(Continued from page 80.)
10.Justification By Works.
(James 3:14-26.)
It is evident that the subject here is justification as a believer in God by the works performed -works which proceed from a living faith:it is a living faith because connected with Him by whom we are begotten through the Word of truth (James i:18).
The important question is, "If anyone say he have faith but have not works, can faith save him ? " We may ask, What is faith ? It is trust in another, based upon testimony rendered; for "faith is by a report." Abraham believed God. He put his trust in the word of promise from God.
The exercise of faith was involved in the testing of man in Eden. Obedience would have shown (by refusing Satan's lie) that the creature had faith in God, believed and trusted God. This was not the result as we know; instead, Satan and his word were accepted. This was " the disobedience" (Rom. 5:19) from which has developed such awful results, growing out of that evil principle of lawlessness called "sin" (i John 3:4). The creature's act impugned the rectitude of God, disregarded His command, invaded God's prerogative of knowledge; thus he morally became like the tempter-a lawless being. Satan's character became impressed upon the creature, and thus the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life were brought in. It was what ministered to the taste, the sight, and the reason, but all in disobedience to God. Henceforth, it was self, not God, which ruled (Rom. i:25), and from this the grace of God alone delivers any soul of man. The man came into the knowledge of good and evil in the devil's way, through lawlessness; and as a result his whole moral being is corrupted. In yielding to Satan, man became his servant.
From all this, the intervention of God in grace alone can deliver. For God and His revelation are alone the right objects of faith:to have any other is to be in the unbelief in which the creature fell through trusting- Satan's lie. When God intervenes, and begins His work of recovery, He calls upon man to put his faith in the object He sets before him. This faith must be, not simply intellectual, but the renouncing of that system of unbelief introduced by the fall. Without such faith it is impossible to please God. The unconverted person is without it, for it is the result of the Spirit's work in man through the Word. Unbelief then is overcome, and we are turned from Satan back to God. And how comes the creature to put faith in God ? " Faith is by a report, and the report by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). God has given the testimony, and faith receives the word of God. The result is salvation, for the power of the Spirit is with the Word received (i Thess. 1:5; John 16:8). We are begotten by the Word, then, as a result of the Spirit's work with the word of God. Apart from this no change can be accomplished. When the report is heard and believed, man condemns himself, and puts his faith in God, saying as it were, " In Thee of whom I have heard is my hope and expectation."
Therefore it is not simply accepting certain truths (which even the demons believe and tremble at) which saves:this would save no more than saying to a naked and starving man, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," while imparting nothing to him, would accomplish those results. In like manner a faith which bears no fruit is dead, and what is dead cannot save. True faith is linked with God, and so with life; therefore it produces works; it works by love. It is faith of this order which Scripture contemplates and declares to be complete or "made perfect" (Jas. 2:22). If not linked with God, faith is "as the body without a spirit,"-dead. Such a faith, or belief-as a creed to which I assent -is dead, it produces no fruit.
Now as to the kind of works which faith produces, as in the case of Abraham and Rahab, they are peculiar to itself, often quite the opposite to the dictates of nature. The one, at God's command, prepares to slay his son, his only son and heir; the other forgets both king and country to make common cause with those whose God she believes in, and who, she is sure, has given them the land and will give them the victory. Thus was Scripture fulfilled in Abraham's case-fulfilled in the sense of what was said of him years before (Rom. 4 :16), and demonstrated as true by his works.
In this connection of faith with life, we get the basis of James' position:faith must have works which show it is not alone, not "dead," but producing fruit in us by the Holy Spirit. The fruits, or works of faith, show that it is not a mere intellectual thing. This, then, is akin to what Paul taught, as a brief consideration of Eph. 2:8, 9 will show. "For ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God's gift:not on the principle of works, that no one might boast. For we are His workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them." As before said it is the grace of God which has brought salvation, appropriated through faith alone-faith in God's testimony. These are the kind of works that James insists upon.
Man, then, is not justified by the mere saying that he believes. That is not what justification by faith implies. Man is justified by a living faith which bears fruit according to God. He who shows by his works that a living faith is in him, a faith that is linked with God, is the man who being justified by faith before God, demonstrates it before the eyes of men by his works.
Of faith that links the soul with God we can say:it increases (2 Cor. 10:15; 2 Thess. 1:3); it develops affections; it purifies the heart (Acts 15 :9) and sanctifies it (Acts 26:18). Much else indeed is associated with it in Scripture, for there is not a single step of Christian progress apart from a living, active faith-faith in God. When man trusts himself, the evil heart governs his activity. When he has faith in God, how different-it governs the heart and purifies it.
The teaching of James may then emphasize for us what the Lord says in Matt. 7:20-23. May it search our hearts; not to bring about self-occupation, but wholesome self-examination that we may be exercised unto that which is good, and abound in good works which, like the good fruits produced by a good tree, may show that we are of the Lord's planting, rooted and built up in Christ.
We close this brief outline of the great and blessed subject of justification. May its consideration deepen in our hearts the appreciation of the grace of God, and the all-sufficiency of the work of Christ our blessed Saviour. J. Bloore