the slammer, where he would get three meals a day and
a clean bed. He has pled guilty to stealing a restaurant meal thirty-one
times. In 1994 he served ninety days at the Rikers Island jail for
filching a meal from a café in Rockefeller Center.
New York taxpayers have paid more than a quarter of
a million dollars over five years to feed, clothe, and house one lazy man.
— Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging
Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Books, 2002), 611–612.
15.
James 2.25. Who was Rahab? What was her
story?
Abraham’s faith was tested throughout his life. By
comparison Rahab is known for only one work of faith. The description
‘Rahab the prostitute’ is shocking, especially as she is offered as an
example of vital faith. Perhaps that is why James adds the identifying
label, ‘the prostitute’. Here is a woman of ill repute with a permanent
reminder of her past added to her name. Yet our past does not matter when
faith brings new life.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear
presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for
today and bright hope for tomorrow …
is the glorious lot of every man or woman of faith.
No one can take these privileges away from the child of God, no matter how
shameful our past life may have been. Paul could likewise rejoice in the
grace of Christ though formerly he was ‘a blasphemer and a persecutor and
a violent man’ (1 Tim. 1:13).
But this is surely not the primary reason that
Rahab is mentioned here. Nor is it the contrast between her and Abraham,
startling though that is. Abraham was a spiritual giant in redemptive
history, the founding father of God’s covenant people, a man with a
respected status in society and one who displayed trust in God over many
years. Rahab is no such person. Indeed, she is just the opposite, yet she
enjoys the same blessing as Abraham. What a bold reminder of how precious
and all-encompassing faith is! Eternal life is promised to all who
believe, so that in the economy of the kingdom of God natural advantages
such as race, gender, status, or other privileges, count for nothing.
However, placing Rahab alongside Abraham, as James does, goes only so far
in explaining her presence in the text.
The story of Rahab is found in the book of Joshua
(Josh. 2:1–24; 6:22–25). Her one recorded act of faith in receiving the
spies finds its way into the letter of James at this point because it goes
beyond a sentimental or intellectual faith. She did not merely say to the
spies, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed’ (2:16). She warmed
and filled them, concealing them under the stalks of flax on the roof, and
convinced the city authorities that the spies had left by another way. She
could indeed say, ‘I wish you well,’ because by her actions she had in
effect saved their lives.
Her faith was more than knowledge and agreement
(2:18). She had heard ‘how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea’
(Josh. 2:10) and how the two kings of the Amorites had been destroyed. She
acknowledged to the spies that these were no ordinary acts of human
strength, ‘for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on earth
below’ (Josh. 2:11). She believed in the coming judgement of God that
would destroy her own city. All of this is commendable, but it was Rahab’s
costly act of identification with the God of Israel and his people that
demonstrated her vital saving faith: ‘… she gave lodging to the spies and
sent them off in a different direction’—a deed that, if discovered, would
have resulted in her death as a traitor. Rahab provides further proof that
works naturally follow faith and are the necessary verification of it. —
Anthony E. Bird, Practice Makes
Perfect: The Book of James Simply Explained, Welwyn Commentary Series
(Darlington, England: EP Books, 2009), 117–119.
16.
Summary. How would you explain to someone
who did not know how they could be a Christian?
John Wesley came to America with a sense of hope
and determination, but he returned to England broken and discouraged. In
his diary he confessed, “I went to America to convert the Indians; but Oh!
who shall convert me?”
But God did not dismiss the cry of Wesley’s heart.
On the evening of May 24, 1738, during a church meeting, God poured His
truth into John Wesley’s heart, and Wesley trusted Jesus Christ as his
personal Savior: “About a quarter before nine, I felt my heart strangely
warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an
assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and
saved me from the law of sin and death.”
For the first time, Wesley understood that it was
not a matter of good works that saved him. Instead, his faith in Christ
brought eternal change. Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans
was the catalyst God used to turn Wesley’s life around.
Up until the point of salvation, Wesley thought
there was a way for him to work or achieve God’s favor when all he really
needed to do was to lay aside his working at salvation and trust in the
matchless grace of God.
If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, there
is no need for you to feel discouraged over your eternal destiny. God has
a secure plan for your life, and He will never let you go. — Charles F.
Stanley, Seeking His Face
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002), 186.
17.
Are works necessary for salvation?
James makes it clear that a mere profession of
faith does not result in salvation. There is no profit in a profession of
faith that yields no works. He is answering the question, What kind of
faith saves? He specifically asks, Can his (this kind of) faith save him?
His answer is a resounding no. A faith devoid of works is not a saving
faith. At this point there is no disagreement with Paul or with the
Reformers. All insist that the faith that justifies is one that
necessarily manifests itself in works. Here Berkouwer’s option 2 is in
view: the Epistle of James is a polemic against any form of antinomianism
that will boast of justification by a faith without works.
James declares in verse 17: “Thus also faith by
itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (NKJV). A mere profession of
faith unaccompanied by works is not only unprofitable but “dead.” How is
the word dead used here? Some have argued that it refers to someone who
once had faith but whose faith subsequently perished. James uses the term
dead three times in this discussion (2:14–26), concluding with the analogy
of a dead body: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is dead also” (2:26 NKJV). — R.C. Sproul,
Faith Alone: The Evangelical
Doctrine of Justification, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books,
2000), 164.
18.
Can you be saved without works?
James, far from denying sola fide, is showing that
the faith that justifies is not a faith that is alone. His treatment does
not vitiate either Paul’s or the Reformers’ doctrine, though indeed it
deals a fatal blow to all forms of antinomianism. — R.C. Sproul,
Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification, electronic ed.
(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000), 167.
19.
What do you want to recall from today’s
discussion?
20.
How can we support one another in prayer
this week?
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