Now, I said that there would be time
for questions tonight, and I would like to
pose two, which will take a good bit
of the time to answer, and then throw
it open for you, and your questions can
range over anything over the past three Sundays.
My first question is, how can Romans 3
.28 and 4.5 be made to harmonize
with James 2.20-24?
And I didn't raise that question this morning
concerning the different ways that Paul and James
speak of the appropriation of justification, but I
want to raise it tonight because it's a
classic problem, and you need to know how,
at least I, see a solution.
We'll look at Romans 3.28 first, and
then we'll look at James 2, and we'll
read these two texts, and see the conflict,
and then see the possible resolution between them.
Romans 3.28, Paul says, "...for we hold
that a man is justified by faith apart
from works of the law."
That's where the great Reformation doctrine of justification
by faith alone comes from, that is, apart
from works of the law.
Romans 4.4-5, "...now to one who
works, his wages are not reckoned as a
gift, but as his due.
And to one who does not work, but
trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith
is reckoned as righteousness."
So there again, notice, not work, see that?
And to one who does not work, if
you work, you're not justified.
This text says.
Now, turn to James chapter 2.
We'll read verses 20-24 of James chapter
2.
Are you into this, Tom, on Sunday morning
yet?
Okay.
Tom's teaching, Toshavim and his teams are studying
James.
"...do you want to be shown, O foolish
fellow, that faith apart from works is barren?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works
when he offered his son Isaac upon the
altar?"
You see that faith was active along with
works and faith was completed by works.
And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham
believed God and it was reckoned to him
as righteousness.
And he was called a friend of God.
You see that a man is justified by
works and not by faith alone.
And so Luther tossed it out of his
New Testament.
Not everything Luther did was good.
He put James and Hebrews and Revelation and
second Peter and forget what else at the
back and said, straw, not wood or straw,
not stone, precious.
Was he right to do that?
Is James an epistle of straw because it
doesn't drive Christ as he said?
Well, I think there are ample clues, both
in this context in James and in Paul,
that though these two writers use drastically different
ways of saying what they mean, they mean
the same thing.
And I hope I can show that without
twisting these words all over the place inappropriately.
Let's take a few clues.
Verse 19 in James 2 shows, I think,
that James is standing against a view of
a watered down faith, and he's trying to
recover the radical dimension or nature of faith.
Verse 19 says, you believe, you believe, that's
faith.
You believe that God is one, you do
well.
Even the devils believe and shudder.
Well, now, as soon as he starts talking
like that, you can say to yourself, whoa,
this is not the kind of faith Paul's
talking about.
Devils have this faith?
Yeah, James would say, they sure do.
And they shudder.
They got faith, but it doesn't save.
So that's your first clue.
James is thinking in terms of a faith
that devils can have.
Okay?
That should alert you right off the bat
that devils believe and aren't saved.
And so, aha, clue number one, warning signal.
Don't chalk this up to be equal with
the faith of Paul, who would have never
said that a devil could have faith.
Because you can use the same word in
two different ways.
We do that all the time.
We shouldn't fault these writers for doing it.
Second clue, verses 17 and 20 show that
James is contending with a weak and empty
view of faith, not with Paul's view.
Verse 17 says, so faith by itself, if
it has not works, is dead.
And verse 20 says, do you want to
be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart
from works is barren?
Now, what do those two terms, dead and
barren, signify?
Well, they imply that the faith being spoken
of hasn't produced anything.
It's just powerless.
It's not real.
It's not active.
It's not living.
And hence, it doesn't have any works with
it.
If it were alive, if it were living
faith, or what's the opposite of barren?
Fruitful.
If it were fruitful faith, it would produce
some fruit.
It would get something done.
And so, you can see in the connection
between dead faith and no works, that really
what he's against is a faith that is
so nothing, it doesn't have any results in
the life.
And Paul's against that too, isn't he?
In fact, I think Galatians 5, 6.
