Study in the Epistle of Jude # 12: Verse 3

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study time. We are continuing our study in the book of Jude and have recently taken a little detour. We have come to that verse in Jude 3 which speaks of the faith that was “once delivered unto the saints,” and so we have been examining saving faith in the Bible. This has brought us to James 2, where we have temporarily jumped to see what James has to say regarding faith. In our last study, we were looking at James 2:21 which says:

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

We went back to Genesis 22, and read the dramatic account spoken of here in James. We read of that great display of faith and obedience which Abraham, the Old Testament man of God, had as he received the command of God to offer up Isaac his son. Against all reason and against all understanding, he actually took his son to the place where God had designated for him to be offered. He laid him upon an altar and was raising the knife to slay Isaac, the son of the promise, the son of his old age. God had waited until Abraham was 100 years old for Isaac to be born. After all the many promises of God that had to come through Isaac, Abraham, realizing God would be faithful to those promises, thought that God would raise up Isaac if he did slay him. He thought that He would resurrect him in order to bring those promises to pass. This was certainly one of the most incredible displays of faith in God, of trusting in God, and of obedience to what God had said, but is this something that can justify a man? Is it something that did justify Abraham as God is implying in James 2:21?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Indicating that this event had something to do with the justification of Abraham would mean that it had something to do with his salvation, because to be justified means to be just in the sight of God and right with God. We sense that, no; there is something wrong with that conclusion. There is definitely something not right with that kind of understanding, so we have been wondering, “What else could it be?” How else can we understand James 2:21 when it says:

Was not Abraham our father justified by works…

In Romans 4, God gives us a signal to watch out when we read this about Abraham in James. God says in Romans 4:2:

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

This means that Abraham was not justified by works in any way. Of course he could not have been, because Galatians 2:16 says:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law…

It does not matter how great a work is, or how tremendous it might seem. God picked perhaps the most tremendous act that one could imagine to place in James 2. He shows this great display of Abraham’s faith for that very reason. It was an incredibly great display of faith, and people, as they read this verse, would be deceived. They would end up going down a wrong path and begin to think that their actions and their faith somehow played a part in their justification, their salvation, rather than the faith of Jesus Christ. God wrote the Bible this way. He wrote this verse as a trap and a snare to those who want to do something as far as their salvation is concerned. Those people want to offer up just a little bit of their own work and their own effort towards their salvation, and so, here it is—they can look at Abraham. Many theologians have, and they have definitely gone down the wrong path. They thought that Abraham was our example in that he was obedient to God and this brought about his justification. Therefore, his followers must be obedient, and thereby they will be justified in God’s sight.

This is all wrong. We do not do anything to become justified in God’s sight. We do not perform any kind of work or any obedience to the law of God to become justified. That has nothing to do with our salvation. We have already seen in James as we have worked our way from verse 14 to verse 21 that work has to do with the work of Jesus Christ upon the Cross. We have seen that when a man says he has faith but he does not have works, it is indicating that someone is professing to be a Christian without the work of Christ on the Cross. Jesus never paid for their sins, nor did He do that work of salvation on their behalf; therefore, their faith is dead. We can see that this same work of Christ is in view in James 2:21:

Was not Abraham our father justified by works…

Yes, he was justified by works, but not his own. He was justified by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. No man’s work can justify a sinner—it has to be the work of Christ. What about the next part of the verse which says:

…when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

If it was Christ’s work that justified Abraham, why does God pick a moment in Abraham’s life when he was doing a great act of obedience to God’s command and say that Abraham was justified when this historical event took place? That is the trap. God is simply taking a slice out of Abraham’s life, a moment in time. In other words, He is taking a snapshot, a picture of father Abraham. He is photographing Abraham at this one point in time, and then putting the caption to the photograph, “Was not Abraham our father justified when this took place?” The answer is, yes. He was justified when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar, because at that moment in time, Abraham was a saved man. Abraham was a child of God, so when he offered Isaac, he was truly born again. His sins were all paid for by the work of Christ, so He was just in the sight of God by the work of Christ at that moment in time. God could have chosen another moment in Abraham’s life.

For example, let us look at a fictitious character by the name of Mary. Mary professes to be a child of God, and is a true child of God. Suppose we wrote a sentence and said, “Was not Mary our sister justified by works when she was doing the dishes?” Of course, we are going to say, “That is ridiculous. How could the work of doing the dishes justify Mary?” Well, that is the point. Doing the dishes could never justify Mary, just as no work could ever justify any man, not even Abraham as he offered his son upon the altar. It is only when we substitute some mundane work, some ordinary task, that we can see this. “Was not George our brother justified by works when he took the trash out?” No, George was not justified by the work of taking the trash out, but yes, he was justified by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ at that point in time because he was a saved man. That is what God is saying regarding Abraham. At that point in time, Abraham was indeed justified by the work of Jesus Christ.

We can see how God through this language has set a very slippery trap for a great many people. It is very difficult language, and even true believers have shaken their heads and stumbled over a verse like this in times past. They just cannot understand it. They read Galatians 2:16 which says, “A man is not justified by the works of the law,” and then they came across this verse regarding Abraham and it just did not fit. They could not understand what God was saying here.

That is why God wants us to harmonize everything in the Bible. Some people do not bother doing that. They just take what they read at face value and go and develop a doctrine or a gospel that involves works, and they base it on a verse like the one here in James. However, there is no work involved here at all regarding Abraham’s justification, no work of his own. It is the work of Christ. We are seeing that this is consistent through this passage in James 2 again and again. It is the work of Christ that justifies and saves, and none other. Therefore, profession of faith without that work is dead.

