...not by faith alone?

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Permalink Reply by Carla on October 26, 2012 at 4:52pm

Hi Jenny,

The entire context of James 2 is that true faith will produce fruit...which is shown in how we treat people.  Our actions towards others will show what's in our hearts, and what matters most to us.  It's not that the good deeds themselves save us..  It's like we have been filled to a capacity of overflowing by God's Spirit...  so what naturally comes out as a result of being born again and that 'overflow'  is New life which is the fruit of the spirit...  This new life is 'others centered' rather than 'self'.

  :-)

 

Blessings, Carla

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on October 26, 2012 at 5:49pm

Thanks Carla, 

So if I have been born again I will naturally be overflowing with God's love? i'm not. I'm still self-interested, I'm still contentious to my husband and feel pride daily

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Permalink Reply by Carla on October 26, 2012 at 6:40pm

It's a process....  lifelong

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Permalink Reply by Gary Schultz on October 28, 2012 at 3:22pm

Jenny,

Many people think that everyone has a sudden change in their lives after giving their life to Christ.The truth is some do but many do not. Seek and you will find. Sanctification is a life long process. Putting your faith in God and trusting He will change you is tough. We spend so much of our lives trying to change ourselves never realizing it can't be done. When we can't change ourselves we get frustrated and, sadly, feel like we are not worthy of God and start turning away from Him.

You said you are still self-interested and contentious with your husband and feel prideful. The fact that you are aware of this is a good thing. Asking for forgiveness and trusting God will change you is the next step after self reflection. It will take time and don't be shocked when the Holy Spirit points out other short comings.

Keep strong in the word and continue to pray. Satan will try to get you to doubt yourself and God.  He is very good at making us feel as though we are not worthy of Gods love. The truth is, God loves everyone and I am sure He is smiling upon you.

Blessings and prayers,

Gary 

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Permalink Reply by Amanda on October 28, 2012 at 3:27pm

Gary,

Good word.

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on October 29, 2012 at 8:25am

thankyou, 

the Lord has shown me just yesterday that i can know God loves me because He came in the flesh to be killed on the cross for me, and not because of any little good deeds i do here and there. what a difference this makes!

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Permalink Reply by Charles Burwell on October 27, 2012 at 9:14am

Dear Jenny

 

I just researched a very good article adressing this exact subject.  It speaks of the 2 greek word for faith.

  Acentia - the faith that something  simply exists . Such as in verse 19 of James 2 . The demons have this kind of faith but it is of no profit to them because it is "dead".

 

  Fiducia -   the faith that causes us to accept and trust in Christ as Saviour and Lord.  This faith leads to confidence in Christ for evertything .  This faith is essential because it will lead to eternal life with God. This faith is  "alive" and the "proof that we have this "living" faith is in our "works". Works are simply evidence that  we have the "true" and " living " faith and not simply a mental ascent to historical facts.

 

I have reduced the article a great deal and recomend that you read it for yourself as the writer explains it infinitely better than I can. 

 

If you are interested the site is  http://carm.org/are-we-justified-faith-romans-or-works-james

 

I know that it's kind of long but this takes you straight to the article and not just the web site.

 

God bless you in your quest for the kowledge of His word.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Browning on October 27, 2012 at 1:10pm

Dear Jenny,

I agree with everything that Carla and Charles had said.  As Jenny said, it is long process.  We all need to find out what will work for us to find that closeness to our Lord Jesus Christ.  What helped me and it took awhile find a church you are comfortable with and get involved in small prayer and study groups.  Then you will feel the presence of our Lord.  Plus practice the Great Commission Matthew 28:16-20, there is nothing glorious and satisfying bring another person to our Lord Jesus Christ.  Always remember the Holy Spirit our comforter will be with us when time is hard. 

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on October 28, 2012 at 8:35am

thank you for these suggestions~

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on October 28, 2012 at 8:33am

thank you sir, i will check that article out!

jenny

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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on October 29, 2012 at 6:55am

James 2

 

 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

 

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 

The thing to understand here is the state of the question, for the dispute here is not in regards to the cause of justification, but only what avails a profession of faith without works and what opinion we are to form of it. one should not use these verses to teach that we are justified by works. James was not teaching such thing. James tells us that no faith or a dead faith is whithout works. We must ask the Lord's Spirit to enlighten us as we study the word and keep searching for the author's intent and the context in which the verse is coined.  

 

21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did

 

Please do not be quick to yell "victory", if you are among those that believe that works partly justify us, when you read “was not Abraham justified/made righteous by what he did", but we must look at the whole chapter before we build our conclusions and make a deliberation as to what our beloved God is telling us through James. We have already seen that James does not speak here of the cause of justification, or of the manner how men obtain righteousness, I hope that is plain for everyone; but that his object was only to show that good works are always connected with faith; and, therefore, since he declares that Abraham was justified by works, he is speaking of the proof abraham or anyone in the household of the Lord give of our justification. In other words, the works that we do are evidance of he work of God in us. Without works in our lives one can be assure that there has been no interior work done by the Spirit. Some people are able to go to great lengths with will power and not the power of the Holy Spirit to appear as there has been an inner change, but a child of God can discern such matters, thought is not our job to go around doing that, the Spirit of God that bear witness of the Spirit on another person/child of God.

 

Some place Paul’s theology at war against James’, but no such war exists. God’s inspired writing is infallible in its original languages and it does not contradict itself.  When Paul says that we are justified by faith, he means no other thing than that by faith we are counted righteous before God. But James has quite another thing in view, to show that he who professes that he has faith, must prove the reality of his faith by his works.

 

 

 That we may not then fall into that false reasoning which has deceived many, we must take notice of the two fold meaning, of the word justified. Paul means by it the gratuitous imputation of righteousness before the tribunal of God; and James, the manifestation of righteousness by the conduct, and that before men, as we may gather from the preceding words, "Show to me thy faith," etc. In this sense we fully allow that man is justified by works. I think it was Calvin or Spurgeon who stated this paragraph.

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on October 29, 2012 at 8:22am

thank you for this, it makes sense and clears things up in this chapter 

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