Faith Leads to Works (James 2:14-26)

(Because of the nature of this lesson, I have woven the NT teachings on this passage with the narrative in Genesis. I have NOT separated the NT teachings from the OT story.)

At the beginning of our study of Abraham we saw that God created a new system by which people come into a righteous relationship with Him. Normally we think that in order for a person to be righteous, he must do righteous works. The only problem is that we are never going to be able to do enough righteous works in order for us to be declared truly righteous. God could have tweaked this system and said: "OK, if 30% of your works are righteous, I will consider you righteous," or "If 15% of your works are righteous, I will declare you righteous." God doesn't do that though. Instead of tweaking this system, God scraps it entirely. Instead of basing your righteousness upon your works, He bases it upon faith. According to Gen. 15:6 God reckoned Abraham's faith to him as righteousness. In other words, God as the Ultimate Banker ascribed the value of righteousness to Abraham's faith.

Unfortunately, some misguided Christians (especially Baptists) have misunderstood what God has done here. Because God has declared our faith to be the basis of righteousness and not our works, some Christians claim that our works don't matter. THEY DO. In fact our works demonstrate to us whether or not we truly have biblical faith. Genuine biblical faith changes a person's life. The person who claims he believes in Jesus and yet has not been transformed has NOT exercised biblical faith. According to James the classic example of this is the demonic realm. The demons believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that God exists and that Jesus is His Son; yet no other created group has rebelled against God like the demonic realm has. Faith that does not positively change a person's life is not saving faith (James 2:14, 17, 19).

Faith operates like this. I tell Nathan and Molly not to drive 100 mph. over a cliff because it is dangerous. They tell me that they believe me. Then they go out and drive 100 mph. over a cliff. Did they truly believe me? No. True faith leads to action. If I truly believe God, then I am going to do what God tells me to do. Well, the episode before us demonstrates for us conclusively that Abraham really did warrant the title Paul gave him, "Abraham the believer" (James 2:21-23). This episode more than any other in the Bible demonstrates that true faith leads to righteous deeds.

At this point many extremely conscientious believers panic. They wonder if they have performed enough good works. That's not the point. The question I need to ask is "Am I being transformed," not "Am I doing enough good works?" Am I better than I was BEFORE I became a Christian, or has there basically been no change in me?" Those are the questions I need to ask and not whether or not I am doing enough good works.

The Significance of Isaac

To understand the significance of this episode, you need to appreciate how important Isaac was to Abraham. Although Ishmael was Abraham's first-born son, Ishmael was nevertheless the product of a convenient set-up Sarah had made to produce a son. Isaac, on the other hand, was the product of the love relationship between Abraham and Sarah. For all practical purposes Isaac was Abraham's only son (Gen. 22:2), both legally AND emotionally.

Those of us who are parents can understand the love Abraham would have for his son. You cannot explain the love of a parent for a child; you can only experience it and appreciate the way Abraham felt for Isaac. Abraham loved his son as much as we love our children, and since Isaac was the son of Abraham's old age and the son after so long a wait, Abraham probably even loved and valued Isaac more than most parents love and value their children. God is about to ask Abraham to make for a sacrifice which for many would be the ultimate sacrifice, the sacrifice of one's own child.

More though is involved here than simply the love of a parent for a child. Isaac embodies the very reason that Abraham had followed God in the first place. Abraham had left home and kin to follow God--on the basis of the promise that Abraham would be the father of a great nation which implied he would be the father of at least one son. Twenty-five years elapsed before God fulfilled His promise to Abraham through the birth of Isaac. The promise though has been fulfilled, and Isaac is the fulfillment of that promise. Abraham's relationship with God revolves around this boy. The death of this boy would be more than just the death of a son; it would force a crisis upon the promise God had made with Abraham and upon their relationship.

THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC

The Command to Sacrifice Isaac

We do not know how old Isaac was when God appeared to Abraham this last time. Some posit that Isaac was just a lad of maybe 8, while others feel that he could have been as old as 35. However old Isaac is, he is old enough to be a conscious, active player in what is about to happen.

By this time Abraham is well over 100 years old, anywhere from 108-135 years old (depending upon Isaac's age). He is definitely living in the twilight years of his life, when everything should be drifting towards tranquility and serenity. He has earned the rest that has come his way. Like a streak of lightning on a cloudless day though, God appears to Abraham and instructs him to kill his son (Gen. 22:2).

Look at how God describes Isaac in order to understand how much Abraham loves Isaac: "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love." God is asking for the death of the great love of Abraham's life, Isaac.

