IS THERE A FAITH IN GOD THAT DOES NOT SAVE ONE FROM HELL?

For me one of the most important and most frightening truths in all of the Scripture, is that there is a faith in God, there is a faith in Christ, there is a belief of Scripture, there is a belief of the gospel that does not save from hell.

It is possible to believe in God, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to even believe that what Christ did He actually did, to affirm the cross and the resurrection and never be delivered from sin and never be given eternal life. That is what James would call “dead faith.” He mentions it in verse 17, “Faith if it has not works is dead.”

He mentions it again in verse 20, “Faith without works is dead.” And he mentions it a third time in verse 26, “Faith without works is dead.” And in verse 26 he identifies it like it were a corpse without life, a corpse lying in a casket all dressed up, all made up, looking very life like but with no internal life principle, no breath, no movement, nothing but a mannequin with a painted smile.

Now James is very exercised in his spirit that no one under his care would escape the understanding of this great truth. As any faithful preacher would want to warn people about the reality of non-saving faith, so James has that desire as well. He has already brought it up back in chapter 1:22 “Be ye doers of the Word,” that means whatever has happened in your life produces obedience to Scripture, “and not just hearers deceiving your own selves.”

In other words, don’t be under the illusion that because you hear truth and your mind affirms truth that that is enough. What is enough is when you begin to produce truth in your living, those are the works that he has in mind here in chapter 2.

Faith, says James, without a corresponding change of life, without a transformation, without a product has no evidence and therefore is not real. The point then that he’s making is very clear. Non-saving dead lifeless faith is known by the absence of righteous deeds.

Faith is invisible. You can tell me you have faith but I can’t see that faith unless you show me that faith. And you can’t show me that faith unless you show it to me in a transformed life. It is not enough to say you have faith, that proves nothing. That’s merely an affirmation which may or may not be true. Faith in a sense is like the wind, you can’t see it, you only see its effects. It’s like electricity, you can’t see it but you can feel and enjoy and appreciate its effects. It’s like radio waves, you can’t see them, they’re invisible but you can appreciate their effect.

Faith is not known to be real until it is evident in action, deeds, in doing. As chapter 1 verse 22 put it, or in works as we see here in chapter 2. Faith in James’ mind, you must understand this, is a statement equal or a word equal to spiritual life. When he says “faith without works is dead,” what he really means to say, if we can clarify it that way, is spiritual life without works is dead.

There’s no real life there at all. Unless you show me a transformed life, there is no way that your faith can be verified to me or in fact to you.

Christ and all the New Testament writers are very concerned about people who may be self-deceived as to their faith. And that ought to be a major preoccupation of every preacher today because churches are literally filled with people who are under the delusion that they have saving faith and are looking forward to heaven when the fact is there has never been a transformed life and therefore there’s never been a justifying change in their inner most being.

In Ephesians 2: it says, “For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” And there the indication of Scripture is you’re saved by grace through faith not of works. But then he says in verse 10, “God has created you unto good works which God has before ordained that you should walk in them.” Saved by grace through faith unto good works.

The absence of good works is an indicator of the absence of real saving faith.

Finally in verse 19 James says, “You believe in God, do you? You do well. The demons also believe and shudder.”

According to Matthew 8 the demons are orthodox? One of the demons said to Jesus, “Why are You here to torment us before the time?” Obviously the demons have a very established orthodox eschatology.They also have an orthodox Christology. Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?

They understand the church. They understand the work of the Spirit. They understand the trinity, they know the truth and they believe the truth but they shudder. They don’t love the truth, they don’t love righteousness, they don’t love God, they don’t love purity and love holiness, they love everything rotten, everything evil. So demon faith is orthodox, it just doesn’t save.

And what he’s saying is, at best just being orthodox is no better than demon faith. And demon faith is damning faith and in verse 20, he repeats, “Will you know then, Oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead.” This is a dead demon faith. No spiritual life whatsoever!