Living Faith

Vicky Moots

James 2:17, 20: “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.; But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”

Today I am going to use these verses in James to perform a spiritual check up of your faith.  Do you have living faith?  If you are born again, then you have living faith, because without faith you cannot be saved.  But how healthy is your faith? Does it produce works?

In the natural, if you wanted to evaluate your health, you would see a doctor for a checkup.  The first thing that they would do is to check your vital signs: your blood pressure, pulse and respirations.  Why? Because these are outward measurements which can be obtained that indicate the internal activity of the heart.

What are the outward vital signs of our faith? How would someone who is examining us spiritually be able to evaluate our spiritual health? According to James, one of the vital signs is our works, so let us look into this further.  If we have the life of Christ in us, there should be outward evidence of our faith for others to see.

We read in I Sam. 16:7, that “…man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”  Only God can see our heart.  All others are looking on the outside of us.  The book of James gives us an example of how the world examines us regarding our faith.  James speaks of works as being the outward evidence to those around us of the faith which we possess in our hearts.

As a physician, if you were to see me in the office for an exam, I would not be able to see your heart, but I would know how well it is beating simply by feeling your pulse.  That is one of the first things they teach you in a CPR course.  A pulse wave is produced each time the heart muscle contracts, so the pulse is outward evidence of an internal, invisible, beating heart.  It is an outward sign of what is taking place on the inside.

The spiritual relationship between faith and works is much like the physical relationship of the pulse to the heart.  Good works in the life of a Christian are outward evidence of living faith and have been ordained by God, as we read in Eph. 2:8-10: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Good works are the result of our faith.  They are the fruit of the new creation, not the root.  We are not saved through works; we are saved to works.  Faith works in us to produce works through us for God’s glory.

In the physical body, the pulse does not cause the heart to beat.  Which came first? The pulse or the heart beat? Which is dependent on the other? There can be no pulse outwardly if there is not first a living, beating heart on the inside.  Likewise, in the spiritual sense, works cannot produce faith, but living faith can, and should, produce good works, because God has ordained that we should walk in them.

How strong is your faith pulse today? We are told by Paul to examine ourselves (not each other).  Living faith on the inside should produce a good strong pulse externally that others can feel when they examine your faith.

Living faith will produce living works, not dead works.  Dead works are self-works, and they bring glory to self.  Living works are the result of God working in us and through us, and they will always bring glory to His name and not to ours.

Living works are also loving works, for they can only be done through God’s love (agape), as we learn in I Cor. 13.  Without love, our works lose their eternal value.  They do not point others to Christ because they only glorify the one who is performing them.

But most important of all, living works, produced by faith and performed through love, will not only glorify the name of Jesus and give evidence of our faith, but will also prepare us for bridehood.  The wedding garment of the bride of Christ will be fabricated from the pure, righteous, living works which she has unselfishly done by faith.  The nature of this fabric is revealed to us in Rev. 19:7-8: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness [righteous acts] of saints.”

That means that with each righteous act that we perform, each good work that we do, which God has ordained for us to do, we are faithfully weaving the pure linen fabric for our wedding dress to prepare ourselves for that day.  But the good works of living faith which we do, and the wedding garment which we are preparing, are not intended for our glory, for they are produced through the power of the resurrected life of Christ in us, for the purpose of bringing glory to His name and drawing others to him.

Praise the Lord for living faith and living works.