In James chapter
two the context is faith with works versus faith without works.
This is evident from vs.18.
Jam 2:18 Yea,
a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy
faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my
works.
This is a minor
comment which is of no consequence to the real intent of the
epistle. Indeed, we men cannot know the inner workings of the
heart and therefore may need to see what fruits men bear in order
to have evidence of their faith, but that is not what St. James
is talking about in his epistle. The operative portions of James
2 which reveal the author's true intent are the following verses:
Jam 2:14 What
[doth it] profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath
faith, and have not works? can faith [ALONE] save him?
[IMPLIED ANSWER: NO]
Jam 2:21 Was
not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered
his son Isaac upon the altar? Jam 2:22 You see that faith was
active along with his works, and faith was completed by
works, Jam 2:23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says,
"Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as
righteousness"; and he was called the friend of God. Jam
2:24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by
faith alone.
The thrust of
these passages is clear. Faith ALONE does not save. Faith must be
COMPLETED by works to be a saving faith. Without good works,
faith ALONE cannot save you.
Dr Sippo, Abraham
was justified by faith and his works revealed that faith. You are
correct in what you said about Gen. 22. His faith in God was
manifested by his works towards God in not withholding his son.
That is NOT what I
or the Bible said. The Bible says (and I affirm it) that
Abraham's faith in God was COMPLETED by his works, not merely
manifested by it. This latter distortion is at the heart of the
error of Protestantism. Abraham was a righteous man because he
DID what God asked him to do, NOT because he believed or trusted
in God in the absence of a volitional response.
I would never say
that I have faith apart from works. That is wrong. The true
scriptural teaching is that Abraham was justified by his faith in
God see Rom. 4-5:11 for contextual proof of his justification but
his belief was revealed by his faith see James 2:21-26.
The operative
portion of Romans is the verse that is totally ignored by
Protestants:
Rom 4:9 Is
this blessing pronounced only upon the circumcised, or also
upon the uncircumcised? We say that faith was reckoned to
Abraham as righteousness. Rom 4:10 How then was it reckoned
to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It
was not after, but before he was circumcised. Rom 4:11 He
received circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness
which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The
purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without
being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to
them, Rom 4:12 and likewise the father of the circumcised who
are not merely circumcised but ALSO FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF THE
FAITH which our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
What was the
example of Abraham's faith? Naked belief without any works?
Actually, no. The example was what St. Paul called "the
obedience of faith" (Rom 1:5, 16:26). As St. Paul says
later:
Rom 6:16 Know
ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto
death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Abraham was told
that he would have a son by his wife Sarah. He believed what God
said and trusted that it would happen. But this also required him
to have sexual relations with his wife as often as possible. If
all he did was believe and trust in God without performing the
necessary works that that belief required, his would have been a
false faith and a false hope. The good work of sexual relations
in marriage was REQUIRED as part of the substance of his faith to
bring it to completion.
St. Paul knew this
and so he wrote:
Rom 4:18 In
hope he believed against hope, that he should become the
father of many nations; as he had been told, "So shall
your descendants be." Rom 4:19 He did not weaken in
faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as
dead because he was about a hundred years old, or when he
considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. Rom 4:20 No
distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he
grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, Rom 4:21
fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Rom 4:22 That is why his faith was "reckoned to him as
righteousness."
So St. Paul shows
that Abraham's perseverance in having sexual relations with his
wife was "reckoned to him as righteousness" because it
proceeded from his faith.
I do not know who
you are trying to destroy but Christians such as myself do not
say that we have faith without works. We say that our faith in
God is revealed by our works.
You have created
for yourselves the false hope that good works are merely optional
and demonstrative, not constitutive of righteousness before God.
This is amoralism and directly contradicts the teachings of My
Lord and Savior:
Luk 10:25 And,
behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying,
Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Luk 10:26 He
said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
Luk 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as
thyself. Luk 10:28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered
right: this do, and thou shalt live.
Mat 7:21 Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven.
Luk 6:46
"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell
you? Luk 6:47 Every one who comes to me and hears my words
and does them, I will show you what he is like: Luk 6:48 he
is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the
foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream
broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it
had been well built. Luk 6:49 But he who hears and does not
do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without
a foundation; against which the stream broke, and immediately
it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."
And St. Paul:
Rom 2:5 But
after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto
thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the
righteous judgment of God; Rom 2:6 Who will render to every
man according to his deeds: Rom 2:7 To them who by patient
continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and
immortality, eternal life: Rom 2:8 But unto them that are
contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Rom 2:9 Tribulation
and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the
Jew first, and also of the Gentile; Rom 2:10 But glory,
honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew
first, and also to the Gentile: Rom 2:11 For there is no
respect of persons with God.
Rom 13:8 Owe
no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth
another hath fulfilled the law. Rom 13:9 For this, Thou shalt
not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not
steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not
covet; and if [there be] any other commandment, it is briefly
comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. Rom 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his
neighbour: therefore love [is] the fulfilling of the law.
The typical
Protestant ambivalence to good works is not Biblical but comes
from the bad consciences of the 16th Century Reformers whose
agenda was to extirpate morality from religion and replace it
with a sinful presumption upon the grace of God. Remember what
St. Paul said about this?
Rom 2:1
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when
you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you
condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very
same things. Rom 2:2 We know that the judgment of God rightly
falls upon those who do such things. Rom 2:3 Do you suppose,
O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet
do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Rom
2:4 Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and
forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness
is meant to lead you to repentance? Rom 2:5 But by your hard
and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on
the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be
revealed. Rom 2:6 For he will render to every man according
to his works..
Please read
carefully Gal. 3:6-29
Ray, you are
making the same mistake that every Protestant does in reading St.
Paul. The "law" that St. Paul is talking about is the
Mosaic Law, not moral laws in general. Read this carefully:
Gal 3:10 For
as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse:
for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that continueth not
in all things WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW to do
them.
The "book of
the law" St. Paul is speaking about is the Torah: the five
books of Moses. St. Paul is telling his Gentile converts that
they do not have to keep kosher to be Christians. But he does NOT
say that they are not obliged to do good works nor does he say
that they can ignore the 10 Commandments. Note well:
Gal 5:6 For in
Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor
uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Gal 5:15 But
if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not
consumed one of another. Gal 5:16 [This] I say then, Walk in
the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to
the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Gal
5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the
law. Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which
are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Gal
5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such
like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told
[you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such
there is no law. Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Gal 5:25
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
I think that that
Bible is very clear. Justification is not by faith alone but by a
faith working to completion through love. Protestant amoralism is
not biblical and the many false religions that have grown out of
the Reformation lead people away from the truth. There is no
salvation outside of the one true Church founded by Jesus. Those
who leave the Church knowingly -- especially in order to
persevere in some evil pleasure that the Catholic Church teaches
to be sinful -- cannot be saved.
The choice is
yours, Ray. Repent of your humanist amoralism and return to the
one true Church, or die apart from her and risk damnation.
Well here we are
again. I will stay with Jesus Christ. Thank you very much.
Still don't get
it, do you Ray? You don't have Jesus. You have Luther and Calvin.
You are banking on them to save you.
Jesus taught that
if you did not have good works, you would be damned (e.g., Matt
25:31ff). The NT in numerous places says that men will not be
judged by their faith but by their works (Matt 16:27; Luke 23:41;
Rom 2:26; 1Cor 3:8; 2Cor 5:10; Gal 6:7; Rev 2:23; Rev 20:12 &
13).
I abjure in the
name of the TRUE Christ to abandon your false religion and submit
your self to the true Gospel before it is too late. A
presumptuous trust in a false religion cannot save you.
