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What is dead faith? (James 2:14-26)

When James writes about dead faith in James 2:14-26, many people think he is referring to faith that does not exist. But this is not the message of James. What is dead faith? It is useless faith. It is faith that does exist, but is not accomplishing what God wants or desires for it. Despite what many teach, dead faith is NOT non-existent faith any more than a dead body is a non-existent body.

I have written elsewhere on James 2:14-26 and the often-heard statement that “even the demons believe” (James 2:16). This passage is also discussed in my book, What is Faith?

To properly understand James 2:14-26, it is also important to understand three key terms in the passage.

Three Key Terms in James 2:14-26

The three terms are faith, save, and dead. These three key terms in James 2:14-26 help bring clarity to this much-debated text.

The word faith is defined as the belief, conviction, or persuasion that something is true (see Faith).

The word save is defined as “deliver” (see Salvation). It does NOT refer to gaining forgiveness of sins so we can escape hell and go to heaven when we die. It instead refers to some sort of deliverance, usually from some sort of temporal calamity, such as sickness, enemies, physical death, etc.

And the word dead means to be separated from the life, purpose, or goal which God planned or intended (see Death).

With these three terms in mind, the troublesome text of James 2:14-26 becomes much clearer.

The Context of James 2:14-26

The context of James 2 also helps us understand what James is saying.

The immediately preceding context is that the church is showing favoritism to some of the wealthier members. The rich receive more attention and better seats at fellowship meals than do the poor (James 2:1-13).

Following this, James continues to address how the poor and needy in the church are treated. James says that when it comes to helping the poor and needy in their community, faith is not enough. It is not enough to tell someone that you believe God can clothe them and provide for their needs. It is not enough to promise someone that you will pray for them.

Such faith in God, while real and genuine, does absolutely nothing to clothe the poor or feed the hungry (James 2:15-16).

What good is it, James asks, if you tell the poor that you believe God will clothe them, and you tell the hungry that you have faith in God to feed them, but you yourself don’t do anything to feed or clothe them?

Will your faith do anything to feed or clothe the poor and hungry? No, it won’t.

If you are genuinely concerned about the poor and hungry in your midst, it is fine to believe that God can do something about it, if you also believe that God is going to do something about it through you.

Faith, by itself, is worthless when it comes to helping the poor.

Note that James is not saying anything whatsoever about faith in Jesus for eternal life.

This is not the point of this passage. He is talking about how our faith in God to feed the hungry and clothe the poor should lead us to feed the hungry and clothe the poor.

If you believe God can meet these needs, but you yourself do nothing to meet them, then your faith is dead and worthless. This does not mean that your faith does not exist. It does exist. But your faith is separated from its intended purpose.

God wants our faith in Him to spur us to step out and do things that turn our faith into action.

When we pray for something, God then wants us to seek to become the answer to our own prayers.

When we tell God that we believe He can do something, He turns to us and says that He will do it through us if we step out in faith and let Him. Faith in God is not us “letting go and letting God” but is us “stepping up and taking action” trusting that God will work in and through us to accomplish His work in this world.

So what is DEAD faith in James 2:16, 26?

So the word dead in James 2:16, 26 is a symbolic way of referring to faith that is not accompanied or empowered by works.

Dead faith is real faith. It does exist.

But dead faith is nothing more than faith that is by itself (James 2:17). All James is saying is that if the Christian life is going to be powerful and effective, both faith and works are needed. To save our relationship with other Christians and to accomplish God’s work in this world, both faith and works are needed (See Dillow, Reign of the Servant Kings, 187-194; Zane Hodges, Dead Faith: What is it? (Dallas: Redencion Viva, 1987); John Hart, “How to Energize Our Faith: Reconsidering the Meaning of James 2:14-26,” JOTGES (Spring, 1999).

At the end of this section, James illustrates this point by equating faith and works with the body and the spirit (James 2:26). Just as a body without the spirit is dead, so also, faith without works is dead.

When a person’s spirit leaves their body, does this mean that the body does not exist, or that it never existed? No, of course not. The body is still there, even after the spirit departs. But the body is no longer accomplishing the purpose and goal which God intended for it.

So also with faith and works. If a person has faith, but they do not have works, this does not mean that their faith does not exist, or that it never existed. No, the faith is still there, even though the works are not.

