Faith and Works

Luke 7:31-35 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, We played the flute for you, and you did not dance, we sang a dirge, and you did not weep. For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, He has a demon. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Look at Him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

 

Why start here? What is going on in this passage? What is it about this conversation that we can draw from in our discussion of faith and works? Jesus is rebuking the unbelieving Pharisees and lawyers who rejected both John and Jesus. Like the children sitting in the marketplace, the unbelieving Jews refuse to sympathize with either of them (did not dance, did not weep), condemning John for his exaggerated strictness, and Jesus for his supposed indulgences. What is Jesus' conclusion? In verse 35 Jesus says, ‘wisdom is justified by all her children.'

While most of us are familiar with this passage, if any of you are like me you have probably never paid much attention to verse 35. What did Jesus mean by wisdom is justified by all her children?  The Greek word used in this passage for justified is ‘dikaioo’. This word has a few meanings,

1. To render righteous or such he ought to be.
2. To show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered.
3. To declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be.

 

In the context of Luke 7, we see that Jesus is saying that wisdom is shown to be true by the fruit of what it produces. In other words, the unbelieving Jews were demonstrating that they were in fact unbelievers, rejecting anything that came from God no matter what it looked like. Likewise, those who believe in Jesus would be justified, or in this case proven to be true, by the fruit of what they do. 

Example: If I told you I could run a 4-minute mile you would be wise to not believe me. In order for me to justify that claim, I would have to demonstrate that I could in fact run a mile in 4 minutes. My words aren’t enough, there needs to be something that we can look at to justify or validate that claim.

I find it interesting that Jesus uses the personification of wisdom in this passage as that was extremely common in the Old Testament and its Wisdom Literature. This means Jesus isn't working from an unfamiliar framework, they would have understood the reference to wisdom. In The New Testament we find a book that is considered New Testament Wisdom Literature that touches on this same topic, the Epistle of James.

“The book of James looks a bit like the Old Testament book of Proverbs dressed up in New Testament clothes. Its consistent focus on practical action in the life of faith is reminiscent of the Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament, encouraging God’s people to act like God’s people.” - Chuck Swindoll

How does James fit with what Jesus is saying? How does Luke 7:35 connect with James 2?

Luke 7:35 “Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

James 2:21 “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God.”

Again, the context of James is important, James is wisdom literature, so what is James trying to teach us by saying Abraham was justified by his works? In order to understand this, we have to ask the question, what is the problem that James is trying to solve?

James 2:14-17 “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

This is pretty strong stuff. James is rebuking Christians whose claim to Christianity is simply lip service. Comparing it to telling a hungry man to be full without actually giving him food that he needs. The words themselves are pointless unless there is something working with it to validate the words. James isn’t done though! 

James 2:18-26 “But someone will say, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

James uses that same Greek word Jesus used in Luke 7 to say that Abraham was justified by works. So either James is teaching that Abraham was declared right with God by his works, or that Abraham was vindicated by his works. It gets even stronger when James says that a person is justified by works and NOT by faith alone.

Before we get ahead of ourselves and declare that the protestant position of justification by faith alone is incorrect we need to first understand what question James is trying to answer. Verse 14 we see James ask the question, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone SAYS he has faith but does not have works, can THAT faith save him?”

James is addressing believers who merely claim a profession of faith, but have never demonstrated any fruit of that faith. Like Jesus saying wisdom is justified by her children, James is saying that a persons faith is justified, or vindicated, by their works. In other words, if someone claims to be a christian but they do not produce the fruit of the spirit, you don’t have to take their word for it.

If we misunderstand this we will assume that somehow Paul and James are at odds with each other. Paul repeatedly claims that we are saved by faith APART from our works. These two New Testament writers are not contradicting each other or trying to correct each other. They are answering two totally different questions. 

Romans 3:23-24 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”

Paul is addressing the question of how can an unrighteous sinner stand in the presence of a holy and righteous God?  Paul’s concern with justification is before God, that’s why he says in Romans 3:28 “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

Paul is addressing how one is right in the eyes of God while James is addressing what true faith looks like. If I claim right now to have saving faith, you standing next to me would not be able to validate that or not. My works that follow will either vindicate my claims or will expose me as an unbeliever. You can’t read my heart, that is why the Bible says in Matthew 7:20 “Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” It’s the only way we can tell if someone is a true believer or not. 

However, ask yourself this question. How long does God have to wait to know if my profession of faith is genuine? Can God read my heart? Of course! That’s why the basis of our salvation is by grace through faith! 

This is why Paul can say in Ephesians 2:8-10 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

God’s grace declares me righteous through my faith, just like God declared Abraham righteous in Genesis 15 by his faith. My works demonstrate to those around me that my profession of faith is legitimate, just like Abraham offering his son Isaac on the altar in Genesis 22. Abraham was already Justified before God by his faith, he was vindicated through his works. 

"Realizing that James is wisdom literature and moral instruction helps us to avoid two widespread misunderstandings of James. One is that James is a legalistic book. Martin Luther (1483-1546) called it "an epistle of straw," meaning it had little value because he could not find the gospel there. Luther and many after him misunderstood the teaching of James on faith and works. The misunderstanding stems from reading James as legal literature instead of moral instruction. When the book is read properly, it is clear that James does not believe in works righteousness but, like Paul, teaches that Christians are saved by an active faith." - Gary Holloway

Salvation is more than a verbal profession, it is the life-changing power of the Spirit of God transforming an individual. This transformation leads to a lifestyle of good works, not to gain salvation, but to validate it.