Faith and Works?: Why We Cannot Have One Without the Other

“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17)

We are in a series at Eastbrook Church exploring “Authentic Faith” from the New Testament book of James. One of James’ central themes is that faith must be active, or lived out, and without that active aspect, faith itself is dead.

We can readily understand this in our everyday lives, whether in our interpersonal lives or in the social realm. We want people to offer more than words to us. We want them to actually deliver on what they say through what they do. We have disparaging phrases for someone who has a lot of words but no actions: they’re only offering “lip-service” or they’re “full of hot air” or they’re speaking “empty words.”

In a sense, James urges these early believers that faith should not be mere lip-service, hot air, or empty words. Faith must move from the internal to the external, from ideation to action, from words to deeds. Otherwise, our faith, according to James is not real faith, but rather, dead faith.

Now some of us may feel the apparent tension between James’ words about faith and works and those of Paul on the same subject. Are we encountering apostolic contradiction? Paul strongly emphasizes that we are not saved by works but by faith apart from works. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul wanted the early believers to understand that no possible human activity, no possible perfect fulfillment of the Mosaic law, that any person could offer to God. As he writes elsewhere: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Only Jesus the Christ could bring the unblemished offering of a perfect life to God and our salvation comes not by our effort but through the sacrifice of His life on the Cross. Is Paul at odds with James? Not at all.

Like James, Paul knows that while we are saved by faith in Christ alone, our faith must then take root in the actions of our everyday lives. This is why in the same passage from Ephesians, Paul first plants salvation in faith—not works—and God’s grace in Christ, and then also urges the believers to understand that “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). We begin by faith and continue by faith, but that faith must work itself out in every word and action of our lives.

So, faith must be seen in our actions but it is also true that our actions flow from our faith. To put it another way, what we do in our everyday lives flows from our core convictions about life and reality. A mentor who was trained as a historian would often say to me that a good biographer will not learn what someone believes from what they say but from the actions that make up their lives. Our deeds show our faith. While it is vital to make our declaration of faith in Jesus as the Christ, our actions must show it and, vice versa, our actions will actually display what we really believe about Jesus as the Christ.

Our faith and our actions are vital to life with God, and even fuel one another, propelling our spiritual life forward. I often like to compare faith and works to the two pedals of a bicycle. While it may be entertaining to ride a one-pedaled bicycle for a few minutes, it really does not work over the long haul. So, too, we cannot move forward in our spiritual life with only faith or only works. We need them both. Life with God is propelled forward by both faith and deeds working together simultaneously. This cannot be expressed much better than Paul in his letter to the Philippians:

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)

So, may we let our faith work and may we let our works show forth our faith. You really cannot have one without the other.