Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....June 25, 2018
One of the tenets of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the fact that we are saved by our faith in Him. This alone is the determining factor in our salvation. I got a question a few weeks ago referencing just that subject. So with our Bible Study coming up, beginning on September 9th, I thought this would be a good time to answer this question:
Pastor Why is faith without works dead? It seems that today, most people think in order to be saved you have to do so many good deeds. You have always taught that we are saved by faith in Jesus alone. I am confused. Can you help me?
Lets tackle this question...
James says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). Faith without works is a dead faith because the lack of works reveals an unchanged life or a spiritually dead heart. There are many verses that say that true saving faith will result in a transformed life, that faith is demonstrated by the works we do. How we live reveals what we believe and whether the faith we profess to have is a living faith.
James 2:14–26 is sometimes taken out of context in an attempt to create a works-based system of righteousness, but that is contrary to many other passages of Scripture. James is not saying that our works make us righteous before God but that real saving faith is demonstrated by good works. Works are not the cause of salvation; works are the evidence of salvation. Faith in Christ always results in good works. The person who claims to be a Christian but lives in willful disobedience to Christ has a false or dead faith and is not saved. Paul basically says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10. James contrasts two different types of faith—true faith that saves and false faith that is dead.
Many profess to be Christians, but their lives and priorities indicate otherwise. Jesus put it this way: “By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them. 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 in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers’” (Matthew 7:16–23).
Notice that the message of Jesus is the same as the message of James. Obedience to God is the mark of true saving faith. James uses the examples of Abraham and Rahab to illustrate the obedience that accompanies salvation. Simply saying we believe in Jesus does not save us, nor does religious service. What saves us is the Holy Spirit’s regeneration of our hearts, and that regeneration will invariably be seen in a life of faith featuring ongoing obedience to God.
Misunderstanding the relationship of faith and works comes from not understanding what the Bible teaches about salvation. There are really two errors in regards to works and faith. The first error is “easy believism,” the teaching that, as long as a person prayed a prayer or said, “I believe in Jesus,” at some point in his life, then he is saved, no matter what. So a person who, as a child, raised his hand in a church service is considered saved, even though he has never shown any desire to walk with God since and is, in fact, living in blatant sin. This teaching, sometimes called “decisional regeneration,” is dangerous and deceptive. The idea that a profession of faith saves a person, even if he lives like the devil afterwards, assumes a new category of believer called the “carnal Christian.” This allows various ungodly lifestyles to be excused: a man may be an unrepentant adulterer, liar, or bank robber, but he’s saved; he’s just “carnal.” Yet, as we can see in James 2, an empty profession of faith—one that does not result in a life of obedience to Christ—is in reality a dead faith that cannot save.
The other error in regards to works and faith is to attempt to make works part of what justifies us before God. The mixture of works and faith to earn salvation is totally contrary to what Scripture teaches. Romans 4:5 says, “To him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” James 2:26 says, “Faith without works is dead.” There is no conflict between these two passages. We are justified by grace through faith, and the natural result of faith in the heart is works that all can see. The works that follow salvation do not make us righteous before God; they simply flow from the regenerated heart as naturally as water flows from a spring.
Salvation is a sovereign act of God whereby an unregenerate sinner has the “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” poured out on him (Titus 3:5), thereby causing him to be born again (John 3:3). When this happens, God gives the forgiven sinner a new heart and puts a new spirit within him (Ezekiel 36:26). God removes his sin-hardened heart of stone and fills him with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit then causes the saved person to walk in obedience to God’s Word (Ezekiel 36:26–27).
Faith without works is dead because it reveals a heart that has not been transformed by God. When we have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, our lives will demonstrate that new life. Our works will be characterized by obedience to God. Unseen faith will become seen by the production of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22). Christians belong to Christ, the Good Shepherd. As His sheep we hear His voice and follow Him (John 10:26–30).
Faith without works is dead because faith results in a new creation, not a repetition of the same old patterns of sinful behavior. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Faith without works is dead because it comes from a heart that has not been regenerated by God. Empty professions of faith have no power to change lives. Those who pay lip service to faith but who do not possess the Spirit will hear Christ Himself say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers” (Matthew 7:23).
