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Faith, Works and Salvation

January 22, 2017

Passage: James 2:14-26 Speaker: Pastor Lukus Counterman Series: Faith that Works

Length: 48 mins 16 secs Plays: 3167

Speaker: Lukus Counterman - The latter half of James 2 is the best-known part of the letter because at points it appears to directly contradict the teaching of Paul that believers are justified by faith apart from works. Upon closer examination however, we can discover that the apparent contradiction is superficial and results from Paul and James having different concerns, different backgrounds, and different audiences with different problems. The fact of the matter is that faith is no less important to James than it is to Paul, and it is precisely because faith is so important to James that he harshly condemns a false variety of it. What we will discover this morning is that James never condemns faith, but rather the hypocritical variety of it that fails to produce righteous behavior, thereby indicating that it is a brand of faith that is actually dead. May the Lord help us to understand the relationship between faith, works, and salvation as we seek to rightly divide the word of truth.