Creflo Dollar - Is Faith Without Works Dead?
The book of James chapter 2 beginning at verse 14, and today we’re gonna answer the question is faith without works dead? Is faith without works dead? Well, where did that come from? Because what I’m talking about is, most of us came up with the understanding of I gotta have faith, but I gotta get some work to go with it. And so, somebody says have faith that God can give you 20/20 vision, and then, you know, you say, well, I gotta add some action to it, so I take my glasses off. Or somebody says have faith that, you know, God’s gonna give you a new car, so you go and rent a car and lie all day about it’s your car. And some of you are probably aware of some other really weird things that have taken place in people’s lives trying to add actions to faith because we believe that faith is dead and incomplete if we don’t add action to it.
In other words, in order for faith to produce something, we got to add action to it. But I am now challenging that and say is that really the truth? Is that really how that works? And where we got it from, we got it from the book of James chapter 2, which actually says faith without works is dead. And so, without digging into it any longer, we just said, okay, so faith without works is dead. Do you remember the pressure you put on yourself? I have faith that God can do it, and then somebody says, yeah, but you don’t have no work, so your faith is dead. And so, we kept trying to figure out how to add something to something that was already perfect. Mmm, are y’all ready for this?
Now, in order for us to clear this up, we gotta do some reading, all right, right? Let’s do some reading. All right, let’s start at verse 14, King James, you’ll see where it came from. He says, «What does it profit»? Here’s James now, «What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, 'Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled.'» Now, how many of you know that just something ain’t right? Somebody comes to you and here’s your response because you say you have faith, «Depart in peace and be ye filled».
Now, if you were the people that they were telling to depart in peace and be ye filled, wouldn’t you probably cuss them? Because you said you’re a Christian, you said you’re born again. «Notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone». Wow, and we just kind of took that and created something. Next verse, «Yea, a man may say, 'Thou hast faith.'» For an example, someone may say thou has faith and I have works. He says, «Show me thy faith without thy works and I’ll show you my faith by my works. Thou believes that there is one God, thou does well». He says, «The devils also believed and trembled. But we thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead»?
There it is again. Pastor, how are you going to refute this? There it is again. «Was not Abraham our father justified by works»? And that’s weird, because everywhere in the Bible, especially Romans chapter 3 and 28 and Romans 4, it says Abraham was justified by faith. But he says, «Was not Abraham our father justified by works»? Now, either we don’t understand the context of what he’s preaching from or he’s just out of order. «When he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, 'Abraham believed God, and it was imputed or charged unto him for righteousness, and he was called the Friend of God, '» 24. «Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith».
So, that leads you to think, well, a man’s gonna be justified by you gotta do something. Next verse, «Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also». There it is again, ha, ha, y’all ready? All right, so James’s point, and a lot of this I’m gonna try to hit right there, so let’s get on this bus and go for this ride. James’s point throughout this section has been that works flow naturally from saving faith. Read the whole chapter. James is like works flow naturally. If you have experienced saving faith, then doing good works flows because of the saving faith.
Now, his teaching compliments that of Paul. It doesn’t contradict Paul, it complements Paul. Look at Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10. So, the whole point that James is making in saying all of this is those of you who say you are saved by faith and you’ve experienced and you have saving faith, something should flow from you naturally. Because you say something should come out of you, good works should come out of you naturally. Ephesians 2 verse 8 through 10, watch this. Some of y’all getting it already. «For by grace are you,» what? And you got it how? «And that faith, not of yourself, it is the gift of God,» watch this, «Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus,» and we’ve been created unto good works.
Notice, by grace we’re saved so we can do good works. Notice, by grace we’re saved, and out of the saved comes good works, «Which God has before ordained that we should walk in them». So, his teaching compliments that of Paul in Ephesians 2 where Paul is clear that we are saved through faith, by God’s grace, and ends up inevitably doing good works that God has planned for us all along. So, James is coming from the perspective of Paul saying those of you who have been saved by grace, then you are saved to allow good works to flow out of you. But you can’t say you saved and somebody is naked and somebody is hungry and nothing flows out of you except your opinion. Are you following me now?
Look at Romans 4:1 through 5, Romans 4:1 through 5, and in fact, look at Romans 3:38 and then we’ll go down there. Oh, I’m sorry, verse 28. «Therefore we conclude that a man is justified,» by what? «Faith without the deeds of the law». All right, man is justified by faith. Now, look at Romans 4:1 through 5, «What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt». Now look at this in verse 5, «But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness».
Now, let’s read the same thing in the NLT. So, basically he’s saying if you became justified by your works, God doesn’t get the glory, you get the glory because your work is responsible for this. And he said it’s no longer a gift, it’s no longer a gift, but it is now something that you earn. It’s a debt that needs to be paid to you. So, «Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God»? He says, «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». So, your good deeds are not acceptable before God. You’re saved and good deeds flow from you, but you don’t add good deeds in order to be right with God.