Please keep in mind as you move along in your walk that faith creates good deeds in Christians. We do the deeds because of our faith, not the other way around. I love you all:)
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
12 things to remember:
1. The past cannot be changed.
2. Opinions don’t define your reality
3. Everyone’s journey is different.
4. Things always get better with time.
5. Judgments are a confession of character.
6. Over thinking will lead to sadness.
7. Happiness is found within.
8. Positive thoughts create positive things.
9. Smiles are contagious.
10. Kindness is free.
11. You only fail if you quit.
12. What goes around, comes around.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
We continue this week in the Book of Isaiah.
A comprehensive failure (1:2–31)
In setting the scene for his ministry, Isaiah starts with what must have been obvious—even if the people will not accept his diagnosis, they cannot quarrel with his facts! Nationally (2–9), foreign invasions (7–8) have left a trail of desolation so that the ‘body politic’ (5c–6) is like the victim of a savage mugging. Religiously (10–20), there has been punctilious devotion—sacrifices in abundance (11), temple attendance (12), monthly and weekly observances (13–14), prayers (15)—but it has not got through to God and has done nothing to rectify the national plight. And socially (21–26), the city life is degenerate and dangerous (21), its leaders corrupt and self seeking (23a–d) and its needy uncared for (23ef).
Isaiah sets this three-part analysis of the contemporary scene as if in a court of law. In verse 2ab the witnesses are called, in verses 2c–23 the charges are laid and in verses 24–30 sentence is pronounced. Behind the observable facts Isaiah discerns the hidden causes: rebellion against the Lord (2d) as the root of national calamity (5); personal guilt vitiating religious practice (15); social degeneration through abandonment of revealed norms of justice and righteousness (21). All this gives colour to a comparison with Sodom (9–10) and builds a case for divine punitive action (5, 20, 24, 28, 29–31), but, typically of Isaiah, there is also a surprise: hope is affirmed. The Lord has not left his people (9); when he acts it will also be to purge and restore (25–26), and the very justice and righteousness they abandoned (21) will be affirmed in a divine work of redemption (27).
i. The national situation (1:2–9). 2a. Isaiah does not explain why the heavens and earth are summoned to hear. The parallel address (10) to the accused suggests that creation is called to court as the perpetual witness of what happens on earth (Ps. 50:4–6) and is therefore able to affirm the truth of the divine accusations. But it may simply be to affirm the dignity of the One who can convene such a court (cf. 1 Chr. 16:31; Ps. 69:34–35) and the awesomeness of the occasion.
2b. But even greater awesomeness is contained in the reason given why creation must pay attention: for the LORD himself has spoken. Here is One whom all creation must obey; it is to him that his people must render account; and in the unique marvel of revelation and inspiration the words of the prophet are ‘verbally inspired’, the very words of the Lord.
3. Israel’s (our) sin is simply unnatural. Look at the instinctive actions of the beasts! The locus of our disloyalty is the mind (know … understand) just as the mind is the focal point of all spirituality (cf. Ps. 119:33–34, 104, 130; Luke 24:27, 32; Rom. 1:28; Eph. 4:17–18, 20–22). While know can extend to include both personal intimacy (Gen. 4:1, NIV ‘lay with’) and lifestyle (1 Sam. 2:12), it retains its base-meaning of knowing the truth.
4. Four nouns of privilege: the unique nation; the redeemed people; the ‘seed’ or brood (the word used for the line of descent from Abraham in 41:8); and children (or the Lord’s ‘sons’). Four descriptions of the lost ideal: sinful, from the participle ‘going on sinning’, or missing God’s target; loaded with (possibly ‘heavy with’, hinting that the Lord who carried them felt the burden; cf. 46:3–4; Exod. 19:4) guilt, i.e. ‘iniquity’ (‘āwôn), meaning sin as corruption of character and nature; of evildoers, i.e. the chosen seed has become those who commit evil; and, lastly, given to corruption, ‘acting corruptly’, from Heb. šāḥat, to spoil, ruin. They have forsaken … spurned … turned their backs: here is the basic principle of spiritual decline, a sustained rejection of the Lord. Maybe we should translate ‘turned themselves back into aliens’, i.e. reverting to what they were prior to their redemption. On the Holy One of Israel see Introduction, pp. 28–30. The height of their privilege, to know the Lord in the fullness of his holy nature, became the benchmark of the depth of their fall.
