Living Faith a Working Faith
“For as the body witlioiit the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also,” — James ii. 26.
With a view to the exposition and application of this text, we shall endeavour to exhibit, —
I. The errors which it opposes.
II. The doctrines which it teaches.
III. The practical lessons which it suggests.
I. The errors which it opposes. The covenant of mercy, although framed before the fall, was revealed after it. The Bible is not so old as sin. Error came first, and truth followed it. A daring rebel rose in a portion of the sovereign’s dominions, and a force was sent to discover and destroy him; the position, magnitude, and character of the insurrection, determine the dispositions of the royal army which has been commissioned to put it down. Thus, error that sprung up on earth has determined the form of the truth that invades it from heaven.
The mould and the thing moulded on it, are in one sense similar to each other, and in another opposite. The mould communicates its own form to the liquid metal which is poured in, and yet the moulded figure, when complete, is precisely the reverse of that which formed it. Every hollow in the receiving matrix leaves a protuberance on the vessel which is cast. It is thus that revealed truth takes its shape from pre-existing error, although the truth so framed is, feature by feature, the opposite of the error from which it received its form. Into every hollow of the pre-existing falsehood ran the searching outpoured truth; and, corresponding to every deep lie of Satan, stands ultimately out an opposing solid truth from God. The deeper and wider the yawning pit of lies, the stronger and higher towers the truth antagonist.
It is thus both in the main Principle and in the subordinate Details.
In its leading principle the salvation revealed followed the form of the loss previously sustained. The pliant remedy went round the disease, and came out its like, and yet its opposite. The serpent bruised the woman’s seed; the woman’s seed therefore bruised the serpent. The tempter closed with the first Adam, and the embrace was death to man; the second Adam closed vdth the tempter, and the embrace was death to man’s great foe. As by man came death, so also by man came the resurrection from the dead. Condemnation was first, and stood alone triumphant: salvation came afterwards, and fastened on the foe, and closed all round, and overcame. Emerging from the strife victorious, salvation appeared in the form which it got in those fires. The truth which the Bible contains was, in its essence, prior to all error and sin, for error is originally a deviation from eternal truth; but the Bible which brings the truth to us, has been shaped upon falsehood its foe.
The same rule holds good when you descend to the specific features of revelation. Even the sayings of Jesus often took their shape from the cavils of devils or wicked men. It is an instructive exercise to read the evangelical history from this point of view. Large portions of the record consist of conversations: the sayings of proud Pharisees, or scoffing Sadducees, or weak disciples, or tyrant rulers, alternate with the sayings of Jesus, as hill and valley alternate in a landscape. When self-righteousness, or malice, or blasphemy, spurt up from an evil heart of unbelief, he gently covers it with saving truth. Thus the wild fires in the heart of the earth threw up the hills and mountain ranges; then the rain and sun came down from heaven, and clothed their jagged sides with verdure. All unfit were these internal fires to make a green ?vnd growing world; and yet their wild npheavings were permitted, and employed to give that variety to the earth’s surface, on which both its beauty and fertility so largely depend. Those outbursts of sin which the evangelic histories record, could not by themselves have done any good to men; but they became the occasion of drawing from Jesus a corresponding opposing covering truth, which lies upon them yet, yielding in abundance the bread of life to our own generation.
The operation and eff’ect of this principle may be seen in the teaching of the two apostles, James and Paul, regarding faith. Had the errors of those days been of another cast, the truth on that subject would have descended to us in a different form. Each strong projecting truth about faith, that stands out in the apostolic epistles, received its shape by going into the dark recesses of error, — the depths of Satan as they then existed in the world: the true doctrine, when cooled and solidified for preservation through all time, was found to have taken its form from the manifold deceits that prevailed among men, when that doctrine flowed warm and new from the Spirit of God through the apostles’ lips.