Now, this is a key bridge, I think.
Galatians 5, 6 is the key bridge between
Paul and James.
If you want a bridge to walk over
from Paul's faith apart from works to James
justified by works and not by faith alone,
there is a bridge that goes over there,
and it's Galatians 5, 6, which says, and
this is given as a ground for our
hope of righteousness, which is given as a
ground for our justification.
For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
is of any avail.
But what is of avail?
What do your translations read?
Mine says faith working through love.
What do yours say?
Anything different than that?
I don't want to stumble over translations.
I think that's the basic meaning.
So what avails?
What would Paul say is the availing faith?
Faith dash working dash through dash love.
Boom, that's the term.
Faith working itself out through love.
How is that different than James, what he's
really after?
Namely, a faith that isn't dead, but a
faith that works.
Now, we could complain all day long that
James stuck, that he said it the way
he said it.
Justified by works.
Why did he say it that way?
That's terrible.
Well, let's think about why he might have
said it that way.
He uses Abraham as an example.
Genesis chapter 22.
I'm going to read a section from Genesis
22, and I just noticed that I didn't
write down the verses.
So I'm going to look it up here.
Genesis 22.
This is the place he's referring to where
he offers Isaac.
And I'm going to read verses 16 through
19.
Because what I want you to see is
something in the context of Genesis 22, just
after Abraham had offered his son Isaac, that
causes James to look at that and say,
hmm, so it was the act of obedience
to which God gave the promise of life.
Verses 16, following of Genesis 22.
By myself I have sworn, says the Lord,
because you have done this and have not
withheld your son, your only son, I will
indeed bless you.
Now notice, because you have done this.
James saw that word because he said, hmm,
because he did this?
Because you have done this, I will bless
you.
I will multiply your descendants as the stars
of heaven, as the sand which is on
the seashore.
And your descendants shall possess the gate of
their enemies.
And by your descendants shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed.
Because, there it is again, because you have
obeyed my voice.
Now, that promise is the same promise that
was given in chapter 15, verses 1 to
6, to which it says, Abraham believed God
and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.
Here, the same promise is repeated and given
to him because he obeyed.
Now James looks at that and he says,
hmm, he gave it to him on the
basis of faith the first time, and here
he is believing that God is so faithful
he could raise his son from the dead
and thus following through obediently to kill him.
And because he did that, God follows through
and gives him the promise which was originally
made on the basis of justification.
And James just, he just, he looks around
at his community.
Now, this is one of the most important
things to realize.
James and Paul have different opponents.
And how you express your theology is always
deeply determined by whom you are talking to,
especially those you are trying to correct.
And what James sees all around him, probably
are people who caught on a little bit
to what Paul was saying and then went
crazy with it and said, you don't have
to work, you don't have to obey, all
you have to do is believe that God
is one or believe that Jesus died or
something.
Just believe and you're safe.
And they were disobedient all over the place.
Nobody was changed.
No lives were altered.
And James is looking at these people and
then he goes back and he looks at
Abraham's life and he says, hmm, now Abraham
believed God and it was reckoned him as
righteousness.
And then years later, he, in obedience to
God, through faith, offers his son.
God withholds him and then says, because you've
done this, I'm going to keep on going
with my promise that was given to you
in justification.
And James simply says, you see, there's got
to be obedience.
It's got to be works because faith isn't
real without it.
And he goes so far as to say
the justification.
Now, we got to think a minute here
carefully.
So we catch on to just what justified
by works means.
Justified by faith means, I think, that faith
is what makes it fitting for God to
declare a person acquitted.
Faith is what makes it fitting for God
to declare a person acquitted in court.
Now, you switch it over.
James looks at Abraham's obedience and he says,
well, God looked at him and said, because
you did this, I'm going ahead with my
promise.
And so he concluded the obedience of faith,
which he calls works, makes it fitting for
God to declare Abraham righteous.
And that's all he means, I think, by
justified by works.