But in such a situation, faith is not accomplishing the purpose and goal which God intended for it. The faith is dead. The absence of works is not allowing the faith to carry out God’s plan and purposes in the world. This is the meaning of James 2:14-26.

James 2:14-26 has nothing to do with eternal life

I cannot emphasize enough that James 2 has nothing whatsoever to do with the gaining, keeping, or proving of eternal life.

James 2:14-26 is not teaching that if a person fails to have good works, then this proves that they do not have eternal life. The question of eternal life is not in view at all.

Instead, James is telling us that rather than just pray for someone, or bless someone, or tell someone that God can provide for their needs, it is we who should answer our own prayers, seek to be a blessing to them, and provide for the needs out of our own pocket or pantry.

Only in this way does our faith get put into practice and fulfill the plans and goals of God.

So what is dead faith? Dead faith is NOT non-existent faith. Dead faith very much exists.

People who have dead faith truly do have actual and real faith. But their faith is inactive and useless. It is not accomplishing what God wants their faith to accomplish in this life.

So do you believe God can help others? Great! Now go out and do something about it, and actually help those whom God places in your life.

Understanding the Gospel requires us to properly understand the key words and terms of the Gospel. Take my course, "The Gospel Dictionary" to learn about the 52 key words of the Gospel, and hundreds of Bible passages that use these words.

This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

You can also get a copy of my book, What is Faith? on Amazon.

I believe in eternal security … but not “Once Saved, Always Saved”

By Jeremy Myers
20 Comments

People often ask me if I believe in “Once Saved, Always Saved.” They want to know if “Once Saved, Always Saved”is biblical.

I say “No, but I do believe in eternal security.” Once Saved, always Saved is not biblical, but eternal security is biblical.

Is that confusing? Well, let me explain…

Eternal Security and Once Saved, Always Saved

Most people think that eternal security and “Once Saved, Always Saved” are the same thing. They are not. To see this, let us begin with a basic definition of each.

Eternal Security is the belief that once a person has eternal life, they have it forever, no matter what.
Once Saved, Always Saved is the belief that once a person has salvation, they have it forever, no matter what.

Do you see the difference? The only difference between the two definitions is that the first talks about eternal life while the second talks about salvation. Since many Christians think that these two terms are synonymous, they don’t really see much of a difference between eternal security and “once saved, always saved.”

The problem, however, is with the word “salvation” itself.

The Word “Salvation”

As I point out in my online course, The Gospel Dictionary, the word “salvation” very rarely (if ever) is exactly equivalent in Scripture to the term “eternal life.”

The salvation word family (save, saved, salvation, etc.) means “deliverance” and the context determines what kind of deliverance is in view. Deliverance can be from sickness, premature death, enemies, demons, disappointment from God, and a wide variety of other negative experiences (cf. Matt 8:25; 9:22; Mark 5:34; 13:20; Luke 8:48; 23:35; John 12:27; 1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 4:18; Jas 5:15; Jude 5).

As such, most forms of “salvation” in the Bible have various conditions attached to them. If a person does not fulfill these conditions, they will not be delivered (or saved) from the negative consequences that follow.

Yet while failing to fulfill the conditions for salvation from sickness, enemies, or premature death might result in experiencing these bad events in life, such things have nothing whatsoever to do with a person’s eternal destiny or their possession of eternal life.

What this means is that as long as the word “saved” is incorrectly equated with eternal life, the concept of “once saved, always saved” can easily be refuted by pointing out the many places in the Bible where people can lose their “salvation” because they don’t obey God or fulfill the conditions of “salvation.”

But once we understand that the salvation word family almost never (if ever) refers to eternal life, the numerous passages that show various conditions for salvation gain theological clarity.

Let us consider a few examples.

James 1:21 and Once Saved, Always Saved

According to James 1:21, people can save their souls by laying aside filthiness and wickedness, and receiving with meekness the implanted word.

If we think that the word “save” in James 1:21 means receiving eternal life, then James 1:21 is teaching that in order to receive and keep eternal life, we must get rid of sin and build our lives upon Scripture. If we do not get rid of sin and if we fail to follow Scripture, then we will not save our souls. In this understanding, there can be no such thing as eternal security.

When, however, we understand that the word “save” means “deliver” and we also recognize that the word “soul” does not refer to the eternal aspect of a person but rather to the life-giving principle within a person, the phrase “save the soul” is best understood as “deliver the life” from premature death (cf. Jas 5:20). This idea fits best in the context as well, where James calls his readers to get rid of sin and become doers of the word rather than hearers only (Jas 1:21-22).

