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Even the Demons Believe (James 2:19)

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Almost every single time I write a post on my blog or on Facebook about how we receive eternal life from God by faith ALONE, someone  brings up James 2:19 and says “But even the demons believe!”

In this current series of posts on faith, I have previously taught about James 2:14-26 with a focus on the concept of “dead faith.” But in this final post on faith, I wanted to focus in on this famous verse of James 2:19, and show why people who quote it do not understand what James is saying.

(Note: ALL of these posts on faith are drawn from my book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Faith? So if you want them all in one place, along with an extended discussion about the nature of faith and how to know you believe, just get the book.)

Let me give you an example from Twitter… By the way, I dislike Twitter Debates. It is impossible to discuss anything tangible on Twitter.

demons believe James 2:19
This picture is ironic in so many ways. It misquotes the text in several ways to reinforce a misapplication of the text itself. But this is what often happens with James 2:19.

Here is some of what we said on Twitter:

Note that I didn’t tweet the same thing to him over and over and over… he responded multiple times to one of my tweets, and I don’t know how to get rid of that when embedding a Tweet into WordPress… if anybody knows how, let me know!

So what does James 2:19 mean?

Here is what I was trying to say on Twitter, which didn’t get stated very clearly at all:

People believe millions of things. I believe that this chair I am sitting in will hold me up. I believe that the earth orbits around the sun. I believe that my children love me. I believe that coffee is a delicious beverage which helps me wake up in the morning.

But none of these beliefs, even though they are correct, will give me eternal life by believing them.

The same holds true when it comes to beliefs about God and Jesus Christ. I can believe a lot of things about God and Jesus. I believe that God exists. I believe that God consists of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that God created all things, that He is holy, righteous,  loving, and good. Regarding Jesus, I believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, that He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead. I could go on and on.

But guess what? Just as believing that the earth orbits around the sun does not give me eternal life, so also, none of the beliefs I have just stated in the previous paragraph will give me eternal life by believing them. 

The Bible is pretty clear that to receive eternal life, you don’t just need to believe. You have to believe in the right person for the right thing, namely, you have to believe in Jesus for eternal life (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

Eternal life is not given if I believe in Moses for eternal life. Nor is it given if I believe in Jesus for infinite wealth.

If I believe in Moses for eternal life, I am believing the wrong person for the right thing, but if I believe in Jesus for infinite wealth, I am believing the right person for the wrong thing.

According to Scripture, we must believe in Jesus for everlasting life.

So, what do demons believe?

Believe it or not (ha ha!), demons are probably more correct in their theology than most humans. Though I cannot be certain, I assume that demons believe that God exists as the Trinity, and that God is holy, righteous, and good, and that Jesus was God incarnate, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead.

believe in GodIn fact, demons probably know more about God than we do. Demons probably have better theology than many Christians. That is, demons probably believe more accurate truths about God than many Christians do.

The problem with demons, however, isn’t in what they know about God, or in what they believe. Their problem is that they don’t like what they know about God and believe that they can rebel against God and win (this is where their beliefs are wrong).

When it comes to the book of James, and James 2 specifically, lots of people quote James 2:19 out of context. They hear a pastor, professor, teacher, blogger, or evangelist say that to receive eternal life, all you need to do is believe in Jesus for it, and the objector says, “That’s not true! Even the demons believe!”

Right.

Of course demons believe. Humans believe things. Demons believe things. Even  animals believe things. We have three cats. When I get up in the morning, one or two of them is always there in the kitchen, looking at me, expecting me to either feed them, or let them outside to do their business. They believe that I am the one who can make these things happen for them.

But so what? Do cats have eternal life because they believe in me for food and that I can open the door? Of course not! So also, demons believe many things, but they don’t get eternal life simply because they believe.

When it comes to receiving eternal life, it is not simple belief that matters, but believing in the right person for the right thing.

So yes, demons believe. But the real question is “What do demons believe?”

More specifically, what is James 2:19 talking about? What is the argument? What is the point?

James 2, Faith, Works, Demons, and Abraham

Below is a super brief synopsis of how to understand James 2:14-26.

James is writing to believers. 

First, James is not writing an evangelist pamphlet telling people how to receive eternal life. He is writing to believers about how to live as followers of Jesus and function within the church. 

Many scholars and pastors have noted the numerous parallels between the book of James and the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Just as the Sermon on the Mount is the discipleship manual of Jesus, so also the book of James is a reworking of the discipleship manual for Christians under the pastoral care of James.

