Works Make Faith Alive!

Recently, I preached on James 2:14-26.

The passage contains one of the Reformation’s most famous texts: Faith without works is dead. Martin Luther depended strongly on this verse as a response to Rome’s salvation-comes-by-works theology. His heart was to say faith alone is all God requires for salvation.

500 years later, the same idea remains: we do not achieve salvation by our works. Jesus’ work on the cross accomplished what we could not on our own. So what is the place for our works?

As I prepared my message, I resonated in a fresh way with this text. I reflected on it as an artist, as a worker. I know James’ concept of works was not exactly art-making. And yet, I wondered how art-making might shed some light on this.

I wondered what would happen with a simple rewording. Instead of “faith without works is dead” (which sounds kind of negative to me), what if we made it sound more proactive? “Works make faith alive!” Something about this rewording gets me moving. This rewording helps me understand God’s heart and the heart of what His word says in a fresh way.

In light of the “works make faith alive” idea, how is all our life’s work impacted?

As we serve our families, friends, and neighbors, God's life permeates our imperfect efforts. With each moment of our day, we can choose to believe we are children of God and stewards of that which he has given us. What if we operated with that M.O. every 5-minutes? What if your next decision were guided by that in both your belief and imagination?

God has already created us as makers. We make moments. We make stuff. At the end of the day, we look back on our day’s creation(s). We look and we see our words and actions have constructed a manifestation of our values, beliefs, and worldviews. Whatever story we believe about who we are found itself in that day’s efforts.