This obedience that Abraham performed in pursuant of
his own faith in God's ability to raise
the dead was a demonstration of the faith's
life and the faith's fruitfulness.
And therefore, it too, as a witness to
the reality of faith, makes it fitting for
God to declare Abraham righteous.
And the way James chooses to say that
in a polemical situation, fighting against people who
have abused the teaching of Paul, is Abraham
was justified by works.
You know, and you can maybe feel him
shiver when he says it, but you guys,
you better realize that works are absolutely indispensable
to demonstrate the reality of your faith or
your faith isn't worth a toot and it's
not going to get you to heaven at
all.
I think that's the context out of which
this comes.
And therefore, I don't think that the meaning,
the conviction of James and Paul are in
conflict because of that bridge in Galatians 5,
6.
But one other problem might emerge if you
go back to Romans 4, 5, you might
say, well, wait a minute, Paul not only
said we are justified apart from works, he
said, if you work, you're not justified.
Now, to answer that, we have to do
the same thing with Paul that we did
with James.
We have to look in the context and
say, what did Paul mean by works?
And he just defines it so wonderfully in
verse 4 of chapter 4.
How would you define works on the basis
of verse 4 of chapter 4?
Somebody do that for me.
Working or doing works is, finish the sentence.
No, no, no, no.
Verse 4.
What is verse 4?
Read me verse 4 in your Bible.
We know you're looking at different Bibles.
Oh, you don't have it there.
Yes, earning wages.
That's works.
Earning wages.
You see that in verse 4?
It's so plain.
He who works gets his wages according to
what he's due.
That is works.
That's not what James meant by works.
Right?
Works for James is the fruit of faith.
It's what you do when your faith is
not dead, but alive.
Works for Paul is what you do when
you don't have faith.
Faith is the very opposite of works for
Paul.
Works is when you say, I'm not going
to trust somebody to work for me.
I'm going to work and earn my own
wages.
No welfare in my system.
And so when he gets to verse 5
and says, therefore, to him who trusts, but
does not work, we shouldn't construe him to
mean not obey.
We should just construe him to mean not
try to earn favor by working for God
and get wages.
Okay, that's my answer then.
That's my effort to try to see these
two writers.
And two things to learn from this difficulty.
One, always make sure that you try to
understand what a person means and not just
what he says.
So important that we give each other the
benefit of the doubt when we're talking with
each other.
Because I have said things over the last
five years that just make some of your
hairs curl about eternal security, for example.
And when we talk for an hour, you
say, oh, I didn't know that's what you
meant.
Because it's more complex than we have often
thought.
And part of that point is we are
often determined in the way we state our
doctrine by whom we are trying to correct.
Why am I down on self-esteem?
Because this world is full of people who
misuse the whole concept of self-esteem.
My whole last 10 years has been engaged
in fighting against the concept of self-esteem.
Well, I never would have dreamed of talking
like that 20 years ago.
But when it's all around you like a
disease, you start talking that way.
So that determines, you see, what fills up
the way you express your convictions.
And the second thing to learn is that
faith justifies and works, or
obedience to God from faith, bears witness to
the life and the reality of faith.
So I don't want anybody to conclude from
this morning's message or tonight that the radical
gospel of justification on the occasion of faith
somehow leads to antinomianism, that is lawlessness, or
a freedom from a need to obey God.
In just the opposite way, as we'll see
next week, it leads inevitably to a glorified
personality.
Now, one other question.
This one won't take as long to answer.
My second question tonight is, are we justified
by our initial act of genuine faith, or
must we persevere in faith in order to
be justified?
That's my second question.
Romans 5 chapter 1 says, therefore, having been,
or since we are justified, we have, or
let us have, peace with God, from which
I think we must conclude justification is a
present possession on the basis of faith that
we have performed.
It is not just a future thing we're
waiting for and hoping that we will get
if we persevere in faith.
It is, it is ours.