More particularly the two main features of faith, as represented in the Scriptures — the two feet on which it stands secure — have been moulded in two deep pits which Satan had prepared for the destruction of men. The two errors regarding faith were contrary to each other, and yet both alike were contrary to truth. The one despised living faith as unnecessary; the other exalted dead faith as sufficient. This heretic laboured on what he called obedience, and held that thereby he might be justified; that heretic professed faith, and thought he might thereby be relieved from the pain and trouble of a strict obedience. The Legalist and the Antinomian stand on opposite extremes, equally distant from the truth that saves. Both put asunder the two whom God has joined, and the severance is death to the severed: as well might you expect the right and left sides of a human being to live and act after they are separated by a sword. The works of the Legalist are dead for want of faith; the faith of the Antinomian dead for want of works. These two deep pits, so situated, give form and position to the two main pillars of the truth.
The errors being opposite are mutually intolerant of each other: the two pits are dug on opposite sides of the right path, and the same traveller cannot fall into both at the same time. The adversary goeth about seeking whom he may devour, and how he may devour them. Persons of one character and tendency lean to the right; persons of another character and tendency lean to the left: for either a snare is set.
As the errors are opposite, the same enunciation of truth is not fitted to subvert both. The truths that will meet and match these lies are in an important sense the opposite of each other. The errors, though opposite, are both errors, and the truths, though in a subordinate sense opposite, are both truths.
Two separate witnesses have been chosen and called to give evidence against these two errors, and enunciate the corresponding counteracting truths. Paul deals with one of the adversaries, and James with the other. The two boldest leaders are sent against the two main divisions of the foe: Paul meets the Legalist who trusts in his own righteousness and tells him, By faith a man is justified, and not by the works of the law: James meets the Antinomian who thinks obedience unnecessary, and tells him. By works a man is justified and not by faith only. Thus saving truth is flanked on either side by two strong towers, as sentinels on the two chief approaches to her citadel; and the divine wisdom and goodness are manifest in this, that while the defensive truths are posted there to repel assailing errors, those errors “were the means of drawing out the truth in those lines, and casting it into those forms of strength,
Paul insisting on faith only, and James on works also, stand not face to face fighting against each other, but back to back fighting opposite foes: they are both on the same side, although for the time they look and strike in opposite directions. Paul’s argument is not truth at rest, exhibiting her countenance in full; but truth in conflict with the heresy of legalism. In like manner, the argument of James in our text gives not a portrait in full; but a glimpse of truth in the act of doing battle with the Antinomian heresy. In that combat you see one side, and in this another, of the same truth. A Confession is like a picture in which the face of faith appears full, but still; with all its features in view, but none of them in motion: the Bible, on the contrary, is the real battle-field where living warriors fight. Various and ever-shifting are the attitudes of the combatants: in the mazes and evolutions of the fight some of them seem at times to be arrayed against their comrades; but they are only pursuing to extremities certain divisions of the foe, and fully executing each his own portion of the great Captain s plan. Neither the argument of Paul concerning faith, nor the argument of James concerning works, could be inserted in a Confession. The Confession, being only a picture, must hang stiff and motionless on the wall; but in the Bible the soldiers, fighting against heterogeneous, ever-shifting hosts, and under the eye of their living Head, exhibit a freedom of movement which is not possible in any representation. When the strife is over and the victory won, Paul and James will stand side by side before the Captain of their salvation, and receive in common the same award: Well done, good and faithful soldiers, enter ye into the joy of your Lord.
The errors with which these two apostles were respectively called to deal were very diverse, and consequently the same treatment was not suitable for both. The contest in Paul’s argument lay between faith and something else as its rival in the justification of the sinful; the contest in the argument of James lay between two different kinds of faith. The first battle is fought by Paul: he contends against all comers, that a sinner can be justified only through faith in the righteousness of Christ. Then appears James, and carries the question a stage further, insisting that only one particular species of faith can justify, to the exclusion of spurious kinds which usurp the same name.