He is not telling these believers how to receive eternal life, but is writing to them based on the assumption that they already have eternal life, but need some advice on how to look and live like Jesus in the world.

James 2:14-26 deals with living a profitable Christian life.

The issue in James 2:14-26 is not about gaining or proving that one has eternal life, but rather, living as a profitable servant of Jesus Christ. James mentions profit several times (cf. James 2:14, 16) and the opposite of profit–being dead or useless (James 2:17, 20, 26).

The “profit” he is talking about, of course, is not monetary gain, but living as an energized, successful, fully-committed, faithful, generous, loving, caring follower of Jesus Christ. None of us want to live useless lives, but profitable lives that are useful to God and His rule and reign on earth.

In James 2:14-26 we are told how.

Don’t just pray and believe God; Do Something!

The main point of James 2:14-26 is that believing God can do something is good, but if we really believe God can do something, we will personally seek to be part of the solution.

Specifically, if you see someone who is hungry or without clothes, it is okay if you tell them you are going to pray for them, or if you believe that God can provide for them. But more than just pray for them, and more than just believe that God will give them food and clothes, why don’t you actually be an answer to your own prayers and your own faith, and give them food and clothes!?

That is what James is saying: “Don’t just believe; Do something!”

This is why people get so upset at Christians when we are faced with a troubling situation, or a dire need, and our only response is, “I’ll pray for you!” or “My thoughts and prayers are with you!”

When people are homeless, jobless, hungry, sick, dying, struggling, they don’t need thoughts and prayers. They need Christians do actually do something. This is exactly the point that James is making as well.

James is saying, “When someone is in need … don’t just believe that God can provide for them … YOU provide for them. Don’t just tell them you’ll pray for them …. Instead, you provide for them.”

Do you see? The “believing” (or faith) of James 2:14-26 has nothing whatsoever to do with eternal life. The person is believing that God can give food and clothing to the hungry and the naked. There is nothing here about believing in Jesus for eternal life, and you do not get eternal life by believing that God can clothe and feed someone. Nor do you get eternal life by giving people clothes and food.

Again, eternal life is given to those who believe in Jesus for it.

Now, if James had stopped writing at James 2:16, there never would have been the misunderstanding about the relationship between faith and works in this passage. Everybody would have immediately recognized that James wants us to do more than just pray for people and state our belief that God can help them. We should actually do something for those in need. This point of James is pretty clear in James 2:14-16.

But he goes on to write James 2:17-26, and this is where all the problems with this passage enter. In the rest of this passage, I am not going to work though the entire passage in detail, but just provide a few of the highlights, and point you to the text of a sermon I preached on James 2 several years ago, and I also have a shorter version in Podcast episode 124 when I discussed James 2:14-26.

But here is the main argument of James 2:17-26.

1. Faith Without Works is Dead

The word “dead” does not mean nonexistent, but useless, unproductive, unprofitable. Someone may still have faith, but if that faith is not put into action, it is not doing anybody any good. It does not help those who are hungry and without clothes, and it does not help the person who has the faith. Since the context of this passage is about profitable faith, then “dead” faith is unprofitable faith.

So we must never say “Dead faith is no faith” for that is absolutely not true. Dead faith exists, it is just unproductive and unprofitable.

2. The Objector States His Opinion in James 2:18-19

Someone does not agree with what James is saying, and begins to state an objection in James 2:18. On this, every Bible translation agrees. Where Bible translations do not agree is where the objection ends. If you compare Bible translations on where they put the second set of quotation marks, you will see that they are all over the place.

However, Greek did not have quotation marks, and so authors used other methods to show where the objection ends and the refutation begins. They indicated this by calling the objection foolish (cf. 1 Cor 15:35-36; Rom 9:19-20). In this way, the objector in James 2 is saying everything in James 2:18-19. (See my article on “Epistolary Diatribe.”)

Therefore, the statement “even the demons believe, and tremble” is NOT from James, and is NOT in support of his argument, but is from someone who does not like what James is saying, and is objecting to the point James is making.

In other words, when we quote James 2:19, “even the demons believe” we are siding not with James, but taking the side of someone who disagrees with James.

The basic point of the objector is that he believes there is no connection between faith and works. James says that if we have faith, we should do something with it to live profitable and useful lives. The objector says,

That’s rubbish. The two are not connected at all. Take the cardinal theological belief of Judaism as an example: the belief that God is One. The demons believe this, but  it doesn’t affect their behavior. All they do is shudder, but beyond this, this still rebel against God.” So their faith does nothing for them.

