Living by Faith

James 2:14 NIV

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

How Does Your Faith Look?

One year when our oldest son was just eight, we went camping up in Sequoia National Park.  At the south end of the park the middle fork of the Kaweah River squirms along and near the Buckeye Flats Campground it gathers into a large pool and then works its way down out of the hills.  Our family spent a day swimming there and found two aspects to this pool exiting and fun.  One was the way the river spilled over a giant granite boulder as it poured down into the pool below.  The water had created a smooth groove in the rock that resulted in a sort of water slide that made for an exhilarating ride.  It only took a couple seconds from the top of the rock down into the icy water below but it was hilarious fun.  At the foot of the boulder the water was probably six feet deep so as you dropped into it after your slippery ride down the rock you landed with a great splash into the snow fed water.  Holding in my lap our second son who was only six, we went down together and as we each bobbed up to the surface we both burst out into laughter.  Our oldest son went down the slide too and we all found it a thrilling adventure.  As we sat in the sun together at the edge of the pool getting warm, we watched as a boy a little older than our son along with his dad climbed up a steep path that went up a cliff on the other side of the pool.  They made it to a rock outcropping that was about thirty feet above the pool of water and jumped from it and splashed into the river.  Our jaws dropped at the unexpected sight of them plunging down into the water but they came up safely and made their way back up to the outcropping and dived into the pool again.  Our oldest son was intrigued by this and after the father and boy assured us of how safe the jump was, he decided after I gave my approval to make the same dive.  He asked me to go with him and jump from the cliff but I shook my head “no”.  I had plenty of faith in my son to make the jump but I wasn’t so sure of myself doing it.  Faith is funny that way.  We all pick and choose what sort of faith we will have and when we will practice it.

If you were asked about the kind of faith you have, how would you answer? How does your faith look?  What sorts of actions define your faith?  Is your faith noticeable to others or is it quieter, almost silent?  Do you think there is a universal quality to faith or is it more individual…something each of us decides is faith?  How would it go if you were forced to prove your faith through eyewitnesses?  Who would testify to your faith and what would your witnesses say about it?  We often hear of authors and speakers building a case for faith, for having faith but rarely do we come across those who give evidence for that they themselves have faith.  Faith for most is too personal to talk about, let alone put on display.  And yet doesn’t the Bible tell us to exhibit our faith, show that we have it?

Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount seems to command us to make our faith public.  "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Mathew 5:14-16 NIV)  Although “faith” is not the word Jesus uses here, it certainly is the fundamental point being made.  Don’t just keep your faith to yourself, let your actions proclaim the sort of faith you have.  The expectation of Jesus is that what you believe about God will show up in what you do.  The book of James insists that faith is an activity and not just a way of thinking about things.  What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17 NIV)

Miracles in the Bible almost always were connected to a requirement for action.  Something had to be done by those who were the recipients of God’s supernatural help.  Naaman, the Aramean general was told to dip in the Jordan seven times before the Lord would heal him of his leprosy.  The Israelites, as they began their conquest of the Promised Land had to step into the Jordan River before the Lord would make it part and they could go through it on dry ground.  Before that, in order to leave Egypt, the entire Hebrew nation had to step between the great walls of water piled up on each side of them and trust God not to drown them in the Red Sea.  The crippled man who sat beside the pool of Bethesda day after day for nearly three decades hoping God might heal him unexpectedly was healed but not in the way he could have expected.  Jesus came upon him and told the man to pick up his mat and walk before He would do anything for him.  When he did, the crippled man was healed.  The woman who suffered from bleeding first reached out and touched Jesus’ clothing; then she was healed.  Lazarus’s sisters had to order the stone in front of the tomb to be moved away before Lazarus stepped out alive.  The people of Israel were given by God specific instructions about marching around Jericho before He would make the walls miraculously collapse.

One of the few times Jesus celebrated someone’s faith was when a Roman centurion told Jesus He did not need to go all the way to his house to heal his servant.  His trust in God generated an action, sending a servant to Christ and telling Him that his servant did not need Jesus’ touch, just the promise of the Lord to save him was enough.  When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." (Luke 7:9 NIV)  It took steely resolve for the centurion to believe that Jesus did not have to go all the way to his house to miraculously heal his servant.  Jesus called that “great faith”; not the message pleading for Him to help but the action of not needing Him to actually touch the servant who was dying.

I saw that a priest of one of the churches bombed by Muslim assassins in Sri Lanka called for the people of his congregation to pray for and forgive those who planned and organized the atrocity.  That is how faith looks.  It has a face; the face of someone who does what Jesus says to do even though it is painfully hard.  A friend asks for prayer that he would get a job.  When he gets that job and begins to take ten percent of his income and return it to the Lord, that is faith.  When a mom who has cancer is healed, what she does with her Sundays will tell us about her faith.  A man I met recently saw firsthand the love and kindness of a family that his mother worked for as a nanny.  These Christian people talked about the Gospel and practiced Christianity at home.  The boy himself became a Christian because of what he saw in this family.  That is faith.  A couple who heard about the terrible condition of orphans in Haiti became convinced the Lord wanted them to adopt one of the children there and although they already had two kids, they took what extra money they had and spent countless hours going back and forth to Haiti until they finally were able to bring one of the boys in an orphanage home to be their own.  That is faith.

We do not hope in a Savior who does nothing.  He took His life in His hands and offered it up on a Cross to die for our salvation.  He believed in the will of the Father and because of that faith He did whatever the Father told Him to do.  If you have faith in Christ, you will show you have faith in Christ by obeying Him.  What will you do today that shows your faith in Jesus?  Will you pray more for others than you have been doing?  Will you help someone who doesn’t deserve your help?  Will you bite your tongue and keep your criticism to yourself?  Will you go visit someone in the hospital and pray over that person?  Will you be more generous in your offerings, pass out Gospel tracts to your neighbors, make plans to go on a mission trip, say something encouraging to someone who has treated you badly?  What will you do today to show your faith in Christ as Savior and Lord?