The instruction though gets worse. Isaac is to die specifically by Abraham, his own father, killing him (Gen. 22:2). It is one thing for a disease to ravage your child's body and kill him. It is one thing for your child to be killed in a freak accident over which you had absolutely no control. It is quite a different matter though for you to be the author of your child's death. God is coming across as a monster.

It is at this time that all our rationalizing will kick into high gear. "Did God really tell me to do that?" "Surely I misunderstood Him!" "Maybe I need to test God and tell Him that if it rains tomorrow, then I will know He said this but if it does not rain, then He did not say this." "A loving God would never require the death of my son at my own hands." If we don't know that God will ask for hard things at times, then we don't know the God of the Bible. The only God we worship is the One we've made up in our own imagination. If He will sacrifice His own Son on the tree, then what makes you think He won't ask us to give up our own children? God may not have us slay our children physically, but He may indeed ask us to give them up to Him in other ways. (The same applies to everything and everybody else in our lives.)

Over 25 years ago I read C. S. Lewis' book A Grief Observed in which he described the feelings he went through whenever his wife Joy Davidman passed away. I did not understand though the depths of his feelings until I saw the movie Shadowlands. C.S. Lewis had remained single until his 50's because of a commitment he had made to his best friend before WW1 started. His friend had made Lewis promise to take care of his mother if anything happened to him in the war. His friend was killed in the war, and so Lewis lived up to his promise by taking care of his friend's mom. He knew that he could not marry until after the mother died. She lived a long time. Finally, when he was in his 50's and after the mother had died, Lewis met Joy Davidman. It was a meeting not only of the heart but also of the mind. After Lewis fell in love with Joy and married her, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not too long thereafter Joy passed away. Lewis' heart told him that God had been playing a joke upon him all along. In fact at one point in A Grief Observed he calls God "the cosmic Sadist." That is rough, and yet when horrible things like this happen, one can understand Lewis' feelings. Abraham most likely shared the same kind of feelings with Lewis. Yet both men believed that in spite of what circumstances were dictating, God was not a monster or a sadist; they believed that He was good.

Abraham's Belief in God

So Abraham rises the next morning to start the journey to Moriah (the mountain ridge on which the old city of Jerusalem now sits). He chops the wood for the sacrifice and heads out with Isaac and 2 servants. The journey requires 3 days of travel. Every look at Isaac along the way must have stabbed Abraham's heart.

The most poignant event occurs as Isaac and Abraham arrive at Mount Moriah. When Abraham and the party arrive at Mt. Moriah, he instructs the young men to remain behind with the pack animals while he and Isaac go on up ahead (22:5). Now there is a clue in verse 5 to what Abraham believes is about to happen. According to verse 5 Abraham claims that not only will he and Isaac go on up ahead but that "WE (Abraham and Isaac) will return."

Note Abraham's faith here. God has told him NOTHING about the outcome of the sacrifice. He believes that he and Isaac are going up that mountain, that he is going to sacrifice Isaac, and that he and Isaac are going back down that mountain. He believes that after he kills Isaac, God is going to raise Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:19). This is an incredible act of faith. Remember Abraham has access to only 21 chapters of what God has been doing in the Bible and there is nothing in those 21 chapters which would indicate that God was going to do this--with the single exception of what God did to Abraham's body to produce Isaac. We can raise our eyebrows over the way Abraham gave Sarah away to Pharaoh and to Abimelech; however, in this one act Abraham's faith is attaining to a height that few of us will ever attain to or even be asked to attain to.

What led Abraham to believe that God was going to raise Isaac from the dead? God had earlier promised Abraham that one day his seed Jesus would be a blessing to all mankind and that Jesus would come from none other than Isaac, not Ishmael but Isaac. Now God tells Abraham to kill Isaac. You have 2 seemingly contradictory statements: "Isaac must live to be the father of Christ" and "Kill Isaac." Abraham refused to believe that God was going to renege on His promise. He believed that God was going to keep his promise. The only way he could reconcile these 2 contradictory statements was to believe that God was going to raise Isaac from the dead. That is truly extraordinary faith, unparalleled throughout the entire OT.

Was there any basis for such a belief? Earlier we talked about the miracle of resurrection God had performed in Abraham's body. Maybe Abraham thought that since God had performed a miracle of resurrection in his dead body, then God was going to perform another miracle of resurrection in Isaac's dead body.

Moreover, observe that the command to slay Isaac comes at least 38 years AFTER Abraham had started following God, not at the beginning of their relationship. During those 38+ years look at how good and faithful God had been to Abraham. When Abraham gave up Sarah to Pharaoh, how did God respond? God blessed Abraham and punished Pharaoh! When Abraham gave Lot first choice of the land, how did God respond to Abraham? God reiterated the promise to Abraham. Regardless of what Lot took, God was going to give the land to Abraham. When Abraham went to save Lot from his enemies, God gave Abraham the victory When Abraham gave Sarah to Abimelech, how did God respond? He protected Sarah and Abraham, and told Abimelech that He was going to kill him if he touched Sarah. When Abraham was past the age of siring children, what did God do to Abraham's and Sarah's bodies? He touched their dead bodies so that they might produce life.