See, what we’ve been doing is adding good deeds to try to get faith to work. He says faith is already fine. If you believe that Jesus believes that you’re saved, ha, ha, ha, amen, then out of your faith, out of your saving faith, good works flow. But we’ve always seen it add the good works to your faith or your faith won’t work. So, if we’re talking about being justified, we believe you’ve got to add works to faith in order to be justified. No, you’re justified by faith, and then from that good works flow. You follow me? «For the Scripture tells us, 'Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.' When people work, their wages are not a gift».
When you get your paycheck, is that a gift? You worked for that, didn’t you? And if you don’t get it, you start calling, what’s up, somebody, what? Owe me, all right? So, «When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something that they have earned». Verse 5, «But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners,» all right? So, James states clearly in the form of a question that Abraham was justified by works. What was he talking about? He said Abraham was justified by works when he obeyed God’s command to sacrifice Isaac. What was he talking about? Go back to James so you can see this. I want you to see every bit of this.
James chapter 2 and verse 21, he says, «Was not Abraham our father justified by works»? I just read to you that Abraham was justified by faith, so what did he mean here? He said you look at Abraham, he was justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar, and he says he was justified by work at that particular time. Works, he was using works as a synonym of fruit or evidence. What he said was Abraham was justified, or there was evidence of his salvation, fruit or works came up. What was the fruit of the works? He said you see Abraham doing what he did. That demonstrated saving faith. Abraham so trusted in God that to do what he did came out of it. He didn’t add the work, it was his faith in God that moved him to do what he did with his son. It was something that was already in him.
Wow, the context is crucial here, folks. Listen to this. James’s words leading up to verse 21 have been about how works demonstrate saving faith. Paul used the term «justify» to describe the formal process by which God declared a person righteous. He used that word «justify». This is clear from the context of the other words that James spoke. James in this passage has been describing the difference between a living faith and a dead faith. James is using the term «justify» to refer to proof. Let me read it to you this way, «For was not Abraham our father, did he not have evidence by his work or proof by his works, proof by his work, fruit by his work, evidence by his work when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar»?
He wasn’t talking about he had to add works to something, he was saying look at the fruit that came out as a result of what he did, and James calls that work. James again is using this term to refer to proof in the eyes of people. Paul and James are not contradicting each other, they are speaking two different things. James is pointing to Abraham’s faith as the motivating power behind his work. James will also show that it was Abraham’s belief that allowed him to be counted as righteous. His works were evidence of the faith that he had in God. His works were the evidence. His work was the fruit. You see, his faith was there and his work came as a result of his faith being there. His faith was there and the fruit came as a result of it. The proof of his saving faith was his work, glory to God, and the proof that you and I have been saved by grace is what comes out of us, good works.
See, you’re moved to do something good, that’s the fruit that comes out of you being saved. You’re moved to do something to help somebody, that’s the fruit that comes out of you from being saved. You’re moved to give, you’re moved to help, you’re moved to comfort, you’re moved to do all of those things because that’s the faith that abides on the inside of you. So, it is works, good works are coming out of people who are born again, and what he is saying is if these good works, if we ain’t got no proof that you’re really saved by grace, then your faith is dead faith. Your faith is dead faith.
Dead faith is you saying that you have faith but there’s no proof of it. Dead faith is you saying you’ve experienced saving faith and you’re born again but there’s no fruit. There’s no fruit, there’s no love, there’s no peace, there’s no joy. How you gonna say you save and look at somebody naked and it don’t bother you by telling them go and be ye clothed? He said your faith is dead, why? Because it ain’t got no… what do you call an apple tree that don’t ever produce no apples? It’s a dead tree. What do you call a Christian who never has proof of his Christianity? He’s got dead faith.
So, James was saying faith without proof, faith without fruit, faith with no evidence is dead, because that faith you have, it will produce. It’ll produce wisdom, it’ll produce what to do. You always talking about what do you do? Faith will, if you got saving faith, it comes from you. The doing comes from you. The doing is not needed for faith to work, faith produces the doing. Faith produces the wisdom. Faith produces the burning in you to want to go and save the lost, want to go and feed folks, want to go and do this and do that. You have to question yourself, Christians, if you are a Christian and ain’t nothing came out of you yet. The Bible says we are the branch, he is the vine. What kind of tree we got when the branch ain’t never giving?
That’s what James was saying. If you read the whole book of James, James was sitting up there and he was first of all talking about how we show favoritism to the rich and don’t pay no attention to the poor. So, Pastor James, James is a pastor, he’s concerned about how y’all going around here talking about how you all saved, sanctified, and ain’t no evidence, no proof, no fruit? Okay, now, let’s read verse 14 through 26 again in The Message. So, now you know what James is saying, now let’s read it in the Message, my God.
All right, and that’s just foundation, I’m gonna tear this, ain’t nothing up here to tear up, but I gotta get something out here to wreck. Get a trash can or something. «Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, 'Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit! ' and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup, what does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense»?