Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3434
“Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.” James 2:17.
WHATEVER the statement of James may be, it could never have been his intention to contradict the Gospel! It could never be possible that the Holy Spirit would say one thing, in one place, and another in another. Statements of Paul and of James must be reconciled, and if they were not, I would sooner be prepared to throw overboard the statement of James than that of Paul. Luther did so, I think, most unjustifiably. If you ask me, then, how I dare to say I would sooner do so, my reply is, I said I would sooner throw overboard James than Paul for this reason, because, at any rate, we must keep to the Master, Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought never to raise any questions about differences of Inspiration, since they are all equally Inspired, but if such questions could be raised and were allowable, it were wisdom to stick fastest to those who cling closest to Christ. Now the last words of the Lord Jesus, before He was taken up, were these, “Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” and what was this Gospel? “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” To that, then, we must always cling, and Jesus Christ has given a promise of salvation to the baptized Believer, for He has said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Here it is clear He promises everlasting life to all who believe in Him, to all who trust in Him. Now from the Master’s words we will not stir, but close to His own declaration we will stand. Be assured that the Gospel of your salvation as a Believer, with a simple confidence in Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead, will save your soul—a simple and undiluted reliance upon the life, death, resurrection, merit and Person of Jesus Christ, will ensure to you everlasting life. Let nothing move you from this confidence—it has great recompense of reward! Heaven and earth may pass away, but from this grand fundamental Truth of God not one jot or tittle shall ever be moved! “He that believes in Him is not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed on the Son of God.”
The fact is, James and Paul are perfectly reconcilable—they are just viewing a Truth of God from different standpoints. Whatever James may mean, I am quite confident about what Paul means, and confident about the truth of the two.
A second remark. James never intended, for a moment, nor do any of his words lead us into such a belief, that there can be any merit whatever in any good works of ours. After we have done all, if we could do all, we would only have done what we were bound to do! Surely there is no merit in a man’s paying what he owes—no great merit in a servant who has his wages for doing what he is paid to do. The question of merit between the creature and his Creator is not to be raised—He has a right to us. He has the right of creation, the right of preservation, the right of Infinite Sovereignty and, whatever He should exact of us, we should require nothing from Him in return! And, having sinned as we all have, for us to talk of salvation by merit—by our own works—is worse than vanity! It is an impertinence which God will never endure—
“Talk they of morals, O You bleeding Lamb! The best morality is love of You.”
Talk of salvation by works and Cowper’s reply seems apt—
“Perish the virtue, as it ought, abhorred, And the fool with it, who insults his Lord.”
What James does mean, however, is this, no doubt, in brief and short—that while faith saves, it is faith of a certain kind. No man is saved by persuading himself that he is saved! Nobody is saved by believing Jesus Christ died for him. That may be, or may not be true in the sense in which he understands it. In a certain sense Christ died for all men, but since it is evident that many men are lost, Christ’s dying for all men is not at all a ground upon which any man may hope to be saved. Christ died for somemen, in another sense, in a peculiar and special sense. No man has a right to believe that Christ peculiarly and specially died for him until he has an evidence of it in casting himself upon Christ, trusting in Jesus and bringing forth suitable works to evince the reality of his faith. The faith that saves is not a historical faith, not a faith that simply believes a creed and certain facts—I have no doubt devils are very orthodox—I do not know which church they belong to, though there are some in all churches! There was one in Christ’s Church when He was on earth, for He said one was filled with devils—and there are some in all churches. Devils believe all the facts of Revelation. I do not believe they have a doubt—they have suffered too much from the hand of God to doubt His existence! They have felt too much the terror of His wrath to doubt the righteousness of His government! They are stern believers, but they are not saved— and such a faith, if it is in us, will not, cannot save us—but will remain to all intents and purposes, a dead, inoperative faith! It is a faith which produces works which saves us. The works do not save us. And a faith which does notproduce works is a faith that will only deceive—and cannot lead us into Heaven. Now this evening we shall first speak a few words upon—