Faith Without Works

Have you ever noticed that sometimes a theme pops up in your life? I have a sweet friend that told me about such an experience recently. She said, “After the third time the subject came up, I thought, ‘I need to be paying attention to this…” Well, for me lately, FAITH has been coming up in several sermons, messages, studies, and so forth. We all know the mustard seed scripture (Matthew 17:20) and understand that even a tiny speck of faith is enough to do great things – but what else? I began to wonder if I really HAVE faith, and if so, where did it come from and how do I grow it and use it?

Romans 10:17 NKJV
So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

The Passion Translation puts it like this:
Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One.

First, you have to HEAR the Word in order to get faith. For you to HEAR it, somebody has to SAY it. (That means somebody is exercising THEIR faith.) So when you are hearing preaching and teaching, or somebody declaring what the Lord has done for them, etc, you are hearing the Word.

The Word says in Hebrews 11:1 KJV “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Well, okay…but what does that mean? Essentially it means that we don’t have to SEE it to BELIEVE it. At least, we don’t have to see it with our physical eyes. We just believe it because we know it to be true. Faith is important. At its most basic, faith is all you need to be saved.

The problem comes when you STOP there. Some folks believe that because that’s what got them saved, that’s all there is. They tuck their faith away in a box on a dusty shelf somewhere in their house and smile when they walk past it because they think that’s all they will ever need. Well…..yes and no.

It’s true that faith gets you to the first step – it gets you salvation. And salvation is obviously the MOST important thing. But that’s JUST THE BEGINNING.

The Word says that we are to mature as Believers. We are supposed to grow up in our faith, and not stay baby Christians all our lives; (Hebrews 5:11-14, 1 Corinthians 3:2, Galatians 4:1-2) because it is only in growth that we can come into the power and authority that God has given us and become the complete fulfillment of the new creature that we were created to be. Being transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18) and becoming a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17) is the goal. But because we are dealing with the flesh, it is often a process. At least it certainly is a process for me. And, heaven help me, I am nowhere near the end result yet.

As Believers, when we are faced with troubles, trials, and tribulations, we rely on our faith. Waking up one morning and finding trouble staring you in the face is NOT the time to also discover that your faith is weak, puny and brittle. We require it to be strong in order to get us through life.

James 2:17 says that faith without works is dead. Can good works get you to heaven? Nope. But the point is that IF you have faith, then you will WANT to be obedient and do good works. The KJV says faith without works is “dead.” The NIV says it’s “dead and useless.” But I also like the way the Passion Translation (James 2:14-17) puts it:

My dear brothers and sisters, what good is it if someone claims to have faith but demonstrates no good works to prove it? How could this kind of faith save anyone? For example, if a brother or sister in the faith is poorly clothed and hungry and you leave them saying, “Good-bye. I hope you stay warm and have plenty to eat,” but you don’t provide them with a coat or even a cup of soup, what good is your faith? So then faith that doesn’t involve action is phony.

It’s PHONY. There is no life. There is a little song that says, “Faith without works is like a song you can’t sing. It’s about as useless as a screen door on a submarine.” (Go here to listen to the song.) So we know then, that we have to WORK our faith. That is part of becoming a new creature. Exercising faith starts with how we speak. We must speak in faith. Speak positively. Y’all, we have to speak what we KNOW (by faith) to be truth, not necessarily what we are looking at.

Now folks, that act in itself, to the world, is sheer foolishness. To coin a phrase, it’s CRAZY PANTS, y’all. (And we are warned about it in 1 Corinthians 1:18) For example, if you have a sickness or a disease going on in your body, but you know the Word says that you are healed by His stripes. If you are, by faith, confessing your healing with your mouth, the world is going to look at you like your driveway doesn’t go all the way to the road. If you give away your last dollar because you feel like the Holy Spirit is telling you to do it, that’s just nuts to the world. When it is freezing cold outside and you give the coat off your back and the shoes off of your feet to somebody who has none, the world doesn’t get it. They are going to be whispering behind your back, “Y’all, Susan has done gone and lost her ever-lovin’ mind. Did you SEE her? She is crazy as a road lizard.”

But WHO CARES?! I don’t know about you, but “crazy” isn’t even in the top 20 of the worst things I have ever been called. And if I am called “crazy” (or whatever else) for doing what the scripture says, well then Let’er Rip, Tater Chip! Because it’s HAPPENIN’!

Basically, to GET faith, we have to hear the Word. Then we use our faith to receive salvation. And then we WORK our faith to grow it, and use it, and give it away to those around us. That means WORKS are important. Works are what help keep our faith muscle exercised, strong and ready for action. Part of working your faith is SPEAKING it and telling folks. That not only exercises YOUR faith but it instills faith in the people who hear you (refer again to Romans 10:17) – so it’s a cycle. The other part of working your faith is looking around you and doing what needs to be done for folks.  That’s also walking in love (2 John 6).

Maybe some of the questions we should be asking ourselves include: How strong is MY faith muscle? How am I exercising my faith? Am I instilling faith in others? Would my faith be strong enough to support me if you needed it?

For me, those questions are PLENTY to chew on for the next little while….

Hebrews 11:6 KJV   But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

I also like how the Passion Translation of the same verse puts it:

Hebrews 11:6 TPT   And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who give all their passion and strength into seeking him.

Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV     We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

1 Corinthians 1:18 NIV     For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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