5–8. What is important in these verses is not which historical invasion they reflect. The choice probably lies between the Aram-Ephraim incursion, c. 735 BC (2 Kgs 15:37–16:6; 2 Chr. 28; see Introduction, p. 23; cf. on 7:1–2) or the Assyrian attack in 701 BC (chs. 36–37; 2 Chr. 32; see Introduction, p. 24). The important thing is Isaiah’s view of history as the arena of divine moral judgment. The enemy depredations (7–8) which have left the nation crippled (5–6) from top (head) to toe (foot), inwardly (heart) and outwardly (head … foot), and without remedy (not cleansed … bandaged), were a divine chastisement, with more to come if they persist in rebellion. None of Isaiah’s kings (1:1) was inept. They managed a sound economy and followed clever policies, yet the land was devastated (5c–7), fragile internally (8bc) and threatened externally (8d). The key to national well-being is righteousness, i.e. what is right with God (Prov. 14:34), and in this the prophet records dismal failure.
9. But for the Lord’s people there is another factor, the surprising element of hope. Merit says one thing; mercy says another. As far as desert is concerned the Lord must either apologize to Sodom or visit judgment on Israel! But he is the Lord Almighty, literally ‘the LORD of [who is] hosts’—where the plural indicates that in himself he is and has every potentiality and power. Consequently he is sovereign to act in whatever way accords with his nature. The same Lord (2) who judges also acts in forbearing preservation (9). Because of the Lord’s love, we are not terminated, for his compassions do not fail (Lam. 3:22). Thus Isaiah rounds off the section.
ii. The religious situation (1:10–20). Isaiah turns now to the religious life of the nation. The placing of this topic between his review of national fortunes (2–9) and social conditions (21–23) is significant. The kernel of every national problem is how people relate to God. They cannot be right anywhere if they are wrong here. Religion determines everything.
But the people were extremely religious: they expended time on monthly, weekly and other observances (13); the financial cost of sacrifices and offerings (11) was considerable. It would be strange if they did not ask why, since they did so much for him, the Lord seemed to be doing nothing for them. But that is just the point: their religion was ‘what we do for God’ and not ‘how we enter into the grace he offers to us’.
These verses have been the centre of a difference of opinion. Some note how in verse 11 the Lord denies the significance of sacrifices, in verse 12 their divine authorization, and in verse 13 issues commands to end them. On this view, Isaiah is calling for ‘morality without religion’, an ethically focused walk with God devoid of ritual observance.
But it can be questioned whether this understanding is true to Isaiah. Is it likely that he was so revolutionary as to repudiate the tradition in which he had been nurtured and which he would have traced back to Moses? Such a conclusion would require more than the ‘say so’ of a brief passage like this! Furthermore, if the passage repudiates temple rites, then it repudiates equally the Sabbath (13) and prayer (15)! Rather, Isaiah invites us to recall that in the Mosaic system redeeming grace (Exod. 6:6–7; 12:13), the gift of the law (Exod. 20) and the forms of religious observance (Exod. 25–Lev. 27) followed one another in that order as parts of a single whole. The law was given so that those who had already been redeemed by the blood of the lamb would know how their Redeemer (Exod. 20:2) wished them to live. The sacrifices were provided to cover lapses in obedience (cf. 1 John 1:7).
But as Isaiah looked around he saw people long on religion and short on morality. They were as morally negligent as Sodom (10), their offerings were meaningless (13; lit. ‘a gift of nothing’) because the Lord cannot bear wickedness coupled with religious punctiliousness. The hands they raised in prayer were blood-stained from wrongdoing (15). Like all the prophets Isaiah operated squarely within the Mosaic revelation, and his charge in this passage is that his contemporaries had put asunder what the Lord, through Moses, had joined together, namely, the means of grace (the sacrifices) and the obedient life which they were intended to sustain. The act—the ritual, divorced from its source in a heart grateful for redemption, and from its function in the obedient life—was meaningless and abhorrent to the Lord (13).
