Pass or Fail

Our Christian walk is like an examination. James used the term “the TESTING of your FAITH,” which makes us realize that faith must indeed be tried and tested. He gives testing, not so that we will fail, but so that upon testing it, we would prevail and come out victorious.

The epistle of James is a great book that explores this subject.

James helps us see how the Gospel should come alive in our day-to-day living. Faith is not something that must be confined in the four walls of this room, that we leave it here after the service, and go back to it the following Sunday. No! Our faith must be practical, must be exercised daily.

But isn’t James teaching us something that is contrary to the Gospel of Grace - that salvation is by grace through faith?

“And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God.” ~ James 2:23

James did not introduce to us a Gospel contrary to what Paul says in Romans. He knows that salvation is a Divine Act of Sovereign God through sovereign grace. He knows that salvation is by FAITH in Christ - ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

James did not discount the importance of sound doctrine, but rather that he wants to see how doctrine affect the way we live. Talk is cheap; James wants to see the results of that faith in our life.

Throughout the epistle, James issues different aspects in life to test whether or not we are in the faith.

: if you don't pass the test you're either not a Christian at all, or you're in a time of disobedience in your life, somehow you've gotten off the course. And may God help you in either case.

A poet wrote this: "We are saved by faith, yet faith is one with life like daylight and the sun. Unless they flower in our deeds, dead, empty husks are all our creeds." It's true. "To call Christ Lord but strive not to obey belies the words of homage that I pay."

The question for us is this: Pass or Fail?