Sunday message · Gospel Faith Works, James series
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Message Summary
In the last message of the Gospel Faith Works series before a Christmas break, Jared Sells, who leads Clarity’s student ministry, sums up the series: gospel-centered faith moves. In James 2:20–26, James calls faith without good deeds useless. He is addressing a faith that agrees God is real and sent Jesus to save the world but makes no difference in daily life. Jared admits he once had that faith: at five he prayed a prayer to stay out of hell and came away thinking nothing more was required.
James’s first example is Abraham (Genesis 22). God tests him by asking him to sacrifice Isaac, the son God had promised. In a culture that sacrificed children to its gods, the demand may not have seemed strange, yet Abraham tells his servants he and the boy will come back, and tells Isaac that God will provide. The angel stops him, a ram appears, and God promises to bless all nations through his descendants. His faith and actions worked together, and his actions made his faith complete (James 2:21–23). Gospel-centered faith sacrifices.
Jared tackles the apparent conflict between verse 24, which says we are shown right with God by what we do and not by faith alone, and Romans 3:28, where Paul says we are made right through faith, not by obeying the law. Paul wrote to Gentiles being told that belief in Jesus was not enough; James wrote to people whose faith never acted. James does not discount faith; it is what moved Abraham to act.
The second example is Rahab, in Joshua 2. She hid Joshua’s spies on her roof and sent the king’s men the wrong way, committing treason, because she believed the Lord is the supreme God of heaven and earth. James says she was shown to be right with God by her actions (verse 25). Gospel-centered faith risks. A commentator suggests James chose Rahab to show that anyone can believe and act in faith. Finally, just as the body is dead without breath, faith is dead without good works (verse 26).
Jared names what holds us back: a spouse or significant other, or the idealized hope of one; children and family, whom God does not ask us to neglect but to put below him; and our comfort zone. He confesses that after 28 years in his neighborhood he did not know his neighbors’ names, until one walked over during a Thanksgiving bonfire and a simple “hi, neighbor” became a conversation. Relationships take “long obedience in the same direction,” he says, and he has seen its fruit in a student from the youth ministry who now talks about Jesus with people at college.
His challenge is to find out somebody’s story: be patient, keep the conversation going, learn their values, hopes and fears, and look for where the gospel intersects with them and how to serve them with generosity and compassion. He asks everyone to think of one neighbor or co-worker God has put on their heart and talk with them this week. Jared closes in prayer.
