“The Question of Faith and Works”
James 2:14-26

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost–Heritage Sunday—October 16, 2022

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

In today’s Epistle Reading, James looks at the connection between faith and works.  Can we be saved by doing good works?  If we are saved by faith alone, then are good works necessary?  You are invited to follow along the sermon outline on the last pages of the bulletin as we look at “The Question of Faith and Works.”

Point # 1) You cannot save yourself with good works because God requires total perfection. 

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Batting a thousand”?  In baseball, even the very best players can only hit around .300, or 30 percent.  The last time anyone even reached .400, 40 percent, was back in 1941, when Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox hit .406.  But, no one ever actually bats a thousand. 

However, Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  So, the spiritual equivalent of “batting a thousand” is exactly what God requires of you--if you are to save yourself with your own good works.  But, James crushes any idea of saving yourself when proclaims, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”  Not even batting .999 would be good enough for God.  To save yourself with your own good works you would have to spiritually bat a thousand, and that is impossible.  As Paul says in Romans, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Point # 2) Salvation has been earned for you by God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Paul says in Romans, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  The Good News is that God WILL NOT punish you for your sins, in this life or the next, because of Jesus Christ’s perfect life and sacrificial death on your behalf.  John says, “This is how God showed his love for us: He sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through him. . .  he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting men’s sins against them.”  Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.”  And Jesus says of himself, “The Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Point # 3) Salvation is a free gift of God.

Have you ever gotten an advertisement in the mail, or email, or on the internet that says “FREE, FREE, FREE,” but when you read the fine print it turns out it’s not really free at all?  The adage says, “The best things in life are free.”  But, we’ve also got other adages, “There’s no free lunch” and “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”  It’s hard for us to accept that God would just GIVE you forgiveness, salvation and eternal life, not because you have earned it or deserve it, but totally free, truly a gift.

Paul says in Titus, “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” and in 2nd Timothy, “He saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace.”  The Lord says it this way in Isaiah, “I, I, am he, who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” THE best thing in life really is free: eternal life, a free gift of God.

Point # 4) Even faith itself is not a work we do but the gift of God.

Paul says in Romans, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”  “Ah, there’s the fine print, there’s the catch.  I have to believe, I have to trust in Jesus Christ as my Savior.  And isn’t my believing a good work I do?”  But, in Ephesians Paul makes clear that even faith itself is a gift of God: “For by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.”

So, even faith is not really a good work you do, but a good work GOD does IN you.  It is the Holy Spirit, working through the Word of God and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, who brings you to faith and keeps you steadfast in the true faith unto life everlasting.  That’s what Paul means when he says in Philippians, “He who has begun this good work in you will bring it to completion.”

Point # 5) Faith naturally shows itself in good works.

Billy Graham wisely said the best way to understand the relationship between faith and good works is to think of inhaling and exhaling.  Faith in Jesus Christ is like inhaling, breathing in the Good News that your sins are all forgiven for his sake.  Good works are like exhaling; just as exhaling naturally follows inhaling, good works NATURALLY follow faith. 

James puts it this way in today’s Epistle Reading: “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith, by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Point # 6) We do good works not to earn salvation but to say “Thank You” to God for the GIFT of salvation.

The advice column “Miss Manners” often has letters about how people fail to say “Thank You” for gifts received.  When we strive to follow God’s will and do good works pleasing to him, it is simply our “Thank You” to God, not to earn salvation but out of gratitude to him for the gift of salvation.  Paul puts it this way in 2nd Corinthians, “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.”

So, are you saved even just a little bit because of something good in you or something good you that you do?  No, not even just a little bit.  As Paul says in Romans, “A man is justified by faith alone, apart from observing the law.”  However, just as inhaling is naturally followed by exhaling, faith is naturally followed by good works.  As the Augsburg Confession of the Lutheran Church says: “It is necessary to do good works, not that we should trust in them to merit grace, but so as to do God’s will and glorify him.  For it is always by faith alone that forgiveness of sins is received.”