Monday, August 27, 2007

By Faith... Or Not? Israel's Exodus and Conquest, Part 8 of 41

TEXT: "Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:25-26).

IDEA: Rahab’s faith was both a profession and an action.

PURPOSE: To help listeners see that while faith alone saves, saving faith is never alone.

Let’s suppose that Rahab had told the spies what she believed about God. “Your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.”

Then imagine that she got convicted about betraying her city and turned the spies over to the Jericho police force. Do you think the writer of the letter to the Hebrews would have included her in 11:31 as a woman of faith?

I. Is a “profession of faith” always real?

How do we know that what Rahab professed was real?

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews said it was because she welcomed the spies.

Do you think that Rahab welcomed a lot of men to her house? Why do you think the welcome of these spies was particularly significant?

James 2:25-27 establishes the principle that a person is justified by what he does, not by faith. Do you think that James is saying that it is Rahab’s works that saved her?

What is significant about James writing, “She sent the spies out another way”?

James is clear that it is faith demonstrated by works that showed the reality of what she professed.

II. James concludes “as the body with the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.”

In this analogy the body equals the profession of faith and the spirit equals works.

A profession of faith is made real and vital by the actions that faith produces in our lives.