Paul divides the whole world into two: those who seek to be justified before God through faith in Christ; and those who trust in other appliances. He then tells off as on the right side those who cling to faith, and sets aside all the rest as errorists. Observe, now, it is the division whom Paul has pronounced right, and that division only, with whom James deals. He addresses not those who denied Paul’s doctrine of faith, but those who accepted and professed it. Paul’s test decided the soundness of the profession: James throws in among the sound another solvent which precipitates a quantity of dark and fetid grounds. His question is: Assuming that you all acknowledge faith, is your faith living or dead? The orthodox, like Gideon’s army, after having been greatly diminished in numbers by one test, must be still further reduced by another. Of those who confessed the doctrine that a man is justified by faith alone, some were regenerated, and some still remained carnal. The creatures acted nob after their name, but after their kind. Some who professed the true faith served the Lord that bought them in newness of life; others who professed the true faith, thinking that their profession would shield them from punishment, gave themselves over to the pleasures of sin. For the conviction of these self-deceivers, the apostle James proves by his deciding word, that faith without obedience is dead, and that dead faith does not save.
II. The doctrines which it teaches.
Here we must, in the first place, endeavour to ascertain the meaning of the remarkable figure which is employed in the text. Some persons affect to despise analogies from nature as a means of fixing and elucidating religious truth. Perhaps these same persons may in the next breath have occasion to speak of a backslider, and may speak to good purpose about his sin; but, in so doing, they are unconsciously employing an analogy from matter to explain a strictly spiritual thing. Slide back! nothing more likely when you attempt to climb a steep ascent, where the ground is slippery; but a soul does not slide on a miry road! No; it is a strong figure of speech, in which nature is laid under contribution for the purposes of grace. If you refuse such analogies you may shut both your Bible and your shop. They are necessary both in religious instruction and in the intercourse of common life.
A handle is borrowed from nature, that by its help we may more firmly grasp this spiritual and unseen thing. In the structure of the analogy Body corresponds to Faith, and Spirit to Works. On a general view of the whole subject we would rather expect the reverse: to make faith stand for the living principle within, and works for the body which it animates, is a true and obvious analogy: for some purposes it would be the more appropriate of the two. It would have suited Paul’s purpose when his aim was to show that works were nothing without faith; but it did not suit the purpose of James when he was showing conversely, that faith, so called, without obedience is a worthless name. It is as true that works are the life of faith, as that faith is the life of works. As action in a body is the effect and evidence of a living spirit within, so a holy obedience to the will of God is the substantial proof that the faith which a man professes is a living and not a dead faith. The question here lies not between faith and obedience, but between a true and a spurious faith; works are put forward, not as a substitute for faith, but as a test of its genuineness. It is an application to this particular case of the Lord’s own rule. By their fruits ye shall know them.
Let us now look, in the light of this principle, to some of the leading links in the chain of the apostle’s argument; and for this purpose we shall find a sufiicient number of examples within the bounds of the same chapter.
1. At verse 1; “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.” He is beginning a course of practical lessons, but he gives them as the proper accompaniments and consequents of faith. James as well as Paul starts with faith in Jesus as the first and chief; but he proceeds to explain what fruits it ought to bear. Assuming that faith is the first, his question is, What graces of the Spirit go” with ‘■* it? He proposes certain lovely virtues, such as humility, self-sacrifice, and brotherly love, not as substitutes, but as companions for faith.
2. Verse 14; “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?’’ Here he does not say that faith is profitless; but that it is profitless for a man to “say” he has faith, while his conduct shows that his profession is false. Neither here nor anywhere else does James set aside faith as worthless; that which he denounces is a spurious imitation. Downright earnestness in detecting the false is the natural counterpart of a high value for the true.
3. Yerse 20;” Faith without works is dead.’’ It is here neither expressed nor implied that works will justify the doer, while faith will not justify the believer; he only reiterates the former assertion that barren faith is dead, and dead faith is worthless.
4. Yerse 24; “Not by faith only.” As explained by the whole context his meaning is. Not by a fruitless faith. A faith that stands alone does not justify, for it is a dead faith.
With reference to all these examples, bear in mind that the apostle is straining with his whole bent to stimulate idle professors into a life of positive holiness. There
is no debate here about the person of the Saviour, or his work for sinners; there is no question as to any doctrine of the gospel. Between the parties to this dispute all the truth was held in common. James is not dealing with infidels to induce them to believe in Christ, but with believers to urge them to active usefulness.
