Out of alignment

An Exposition on the Book of James Part 9

If you haven’t yet, please check out part 1 of this series, The ideas of James are all centered around the idea of a perfectly forged faith that makes us perfect.

Yesterday on our way home from church we saw a car that had slid off the road and was stuck in a ditch. thankfully the young girl that was driving was okay, but her car was stuck in the mud. She was probably texting and going too fast and her tire got of the hard surface of the road and in an instant, she was out of alignment. She was no longer in control but the car was taking her for a ride. Thankfully it wasn’t anything serious and we waited around until her sister showed up and we left. It can be scary to loose control of a car, but what is even more frightening is when you loose control of yourself. You get out of alignment with God and it seems like you just spin off one direction or another. You are tossed around by every wind of doctrine. What is the most scary about those times is often it doesn’t feel scary. you don’t see how out of control you really are until its too late.

The entire point of the book of James is to help perfectly forge a faith that makes us perfect, and part of that idea is the idea of become misaligned with God. in Chapter two of James, he starts to unfold an idea of how we can test our own faith, or see if it is valid. You could say, we can see if our faith is in alignment with God’s. He starts by giving an example that we looked at in post 7. If we Love one another as Christ commanded us than we are on our way to having a faith like Christ’s. This example plays into Jame’s broader idea of “Faith without works is dead. In the last post we explained that Jesus did all the works necessary for our salvation, He is the fulfillment of the law. Those were all works. If you have never been saved by the power of God, please check out our page Born Again to find out how you can know Christ as your savior. Without that, the rest of this book is pointless to you.

So, how can we know if our faith is in alignment with God. James presents the idea of showing our faith by our works. We can test the faith that we possess by seeing what the fruit of that faith is. The fruit will be a type of work. Now, without Christ all of our works are like filthy rags and so we must be impowered by God to preform even the most meager good work. But these works do not save us, they are evidence of a change. If a drunkard said he gave his life to Jesus, yet he visited the bar the same number of times, got drunk every week and showed nothing different except now he says, oh don’t worry about me, I’m saved me a Jesus got it all worked out. That man’s faith is vain. Why do we say that? is it because he struggles with the drink? No it is because he does not struggle with it. Can saved me still drink and be saved? Yes, but they should be convicted about it. The Holy spirit will not let a child of God continue in open sin without making them miserable over it. A charged heart is evidenced by a changed life. If you have become a child of God and there is no evidence, then you might want to examine your life and see if your faith is truly vain. Does not drinking save a person? no. you can be the nicest person, never drinking, never cussing, never lying and still find yourself going to Hell because all have offended the law of God in at least one point and that makes us guilty of all and that condemns us to Hell. That is why we need a savior to take our place and that is why Christ died for us. It is our belief in his works that produces a changed heart and a changed life.

A faith that doesn’t have works is dead. Remember James is talking to saved people. They have a saving faith in Christ, that is the trial of their faith he has been talking about. He is saying that if they are not applying the faith that they have with works their faith is vain, worthless, or dead. It is like a tree that is supposed to be producing apples but never does. The tree may be alive, but if it is not producing fruit what good is it? If it were dead, it would also not produce fruit. it may as well be dead. works do not save, but they are evidence of life.

So we get into the two Old Testament saints that James pulls up. I encourage you to read their stories. Genises 22 and Joshua 2. Neither one of these examples are “salvation” experiences. Abraham was saved and walked with God long before Isacc was born and Rehab had an understanding that the God of Israel was the true God, and that the gods that they were not gods at all. She understood that betraying her own town could cost her her life, but she put faith in the promos that the spies gave her. This was a work because she believed. Did Rehabs faith save her? Yes. Did her works save her? Yes. Her works saved her from dying, not going to Hell. She already had some understanding of the God of Israel enough to risk her own life. Was she Justified by her works, not before God but before men. God already knew her heart and saw her faith. But the works should ALWAY accompany faith.

If you are saying, I believe that Jesus died for me and I am saved, that is good, but does your life reflect this? Are you striving to be obedient to the voice of God? Are you in the Word of God daily to receive marching orders from on high? are you communing daily with the person of Christ? are you loving others as yourself? are you warning others of the wrath to come? Are you exhorting the brethren? are you trying to obey the commands of Christ? Not because it is going to get to heaven. There is nothing you can do to get rid of your sins except receiving the gift of salvation. But if there are not any fruits, is your faith dead? Examine your life and see if your faith needs an alignment.

James 2: 18-25 KJV

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

S.T.
Acts 20:24
"But none of these things move me..."