The way to avoid the damaging and destructive consequences of sin in the life of the believer is simply to avoid sin and follow the teachings of Scripture. If you do this, you will deliver your life from the destruction of sin and a premature physical death.

1 Peter 3:21 and Once Saved, Always Saved

Another example is found in 1 Peter 3:21. Here we learn that baptism saves us. So if we think that “saves us” means we receive eternal life, then the clear conclusion is that baptism is a requirement for gaining or keeping our eternal life. If we do not get baptized, then we do not have eternal life.

It is much better, however, to recognize that the word “save” means deliver, and so when Peter writes that baptism saves us, he is saying that baptism delivers us. What does it deliver us from? In the context, Noah and his family were “saved through water” (3:20), which does not mean that the ark gave them eternal life, but that they did not drown in the flood and were delivered from the wickedness and rebellious ways of the people who lived at the time of the flood.

Peter says the same thing can happen to us today (4:3-4) if we live in light of the resurrection. Is Peter telling us how to receive eternal life? No, he is inviting us to avoid the flood of sin and death that comes from lewdness, lust, drunken revelries, and abominable idolatries. Such sins drown out our lives, and we can avoid drowning in sin by recognizing that through baptism (outer water baptism represents the inner reality of Spirit baptism) we have died to sin in Jesus Christ.

Baptism reminds us that we are not slaves to sin but can live free from it. Living this way does not help us earn or keep our eternal life, but it does help us escape the pain and suffering caused by sin.

1 Timothy 4:16 and Once Saved, Always Saved

Then there is 1 Timothy 4:16. According to this text, our salvation is dependent upon how we live our lives and what sort of doctrine we teach and believe. If we fail to take heed of our lives and our doctrine, then we will not be saved.

If the word “saved” refers to eternal life, then Paul is telling Timothy that in order to receive eternal life, he needs to have Godly behavior and beliefs. In other words, keeping eternal life depends on living the right way and believing all the right things. What a scary thought!

If, however, we look in the context, we see a different truth emerge. Paul knows that Timothy feels inadequate to be an elder in the church at Ephesus because he is so young. Paul says that Timothy’s age will not matter if Timothy can give an example to the other Christians in proper behavior and conduct (4:12). If Timothy watches his life and doctrine closely, he will be saved (delivered) from people looking down on him or ignoring him because of his youthfulness.

Salvation is Conditional Upon Good Works. Eternal life is Not.

All of these texts, and numerous others in Scripture, clearly reveal that salvation is conditional upon how we live our lives and what we believe. So if we think that the word “salvation” refers to “eternal life,” then the clear teaching of Scripture is that receiving and keeping eternal life is conditional about believing the right things and behaving in the right way. This is why I say that “once saved, always saved” is not a biblical teaching.

However, eternal security is biblical.

Once we come to understand that the salvation word family almost never (if ever) explicitly refers to eternal life but instead refers to some sort of deliverance from the calamities of life such as danger, suffering, sickness, and premature death, or to some sort of negative experience at the Judgment Seat of Christ, we can readily teach along with Scripture that salvation is conditional upon what we believe and how we behave.

This does not mean, however, that eternal security is also false. Quite to the contrary, there are numerous reasons to believe and teach the biblical truth of eternal security, all of which I cover in my online course.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

God’s Offer of Eternal Life is not Easy to Believe

By Jeremy Myers
34 Comments

God’s offer of eternal life is simple … but it is not easy to believe.

The simple offer of eternal life in the Gospel is that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ for it.

Simple, right?

But not easy to believe.

It is not easy to believe that God’s free gift of eternal life is by grace from first to last.

True grace is something completely foreign to the way life works or to the way most people think. Humans are unaccustomed to grace. We are told almost from birth that nothing is ever free, that there is always a hidden catch, and that we should always read the fine print.

So when the gospel is presented to us and we are told that eternal life is the absolutely free gift of God to anyone who receives it by faith in Jesus, and that there is nothing we need to do or even can do to earn it or keep it, most people start a get a little suspicious.

They start to look for the fine print.

They start to search for the catch.

The free offer of eternal life seems too good to be true.

So we go looking for the fine print, the footnotes, or the hidden conditions.

Sadly, there are far too many Christians who are more than willing to provide the fine print and explain the catch.

