The Chicken or the Egg

James 2:18-26
18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
20Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
22You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
23and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
24You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Which came first; the chicken or the egg? These are the kinds of topics we used to discuss around my family dinner table when I was growing up. I know – not a very brainy group, eh? It was fun and apparently it was important because I remember those conversations fondly. Anyway, as I was reading our verses for today, that was the question that came to mind – which came first; the faith or the good works?

James is making sure you understand the answer here. Good works do not create faith, they simply prove that there is a working faith there. God gives the faith. God is the One who gave Abraham his faith. God is the One who moved Rahab to help His people. God created the faith and the people acted in a way that showed that their faith existed. James continues to stand upon the fact that if you claim to have faith but do not live like you have faith –then you don’t have faith. (See, I can write a convoluted sentence too!) Verse 24 creates a stumbling block for people because it sounds like our works save us. But that is not what James is claiming here. The faith came first and the works grow out of that faith. While it seems like a simple concept, it is not. How often have you struggled with your faith because you didn’t think you were good enough to belong to God? I have talked with many people throughout my life who said they would come to God after they got their lives cleaned up! That’s just never going to work. You’ll never work yourself into a good enough place for God. Works can never come first. There just isn’t enough good that you can do in the world to make up for the fact that you’re a sinner. It will never be enough. Only Jesus can provide the kind of justification that will make you righteous before a holy God. That’s what God did for Abraham, Rahab, and YOU.

By the way – if you are a “creationist”, meaning you believe in the Genesis 1 version of creation, the chicken came first! Just my opinion.

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