Sat 20th June – James 2:21-26

Sat 20^th June        –      Read James 2:21-26

V21-22:  He takes the great example of Abraham, looking at the test of his faith in Genesis:22. The verse does not mean that Abraham’s works justified him in making him right with God, but that his obedience was the outcome of the living faith he had – the evidence that He was justified by faith! ( See Hebrews 11:17-19 ) In this, “his faith was active along with his works” – the Greek literally says his faith ” was a fellow worker “ with his actions – so his act of obedience “completed his faith” – again, literally “brought it to fullness, or maturity”, showing that faith to be real.

V23: He quotes Genesis 15:6 – a text Paul quotes in various places, where Abraham’s faith , in believing God’s promises and obeying His call, is declared to be “counted to him as righteousness” – an anticipation of what saving faith in Christ as our sin-bearing redeemer does. Abraham’s relationship with God by faith was so intimate he was called ” the friend of God” ( 2 Chronicles 20:7.)

V24:  So, he says again, bare faith – faith with no evidence in the life – is not what makes us right with God – there must be the fruits of living faith in our lives. So, Jesus own words in Matthew 7:16.

V25:  He adds a very different example, Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho, yet saved and counted among the people of God after she hid the spies Joshua sent into Jericho. Now this verse in James 2 only speaks of her “works”, but in Joshua 2:9-12 it is clear that what she did came out of faith in the living God that she had already come to – a remarkable work of God’s grace. So her acts ” justified her” in the sense of being evidence of the real faith she had .

V26: So, just as our body devoid of our spirit is just a dead thing, a corpse, faith without the evidence of the works of obedience to God is just as dead, an empty, lifeless thing. God grant us true living faith, evidence in our lives, to His glory.