This morning I met with J and we worked through James 2:14-26. Meeting with J has been one of the highlights of each fortnight; it’s such a privilege to meet with someone who is spurred on by God’s word and spurs me on.

James 2 was a fantastic kick up the pants as we considered especially what vs 24 means:

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

First it must be said that James and Paul most certainly agreed with each other – that we are indeed saved by grace through faith alone and not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). And they agreed that we are saved to do good works (Ephesians 2:10), such that what James is saying in 2:24 is not that we are saved by works, but rather he’s using the word ‘justified’ in a different way from how Paul uses it. James is using it not in a legal way (‘to be justified’ = ‘to be made right with or declared legally innocent by God’) but rather to mean ‘justify yourself! Show yourself and your faith to be the real deal by your works’.

We agreed that this is huge and has implications for every aspect of our Christian lives. And that here, God wants from us exactly the same things that we want of people generally – authenticity, sincerity, and consistency.  Jesus doesn’t tolerate lukewarm Christianity like we often do – he wants real faith that shows itself to be real by its actions.  As this book review quotes:

“a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there’s no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are ‘lukewarm’ are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven.”*  God wants all or nothing.

There is so much that real Christianity and real Christians have to offer to the world.  There are so many big things that need doing and that can be done by Christians who are willing to think and decide and live real and big for their Lord.  This is the vision Steve and I have caught a better view of and that we hope you’ll get in on too.

God help us to love taking Him and His word so seriously that by our every action we ‘justify ourselves’ – show our faith in Jesus to be alive and kicking!

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*the reviewed and quoted book is ‘Crazy Love’ by pastor Francis Chan