We are now justified, innocent, not guilty, acquitted,
the wrath averted.
Now, it's ours.
And I tell you, that is so freeing
to do battle with Satan when he comes
in and tempts you to think that it's
all over, to think that you're too bad.
There are people in this church who think
that they're too bad to be saved.
And oh, I pray for those people that
God would open their eyes to the meaning
of justification.
But I wouldn't have posed it as a
question if there weren't some other text that
seemed to say something different.
Jesus, for example, says, he who endures to
the end will be saved.
Surely he means he who endures in faith
to the end will be saved.
But the key issue comes from this whole
illustration of Abraham.
And I want to show you two things
in Romans 4.
Turn to Romans 4 with me.
In Romans 4, chapter 3, verse 3, it
says, For what does the scripture say?
Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to
him as righteousness.
Does anybody know what chapter and verse that's
a quotation from the Old Testament of?
15, 6.
Okay.
Genesis 15, 6.
Now, Abraham is about...
I forget how old he is.
It doesn't really matter.
God, in Genesis 15, 6, declares Abraham righteous,
reckons him righteous, because he believes.
He says, I'm going to make your descendants
like the stars.
Go out, look up the stars.
I'm going to do that.
And it says, Abraham believed God, and God
reckoned his faith as righteousness.
Now, look at Romans 4, 18 to 22,
and read very carefully.
And those of you who have read the
Old Testament, who know your Old Testament well,
try to think when this is referring to
in Genesis.
In hope, Abraham believed against hope that he
should become the father of many nations.
As he had been told, so shall your
descendants be.
He did not weaken in faith when he
considered his own body, which was as good
as dead, because he was about a hundred
years old.
Or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's
womb, no distrust made him waver concerning the
promise of God.
But he grew strong in his faith as
he gave glory to God, fully convinced that
God was able to do what he had
promised.
And then here's a key logical connection.
Your Bible may say, therefore, or it may
say, that is why, like mine.
It means the same thing.
That is why.
Now, what's the that referring to?
Or what's the truth from which he is
inferring this next statement?
Well, that he, when he was a hundred
years old, grew strong in faith and gave
glory to God, believing his promise.
Therefore, his faith was reckoned to him as
righteousness.
Now, that's a reference to Abraham when he
was a hundred years old, which shows that
the time is Genesis 17.
You can see that in Genesis 17, 17,
where it says he's a hundred years old.
It's the time when God came to him
and told him that not Ishmael, who was
then 13 years old, would be the heir,
but Isaac would be born next year.
Thirteen years elapsed between Genesis 15, 6 and
Genesis 17.
When was he reckoned righteous?
On the basis of the faith in Genesis
15, 6, did God declare him righteous?
Or on the basis of the faith in
Genesis 17, when he believed the word that
next year his barren wife would have his
own son.
Was he reckoned righteous?
And we could carry it one step farther
and go to James.
And what's the situation in James where he
is justified?
It's at the death or at the sacrifice
of his son Isaac, which is another 10
or 12 years.
All right, 15, 6, 17, 22.
Three different periods in Abraham's life.
In all three cases, God comes to him,
according to Paul and James, and says on
the basis of this faith, not that faith,
this faith, you're righteous.
Okay, that's why I raised the question.
Do we get justified on the basis of
persevering faith?
Or do we get justified on the basis
of our first act of saving faith so
that we can say, I am now justified?
Well, my answer is that we take the
two teachings of Scripture and try to let
them be coherent.
That is, 5.1 of Romans says we
are justified because we believed.
And these texts in 4.3 and 4
.20 to 24 seem to suggest that justification
is given on the basis of a faith
that once was and then is again.
And you could add James and it is
again.
And here's the way I see them together.
I think God justifies us on the basis
of the first act of real faith.
Because two things.
In it, he sees all the subsequent persevering
acts of faith like a tree in an
acorn.
Because by his sovereign decree, he has established
that those subsequent acts of faith will most
certainly follow.
