Dead Faith Stinks!

"What use is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?" James 2:14, NASB.

Writing to Christians, the Apostle James says that "faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (Ja. 2:17, ESV). Lordship Salvationists use this verse as a proof-text to say that if a person who claims to be a Christian doesn't show good works in their life after salvation, they aren't truly saved (justified). But obviously that conclusion is false in light of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:15, where he very clearly describes how if a Christian has no good works remaining after being tested at the Judgment Seat of Christ, that individual "will be saved, yet so as through fire." So according to the apostle Paul, a Christian will still be eternally saved even if he or she did no good works in the eyes of God. This is important to understand because God's Word doesn't contradict itself. So obviously when James uses the word "save" in James 2:14, he isn't talking about eternal salvation (as Paul is in 1 Cor. 3:15), but rather temporal salvation in this life; that is, salvation from a "dead" (Ja. 2:17) or "useless" (2:20) Christian life in the here and now. This is clear from the context of James 2:14-26, which has to do, not with the afterlife, but with this life here on earth: where "a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food" (Ja. 2:15). Obviously in heaven, "they will no longer hunger nor thirst" (Rev. 7:16). Quite clearly James isn't talking about heaven and hell; he's talking about life down here on earth where "the rubber meets the road." In other words, when James asks, "Can that faith save him?" (Ja. 2:14), he is referring to the present and ongoing process of sanctification in the Christian life (cf. Ja. 1:21; 2 Pet. 1:5-8).

This distinction clarifies what James is talking about, but it doesn't describe the faith itself. So let's dissect "dead faith" and take a closer look: what are some of it's characteristics? What does it look like? What does it smell like? What can we learn about it? Dead faith obviously exists according to the apostle James (and even according to the apostle Paul, see 1 Cor. 3:15), so let's analyze it more closely and see what it is.

The Anatomy of "Dead" Faith:

     1. Dead faith was once a living faith. This should go without saying, but it needs to be highlighted because Lordship Salvationists twist the Scriptures to say that dead faith is not true faith or that it was never there to begin with. Calvinists teach that in order for faith to be true saving faith, it must persevere in faithfulness. But obviously if something is dead it was once alive! Calvinists will no doubt try to deny this by pointing to where Paul says that the unsaved are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). Doesn't this disprove the premise that what is "dead" was once alive? How can it be true that those who are "dead in trespasses and sins" were once alive? Because they were alive in Adam! The apostle Paul says: "When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned [in Adam]" (Rom. 5:12, NLT). Obviously before sin and death entered into the world, Adam was alive (see Genesis 2:7); he was not under the sentence of death. This is plainly obvious. Only after Adam sinned did he die, both spiritually (Gen. 2:17) and physically (Gen. 5:5), and death spread to all his descendants (Rom. 5:12-21). As Levi was in the loins of his father Abraham (Heb. 7:9-10), all humanity was positionally in Adam, the corporate head of the entire human race; and after the Fall, all humanity died "in Adam" (1 Cor. 15:22). And so the premise remains true: in order for something to be dead, it first had to be alive. Dead means no longer alive. To deny this is to deny reality. As this pertains to faith, a statement by Lewis Sperry Chafer is especially helpful. In his book Salvation, Chafer asks the question: "What if a believer's faith should fail?" To which Chafer gives the following very insightful answer: "Faith, it may be answered, is not meritorious. We are not saved because we possess the saving virtue of faith. We are saved through faith, and because of the grace of God. Incidentally faith is the only possible response of the heart to that grace. Saving faith is an act: not an attitude. Its work is accomplished when its object has been gained."¹ So that's an excellent and very well-said statement regarding saving faith, and faith in general. What Chafer is emphasizing is that saving faith is a singular, decisive act of relying on Christ that secures for us the free gift of eternal life. It is not our personal merit, nor the strength or continuity of our faith, but the sole object of that faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, that secures all the blessings of salvation! Praise the Lord!

