Real Faith for Real Life: James Two
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/7/2012
You’ve probably heard it a hundred times. It’s one of the oldest preacher stories around. But one day long ago, a world-renowned tightrope walker came to Niagara Falls and stretched his rope across the thunderous currents from the United States to Canada. Right before the eyes of the breathless crowds, he walked, ran, even tiptoed across the chasm. He did the same blindfold. Then, still blindfolded, he pushed a wheelbarrow across the falls.
The crowd went wild when the aerialist shouted, “Who believes I can push a man in this wheelbarrow across these falls?”
One rather enthusiastic gentleman in the front of the crowd waved his hand in the air, shouting, “I do! I believe!”
“Then,” said the tightrope walker, “climb on in!” Wide-eyed, like a deer caught in the headlights, the once eager spectator dropped his hand and slinked back into the crowd. His eager agreement didn’t quite translate into real faith.
Faith. What is faith really? Ask five different people and you’ll probably get five different answers. I have a friend on Facebook who happens to be an ardent atheist and she occasionally makes little jabs at people of faith. A while back she posted a quote that said, “People don’t need to constantly build up or strengthen their faith in things they know exist.” She followed that up by saying “Faith is just believing in something for which there is no proof.” That kind of thinking just shows a complete misunderstanding of real faith.
Let me put it this way. I have faith that my wife loves me. I’m kind of needy, so I do need frequent reassurance of that fact. There may even be times that I doubt her love. Maybe she acts in an unloving way. Maybe we get into an argument over something stupid. Her love isn’t perfect. Neither is mine. You can’t put her love for me in a test tube or submit it to scientific testing. But I have good reasons to believe my wife loves me. For one, she tells me every day. She shows it in the way she kisses me, the way she looks at me, the way she cooks for me, and thousand other ways. I can’t see it, touch it, or smell it, but I have faith that she loves me.
Faith in God isn’t all that different. You can’t see God, touch him, or smell him. You can’t put God in a test tube. And sometimes your faith will need built up or strengthened. But there are good reasons to believe in God—the fact that there is something rather than nothing, the fine-tuning of the universe, the existence of objective moral values, the person of Jesus Christ, personal experience and so much more. And faith is essential to our relationship with God. In fact, the Bible says, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV). If faith is so important to God, then it’s vital for us to have a good handle on the full meaning of biblical faith.
What kind of faith is God looking for?
Last week we started this series through the book of James we’re calling Real Faith for Real Life. In the first chapter, James talks about how real faith helps us persevere through trouble, to overcome temptation, and to apply truth to our lives. In chapter two, James goes about defining real faith for real life. He identifies three types of faith, only one of which he calls real saving faith.
• DEAD FAITH
The first type of faith James describes is a dead faith. Here’s what he has to say about it:
My brothers and sisters, if people say they have faith, but do nothing, their faith is worth nothing. Can faith like that save them? A brother or sister in Christ might need clothes or food. If you say to that person, “God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat,” but you do not give what that person needs, your words are worth nothing. In the same way, faith that is alone—that does nothing—is dead. (James 2:14-17 NCV).
This reminds me of a Peanuts comic strip where Charlie Brown and Linus come across Snoopy shivering out in the snow. Charlie says, “Snoopy looks kind of cold, doesn’t he?” Linus replies, “I’ll say. Maybe we’d better go over and comfort him.” They walk over to Snoopy, pat his head, and Charlie Brown say, “Be of good cheer, Snoopy.” Linus adds, “Yes, be of good cheer.” Then, in the final frame, the boys are walking away, still bundled up in their winter coats and Snoopy is still shivering in the snow with a thought balloon over his head with a big question mark, as if to say, “What? That’s it?”
I wonder if Charles Shulz had this very passage in mind when he drew that comic. The point is—just saying, “Stay warm and be of good cheer,” is useless if you don’t do anything about it. Likewise, just saying, “I believe in God,” without doing anything about it, is just as useless.
See, some people may have been raised in church and accepted certain realities like the Bible or Jesus as true or maybe they just have this instinctual feeling that there is a God, but it doesn’t matter to them. It has no effect on how they live their life.
Tony Campolo once met someone like that. He was in downtown Philadelphia when a mugger jumped out from an alleyway and demanded Tony’s wallet. Tony put his hands in the air and said, “I’m not looking for any trouble. In fact, I’d like to help you if I can. I’m a Baptist minister.” His assailant replied, “Really? I’m a Baptist too!”
