Over the last few days we’ve looked at some doctrines that need to be handled with care. Recognizing human limitations could be used to excuse disobedience, for example, or awareness of the need for continued relationship with God could lead to fear and uncertainty. Right understanding is important to maintaining a healthy faith and life.
Today we come to another of those doctrines that can easily become distorted if we aren’t clear: We believe faith leads to good works.
We live in a culture that is passionate about measuring things. We want to see the evidence. (Of course, we don’t always believe the evidence if we don’t like it, but that’s a different issue).
Measurement can be both good and bad.
We see it in the education system and its obsessive concern about test results. On the one hand, we want the educators who spend a large amount of our tax money to show progress. On the other hand, it seems that test scores sometimes take the place of actual learning rather than measuring it.
The book of James has a lot to say about works or deeds and their importance as a measure of faith. In 2:26, it says, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”
Jesus put it this way: “If you love me, keep my commands.”
As in so much, motivation matters.
We believe that good works naturally and necessarily follow from having faith in God. Throughout the Bible faith in and love for God produces certain fruit. While terms and exact lists vary, some things remain constant: faith leads to love for others, it leads to justice, it leads to integrity, it leads to honesty and it leads to practical assistance for people in need.
Faith, though, is the starting point.
We are saved by faith, not by works. The works are a consequence of our faith, not a substitute for it.
As odd as it sounds, I like to thing of works as a symptom of faith. In caring for ourselves and others, we recognize that if someone has a fever, there is something wrong. We don’t, though, just try to bring the fever down without trying to find out what caused it…the fever is a symptom, not a cause.
Likewise, doing good works doesn’t bring salvation. Doing good works is brought about as a consequence of, even a symptom of, salvation. Failing to look first at the cause means missing the most important part.
– Rev. Mark Fleming
This is part of a sermon/reading series in July-August, 2024, looking at some core Christian beliefs, along with distinctive emphases of the Methodist branch of Christianity.
The daily readings are my own, but they are loosely based on the topics covered in the Catechism of the Global Methodist Church. The column at the right contains the questions from the catechism and the sources it lists.
You can find the full catechism and other information about the Global Methodist Church at globalmethodist.org.
I invite you to join us for worship and other church gatherings at China Methodist Church and Forest Park Methodist Church.
Respectful conversation is welcome. Use the comment section at the end of this post.
From the Catechism of the Global Methodist Church:
66. Can we have faith without works?
No. We believe good works are the necessary fruits of faith and follow regeneration, but they do not remove our sins or allow us to avert divine judgment.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands.”
Romans 2:13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirrorand, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
James 2:14-18 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.
James 2:26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Confession of Faith Article X We believe good works are the necessary fruits of faith and follow regeneration but they do not have the virtue to remove our sins or to avert divine judgment. We believe good works, pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, spring from a true and living faith, for through and by them faith is made evident.