James 2:14 (Devotion)

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?"

James begins a new initiative beginning in verse 14 that touches upon salvation and the relationship between faith and works. Specifically, James addresses one question in particular: How can you tell if a person is truly saved when he/she professes to be a Christian? Yet James' response is one that tends to be misunderstood in the exegetical context of Scripture as a whole.

To clarify, James is not insinuating that works are part of the act of salvation. They are a byproduct that results from saving faith found only in the sacrificial blood of Jesus on behalf of sinners. This is absolutely critical to understand because many people and even religious sects/denominations (ex. Catholicism) confuse this issue. Therefore, proper context is needed to ensure the Bible is interpreted correctly.

The apostle Paul's writing to the church of Ephesus states that man is saved by grace through faith as God's gift, and NOT by works so no man can boast (Eph. 2:8-9). In other words, to put works into the salvation equation diminishes the sacrifice of Christ because it insinuates that man has to earn his salvation to some degree and that it's not 100% dependant on Jesus, but a mixture of both faith and works. 

Nothing can be further from the truth though of what Paul and James are saying. Both authors make the same point that salvation is a gift of God's grace. What James communicates is that how we publicly determine whether someone is a Christ-follower depends on the fruit (works) we see in their thoughts and actions (the application of Scripture). For logic would say that if a person is indeed saved, there will be a considerable change in his/her behavior (pre-salvation vs. post-salvation) that identifies publicly the inward decision to follow Jesus.

Faith and works are critical to the Christ-follower, but they must be understood in their correct context. For if we begin to place works into the salvation equation, we diminish the sacrifice of Christ. And if conversely we dismiss works altogether, we are left with empty faith that has no supporting value to prove we have been saved. Therefore, we can safely assert that indeed faith and works are married in the life of a Christ-follower. We simply need to ensure we don't confuse the role they play as it relates to salvation.