Talk about a dead faith.
The message here is that there is a big difference between a said faith and a saving faith. Anyone can say they have faith in God or in Jesus, but you can tell from your actions—the way you live your life, your priorities, and how you spend your time—how deeply held that faith really is. A dead faith, a faith that does nothing, is worth nothing.
James then goes a little farther with this idea. Next, he describes a demonic faith.
• DEMONIC FAITH
Have I ever told you the one about the backpacker who talked to God? While hiking on a mountaintop, a man slipped and fell off the edge of a cliff. Luckily he was able to grab a branch protruding from the side of the precipice on the way down. Holding on for dear life, he looked down only to see a rocky valley some fifteen hundred feet below. When he looked up, he realized he was only about twenty feet from the overhang he had fallen from. Hopefully, he thought, some other hikers would come his way and so he started yelling, “Help! Help! Is anybody up there? Help!”
A booming voice spoke up, shaking the entire mountain. It was God. “I am here, and I will save you if you believe in me.”
“I believe! I believe!” yelled the backpacker.
“If you believe me, let go of the branch and then I will save you.”
The young man, considering what God said, looked down again. Gazing at the valley below, there was a long pause, and then he looked back up and shouted, “Is there anybody else up there?”
That’s the kind of faith that James talks about next. He says, “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror” (James 2:19 NLT).
Throughout Scripture the Bible talks about angels and demons. Angels are simply immaterial spiritual beings like God who serve him and carry out his will. Demons are simply angels who for whatever reason chose to serve themselves instead of God. They know God is real. They don’t doubt that at all. But that’s as far as it goes. Demonic faith wholeheartedly believes God exists, they don’t “trust in” or “rely upon” God.
If you believe in God, but you don’t trust him enough to let go of the branch, it won’t do you any good. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). What we need to understand though is that there’s a big difference between believing about Jesus and believing in Jesus. Real faith means trusting Jesus and putting your life in his hands. It means being willing to let go of the branch or climb into the wheelbarrow. Finally, James tells us that real faith is a dynamic faith!
• DYNAMIC FAITH
Dynamic faith is faith that’s real, faith that has power, faith that results in a changed life. James gives two examples of what real faith looks like in real life. The first is Abraham: “Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete” (James 2:21-22 NLT).
For those of you familiar with the story of Abraham and Isaac, you know that God never wanted Abraham to sacrifice his son; rather, through this unfolding drama God was painting a picture that would be remembered for thousands of years of a Father willing to sacrifice his only son—a story whose final chapter wouldn’t be written until Jesus rose from the dead. Even though God stopped him, Abraham’s actions demonstrated his faith and made his faith complete.
James adds, “Rahab the prostitute is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road” (James 2:25 NLT). Rahab was raised in culture that worshiped many gods, but when she learned about the God of Israel she believed the stories she heard. She climbed into the wheelbarrow by linking her destiny with theirs.
In each case, these were acts of faith—leaps of faith—that reveal a heart of faith. What about you? What actions is your faith leading you to take? Jesus said that the two greatest commands God ever gave were these: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27 NIV).
Real faith in Jesus will lead us to live out these commands in real life. Whether it’s buying lunch for a co-worker who’s been going through some troubled times or donating shoes and coats to kids to can’t afford them or providing disaster relief to tornado ravaged towns or volunteering at a Children’s Hospital or being baptized or seeking God in prayer or worshipping with a radiant face or a million other things—real faith will motivate us to discover new ways of showing our love for God and for people.
The Bible is clear that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone and there is no amount of good works that can get us into God’s good graces. But it’s equally clear that real faith works. Faith without action is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
Conclusion:
Do you have faith? Does your life really show it? When was the last time you put your faith into action? Don’t assume that you have a dynamic faith.
Like the crowd at Niagara, we all stand at the edge of a great chasm—a vast gulf called sin that separated us from a holy and loving God. We certainly don’t possess the balance or dexterity to cross that chasm on a tightrope, but Jesus does and he did. And he offers to carry each one of us across. The question is—do you believe he can do it? Do you trust him enough to get into the wheelbarrow?
Invitation:
A life of faith begins with a single decision, a single step of faith. If you haven’t made that decision, I want to encourage you to do it today. Put your faith in Jesus, and then choose to live your faith every day. You were made to make a difference, so put your faith in action. Climb into the wheelbarrow.
