The Fruit of Justification

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 116:5-9, 17-19
• Hymn — I Love the Lord (116A, stanzas 1–4)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Heidelberg Catechism — Lord's Day 34, Questions 92–95
• Hymn — The Day You Gave Us, Lord, Is Ended (#161)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — James 2:14-26
• Prayer before Sermon
• Sermon
• Prayer of Application
• Hymn — The God of Abraham Praise (#234)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Fruit of Justification

Scripture: James 2:14-26

I. The Falsehood of Faith Without Works

A. James opens with a pressing pastoral question in James 2:14: "Can that faith save him?" — aimed at the danger of antinomianism, not legalism

1. The Reformation rallying cry: justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Galatians 2:16)
2. The opposite danger — thinking that what we do after professing faith does not matter; "easy believism"

B. The illustration of James 2:15-17: a poorly clothed, hungry person dismissed with mere words

1. "Go in peace, be warmed and filled" — words with no cost, no action
2. Contrast with Jesus in Mark 5: Jesus stopped everything, loved the woman at her lowest, and his words carried the power to accomplish what he said
3. The imaginary person treats the poor as an inconvenient obstacle; pious-sounding words mask a loveless heart

C. Faith that produces no works is dead faith — false faith, no faith at all (James 2:17)

II. The Foolishness of Faith Apart from Works

A. An imaginary debater in James 2:18 proposes separating faith and works: one person has works, another has faith — it is all the same to God

1. James challenges: "Show me your faith apart from your works" — faith is invisible without works to demonstrate it

B. The surprising illustration of James 2:19: the demons

1. Demons believe God is one — they can articulate the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4
2. This knowledge produces at minimum a shuddering, trembling fear
3. The person who professes faith but shows no works falls short of even the doomed demons

C. True saving faith in Christ, by its very nature, includes works that follow from it

1. As C. L. Mitton writes: "It is a good thing to possess an accurate theology, but it is unsatisfactory unless that good theology also possesses us."
2. Faith and works are in vital union — one necessarily follows from the other

III. The Fruit of Faith That Justifies

A. James's central answer in James 2:24: "A person is justified by works and not by faith alone"

1. This is not a contradiction of Paul but a complementary angle on the same gospel
2. Paul (Romans 3:28, Galatians 2:16) emphasizes the root of justification — faith alone
3. James emphasizes the fruit of justification — works that necessarily flow from living faith

B. The trump card illustration: Abraham (James 2:21-23)

1. Genesis 15:6 — "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness"; he was already declared righteous by faith
2. Genesis 22 — Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac was the fruit and maturation of that prior faith, not the ground of it
3. Faith and works operated together (James 2:22): his works completed (matured) his faith, just as trials produce completeness (James 1:4)
4. The work of Genesis 22 demonstrated the fruit of the Genesis 15 faith — dead faith would have failed the test
5. Abraham manifested by his works the faith by which he was already justified

C. The same principle applies to Rahab (James 2:25) — her works evidenced her living faith

D. Paul and James are not opposed; Paul himself confirms in Ephesians 2:10: "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them"

1. When faith takes hold of Christ, Christ manifests his own life within his people
2. Martin Luther: "Oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith… it is impossible for it not to do good works incessantly"

E. Application: Take care that your faith is not dead faith, not merely Sunday faith

1. The faith alone that justifies works