The Gospel Project® for Adults
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone claims to have faith but does not have works?
Can such faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothes
and lacks daily food
16 and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,”
but you don’t give them what the body needs,
what good is it?
17 In the same way
faith, if it does not have works, is dead
by itself.
18 But someone will say,
“You have faith, and I have works.”
Show me your faith without works,
and I will show you faith by my works.
19 You believe that God is one. Good!
Even the demons believe—and they shudder.
20 Senseless person! Are you willing to learn
that faith without works is useless?
21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering
Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith was active together with his works,
and by works, faith was made complete,
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says,
Abraham believed God,
and it was credited to him as righteousness,
and he was called God’s friend.
24 You see that a person is justified by works
and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way,
wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified
by works in receiving the messengers
and sending them out by a different route?
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead,
so also faith without works is dead.
Verses 14-19 (the bold words fill in blanks in the DDG):
Saving faith is displayed through active obedience
and works done for the Lord.
Verses 20-26 (the bold words fill in blanks in the DDG):
Those who have proven faithful in the past
were those who trusted in the person
and work of God
and acted in response to that trust.
Our faith in Christ is critical for our eternal salvation,
and so it is for the salvation of those around us.
May our faith-fueled actions and words help point people
to Jesus so they too can believe and be saved.
Justification is not the result of human effort
or good works but through faith
in the righteousness of Christ.
Although good works do not lead to justification,
justification leads to good works
(Eph. 2:10).
While good works do not establish justification,
they do verify a genuine faith
and make our justification evident to others.
Because God has provided salvation from sin
through our faith in Christ,
we seek to live out that faith,
showing the watching world the difference the gospel makes.
It is possible for scholars, pastors, and leaders
who know the Bible better than most to be unsaved.
It is not knowledge alone about the God of the Bible that saves.
It is the faith of trusting in the Bible’s gospel
—the truth about the sufficient work of Christ
—that provides eternal rescue.
A mental acknowledgment of history and biblical narrative
is not enough,
as beneficial as these may be.
Facts without faith are worthless when it comes to salvation.
Though our faith-based salvation and grace-given righteous positions
before God are secure,
it is easy to fall into the trap
of simply filling our heads with facts about God
instead of relating to God.
Listening to a sermon and completing a Bible study
mean nothing if they don’t lead us
toward a deeper intimacy with God.
Knowing God better is a crucial part of our spiritual growth,
but maturity in Christ is proven in our responses
to what we encounter on the pages of Scripture.
Though faith in Christ as Savior
can be simple, Christianity is not simply
about faith. A saving faith
will lead to observable actions
that can only be explained
by the internal, spiritual transformation
that occurred at the moment of our salvation.
Justification always leads to sanctification.
The obedient working out of our faith
is the outward evidence of an inward reality.
Faith-filled works are the worship-filled response
to all God has done for us in Christ,
and these are part of what God uses
to draw others into a relationship with Him.
“Faith gives us peace with God, not the law.
For it reconciles us to God
by taking away those sins which had made us God’s enemies.
And because the Lord Jesus is the minister of this grace,
it is through him that we have peace with God.
Faith is greater than the law
because the law is our work,
whereas faith belongs to God.” 2
– Ambrosiaster (c. 4th century)
1. Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody, 2009), 96.
2. Ambrosiaster, Commentary on Paul’s Epistles, quoted in Gerald Bray, ed., Romans (Revised), Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 122-23.
3. Thomas D. Lea, Hebrews, James, vol. 10, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 201.
4. Douglas J. Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 16, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 118-19.