On Faith and Works

The text for this past Sunday's message was taken from James 2:14-26. Few texts create as much "controversy" among Protestants as this one...primarily due to the emphasis upon works. What I sought to show in the message was that James is not arguing against salvation by faith alone, he is arguing against a faith that is lonely...or...to put it another way...the passage teaches that our salvation is found...

Not Faith AND Works - as if we could contribute something to our salvation,

Not Faith OR Works - as if the two are mutually exclusive,

But a Faith THAT Works - a faith that shows itself in serving and working for others as a result of having been changed by Christ.

According to James, it is works that make faith alive, visible, useful, and complete.

Dealing with this passage creates problems when we try to directly compare James' comments to those of Paul...yet, in all truth, the two are arguing for different things. Paul is discussing how a person ATTAINS salvation, while James is talking about how a person DEMONSTRATES salvation.

Race and the Gospel

There are few things that make us an uncomfortable as discussing race and racial issues. In the message on Sunday, September 28, I argued that we are uncomfortable discussing these issues because we each (regardless of our own race or ethnicity) have a bias bent toward self. The result is that we tend, by default, to isolate and/or blame those who are not like us. And, we tend to prefer those who are like us.

The Bible makes it clear that such preferential treatment (or partiality or favoritism) is strictly forbidden. In James 2:1-13 James urges Christ followers to avoid showing partiality toward those who are rich and neglecting the poor. James' argument is not limited to rich vs. poor...but is an issue of showing favoritism to any one group. When we apply the term "favoritism" or "partiality" toward race we are talking about bigotry, or racism.

I argued that one reason we have to battle against such a mentality is because racism kills missions. It is unlikely we will sacrificially go to the ends of the earth to share the gospel with people who are not like us, if we have racially driven biases guiding us. One of the aims of God is to create, in Christ, "one new man" that transcends race, ethnicity, sex, and social standing (Eph 2:14-18). And, in creating this one new man, God promises a day when people from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation will be gathered before his throne (Rev. 7:9-10). It is only as we see our sinful nature tranformed more and more into the image of Christ that we will look forward to that day with great anticipation and longing.

What do you think?
Do you think churches (or Christians) struggle with race issues? In what ways?