Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 269

September 26;     James 2:14;      219/260(IV);      ‘Faith and Works’

James 2:14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

Faith is active, it does something.  Verses 15-16 are a natural example.  If you see someone destitute and have the means to help them and simply say be well, it does not help them at all.  Taking this to a spiritual level.  A couple of examples would be, first in your finances.  The Bible teaches the law of sowing and reaping.  When you sow something, you reap back the same as you sowed, but you reap back more.  Luke tells us that when we sow we reap ‘good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.’ You may know the law of sowing and reaping and by faith you may believe it, but if you do not sow anything you will never reap anything.  Faith is believing the law of sowing and reaping, the works is actually sowing so that you can reap.  Another example would be healing.  The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ bore our sicknesses as well as our sins on the cross.  We have a legal right to walk in health.  If you are not feeling well and believe by faith Jesus is your Healer, then you should do something to show that you believe.  If you are lying in bed, faith believes you are healed, the works would be to get up and begin to do something,  When you say that you believe what the Bible says, but never do what the Bible says, it is called mental assent.  Mental assent will never activate the faith that is in your spirit by doing something that corresponds to what you believe.  God gave us faith to receive the blessings that are legally ours because of what Jesus did.  Your works done in faith will produce the answer.