BECOMING THE HELPING HANDS OF JESUS
James 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds,and I will show you my faith by what I do.
Christian faith is more than belief as James adds in verse 19 when he says, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.” Faith is different than a belief. Faith is putting into action what we say we believe. This is why it is impossible to please God without faith. In order to become a Christian we have to ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins and to come into our heart. If we want God to help us, we have to pray. James tells us also in 4:2c that we have not because we ask not. God will always respect our free will and if we expect to receive anything from God we need to ask him. Our asking is an act of faith that sets God free to act in our life.
For many months now I have been reminding you that we are saved from hell and saved for heaven by having faith in the grace of Jesus’ atonement. We can never do any good works, be good enough or even desire salvation enough to be forgiven of our sins and reconciled with God,so we can go to be with him in heaven for all eternity. Salvation comes as a free gift from God through Jesus, and his sacrifice of himself on Calvary's cross. Some in the early church mistook this doctrine of salvation by grace as a sign that being a Christian they could sin all they wanted. In fact they even went to far as to say they if Jesus is glorified in forgiving us of our sins, then we should sin all the more so Jesus can be glorified even more. To this the apostle Paul said in Romans 6:1,2a, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!” This attitude mocked the great sacrifice of Jesus by trampling his blood under foot. We should live a righteous holy life and try not to sin.
In today's passage from James, he also points out a problem that some took the doctrine of grace and misused it by thinking of salvation was solely inward accountability. They saw the Christian faith as spiritual and had nothing to do with the life lived. James on the other had pointed out that while our Christian faith is spiritual in that we ask the Lord for forgiveness and relate to him spiritually, we also have a physical obligation as well. We need to take our Christian beliefs and put them into action in our everyday lives. By doing this people will see the value of our belief and trust in Jesus. Our witness will be acts of faith reaching out to be Jesus’ to those in need. This is why James is saying, “Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do.” So what he is saying is we do good things for others, not because we are trying to be saved, but because we are saved. Reaching out to others in the name of Jesus is a wonderful blessing to both those being bless and those who are doing the blessing.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:42, “And if anyone gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
The other day I was doing some digging at our sons house, and our granddaughter Lauren came walking out with a glass of water she had gotten for me. I told her about what Jesus said and she responded that maybe Jesus would let her win the coloring contest at Vacation Bible School that night. The next day I got the exciting news that she had won! Jesus is faithful to his word not only to little girls, but to all who seek to glorify him in what they do for others in his name. It is good to share scripture with people, but more often than not hands reached out in the name of Jesus and love has even greater impact on a person's heart.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, as we go through our day please help us to see ways that we can touch others for Jesus. We ask this in Jesus’ name.
