The faith that works produces acts of confident trust in God and God's promises...

This week, we have been looking at a section of a letter that was written by the half brother of Jesus and is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of James. So far this week, we have seen James reveal for us the reality that faith without fruit is a dead faith that cannot save. To say that we trust in Jesus but do not live a life that produces attitudes and actions that look like Jesus may mean that we have not really been rescued by Jesus. If the fruit, or what is produced in our lives, looks nothing like Jesus, then a natural question that must be asked is “Do we really know Jesus and have a relationship with Jesus?”

We then saw James explain that a person’s faith in God cannot be demonstrated apart from works. A persons trust in God is revealed by their attitudes and actions. What we talk about, what we think about, how we handle our time and our treasure, and where we run to in times of trouble reveals what we truly trust in. We then saw James begin to unpack this reality with three different examples. First, James uses demons because, just like demons, having all the facts is not enough to have the faith that works and that rescues us from our selfishness and rebellion. The difference between dead faith and the faith that works and that rescues us from our selfishness and rebellion is not having the facts; it is what we do with the facts.

James then pointed followers of Jesus back to a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Genesis and the example of a man named Abraham. We discovered that God tested Abraham to prove his faith in God and His promise to him. The only way that Abraham could prove his faith, however, was to trust. Abraham had to act on his faith and trust that God would keep His promises.

Today, we see this concept of the interconnection between trust and faith in the third example that James provides beginning in James 2:25;

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

James points the readers of his letter, and followers of Jesus throughout history to the life of a woman named Rahab that is recorded for us in a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Joshua. Now, in the letters that make up the Bible, there cannot be two more different people than Abraham and Rahab. Abraham was a man while Rahab was a woman. Abraham was religious, Rahab was irreligious. Abraham was respected as the father of the Jewish faith, Rahab was a prostitute.

In Joshua 2, Joshua sent two spies on a reconnaissance mission to the city of Jericho. However, as the spies went in to the Promised Land before crossing the Jordan, they are discovered. Rahab, this irreligious prostitute, then stepped into God's story to hide the prostitutes in the roof so that they are not caught. We see the story continue in Joshua 2:8-13;

Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, "I  know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. "For we  have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. "When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. "Now therefore,  please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's household, and give me a pledge of truth, and spare my  father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death."

A little further, we pick up the story in verse 17-19:

The men said to her, "We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us     swear, unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your  father and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household. "It shall come about that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be free; but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him.

By referring to Rahab, James is revealing for us the reality that what rescued Rahab was not having the facts. The faith that worked and that rescued Rahab was acting on those facts by helping the spies escape Jericho and by placing the scarlet cord out her window. I mean, imagine yourself as Rehab. Rahab was placing her life and the life of her family in the hands of two strangers who said that they follow the God that she has just recognized as the living true God. Rahab had to place her faith into action by trusting in the promise made by these two spies who represented God.

James point here is that the difference between dead faith and the faith that works and that rescues from our selfishness and rebellion is that the faith that works is validated and demonstrated by the fruit it produces. And that fruit is only produced when we act on that faith by trusting God and the promises of God. And it is this thought that is shared both by James and by the Apostle Paul.

Both Paul and James reveal for us the reality that the faith that works and that rescues from our selfishness and rebellion has proof and produces fruit. The faith that works produces actions or works of trust that are fruit and proof of a living faith. We see this laid out for us in James 2:26:

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

After sitting at the edge of the pool for about 15 minutes, Rachel decided to trust and act on the facts by jumping into my waiting arms. And for the next 30 minutes Rachel and Kaylee jumped in and out of the pool in a joyful glee that one can only understand if they have experienced the result of being in that type of a living and trusting relationship.

And it is here, in this section of this letter, that we see James reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to the faith that works. And that timeless truth is this: The faith that works produces acts of confident trust in God and God's promises. Just as it was for followers of Jesus in James day; just as it has been for followers of Jesus throughout history, the faith that works produces acts of confident trust in God and God's promises.

The timeless reality is that the faith that works involves more than having the facts; it involves more than an intellectual agreement with the facts; the faith that works involves trusting Jesus by jumping in to a life that is centered around following Jesus. I find it interesting that Jesus did not call His disciples to receive the gift of salvation. Instead, Jesus called His disciples and calls us today to leave lives of self reliance and self trust behind to follow and trust Him. And the faith that works produces acts of trust in God and God's promises that are the proof and fruit of a genuine and growing faith.

So here is a question to consider: What does the fruit, or what is being produced by your life reveal about your level of your faith in Jesus? Does your day to day life produce acts of confident trust that strive to follow the message and teachings of Jesus? Do you trust Jesus enough to do the right thing, even if it is not the easy or the popular thing to do? Do the attitudes and actions of your day to day live demonstrate and validate a confident trust in Jesus?

Or do you trust Jesus with the “big” areas of your life; but you still want to hold on to other areas in your life. What does what you talk about, think about, how you handle your time and your treasure, and where you run to in times of trouble reveals what you truly trust in?

Because the timeless reality is that the faith that works produces acts of confident trust in God and God's promises...