Nipate
Forum => Controversial => Topic started by: GeeMail on November 03, 2014, 12:39:39 PM
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http://www.absg.adventist.org/2014/4Q/TE/PDFs/ETQ414_06.pdf
Faith That Works
Sabbath afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study:
James 2:14–26; Rom. 3:27, 28;
Titus 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:2; Rom. 4:1–5; Josh. 2:1–21.
Memory Text:
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is dead also” (James 2:26, NKJV).
He was a successful doctor and an elder in a high-profile
church of several hundred members. He was a major giver
to the church’s big projects, and his generosity encouraged
others to be more sacrificial. The doctor was also a great preacher.
When the pastor was gone, he spoke, and everyone looked forward
to his messages, which were theologically deep, heartfelt, and spiritual.
Then one day the truth came out. The doctor’s absence at church
the previous Sabbath had not been because he was on vacation, as
many had thought. No, he was found dead in his beachfront condo
from an overdose of recreational narcotics.
Worse was the shocking revelation that in his bedroom were dozens of pornographic videos and magazines. The church was devastated, especially the young people, who had looked up to him as a role model. Though we must leave all judgment in God’s hands, the doctor’s actions certainly call into question the reality of his faith.
The point? Though we are saved by faith, we cannot separate faith
and works in the life of a Christian, a crucial but often misunderstood truth expounded upon in the book of James.
* Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 8.
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Dead Faith
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith
but does not have works? Can faith save him?”
(James 2:14, NKJV).
How do we understand this verse in the context of salvation by faith
alone?
Read James 2:15–17; compare Rom. 3:27, 28; Eph. 2:8, 9.
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Faith without works. James 2:15, 16 gives a vivid illustration of this
kind of phony faith. As we have already seen, obedience in the book
of James is relational. So, how do we relate to a brother or sister in the
church who is in need? Words are not enough. We cannot simply say,
“Go in peace. God will provide,” when God has provided us the means
to help that brother or sister.
Of course, needs can be endless, and we cannot meet them all. But
there is a principle called “the power of one.” We are the hands and
feet of Jesus, and we can help others one person at a time. In fact, that
is how Jesus usually worked. In Mark 5:22–34, a man whose daughter
was dying appealed to Him for help. On the way, a woman approached
from behind and touched Jesus’ garment. After the healing, Jesus could
have gone on and the woman would have left rejoicing. But Jesus knew
that she needed more than physical healing. So, He stopped and took
the time so that she could learn to be a witness for Jesus, to share as
well as to receive. Then He said the same words we have in James 2:16:
“Go in peace”
(Mark 5:34, NIV).
But, unlike the words in James, in this case, they actually meant something!
When we recognize a need but do nothing about it, we have missed
an opportunity to exercise faith. By doing so, our faith gets a little
weaker and a little deader. This is because faith without works dies.
James describes it even more starkly: faith is dead already. If it were
alive, the works would be there. If they are not, what good is it? At the
end of verse 14, James asks a question about this kind of workless and
worthless faith. It comes across far more strongly in Greek than it does
in most translations: “That faith cannot save him, can it?” The answer
James expects us to give is clearly “No.”
How can we learn to better express our faith through our works
while protecting ourselves from the deception that our works
save us?
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http://www.absg.adventist.org/2014/4Q/TE/PDFs/ETQ414_06.pdf
Saving Faith
Read James 2:18. What is the main point James is making? How do
we show our faith by our works?
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James uses a common rhetorical technique whereby a potential
objector comes forward. In this case, the objector tries to drive a wedge
between faith and works by suggesting that as long as a person has one
or the other, he or she is fine. But the whole point James is trying to
make is that Christians cannot hope to be saved by faith if there are no
corresponding works: “Show me your faith without your works, and I
will show you my faith by my works”
(vs. 18, NKJV).
The key point is that not just any faith will save. Genuine faith,
saving faith, is characterized by good works. Likewise, works are only
good works if they spring from faith. Faith and works are inseparable.
Like two sides of a coin, one cannot exist without the other. Also like
a coin, one side is the head and the other the tail. Faith comes first and
then leads the way to corresponding works.
Consider
Paul’s attitude toward works in Ephesians 2:10, 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 1 Timothy 5:25, and Titus 2:14. Why are good works so important?
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Paul was not against good works per se. He was against works as a
means of salvation (see Gal. 2:16).
In fact, Paul said that those who rely on works of the law to be saved are under a curse, because no one who tries to be saved by keeping the law actually succeeds in keeping
it (Gal. 3:10).
Obedience is possible only through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
“If man cannot, by any of his good works, merit salvation, then
it must be wholly of grace, received by man as a sinner because he
receives and believes in Jesus. It is wholly a free gift. Justification by
faith is placed beyond controversy. And all this controversy is ended, as
soon as the matter is settled that the merits of fallen man in his good
works can never procure eternal life for him.”—Ellen G. White,
Faith and Works, p. 20.
Why should the great news that we cannot work our way to heaven
motivate us, out of a love for God, to do all the good works that
we can?