3 comments

1. What testifies that life has been given us are NOT any works but the crucified Savior and his resurrection.

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   • Joyce,

     Christ’s obedience, death, & resurrection are the ground of our life, justification, and salvation but new life produces good fruit. That’s a basic biblical and Christian truth. This is James’ argument in chapter 2. Some of the members of the Jerusalem church were claiming to be believers but James indicts them for the utter lack of evidence of any faith. E.g.,

     My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
     If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty (James 2:1-12; ESV).

     v. 14 is central to his argument:

     What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that kind of “faith” save him? (emphasis added)

     They said that they had faith. Acc. to vs. 19, they even recited the fundamental confession of faith (Deut 6:4: “Hear O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one”) but they did not demonstrate that they actually believed it.

     The category and doctrine of a fruitful faith is well attested in the New Testament. John the Baptizer said, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8). Our Lord Jesus spoke this way in Matt 7:16 when he said, “you will recognize them by their fruit” (emphasis added). The same is true in Matt 12:33. Matt 21:19 is particularly pointed about the necessity of fruit (evidence). I have citrus trees in my yard. They go dormant one season and produce the next but if they remain fruitless, then I know that something is wrong. If they do not respond to water or remedies, then I know that they are dead and I cut them down. Our Lord was drawing from the this very practice.

     See also John 15. Fruit is a necessary evidence of union with Christ. Paul teaches the necessity of fruit in Romans 6. Paul says in Rom 7:4 that we’ve been raised to new life in order that we might bear fruit for God. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace etc (Eph 5:9ff). We’re to be filled with the fruit of righteousness (Phil 1:11). See Col 1:10 and Heb 12:11.

     There is good reason the Reformed churches confess what they do about fruit and evidence of new life:

     Therefore, far from making people cold toward living in a pious and holy way, this justifying faith, quite to the contrary, so works within them that apart from it they will never do a thing out of love for God but only out of love for themselves and fear of being condemned. So then, it is impossible for this holy faith to be unfruitful in a human being, seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith but of what Scripture calls “faith working through love,” which leads a man to do of himself the works that God has commanded in his Word.

     These works, proceeding from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable to God, since they are all sanctified by his grace. Yet they do not count toward our justification—for by faith in Christ we are justified, even before we do good works. Otherwise they could not be good, any more than the fruit of a tree could be good if the tree is not good in the first place. So then, we do good works, but not for merit—for what would we merit? (Belgic Confession art. 24)

     Reply ↓

   • Hi Joyce,

     In addition to Dr. Clark’s helpful reply, I’d just add that the Westminster Confession of Faith’s chapter on Good Works is also super helpful. You can give it a read here (https://www.opc.org/wcf.html#Chapter_16).

     Blessings in Christ,

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