The crisis is this: for 38 years God has been good to Abraham, exceedingly good to Abraham. Now all of a sudden God is a monster. Which view of God is true? All these years of God being good and faithful most likely gave Abraham the hope that though God would slay his son, God would also raise his son. Abraham's hope was not based upon wishful thinking; it was based upon God's faithfulness and goodness to Abraham in the past. In the same way God's goodness and faithfulness to us in the past should give us the calm assurance of His faithfulness in the future.

As if matters were not bad enough, Isaac asks his dad about the animal needed for the sacrifice. Isaac sees the things needed for the sacrifice, but he doesn't see the animal needed for the sacrifice. Abraham just doesn't have the heart to tell his son that HE is the sacrifice. (If you think that living the Christian life always produces happiness, then this story informs you that you are seriously mistaken. Sometimes the Christian life can be crushingly hard. The ultimate result of living the Christian life is NOT crushingly hard; however, in the mean time it can be extremely tough. If we don't realize that, then we will be severely disappointed in life.) Abraham sidesteps the answer by saying that God will provide the sacrifice. Little did Abraham know that he was speaking more of the truth than he realized (22:7-8).

God "Sees" Abraham's Faith

When Abraham and Isaac reach the summit of Moriah, they prepare the altar for sacrifice. After the altar has been prepared, Abraham next takes Isaac and binds his hands behind his back and places him on the altar (22:9). He raises the knife and is about to slit Isaac's throat when God stops him from slaying Isaac. Although we know that God stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, the question remains, "Would Abraham have slain Isaac if God had not stopped him?" For all practical purposes Isaac is a dead man as far as Abraham is concerned. In fact it is important to note at what point God actually stopped Abraham from slaying Isaac. God stops Abraham only AFTER He sees that Abraham is going to go through with this (22:10-11): "for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only begotten son from Me" (22:12).

This was the point of the whole exercise. What was more important to Abraham--Isaac or God? The blessing or the God who gave Abraham the blessing? It's the same issue we have to deal with today. Most of us can attest to the fact that God has blessed us tremendously--our spouse, our children, our jobs, our homes, our wealth, our church, our relationships, our freedom, our nation, our health, etc. What happens though whenever God wants us to give these things up? Are we going to cling to the blessings God has given us, or are we going to cling to the God who blessed us in the first place?

Abraham has passed the supreme test of faith. He looks up and sees a ram caught in the thicket nearby (22:17). He joyfully releases Isaac and prepares the ram for the sacrifice instead.

Because of what happened on Moriah, Abraham names the place Jehovah-Jireh, which means what? "The Lord will see (22:14)." It is at this point that the King James Version does a better job of translating than our modern versions do. The KJV translates it "The Lord Will See." In other words, in each of our lives will come a day in which the Lord will see whether or not our faith is genuine. It may come in different forms for each of us--through the loss of loved ones, health, wealth, fame, reputation, etc., but it will come. On that day the Lord will see whether or not we have faith like Abraham or if we've been playing the game of religion all along.

The scene now goes from high stress to great joy. After God "sees" that Abraham's faith is genuine, He reiterates the promise He had made earlier to him: "By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed My voice."(22:16-18). Abraham returns home and for the remainder of his life lives out a life of peace and serenity.

Whatever else this passage teaches, it teaches the need to finish well. Many of us have started well in our journey with Jesus. Whereas the beginning is important, the ending is even more important. Susan Middleton tells us the story of her and Christine Bristow working in VBS. Susan was younger than 60 years old, while Christine was at least in her 80's. Susan was headed for the 4th floor, grumbling in her spirit about working during VBS. Her children had already "graduated" from VBS. So why was SHE having to work in VBS. As she went up the stairs, she passed Christine who was huffing and puffing on her way up to the 4th floor. When Susan expressed her surprise at Christine working in VBS--at her age!, Christine replied: "I think that the Lord will forgive you if you start out late in your journey with Him; I don't think though that He will forgive you if you retire early." Well, neither Abraham nor Christine retired earlier in their journey with Jesus--and neither should we.

I just hope that one day I am going to be like Thelma Caskey. She was in her 90's, in the hospital, strapped to all these IV's and heart monitors, and dying. She summoned me to her hospital bed and gave me instructions on what I needed to do to insure the success of her SS class! There is no quitting.