Intro
This started as a thoughts | thought
and got long enough to warrant putting right in the blog
Faith and works is a common point of conversation for Christians who like debating things, and I'm at the point in my life where I'm kind of over the debates and the simplistic thinking.... but this morning I saw this article and wanted to give it a read
Article
Article Link - 11 minute read
One of the best pieces from the article is:
James illuminates and clarifies our understanding of faith by bypassing questions about whether one has (or does not have) faith and focusing instead on whether a person’s faith is living or dead.
Reflection
This snippet isn't incredibly profound on its own, but in my experience it hits hard
I've been in many conversations about faith and works - and as I've written
about before in
a-new-perspective-on-being-god-s-child
Christians
today have a deep desire to put things into neat and simple boxes but this is
often a mistake.
And in the case of faith and works I think it's just as
prevalent for similar reasons I outlined in that post - a deep "need" to "fully
understand" a system we participate in.
However this usually comes lacking the accompanying nuance in understanding
"works" and "works of the law" and "work in order to be saved".
To be very clear
The Bible is in no way contradictory in its teaching about faith and works and salvation regardless of how wrong someone gets it... at the end of the day Jesus picks who he picks. This in no way excuses the elect from performing good works, but any good or bad "works" do nothing to change the reality of salvation - the works merely reveal the truth
I don't see tension in faith and works - James' statement "faith without works is dead" is so simple to me... Jesus changes my life every day, and every day I make decisions based on that reality. If I only talked about my faith, and never made a decision where I prioritized my faith over what I wanted - then do I really believe?
The answer is simple
Of course not.