Faith Without Works is Dead - a podcast by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

Sermon preached on James 2:14-26 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/21/2021 in Novato, CA.















Sermon Manuscript







James has been getting us to consider our faith in relation to our practice. As we said in our introductory sermon on James, this letter has us consider the relationship of orthodoxy with orthopraxy. Today’s passage is at the heart of such matters asserting that true, saving faith will have a lively practice that flows from it. Let us be blessed as we consider this important biblical teaching about how one’s true faith is seen their living. This truth also carries with it several important applications, including a call to examine that we are in the faith.







Before we really dig into the details of our text for today, I’d like to begin in our first point by addressing the question of how this passage relates to the Apostle Paul’s teaching on justification. This passage in James has been a challenge to many in trying to reconcile it with Paul’s teaching, especially passages like Galatians 2:16. There Paul says, “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” We can’t help but notice a certain similarity Paul’s language in Galatians with James’ here. They even both use the example of Abraham. Some critics have claimed Paul and James contradict each other and use that to try to discredit the Bible. Others, like the Roman Catholics have tried to use James here to argue against the Protestants, arguing that one is justified by faith and works. Yet I would submit to you that neither things are true. We will see today that there is no necessary contradiction here between James and Paul. We will also see that Paul’s teaching in the technical sense on justification through faith alone is not in any way diminished when we understand what James is actually addressing here when he distinguishes between living faith and dead faith.







So then let me challenge the presumptuous assumption that James and Paul were in conflict with each other. You see an assumption is an assumption. To look at the similarity of these passages and to assume a conflict certainly is not how God would have us to operate when we come to his Holy Word. Unbelievers often approach God’s Word with suspicion and assuming conflicts. However, we should approach God’s Word in faith and look for how passages can be harmonized before just asserting a contradiction. In this case, there are certainly alternative explanations for why Paul and James use some similar concepts here in their writings even while making different points and addressing different concerns. One alternative is that James as one of the earliest books written in the New Testament may have been responding to people who were out misrepresenting Paul’s teachings in some antinomian way, maybe even before James even met Paul. Since there are people today who still misrepresent Paul like that, such is not inconceivable. It is also possible that the similarity in content and language was simply coincidental. But as we’ll see today, the actual content and theological points that James and Paul respectively are making do not contradict each other despite superficial similarities between the two passages.







To further make this point, I refer to what the New Testament tells us about Paul and James’ relationship as it developed. Nowhere is there a recorded conflict between the two. Rather, in Galatians 2:9 it describes how Paul met James and he approved of Paul’s ministry and message. That section of Galatians is so helpful because Paul describes there how his doctrine was against someone trying to be circumcised as a work of the law in order to be justified. Paul’s point in meeting with James and the other “pillars” in Jerusalem was ...

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