ICS Daily Devotions
Saved by His Unmerited Grace
James 2:19-20 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
The Apostle James was dealing with dead religion or dead faith and challenged the audience to be fired up for God by living out the saving faith actively. There is a huge difference between a dead faith and the saving faith. We are not the judge regarding who has a dead faith or saving faith because that judgment belongs to God. What we need to do is to ensure that we are truly believers of Jesus Christ and choose to live out our convictions in our hearts.
We do live in an age where there is a lot of indifference in church. There are those who are not interested in the things of God because their minds and hearts are filled with other priorities. When one just purely accepts a Christian creed, an intellectual assent of who Jesus is, or even being born into a Christian family can turn out to be a dead faith. Mental assent is not sufficient. It is true that demons know who Jesus is and have a knowledge of God. They acknowledge that God exists and tremble in His presence. But they do not have the saving relationship with God.
One can be a lecturer in world religion including Christianity, but still have a dead faith. One can come from a Christian nation, attending church since childhood and have a knowledge of God but may not have a relationship with God. One might acknowledge that there is a God but keeps on drinking, smoking, womanizing, gambling, cheating etc. It’s a dead faith! There is a knowledge about God but refusal to know God and make Him known. It’s a dead faith.
The imperfect knowledge of God can bring Christians into problems. There are many who are not secured in God’s love and never truly experience peace with God. There is a constant nagging thoughts in their minds that God is not happy nor satisfied with them. They have this thinking that God is waiting to discipline them by striking them with something evil.
We are a product of our thought life. We have heard a saying like “there is no free lunch.” We think that there must be a catch because it is too good to be true. We rather think of another saying “no pain, no gain” because if you want something good then you need to work hard for it. We might find it very difficult to accept the unconditional love of God and the gift of righteousness. It is just too good to be true. Very often we are defined by our doing rather than our being and our identity is very much in our doing. But the deeds do not come before but rather follow the saving faith!
Rom 4:1-3 (NKJV) What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Abraham responded in obedience by offering Isaac on the altar. A sacrifice is admirable and commendable in the eyes of men but there is nothing to boast before God. Whatever men do in order to gain justification will never be acceptable by Him. There is nothing in terms of works that will gain us a right standing before God. The wrath of God towards sin can only be appeased by blood. In our case, the blood of Christ who is the ultimate unblemished lamb of God. He has redeemed us from our sins and lawlessness. We rest in God’s presence and have permanent access to Him because of the unmerited favor.
Eph 2:8-9 (NKJV) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
James is not teaching something that’s contrary to the teaching of Paul because nobody is able to boast about their works before God. The same principle applies to us that there is absolutely nothing that we can boast about before God regarding our works. We are the blessed ones upon whom God has imputed righteousness apart from our works. We maintain the permanent elite status in the eyes of God thanks to His unmerited grace!
Sermon Series: An Active Faith