And therefore, there's no inconsistency.
He does justify on the basis of the
first acorn of faith.
We could say mustard seed of faith.
And he knows that that mustard seed has
the whole big bush in it of all
the other acts of faith that will come
in the years to follow.
And he attends and has a view to
that so that it's not inconsistent of him
to say to that person who on a
night finds Christ and puts his faith in
him, justified.
And then a year later, when that person
in a great act of faith follows through
with some difficult act of obedience and God
comes to him and says, because you have
done this in faith, I reckon you as
righteous.
And no inconsistency there because that faith is
all one faith.
It all began in that seed.
It's all created by God.
It's all sustained and enabled by God.
God is not the least inconsistent to say
that justification is a declaration to the one
or to the other.
I'm going to stop.
And we have about 10 minutes for you
to ask questions about this tonight or to
raise questions about anything prior, Evie.
Let me try to remind everybody what you're
referring to and see if I can remind
myself.
There was a sermon once upon a time
in which I used an analogy that some
people in heaven will be pen lights and
some will be flashlights and some will be
big strobe lights.
Remember that?
And in every case, you will be as
bright as you can be.
Now, I think the context and the point
of that illustration was to say that we
will be rewarded.
There will be true rewards in heaven for
varying degrees of holiness in this earth.
And that this earth is the preparation for
eternity.
And some people prepare themselves to be big
lights and some prepare themselves to be little
lights in accord with the degree that they
delight in God's glory.
You gain in your ability to delight in
God.
Is there anybody in this room who could
honestly say, for example, that uh today...
No, that's a lousy question because some could.
I was going to say today you delight
in God less than you did 10 years
ago.
I mean, for me, it's just it's not
the case.
But forget that question.
The truth is you can grow in your
capacity to delight in God.
And since you can, God's not going to
be indifferent to that in the judgment day.
If you have made for yourself a little
cup, he'll fill that little cup for you.
And you'll just be bubbling over in heaven
with your little cup.
And if you made a big cup, he'll
fill that that big cup.
And if you made a big barrel, he'll
fill that.
Everybody will be full to overflowing, happy as
you can be in heaven.
No frustrations.
But there'll be different sized cups and different
sized lights.
Now, the question, I suppose, is...
I can't think what the question would be.
What's the question?
All right.
Well, you have a choice at every area,
OK?
People always come back to me with language
that I do not use and read it
into what I say.
Never have I ever denied you have choice
at any time in your life.
The issue is, why do you choose what
you choose?
I've never denied that anybody has a choice
whether to be saved or not, nor would
I want to deny that anybody has a
choice whether to be more sanctified or not.
We all have those choices.
You face them every day.
That's why I pleaded with people at the
end of the service to turn.
Didn't I say, turn, turn this morning?
Did that sound like they had no choice?
They've got a choice.
But when they choose, why did they choose
what they chose?
To whom will they give the glory for
that ability to choose?
Well, they'll give it to God for their
salvation and, I believe, also for all the
degrees of sanctification.
So, yes, there's choice before and after conversion.
And yes, there's a choice tonight, whether any
of you will watch TV or read the
Bible.
And I dare say that if you spend
an hour reading the Bible, your cup will
be bigger in eternity than if you watch
TV.
And it's your choice.
Of course, when you get to heaven and
you look back on tonight and you say,
I chose to read the Bible.
You know what your next sentence will be?
Praise God!
Amen, man!
That's right, because God is the one who
put it within you.
By the grace of God, I am what
I am, Paul said.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, I
worked harder than any of those other apostles.
Then what did he say?
Nevertheless, not I, but Christ within me.
He's not going to take the glory for
his sanctification or his labors.
Boy, he's going to be smothered with crowns,
that Apostle Paul.
And he's not going to take the credit
for any of them.
And I'll have my little cup and I
won't take any credit for that either.
This concludes Dr. Piper's message.
For information on other resources produced by Desiring
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