“Oh yes,” they say. “Eternal life is free, but you have to love God in return and obey what He says in Scripture in order to prove you have it.”

Others say, “Well, you need to understand, if you truly are a Christian, your life will have the good works to back up your claim. If you don’t have the good works, then this means you are not truly a Christian.”

Then there is this argument: “Eternal life is free, but before you can receive it, you have to fix up your life, seek after God, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, prepare your heart for faith, and pray the sinner’s prayer.”

To all these sorts of teachings, and countless similar ideas, the gospel in Scripture says “No! Eternal life is a free gift of God.”

Eternal life is by God’s grace from first to last.

There are no works needed to gain eternal life, keep eternal life, or prove you have eternal life.

Eternal life does not require you to reform your life, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus, get baptized, seek God, or pray a prayer.

Just receive eternal life as a free gift from God by believing in Jesus for it. That’s it!

It’s that simple … but it’s not easy to believe

This is why the free offer of eternal life is a problem for most people.

It sounds too good to be true.

It sounds too radical.

It sounds like it’s taking grace too far.

Since the gospel of grace is opposite to the way the rest of life works, many people have great trouble accepting it.

So almost without fail, when people first begin to grasp the implications of the freeness of God’s grace in the offer of eternal life—that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply and only believes in Jesus for it—they begin to ask questions.

One of the most frequent questions is this: “So if eternal life is free and all I have to do is believe in Jesus to get it, does this mean I can go sin all I want?”

A man recently posed the question to me this way, “Are you saying that I can believe in Jesus for eternal life, but I can still sleep around, and steal from people, and even murder anyone I want to, but I still get to go to heaven when I die? I don’t have to stop sinning? I don’t have to read the Bible? I don’t have to go to church?”

While many Christians would answer “No” to these questions, my answer is always, “Yes!”

No ifs, ands, or buts.

Without qualification.

Absent of all fine print, footnotes, or hidden conditions.

Yes, I know.

If I say that grace allows you to go sin all you want, you now are beginning to wonder if I am a false teacher who promotes licentious living.

You have probably heard rumors that teachers like me exist, but have rarely (if ever) encountered one in public.

Pastors often preach against “those grace teachers,” but few people have ever really met one.

This is because most so-called “grace teachers” still include a lot of “ifs, ands, or buts” in their teachings about grace. So the true “grace teacher” is viewed as a bit of a legend, sort like leprechauns and elves.

But I have now exposed myself as one of those mythical monsters that people are warned about by their pastors. Even still, you might be thinking I do not mean what I say.

But I do.

Since grace is free, you can go sin all you want.

I will explain this idea more in future blog posts, but if you absolutely must know NOW what I mean, take my course on the gospel. It explains all this (and more) in great detail.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

Is Pastoral Theology Inconsistent Theology?

By Jeremy Myers
8 Comments

I sometimes hear pastors say that they don’t have systematic theology; they have pastoral theology.

As a pastor myself, I used to nod my head in agreement. I too am concerned with the way some theologians seemed too caught up with dotting every theological “i” while neglecting the task of serving others.

However, in recent years, I have come to develop some reservations about the whole “pastoral theology” concept.

Not Pastoral Theology

In the minds of some today, the pastor who claims to have a pastoral theology is often just saying that his theology is not fixed and consistent. Instead, they adjust their theological views to fit the pastoral concern being faced. This approach often leads to contradictions in theology. Like the situational ethics of the 70s, many pastors have a different theology depending on the situation they find themselves in.

Pastoral theology might be better to call it situational theology.

A Conversation with a Pastoral Leader

This was brought to my attention through a recent conversation I had with another pastor. He and I did not see eye to eye on certain issues of soteriology, and it was not long before he expressed some some serious logical contradictions. When I pointed these out to him, he said that he lived with these contradictions because he had “pastoral theology,” not systematic theology.

When pressed to explain the difference, he relayed the following story which he said actually happened to him:

I was in my office and a man came in who was a serial adulterer. He shared that although he is married, for the past seven years he slept with at least one different woman every month. I asked him if he thought he was a Christian, and the man said, “Yes, I accepted Christ as my personal Savior when I was in high school. They told me I was secure forever, and so I know that even though I’m sinning, I’m still going to heaven.”

