David Pawson - James Pt1
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THOUGHTFUL THOUGHTS - APRIL 2026 BY JOHN DUNNING;
“Faith without works is dead”. JAMES
1). PROLOGUE
Most believe that the book of James was written by James the son of Mary and Joseph. I say ‘most’ because Martin Luther did not believe it could have been written by an apostle because he saw it as “a right strawy epistle”, and hated it; (‘epistle’ means “letter”). In fact, he hated the book of James so much that he refused to recognise it as being an inspired Bible book. He felt it clashed with Paul’s statements in Galatians about being “Justified by faith”, (which was what had led to his own conversion).
So, let’s take a closer look.
2). INTRODUCTION – “Faith without works is dead”.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians helped Luther’s understanding so much that he nicknamed the letter after his wife, Katie, who was an ex-nun.
Luther’s revelation meant he understood that the only way sin can be removed is by God forgiving us, and that is all God’s doing – but it is only AFTER we repent, (Acts 2:38). Through Galatians, Luther saw the way out of the darkness of the Pope’s religion of doing the “works” of obeying the Pope’s letters… Because of Luther’s Catholic background he had a blind spot. He had been brought up on the need for obeying Catholicism to obtain forgiveness. That meant he failed to see the point that James was making, which we will come to next…
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3). DISCIPLESHIP 101.
a) GETTING RIGHT WITH GOD.
The book of Galatians revealed to Luther that forgiveness was by faith in Jesus Christ, alone. That revelation led to Luther’s conversion.
The problem was that Luther became blind to Paul’s point that whilst we are justified by faith and not by works, the proof of that change of heart, is shown by how we act and behave.
In Galatians, Paul tells us that we are not cleansed from sin just by doing good deeds.
Paul uses Abraham as an example to make his point that it is only by faith that we can be saved… Paul already explained that the law cannot save us, as its sole purpose is to identify and label the sins which we have committed, by what we did or what we did not do.
Just because we start to do what we should have been doing all along, does clean the slate for what has already been done - or not done. A criminal who stops stealing still needs to face a judge for the burglaries already done.
The answer is that we need Jesus. We need to repent and be forgiven.
After preaching, Peter was asked by the crowds in Acts 2:37, “what shall we do?”
Peter replied in v. 38,
a). “Repent…”
But wait there’s more! He immediately goes on to say what God requires next,
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b). “and let every one of you be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…” which is our required response, and is not optional if we are disciples of Jesus;
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b) STAYING RIGHT WITH GOD…
LIVING IN OBEDIENCE …
c). “and then you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, (Acts 2:38), as God responds to our obedience.
God expects a response to His forgiveness, and then God responds again.
When James wrote “faith without works is dead”, what he was meaning was that if we really do have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, it will be shown by our actions - what we do, and how we live. Here’s an example…
I had a friend who was my deputy leader of the airport Christian Fellowship… The late Captain Martin Jeffree was a retired airline captain who started a charity called “Faith In Action”, with his wife, Sally. He sent one shipping container every month, full of clothes to various churches in Malawi, for them to redistribute. The name of his charity was “Faith in Action”. That name makes the point about what James was saying, in a positive way, just as Abraham showed his faith by his actions.
Others in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 also showed faith by their actions.
When James wrote that ‘faith without action is dead’ he is simply putting the same thought, the other way around.
In the same way, if we do not act on our faith, then it is not faith. Faith is evident because we respond to God. If there is no response from us, there is nothing happening inside us, stirring us up to respond. In that same way, we can know if there is spiritual life inside us.
I did a project on Luther once and he skipped those last two steps, which helps explain why he failed to understand the point James made about being proactive in our response to God.
After completing a project on Luther I became a fan until I went on to learn that Luther became so anti-semitic that Hitler even quoted him to justify what he did to Jewish people, which was a shock to me. That should be a warning to us if we stop the requirement, half-way through. (See Matt. 12:44; Lk. 11:25 regarding stopping halfway.)
After we have been freed from the slavery of sin, we still need to enter into God’s rest with His Holy Spirit, and not just stay in the desert, after leaving Egypt.
This book of James takes our spiritual temperature, so we should take notice. James is such a short letter you can easily read it through this week as part of your devotions.
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EPILOGUE
a). Go through Acts 2:38 prayerfully, and ask if you have responded fully to that.
And please remember Inspirational Media in your prayers…
b). Spend time listening to God. We have a weekly devotional… see below…
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Do share this study with your friends…
This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.
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If you would like to know how to find peace with God, listen to the podcasts at this link…
https://www.inspirational.org.nz/pages/johns-devotionals-podcast
This link takes you to our devotional https://blog.inspirationalmedia.org.nz/
For a message on Hearing God, called “The Cost of Discipleship”,
visit this podcast link https://share.transistor.fm/s/1263bbab
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