Note, by the way, that faith in Jesus for eternal life is NOT what demons believe.

Sure, we can assume that demons believe that if people believe in Jesus for eternal life then those people will receive eternal life, but the demons themselves cannot believe in Jesus for eternal life, because eternal life has not been offered to them by Jesus.

But this is not the belief of demons that James is writing about. The only thing demons believe in this context is that God is One, which is the central and most important belief in Judaism.

The Masterful Refutation by James

In the rest of the passage (James 2:20-26), James refutes what this objector said.

He notes that the objector used the most important belief in Judaism, so James says “Oh yeah? Two can play that game,” and to prove his point he uses the most important figure in Judaism: Abraham, the father of faith.

Faith of AbrahamAnd he uses a particular event in the life of Abraham to prove that Abraham’s faith led him to obey God and perform certain actions, which in turn, allowed people to recognize that Abraham was truly God’s friend.

It is important to note that the event James is referring to takes place in Genesis 22, many years after the initial faith of Abraham in Genesis 15.

Whenever Paul refers to the faith of Abraham, he is referring to Genesis 15, when Abram was declared righteous by God. But James is referring to the events in Genesis 22, when Abraham was declared righteous by men, that is, they saw what Abraham did, and said, “Wow. He truly does believe in the God he claims to serve, and look what happened as a result! He truly is the friend of God!”

James then goes on with the knock-out punch. He has proven his point with the Forefather of Faith, Abraham, so he now takes the opposite extreme and shows how his point applies to the foreign, sinful, prostitute Rahab.

Rahab also believed something about God, and when the spies came to her, she acted on what she believed to deliver and rescue them. If she had just believed in God and done nothing, she still would have had the faith, but it would have done nothing to deliver her, her family, or the two spies. But because she acted on her faith, her faith became profitable.

James has proved his case and proved the objector wrong. If all you do with faith is believe, that is well and good, and it is still faith, but to truly be profitable, effective, energizing, and helpful in your own life and in the lives of others around us, you must act on what you believe (James 2:26).

This is the meaning of James 2.

Eternal Life IS received by Faith ALONE in Jesus Christ ALONE

So don’t let anyone tell you that faith is not enough when it comes to receiving eternal life. Of course it is! Jesus Himself promises it! 

But when it comes to helping others, and getting rid of sin in our lives, and clothing the naked, feeding the hungry (James 2:14-26), taking care of orphans and widows (James 1:27), controlling our tongue (James 3:1-12), etc., etc., etc., just believing that God can take care of these situations is not enough.

Faith is the beginning, but in all these areas where God calls us to get involved, we must do more than just pray; we must do more than just believe. We must do something!

What do you think of this explanation of James 2:14-26, and especially the statement in James 2:19 about the faith of demons? Does it help this passage make more sense to you?

Does it help it fit better with what we read in the teachings of Jesus and the writings of Paul? Has it cleared up in your own mind some of the confusion around the role of faith and works?

Let me know in the comments below, and if you want more clarification, get my book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Faith?

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Are good works necessary for eternal life?

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Lots of people wonder about the role of good works in the life of the believer. While I agree that good works are important, I do not believe that good works are the necessary result of faith, nor do I believe that good works are necessary to gain entrance into heaven.

What Happens if You Don’t Have Good Works?

Some claim that while good works do not help a person gain eternal life, if a person does not have good works, then this proves that they never had eternal life in the first place and will not enter heaven with God in eternity. (To see some quotes from people who believe and teach this, check out the lesson “Good Works Cannot Prove Eternal Life” in my online course on the Gospel.)

good worksBut this is the same thing as saying that good works are a necessary condition for entering heaven.

When good works are a necessary result of faith and justification, then good works become a condition for glorification and entrance into the eternal kingdom.

If someone has faith in Jesus, but they do not have the good works that some people think are necessary, then according to some systems of theology, those people will not enter into glorification.

In such a system, human effort and good works have entered into the chain of events so that if a person does not have the necessary good works, that person will not be glorified.

It is obvious that the only real difference between a person who has faith and good works and a person who has faith without good works is the good works.

If Good Works are a Necessary Result of Justification, then they are a Condition for Glorification

If someone teaches that only those who have both faith and good works will end up in heaven, this means that they see good works as a condition for entering into heaven and final glorification. In such theology, the chain of events is this:

Justification → Good Works → Glorification

In such thinking, if a person does not have the necessary good works, the entire chain unravels. The person will not get glorified because they apparently were not justified.

