Philip Dampier's Blog

Chapter 2, Verse 26 “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

James illustrates his point about faith and works by comparing it to something all of us understand. The one who is alive is a body with a living spirit in it. God gave each person a spirit of life and that is how they are alive. When that spirit of life is removed the body can no longer function. We say it is dead. It has no life, and it serves no purpose and has no future. Physical death is the separation of body and spirit.

In the same way, James tells us, faith without works is dead. A living faith must be producing works or it ceases to be alive. For those who claim eternal salvation but refute a working faith this passage is impossible. That is why early proponents of ‘faith only’ doctrines wanted the book of James taken out of the canon. So, we are left with a simple choice. Either James speaks for the Holy Spirit and the Godhead or James is a false teacher. James, and thus the Holy Spirit, says that one cannot have eternal salvation without works, period.

Task for Today: You have to decide. Religious teachers or James. Faith alone or faith with Godly works. Not works to boast about because that would deny the concept of grace. But, works to fulfill the will of God who grants us grace. Faith with works is alive. Faith without works is dead. How will you decide?