10. Like all the prophets Isaiah held that he was the mouthpiece of the Lord, the channel of the divine word. Law means ‘teaching’, the imparting of truth, within which, of course, there is a place for authoritative direction, command and prohibition. But the Lord’s law first of all is the loving instruction that a caring father gives a loved child (cf. Prov. 4:1–2). Apart from mercy they would have been judged like Sodom and Gomorrah (9), but it surely is mercy, for they are like Sodom and Gomorrah in fact.
11. The standing error of the ritualist is that if all depends on performing the ceremonial act, then the more you do it the better. Says is a continuous tense: ‘keeps saying’—as something he presses home upon us. Apart from Psalm 12:6 only Isaiah (1:18; 33:10; 40:1, 25; 41:21; 66:9) uses this verbal form referring to divine speech. To the Lord the ritual act means nothing (11ab), adds nothing (11cd) and does nothing (11ef). No pleasure: 53:10 uses the same verb (‘it was the LORD’s will’) of a mighty sacrifice which delighted him.
12. Appear before me (or ‘meet with me’) may also be translated ‘see my face’, depending what vowels we supply to the consonants of the Hebrew text. The two ideas taken together express the reality and wonder of true worship (cf. e.g. Exod. 23:15, 17). Trampling: a religion of ritual is only the noise of feet on a pavement.
13–15. The denunciation continues. Become a burden (14): i.e. the rituals are not themselves a burden, for the Lord commanded them to start with. It is not the use but the abuse of divine ordinances that vexes him. This is true even of prayer (15), for we can ‘pray on Sunday and prey on our neighbours for the rest of the week’. Hide my eyes: the opposite of the shining face of approval and blessing (Num. 6:25; Ps. 4:6). What makes prayer unavailing is unrepented personal wrongdoing (hands … full of blood). Not only the Lord’s eyes but his ears too are alienated from such praying: literally ‘I am not even listening’.
16–20. But there is a way back and through to God: actions they can take (16–17, nine commands), a promise they can experience (18), a blessing they can find (19) or lose (20). In verses 16–17 the nine commands fall into three groups of three. First, ‘make yourselves clean before God by the cleansing ordinances he has provided’ and this will take your evil deeds (lit. ‘the evil of your deeds’) out of my sight. The cleansing offered is effective before God. Now follow three commands to reorder personal life: stop, a decisive abandonment of sin; learn, the cultivation of a new mind; and seek, set different objectives. Justice (mišpāṭ from √šāpaṭ), ‘to determine authoritatively/judicially what is right’, is often used, as here, to express the sum total of what the Lord judges right, the will of God for his people’s conduct (cf. 42:1, 3–4). The third triad of commands calls for the reformation of society: encourage the oppressed translates an altered Hebrew text: literally ‘reform/set straight the oppressor’. Society must be transformed both at the point of the one inflicting—the oppressor—and at the point of the one suffering hurt—the fatherless … the widow.
In verse 16 the Lord called his people to resort to his cleansing ordinances. In verse 18 he pledges their effectiveness. Scarlet is the colour of guiltiness (cf. 15). Reason (Heb. √yākaḥ, sometimes used of arguing a case in court, e.g. 2:4): the Lord calls his people to the bar of his justice where, of course, they can only be found guilty. But it is there that they hear words of free pardon based on the substitutionary death of a divinely appointed sacrifice. The Lord’s pardon, like all his actions, accords perfectly with his justice. See below on 49:24–26. Snow … wool: both naturally white, not made so by bleaching. The promise, therefore, is of a new, holy nature, not just the cleansing away of the past.
Obedience is a serious matter (19–20). It is a ‘means of grace’ bringing the best. They must ‘obey willingly’ (be willing and obedient), not just offer conformism. The commands of verses 16–18 are backed by serious divine sanctions: obedience is the key virtue of God’s people and disobedience their worst calamity. Sword: the forces at work in history are at the Lord’s command in the interest of his just punishments, see on 10:5–15. For the mouth …: a very emphatic attribution of Isaiah’s words to the Lord himself.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 53–54). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 52–53). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 51–52). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 50–51). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 49–50). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou