You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. —James 2:24
If you had been a devout Roman Catholic in the early sixteenth century, you would probably have taken Martin Luther and his lovely family off your Christmas card list.
For centuries, the Catholic Church had fallen into a trap. “Send in your money and be saved,” the church said to those who would listen. While Catholicism never officially taught that anyone could buy salvation, giving money to the church or alms for the poor was seen as a sign of contrition and repentance. The practice of selling indulgences—which for the uneducated population was basically understood as forgiveness in the form of cash payments—was rampant.
Flush with cash, the Catholic Church became a colossal landowner and a mighty political force. The anger and frustration of seeing this happen to his church forced Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, to write these words to Pope Leo: “Previously I said that the pope is the vicar of Christ. I recant. Now I say the pope is the adversary of Christ and the apostle of the Devil.”1 With these words and many more smart bombs like them, the Protestant Reformation began.
Martin Luther and others like him were saying to the money-grubbing religion of the day the same thing James was saying to his readers: you don’t buy your way into God’s grace. There’s nothing you can do to be good enough. You don’t gain entrance to the Holy One by good works. Why? Because “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Rm 3:10).
Even at our best, you and I cannot pull this off. Nothing we ever do will be impressive enough to God to save us from our sins. Only our simple confession, repentance, and faith in Him will give us the full measure of His grace. But then, you and I do have some work to do. In fact, we have a lot of work to do.
The Pharisees mentioned in the New Testament would have been comfortable with the concept of “doing good gets you in.” And even though James never saw a pope—or a doe-eyed televangelist—pleading for cash, he knew all about this stuff. Earn your way to heaven? Not a chance.
Here’s where it gets tricky. James also tells us that faith is demonstrated by what a person does. James tells us, “If you say that you believe, you’d better be ready to back it up with what you do.” You know, “Put your money where your mouth is.” What you say had better be backed up by what you do. If it’s not, quit talking.
“If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself” (Jms 1:26). “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?” (2:14). “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (2:26).
Dads are good doers. They faithfully go to work and provide for their homes. But what good would this be if these dads resented the work and hated their families?
Dads are good talkers. Many dads are open about how much they love God. Most dads say they love their wives. Nearly every dad boasts that he would give his life for his kids. These are good words, but they’re only words.
James reminds us: work and faith—do and believe, show and tell. Good works won’t earn your salvation, but they’ll demonstrate your gratitude to God for His amazing grace.
1 Quoted in Larry D. Mansch and Curtis H. Peters, Martin Luther: The Life and Lessons (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016), 114.