So the logical conclusion is that if good works are a necessary result of justification, then this makes good works a condition for glorification.

The following logical syllogism may help clarify this further.

1. If a, then always b (where b is something a believer is responsible for).
2. If a and b, then g.
3. Not b.
4. Therefore, neither a nor g.

If good works are a necessary result of justification, this syllogism would be read this way:

1.  If one is justified (a), then one will perform good works in life (b).
2.  If one is justified (a) and it has been proved by works (b), then one can be sure that one will get to heaven (g).
3.  One does not have the necessary works (not b).
4.  Therefore, one is neither justified (a) nor is going to heaven (g).

According to this logic, if a person does not have good works, he or she will not make it to heaven. And if a person does not make it to heaven, then he or she was not justified. So, a person who does not have good works is not going to heaven.

Logically then, the belief that good works are a necessary result of justification is equivalent to the belief that good works are a condition for entrance into heaven and glorification.

good works are necessary

Yes, Good Works are Important!

None of this means that good works have no place in the life of the believer. As I point out in my online course on the Gospel, good works are essential in the life of the believer for many things. But good works are not necessary to gain glorification into heaven, or to prove that we have truly been justified.

If we want to maintain the gospel truth that eternal life is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, then we must hold to the biblical truth that good works do nothing to help earn, keep, or prove eternal life.

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God loves you? No … God LIKES You

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Recently I wrote a post on the All About Eve blog that the theological invitation “Believe in Jesus for eternal life” is more concretely summed up with the statement “God loves you.”

I wrote that many people have trouble understanding what it means to believe in Jesus for eternal life. And while this invitation is referred to over and over in the Gospel of John (e.g., John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47), this offer of eternal life is often equated with the fact and foundation of God’s love for humanity.

So I believe that if we really understand God’s love for us, we will have also understood that He gives us eternal life freely through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, when someone says, “I don’t know if I have believed enough, or believed the right thing,” one way to help people sort through this is to ask if they know that God loves them.

God loves youAnd I mean REALLY loves them. No conditions. No limits. No ifs, ands, or buts.

This sort of understanding of God’s love is so radical, it revolutionizes everything we think about God, Scripture, ourselves, and the church.

Understanding that God loves you infinitely and completely no matter what you have done in the past or what you do in the future, whether you change or not, this is equivalent to understanding that God gives you eternal life freely by His grace.

This sort of teaching about love is what grants people freedom from sin, freedom from religion, and freedom from fear.

I have previously written about this on numerous posts in numerous ways.

But here’s the thing that I have come to realize in the last couple of days:

The church has bastardized the biblical concept of love.

I doubt you could find a church in the world which does not preach the message that “God loves you.” But so few churches and Christians actually understand it or believe it.

Yet rather than try to fight this misunderstanding about love, I think might be best to start saying something else instead.

Rather than saying “God loves you” to people, maybe we should start saying “God likes you.”

Yes, yes, I know. “Like” is a much weaker word than “love.” But there are countless millions of people who would agree in a second that God loves them, but who do not for a second believe that God likes them.

God likes you

To understand what I’m talking about, let’s back up a bit. In Christian circles, it is not uncommon to hear someone say this: “I love my neighbor … but I don’t like them.” Or maybe instead of your neighbor, you have said this about an in-law, the church gossip, or a rude deacon.

When we say we love someone but don’t like them, we mean this: “I love them (because I know I am supposed to), but I don’t want to hang out with them or be their friend.”

This sort of idea is often preached in our pulpits as well. Again, you will sometimes hear pastors say this: “As Christians, we are supposed to love everybody, just as God loves us. But even though you love them, you don’t have to like everything about them. Remember, we love the sinner and hate the sin!”

Do you see? We have this attitude toward others because we think this is God’s attitude toward us. We think God loves us, but doesn’t really like us. At least, He doesn’t like us the way we are now. He likes some future version of us where we have cleaned up our lives, gotten rid of sin, read our Bibles and pray more faithfully, and witnesses regularly to our friends and neighbors. That future “fixed” person is the one God wants to be friends with and hang out with; not the “broken” and sinful person we are now.

So you see? Though we believe God loves us, we don’t really think He likes us.

But here is the Gospel truth as revealed in Jesus Christ: GOD LIKES YOU!

Let me bring this down to earth a little bit more.

Think of a famous author, actor, or musician you would love to be friends with.