Personally, I would have stopped and asked the man for further clarification on what he thought he had done in high school. Why did he say, “They told me I was secure forever”? Why didn’t the man point to Jesus’ promise of eternal life? What did he mean when he said, “I accepted Christ as my personal Savior”? Until these questions are answered, it is still uncertain whether or not he has believed in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life. But this particular pastor thought that the man’s statement was fine, and so his story continued:

In such a case, my pastoral heart tells me to put the fear of hell into the man. I told the man that if he was ever saved, he certainly wasn’t saved now. Such adultery was a serious pattern of sin. Unless he repented of his sin, and returned to a monogamous lifestyle, he would not enter heaven.

This is classic Arminian loss-of-salvation theology. It was a little surprising for me to hear these words coming from this man who claimed to be a Calvinist. But he continued his story:

Later that day a different man came into my office. He too admitted to being an adulterer. He was married for seven years, and in that time frequently looked at pornography and had committed adultery twice. He sat in my office with tears streaming down his face, worried that he had lost his salvation and that God would never forgive him.
But I saw that this man had a repentant heart, and he knew that what he had done was sinful. He was a genuine Christian, not in need of chastisement and the fear of hell, but in need of love and forgiveness. I told him that God still loved him, and that Christ had died for all of his sins—past, present, and future—and that there was nothing which could separate him from God. He was secure in the hand of God. Of course, I warned him that he needed to turn from his sin, or else it may prove he was never saved in the first place.

So in one day, this man’s pastoral theology led him to espouse Arminian theology to one person and Calvinistic theology to another. The two systems are contradictory, but he didn’t care, for his theology was “pastoral.” He admitted the two views were contradictory, but only if viewed apart from the individual situations. He molded his theology to fit what he thought the person in front of him needed to hear. This was his pastoral theology.

Inconsistent Pastoral Theology Helps No One

I do not believe such an approach helps anybody. Such contradictions only lead to confusion. This sort of situational pastoral theology does more damage than good, because it allows love for people to drown out the truth of God’s Word. And when truth gets neglected in the name of love, love dies too. It is not loving to tell a lie in a kind way, even if we think the lie is what a person needs. It is far better to “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15). It is also far better to be Biblical, rather than pastoral.

Consider the first man. Not only was he not given the clear message about how to receive eternal life, he was also given a false message. If this man was indeed unregenerate, he went away with a message in his head that would make it harder for him to be born again. He was told that to enter heaven, he needed to be monogamous. While there certainly are practical benefits and blessings for monogamy, the Bible nowhere lists monogamy as a condition for going to heaven.

So although this pastor thought he was telling this man what was necessary to get him to change his lifestyle, the message he gave was wrong. How practical, how pastoral was that? Doesn’t God know best?

And what about the second man? He also was given a false message. He may have gone away feeling better, but if he wasn’t already born again, he left this encounter more confused than ever. For although he might have been temporarily encouraged, he too was told to refrain from pornography and adultery if he wanted to go to heaven. Once again, the Bible never says this.

So this situational approach to theology is neither loving, nor pastoral.

When pastoral theology becomes situational theology, it helps no one, and only confused those who hear it. If our goal in pastoral theology is to help those who are in our care to understand God and live according to His Word, wouldn’t it be best to have a theology that is consistent and which doesn’t shift with each new counseling session?

If we want to have true pastoral theology, we would be wise to give people what God said! For example, Jesus gives everlasting life to anyone who believes in Him (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47; etc.), and a life of obedient discipleship is important for fellowship and rewards. That is an encouraging, loving, and pastoral message. Best of all, it’s true.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

What is dead faith? (James 2:14-26)

Three Key Terms in James 2:14-26

The Context of James 2:14-26

So what is DEAD faith in James 2:16, 26?

James 2:14-26 has nothing to do with eternal life

I believe in eternal security … but not “Once Saved, Always Saved”

Eternal Security and Once Saved, Always Saved

The Word “Salvation”

James 1:21 and Once Saved, Always Saved

1 Peter 3:21 and Once Saved, Always Saved

1 Timothy 4:16 and Once Saved, Always Saved

Salvation is Conditional Upon Good Works. Eternal life is Not.

God’s Offer of Eternal Life is not Easy to Believe

The free offer of eternal life seems too good to be true.

It’s that simple … but it’s not easy to believe

Is Pastoral Theology Inconsistent Theology?

Not Pastoral Theology

A Conversation with a Pastoral Leader

Inconsistent Pastoral Theology Helps No One

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