A Faith Without Fruit Is A Fatal Faith

AN EXPLANATION

A faith without works is not simply false and futile; worse, it is fatal. James bluntly called it “dead.” No pulse. No vital signs. No heartbeat. Only a fatal silence. That so-called faith is DOA, dead on arrival.

James went so far as to call the person without faith “foolish,” a word that describes someone who is an impostor. On other occasions in the New Testament, that word is translated “empty-handed” or “empty” (Mark 12:3; Luke 1:53). James’s point is plain: people who only talk faith but don’t walk with accompanied good works lead an empty life because their faith is not alive and working. Their faith is dead.

AN ILLUSTRATION

Like a skilled attorney who has stated his case, James now laid out his facts. He offered the court two witnesses: a revered patriarch and a reformed prostitute.

When Abraham took the stand, James asked, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?” This question seems to directly contradict what Paul said of Abraham: “If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness’ ” (Romans 4:2–3). Actually, these two statements regarding this faithful patriarch complement rather than contradict each other.

Some have suggested that James was simply answering Paul’s argument, but that’s impossible. James may have written his epistle as early as AD 48, and Paul did not pen the Roman letter until at least AD 58. Paul was emphasizing that no one enters God’s kingdom except by faith, and James agreed. James was not arguing that works are a requirement for salvation, but that works are the result of a true born-again experience.

James was arguing that “faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect.” The Greek behind working together gives us the English word synergy. When faith is joined by works in a believer’s life, a new and synergistic dynamic results. Faith and works are not to exist separately; they work together.

Furthermore, by quoting Genesis 15:6—“[Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness”—James was certainly not disagreeing with Paul, but adding that genuine faith is evidenced by fruit. Genesis 15 is the account of Abraham’s salvation. Abraham was not saved by his good works or by keeping the Jewish law. Abraham was saved in the same way we are today: by faith. The only difference is that Abraham was looking forward to God’s promise of redemption in the coming Messiah, and we are looking backward to the same event. To leave no doubt, Jesus also referred to Abraham’s forward-looking faith: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

Abraham had a genuine faith that resulted in good works. He was put to the test thirty years later when God instructed him to take Isaac, his only son, and sacrifice him on Mt. Moriah. Abraham obeyed God completely, and the writer of Hebrews memorialized it for all time: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . . concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Hebrews 11:17, 19). Thus James rightly asked, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?”

James went on to say that Abraham’s faith was “accounted to him for righteousness.” In some translations we read credited for righteousness. In Greek this is an accountant’s term meaning that we take a payment from someone but enter it into someone else’s accounts received ledger. Like yours—like mine—Abraham’s spiritual bank account was empty. We were all spiritually bankrupt. When Abraham trusted in God, God made a deposit in his account. Abraham didn’t work for it; he couldn’t earn it. That deposit of Jesus’ righteousness was a gift in response to Abraham’s faith. That same deposit was made in my account when, as a seventeen-year-old, I heard the gospel and placed my trust in the saving grace of Christ. Our righteousness is imputed to us, given to us by God Himself, deposited into our account on the basis of our faith in Jesus our Savior.

After presenting a faithful prophet as evidence that saving faith is revealed in works, James turned to a former prostitute: “Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?” Abraham had a reputation of morality, but Rahab was known for her immorality. As a Gentile, she was outside the Jewish covenant, not inside. She was rejected from society, not respected by it. Yet James introduced her with the word likewise: in the exact way Abraham found grace, so did Rahab. The two of them walked different paths, but they—like us—arrived at the point of salvation in the same way: by faith.

Rahab’s life certainly wouldn’t have led anyone to expect her to arrive at a saving faith. But before the spies went to Jericho in anticipation of the conquest of the promised land, Rahab had heard how God had been with them, parting the Red Sea and enabling them to defeat the Amorite kings, and she put her faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Her hiding God’s messengers and later hanging the scarlet thread of salvation out her window did not earn her salvation. These acts were the simple responses of one who was living by faith. As the writer of Hebrews confirmed, “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace” (Hebrews 11:31).

In these two illustrations, a revered prophet and a reformed prostitute were both declared righteous on the basis of their faith, and theirs was a faith that worked. True faith always produces fruit. And that’s why, in the great roll call of the faithful in Hebrews 11, each person is introduced with the phrase By faith—and that phrase is followed by a specific act of obedience. Our faith in God is not real unless it moves us to action.

AN APPLICATION

James concluded his discourse on faith and works by showing that faith and its fruit are as essential to each other as the body and the spirit are: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Or, as James said bluntly, “Faith without works is dead.”

It’s possible to have no faith and no works. It’s also possible to have works and no faith. But it’s impossible to have true saving faith and no works. But biblical Christianity is not about faith and works either. Salvation begins with faith alone, but genuine Christianity is about a faith that works.