For me, I think of people like N. T. Wright, Brad Paisley, and Keanu Reeves. I think it would be awesome to be best friends with these guys. You know … to have such a good friendship that it became informal … that they just drop by my house to see what’s going on, and I could do the same for them. It would be assumed that we watch football together on Monday nights. That when we went camping, we would invite the other along. That if we just wanted to chat about life and theology, we would call up the other person first.

Do you have someone in mind who is like that? Someone you would love to get to know, hang out with, and have “inside jokes” with?

God likes youUsually, when we think about God, we tend to put God in the place of these famous people we want to know. We think, “It would be so cool if God and I were on a first-name basis. If I could call God any time I wanted. If we could hang out like best friends.”

But here is the actual truth: When God thinks about you, He thinks about you the way you think about the famous people you want to know. The way I think about being friends with N. T. Wright, Brad Paisley, and Keanu Reeves, that is how God thinks about me.

God likes me so much, He dreams about being on a first-name basis with me! He dreams about hanging out with me to watch a football game. He dreams about just showing up at my house with no other purpose than to say, “What’s happening?”

And this is the same way God feels about you.

More than anything else, He wants to hang out with you. He wants to be your friend. You are the famous person He would “name drop” to all the angels when He talks about what He did over the weekend. More than anything, God wants to be on a first-name basis with you. He wants to be the one you think of calling when things are going great, and the one you call when things are going bad.

God likes you so much, He wants to even hang out with you when you are weeding your garden, filling your car with gas, and running errands to Sears.

And best of all, God likes you just as you are. He doesn’t want to be friends with some “better and improved” version of you. He wants to be friends with you … as you are right now.

God likes YOU.

This is the truth about God that many people do not believe and cannot accept. They cannot believe that the God of the universe is so madly in love with them, so infatuated with them, so in awe of who they are and what they like and the sorts of things they do, that He would “like” every single one of your Facebook posts, would “Favorite” every single Tweet, and would “Repin” every single picture on Pinterest.

God is your biggest fan, and He dreams of just being in your presence.

God likes you.

This is the Gospel message. This is what Jesus came to reveal.

Do you believe this?

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Calvinists Believe Faith is a Gift from God

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Yesterday we learned about the Calvinistic idea that faith is a work. I briefly mentioned that as a result of this idea, Calvinists believe that people cannot on their own place faith in Jesus Christ for eternal life.

faith is a gift from GodYet if faith is something good that we do, if faith is a work, why does God call people to place faith in Jesus for eternal life (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47)? Why does God seem to hold people responsible for something which they are not able to do? The Calvinistic answer to this is that faith itself is a gift of God.

Since God requires faith in Jesus, and since God knows that it is impossible for the unregenerate person to place faith in Jesus, the Calvinist argues that God Himself gives faith to the person so that they can then believe. So then, faith becomes a gift from God.

Again, let me allow Calvinists to explain this idea that faith is a gift in their own words:

Genuine faith … is granted by God … faith is a supernatural gift of God … faith is not something that is conjured up by the human will but is a sovereignly granted gift (cf. Php 1:29) (MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus, 172-173).

Faith is God’s gift. In no degree could a natural man produce faith. It is utterly beyond him. Let us adore the God who gives it (Wells, Faith, 55).

Faith and repentance are divine gifts and are wrought in the soul through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (Steele, The Five Points of Calvinism).

Faith is a gift from God … it is permanent … the faith that God gives begets obedience … God gave it to you and He sustains it … May God grant you a true saving faith, a permanent gift that begins in humility and brokenness over sin and ends up in obedience unto righteousness. That’s true faith and it’s a gift that only God can give, and if you desire it, pray and ask that He would grant it to you (MacArthur, Transcribed Tape GC 90-21).

Have you encountered this idea in any other writings? If so, where? What are your thoughts on the idea that faith is a gift from God? 

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

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The Role of Faith and Works

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Lots of Christians struggle with the role of faith and works in the life of the believer. Since there are a myriad of positions on this debate, it can become quite confusing to sort through the various views and determine which is right. During my life as a Christian, I have held almost all the various positions at one time or another, but in the last fifteen years or so have settled on a position which seems to make the most sense of most biblical passages surrounding this debate.

role of faith and works

One reason I am sharing this now is because a reader submitted the following question:

I am new to the Christian religion. I thought that I was believing correctly and realized that a relationship with Christ is all about faith and not works. I’m not going to lie, I still have doubts about what I believe and am still learning. Every time I read something about Christianity and faith I get a new outlook on it, then I read something else about works, works, works, there is no faith without works and then I get discouraged and fearful.