In the earliest and strugghng period of the Christian Church hypocrisy was comparatively rare: the only requisite for admission into communion was assent to the truth. So great were the obstacles in those days, that profession was most difficult, and therefore, generally, profession came last. In these circumstances, assent might be held as sufficient evidence; but when profession became easy, it came first, and often came alone. It is against this tendency, already in his time begun, that James contends; if we do not discover and remember his aim, we shall miss his meaning; if we do not take our stand on his view-point, we shall not appreciate the picture which he has drawn.
III. The practical lessons which the text suggests. Both in its doctrinal and its practical aspect the text is obviously and emphatically one-sided: it does not give all the doctrines and all the precepts which bear a relation to the subject. It is not a treatise on theology, but a vigorous stroke for actual holiness. It is the sudden, self-forgetting rush of a good soldier of Jesus Christ, not directly against the opposing ranks of the enemy to drive them in, but against the diverging columns of his own friends, to direct their line of march into the path of safety. If readers and expounders would consent to carry this key in their hands, it would go far to solve the difficulties which this portion of Scripture presents. If you expect to find here all truth, or even both sides of one truth categorically stated in the manner of a Confession, you will be disappointed; but take it as it is obviously given, — a sharp, fearless blow, dealt by one who loves a specific doctrine of grace against a deforming excrescence which human hands, unskilful and unclean, were busily gluing to its beauteous side, and you will find it profitable specially for correction in righteousness.
The main lesson is. An orthodox profession will not save an unconverted, unsanctified man. So much of the application has already been embodied in the exposition, that to enforce this lesson now in detail would lead to much unnecessary repetition. Accordingly, while we set it here in its proper place, we shall confine it within narrow limits.
We learn from the text, then, that besides those who positively refuse to receive the gospel, some lie under condemnation who acquiesce in its truth and profess to believe. On the surface of the world and the church lie many who are called Christians, and yet are not Christ’s. A correct opinion will not waft to heaven a carnal mind. When a breeze blows on a bed of growing willows, all heads bend gracefully; not one resists. But it costs the willows nothing to yield; and when the wind changes, you may see them all pointing the other way. Behold the picture of smooth, hollow, unreal faith! We learn regarding a certain ancient church, from the testimony of the “true Witness,” that they had a name that they lived while they were dead; and the same species of Christianity abounds in the present day.
The outward frame of faith, although correct and complete, is a body dead, if it have not love within, and break not forth in righteousness. In nature, the higher animal organizations are, as a general rule, more noisome in death than the lower. The more perfect the body is while living, the more vile it becomes when it is dead. Faith — the system of revealed truth taken from the Bible, and lying accepted in a human understanding — is a glorious body; but this body dead is in God’s sight most loathsome. There is no sight on this world so displeasing to the Holy One, as the profession of trust in Christ without a panting and straining after conformity to his image.
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness; but Abraham’s faith was a living, and therefore a bearing and doing faith. What is your faith doing? It is not our doing that will be our justifying righteousness in the great day; but it is a doing faith, and not a dead one, that unites a believer to Christ and so saves him. It is not the activity of a believer that recommends him to the Judge as righteous; but it is an active believing that makes Christ’s righteousness his. Said Jesus, to his fallen and restored disciple in one of his latest interviews, ‘’Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” “Yea, Lord,” replied Peter, “thou knowest all things, and thou knowest that I love thee,” (John xxi.) There is a noble confession; will it suffice? No, if it be dead; and it is dead if it remain alone. Here are the fruits which must flow from its life, and prove that it is living: “Follow thou me;” “Feed my sheep;’’ “Feed my lambs.” If Peter’s faith be living, it will do these commandments; his faith, by uniting him to Christ, saves him; and these works are the life of his faith in exercise. When a disciple is “rooted in him” (Col. ii. 7), the more fruit that his life produces, the deeper his faith strikes down for support into the riches of redeeming love; as the living tree must penetrate farther into the sustaining earth for every increase in the area of its fruit-bearing branches.