     2. Dead faith means it's real. Calvinists and Lordship Salvationists teach that in James chapter 2, James is talking about spurious or false faith. Commenting on James 2:14, John Calvin argues that James is referring to "a false profession of faith;"² which he equates to false faith: "hypocrites boast in the empty name of faith, although in reality they have no claim to it."³ But it is logically impossible for faith to be both real (i.e. "dead") and unreal! Is a cadaver (a dead body, James 2:26) unreal or non-existent because it's dead? Obviously not. A cadaver is dead, but real. Just because something is "dead" doesn't mean that it is unreal or non-existent. Calvin is twisting "a false profession" to mean a false or non-existent faith. Calvin says that when James speaks of faith, "as often as he mentions the word faith here, he is not speaking according to the real sense of his mind; but is rather disputing against those, who falsely pretend that they have faith, of which they are altogether destitute."⁴ So again, Calvin is equating "a false profession of faith" with a false faith. But it should be obvious that, as the apostle Paul says, "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth one confesses unto salvation" (Rom. 10:10).⁵ The profession of faith is for 2nd-tense salvation, i.e. sanctification. And that is what James is talking about in James 2:14-26: not justification but sanctification. So "a false profession of faith" does not necessarily correlate to a false faith. Those are two different things; but Calvin is trying to equate them. Thus Calvin's argument is flawed, not only logically, but also biblically according to what Paul says in Romans 10:10: where he draws a distinction (a contrast) between believing with the heart (Rom. 10:10a), "but" (Gr. de) confessing with the mouth (Rom. 10:10b). Obviously someone could have a false profession and also a false faith, but it is not necessarily so. A person could have a true faith and a false profession about it, for example, if he or she is lying about it or denying Christ (as the apostle Peter did in Luke 22:54-62).

     3. Dead faith stinks. The stench proves it's real! I remember in high school, the classroom that was used for biology class always had a characteristically bad odor. It was the smell of deadness, and it came from all the dead animal corpses that were stored in the closets and the formaldehyde that was used to preserve them. The same is true in regards to dead faith. In James chapter 2, James says that "faith without works is dead" (Ja. 2:17). I can imagine God holding his nostrils in disgust! What are some examples of Christians who had dead faith? The carnal Corinthians are a case in point. The apostle Paul writes to them and he says: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere [unsaved] men?" (1 Cor. 3:1-3, NKJV). In a letter to another group of believers, the apostle Paul says something similar. Writing to Christians in Rome, Paul says: "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6, NKJV). As J. Vernon McGee has well said: "The flesh is death here and now."⁶ When a Christian is "carnally minded" or "fleshly minded," his or her faith is dead. That's what Paul is saying. So although dead faith stinks—it still saves! Listen to the words from Paul's divinely inspired pen: "If any man's work is burned up [Gr. katakaēsetai, i.e. no good works remain], he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire." (1 Cor. 3:15, NASB).⁷ Twist this Scripture to your own destruction, O ye Calvinists!

ENDNOTES:

¹ Lewis Sperry Chafer, Salvation (Findlay: Durham Publishing Company, 1917), p. 112.

² John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle of James (Aberdeen: 1797), p. 48.

³ Ibid., p. 48.

⁴ Ibid., p. 48.

⁵ This particular rendering of Romans 10:10 is derived from Peter Stuhlmacher's commentary (Stuhlmacher, Paul's Letter to the Romans, p. 153). For more information see my article "A Free Grace Understanding of Romans 10:9-10" (FGFS, October 18, 2021).

⁶ J. Vernon McGee, Reasoning Through Romans, Part 1 (Pasadena: Through The Bible Books, 1981), p. 133, commentary on Romans 8:6.

⁷ The Greek word in 1 Corinthians 3:15 for "burned up" is katakaēsetai, from katakaiō. The word "signifies to burn up, burn utterly" (Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words); "to burn up; burn completely" (Abbott-Smith's Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament). A. T. Robertson writes: "katakaiō, to burn down, old verb. Note perfective use of preposition kata, shall be burned down. We usually say 'burned up,' and that is true also, burned up in smoke." (Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol. IV, p. 98, commentary on 1 Cor. 3:15.)