I have tried to read books and internet to get some clarification of the bible, I think well this person would be good to learn from because they are so knowledgeable about the Bible and then they speak about faith and works and I get so confused all over again.

I came across your website by accident really and I’m hoping to learn more from it. Thanks.

Thank you for reading.

The question you have asked is one of the most fundamental questions that can be asked, and yet at the same time, a question which never seems to get answered.

As you have discovered, there are a thousand different ways people try to answer this question. Some say “faith alone.” Some say, “faith plus works.” Some say, “faith that leads to works.”

The Role of Faith and Works in the Life of the Christian

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, I have a position on the role of faith and works which seems to make the most sense out of most of the troubling and difficult passages of Scripture.

Essentially, when it comes to the role of faith and works, it is critical to understand the important distinction between the free gift of eternal life to all who simply believe, and many of the other benefits of the Christian life which can be gained through following Jesus daily.

Not many recognize this distinction, which causes them to read passages about the cost of discipleship as if they were passages about how to receive eternal life. As you can imagine, this causes them to read the passage wrongly and apply it incorrectly.

Here is a little chart which begins to show some of the distinctions between the free gift of eternal life and the life of discipleship as a follower of Jesus.

Eternal Life The Abundant Life
Free Gift Prize
Received through faith alone Received through faithful living
Once for all time A daily practice
Instant justification Life-long sanctification
Jesus paid the price The Christian pays the price
Believe in Jesus for eternal life Follow Jesus as Lord of your life

There are certainly other distinctions that could be made, but these are some of the basic ideas to get you started as you seek to understand the role of faith and works in the life of the believer.

So as you are reading the Bible and seeking to follow Jesus, remember these distinctions, and many of the tough texts will begin to make a lot more sense.

The Role of Faith and Works in the Bible

cost of discipleship faith and worksIt is also helpful to understand that probably about 95% (or more) of the Bible is primarily concerned with the right-hand column of the chart above. When you read in the Bible about proclaiming Jesus as Lord, following Jesus, taking up your cross, eternal reward, inheriting the Kingdom, life in the Spirit, faithful living, and on and on and on, the author who wrote that text was primarily thinking of how we should live as followers of Jesus so that we can experience the life God meant for us to live.

Let me put it another way: Most biblical authors assume that their readers have already received eternal life by faith. Most biblical authors assume that their readers want to know how to obey God and follow Jesus better.

The Bible is primarily a book for discipleship. While there are many texts which tell readers how to receive eternal life by faith alone, the vast majority of the Bible is intended to encourage and inspire those who have received eternal life to live in light of the free gift they have already received.

There is a lot of confusion about the role of faith and works

As you have discovered, there is a lot of confusion among Bible teachers, pastors, seminary professors, and Christian authors about the role of faith and works in the life of the believer.

I have no desire to criticize these other teachers and writers, so let me encourage you to go ahead and read and learn from as many of them as you can. As long as you understand the basic distinction I have briefly laid out above, and recognize that most teachers and writers are going to be a little confused on this topic, you can benefit from what they teach and write by making the little mental adjustment in your mind to whatever they are saying.

take up your cross daily faith and worksSo, for example, if your hear a pastor saying, “You have to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus in order to go to heaven when you die,” you can look in the text he is preaching from (maybe Matthew 16:24-26 or Luke 9:23-26), and see that Jesus is talking about saving your life (which is NOT the same thing as receiving eternal life) by living in a profitable way here on earth (cf. Luke 9:24-25). You will further see that Jesus is referring to receiving glory, honor, and recognition from Him when He returns (Luke 9:26). Again, this is not eternal life, but is the prize or the reward of living life for Jesus, which has benefits here and now and benefits for all eternity.

One of the key passages which is often debated regarding faith and works is James 2:14-26. I have written previously about James 2, dead faith, and the faith of demons so won’t write about this text here.

Obviously, a lot more could be said on this, and eventually I hope to write a lot more about this important topic. Hopefully this will be enough for now to steer you in the right direction on the role of faith and works in the life of the believer.

By the way, one book I highly recommend on this topic (though it rather expensive) is Joseph Dillow’s Final Destiny. An earlier version of this book was of immense help to me as I learned about the roles of faith and works in the life of the believer, and how to understand most of the tough texts in the Bible on this topic.

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