Pretty long post on the truth about “faith without works is dead”

Believers, good works and obeying the law are not conditions for salvation. They are the evidences of our salvation in Christ. The sole condition for our salvation is found in John 3:16-“...that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." and Acts 16:3- "They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Believing Jesus is all it takes.

Also see Romans 3: "27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”

Here’s the verse that many misinterpret: James 2:20- “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?”Many read this verse and, going against Romans 3 above, hastily teach or believe that believers have to strive to obey the Ten Commandments and do good things in order to be accepted and justified (declared righteous) before God and prove that our faith is alive. But nothing could be further from the truth. Galatians 5:4 says doing this is how to get cut off from Christ: “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”

Faith without works is dead, but what works are we doing? Is it the killer works of the law aka human effort at obeying the Ten Commandments and doing good things in order to be justified before God/get right with God or “maintain our salvation” and which only serve to cut one off from Christ, OR is it works of faith which we cannot take credit for but is done in, through and for us by Christ because we have Him as our Righteousness?

See the much misinterpreted James 2:20 in its context: “20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”

Just to be clear “justified” here means “to show to be righteous, declare righteous.”

Verse 24 above says “… man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” This is the truth. Abraham was “justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar” (verse 21 above.) Note that the works that Abraham was justified by here was his offering his son on the altar? But Abraham’s justification (his being declared righteous) by his works, was it justification (righteousness) before God or justification (righteousness) before man? Was it his works of offering Isaac that made God declare him righteous? None better to explain the Word than the Word Himself. See Romans 4:

"1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

And whose sins are covered;

8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”

See the NLT: “Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? 2 If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. 3 For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” 4 When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. 5 But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. 6 David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it:

7 “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, 

whose sins are put out of sight.

8 Yes, what joy for those 

whose record the LORD has cleared of sin.””

Believers, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” His justification before God (God declaring him righteous) in Genesis 15 happened long before Isaac was born and way before he did the works of offering Isaac on the altar in Genesis 22! His works had nothing to do with God justifying Him. Paul restates this for us in Romans 3:28 - "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." God justifies the ungodly, not people who can do things in order to be godly (be like God, just like Eve) through their own power.

So what is James 2:21,24 (21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only”) all about? The justification by works that James speaks of here is justification before man and not before God. This justification before man (works of faith that man can see and say “yes, this is a righteous man”) can only happen when a person has been justified (declared righteous) by faith, just as it was with Abraham who went on to do the faith work of offering Isaac on the altar after the Lord declared him righteous because he believed.

Works of faith are not done in order to get right with God or to prove that one is a good Christian. In Christ, we are already 100% righteous and accepted by God; the Lord is our Righteousness. We have/can muster none of our own. Most times, true believers are oblivious about their works of faith that please God, much like how you cannot boast in your kneeling to greet your parents if that is your culture or how a child who sees that her mom is really tired after a long day at work offers her mom a cold drink. It is all a result of the training that they instilled in us. However, those who are doing works to prove that thy are holy usually boast about how they fasted for thirty days on some mountain and how they pay their tithes religiously in exchange for blessings that God freely gives to all who are in Christ (Romans 8:32.) No Christ saving in this equation.

Also see James 2:22- “Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?” In Hebrews 12:2, we see Who works in us to make our faith perfect:

“…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith,…”

We are not the perfecter of faith. Christ does it all. Of ourselves, we can do no works to perfect our faith which in itself is a gift Authored by Christ. 

Having faith (right believing) with no works to show for it is as impossible as jumping into the sea naked without getting wet. Faith always produces faith works; not works of the law but works of faith. The law is not of faith, hence the difference between works of the law and works of faith: Works that are done in order to be justified before God/get right with God and to prove one’s faith because "faith without works is dead" are works of the law (aka obeying the Ten Commandments and doing good things in order to get right with God and enjoy His blessings.) These “works of the law” are dead works and serve to cut one off from Christ according to Galatians 5:4.

Works of faith (good deeds done for God) are the result of being dead to the power of the law; we no longer strive to keep the law/doing good things in order to get right with God or prove that we have faith but believe that we are made righteous by Christ’s obedience. We see this in Romans 7:4 –

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.”

Understand that God raising the Lord Jesus from the dead as it is written in the verse above was not just because He could. It is the divine receipt showing that we who believe have been forgiven of all of our sins and made righteous by His one sacrifice for sins. See this in Romans 4:23-

“Who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised up because of our being declared righteous.”

Christ would not have risen from the dead if our lifetime of sins had not been forgiven and we had not been declared righteous (justified,) all apart from works. It's akin to seeing someone who went to serve a death sentence in an impregnable prison for the crimes of another walking free. As believers, we have everlasting righteousness apart from works because Christ is risen. To twist “faith without works is dead” to mean that we still have to do some things by our own effort in order to be justified (declared righteous) before God is to deny that Christ is risen. When we believe that He is risen (that we are made righteous by His obedience and apart from works,) we get to "produce a harvest of good deeds for God," yet not us but Christ in us. This is why we sing “tis no longer Ii that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me.”

On the other hand, works of the law (the things that some do in a bid to get right with God or maintain their salvation because they misinterpret “faith without works is dead,”) these things kill. Remember Romans 5:19-

"For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous."

Here, we see that committing acts of sin is NOT what makes people sinners. People are made sinners by Adam's sin. It is written right there in Romans 5:19. Everyone descended from Adam is born with this sin/old nature. Having this sin/old nature is what causes acts of sin that lead to death (sickness, lack, etc are "death begun") to proliferate. When people try to keep the law in order to get right with God, the old nature is activated and sin flourishes. We see this in Romans 7:5-

"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."

The one with the sin nature does not believe that he has been made righteous by Christ’s obedience. He tries to obey the Ten Commandments and do “good things” in order to be justified before God and make it to heaven. Because he misinterprets “faith without works is dead,” he tries to be justified before God by his own works. But Romans 3:20 says “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

As believers in Christ, having the Lord Jesus Christ as our Righteousness, faith works always follow after our being set right with God because we believe, just like Abraham. We don't have to try to do them any more than Abraham and Sarah had to try their best to conceive and give birth to Isaac. Human effort isn't involved so we can't boast about it, but you see those who do works of the law boasting about how their obedience to the law and good works is what makes God bless them. This is akin to Abraham boasting that the Lord declared him righteous/he was justified before God because he offered Isaac on the altar; or Sarah thinking that God blessed her with Isaac because of her obedience, diligent prayers, her giving to the poor and her kindness to pregnant women. In fact, Genesis 16 says of pregnant Hagar who despised her mistress because she had conceived- "And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence."

Your works of faith might not be evident to the world that is eager to judge you immediately after you receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness that Christ died that we might have, just as a branch does not begin to bear visible fruit on the day it is grafted to the Vine or as a formerly barren but now pregnant woman does not deliver her baby on the day that the Lord opens her womb to make conception possible.

Believers, with Christ as our righteousness, our Abba Father who justifies the ungodly and freely offers justification by faith to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is working in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Rest in Christ, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” Philippians 1:6.