People can have professions of faith. They can back up those professions with their own works of handing out tracts or giving to the work of the Gospel or busying themselves, but if they are still without the work of Christ, then that work and their faith are dead. There must be the work that Jesus did as He took their sins upon Himself and paid for those sins. The work is the sweat that Christ gave of Himself, as we read that in the garden of Gethsemane great drops of sweat as blood were falling from Him (Luke 22:44). That is the work. Christ is working hard in paying for the sins of His people and in experiencing the wrath of God, the equivalent of an eternity in Hell. That was the tremendous work that must accompany anyone’s profession of faith. It does not matter who we are. We could be a minister or a priest or an elder or a deacon or a bishop or a pope, but if we do not have the accompanying work of Jesus Christ, then our profession of faith is dead, and we are still dead in our sins. If He did not take our sins upon Himself and purge those sins from Him and us by undergoing the fires of Hell, then we are spiritually dead and subject to the second death of eternal damnation (Revelation 21:8).

Christ’s work is the only work that God is looking for, yet Matthew 7:22 says that there will be many on that day who are saying, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works?”

There is their profession of faith. There is their mouthing of the fact that they are a Christian, a child of God. They would have witness to this in their lifetime, and now on the Last Day they are saying the same thing back to God. “We are Christians,” they say. Furthermore, they go on to detail their works to God. “Have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works?” They are saying, “Here is our profession of faith and here are our works.”

Christ rejects them. He rejects their profession of faith and those kinds of works. God is not looking for what we do. It is fine if someone truly becomes born again, and then God prepares good works for that individual to walk in after their salvation. God will move in them to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). He will move in them to keep His commandments more and more, and good works will be evident in their life, but this has nothing to do with obtaining salvation. This has nothing to do with getting right with God or being justified with God. Those works that a believer exhibits have everything to do with the life of the Christian after he is saved, and nothing to do with becoming saved. It must be the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that saves.

We cannot over emphasize this, because today, so many are deceived and think that they can add a little something to their salvation. So many think that their work plays a part in their salvation, whether that work be accepting Christ, walking down the aisle, saying the sinner’s prayer, being baptized, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, going to church, or a whole combination of these things. So many think that what they do plays a part in becoming right with God, but this is completely wrong. What someone does will never get them right with God. It will never save them. We must have that work which is not our own, but is that which Christ performed in paying for the sins of His people.

Then in James 2:22 we read:

Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

God is still looking at Abraham here. He is saying, “Now take a look. See thou how faith wrought with his works?” “Wrought” is an old English word that means “worked.” Whose works are in view here? We know that God has been dealing with someone’s profession of faith, and so the faith is actually pointing to Abraham. Abraham in his lifetime professed to be a child of God, and he had faith in God. This was living itself out right in front of us as he took Isaac his son and laid him upon the altar to slay him. Here we see how faith, which points to Abraham’s faith, worked with His works, which points back to the works of Jesus Christ. Abraham’s faith was brought together with Christ’s works, because Abraham was justified. He was a saved man, so he was beginning in his life to desire to obey God. He wanted to do things God’s way, which was proof that God had indeed done a work in Abraham’s heart, and that God had indeed provided the accompanying works of salvation for Abraham. Therefore, Abraham’s faith was not alone, but was accompanied by the work of Jesus Christ. Abraham’s profession of faith worked together with the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by works, Christ’s works, was faith made perfect.

That is what God is getting at here. If our faith is without works, then it is alone and dead, but when our faith is mixed together with the work of Jesus Christ, then it is made perfect. When our faith is backed up by what Christ has done for us, and it is not our own imagining or our own idea, if we are not deceiving ourselves, but it is a fact that Christ’s work truly was provided for our sins, then our profession of faith is now a whole and complete profession of faith. We have Christ’s work to back it up. Jesus has saved us, and now we can see that everything is in harmony just as it should be. Ours is not a vain profession of faith. To say that we believe is not an empty declaration. We believe because God has saved us, and He has given us faith. He has provided these works. That is how we can understand what God is saying in James 2:22.

Then verse 23 says:

And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Again, we have another difficult verse. We have another verse that, at first glance, you would look at and say, “It is Abraham’s belief; it is Abraham’s faith—that is what was imputed to him for righteousness. Abraham brought righteousness to himself.”

Once again, that is not correct. That is not what is in view. Abraham believed God, and “it,” the work of Christ, the faith of Christ, the salvation that Christ provides, was “imputed unto him for righteousness.” Now, as before, faith and works are going hand and hand. They are becoming perfect. Abraham’s belief in God and God’s imputing of righteousness through the glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ are being brought together in the person of Abraham, and so Abraham is called the “Friend of God.” We see the same kind of verse in Romans 4:1-5. We read there:

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

There is the faith of Christ. That is the “it” that was counted to Abraham for righteousness.

When we first began looking at faith, we started looking at justification by faith. The great cry of the reformation, Luther’s cry, was justification by faith alone. They had that right. That is how we are saved—we are justified by faith. The problem, though, is that we are not justified by the faith of man, but by the faith of Jesus Christ as Galatians 2:16 tells us. Furthermore, we looked at justification and saw how God says in Romans 5:9 that we are justified by His blood, and in Titus 3:6-7 that we are justified by His grace. We took a closer look at both of those passages, and we realized that men never dare to say that their blood plays just a little part in their justification, or that their grace somehow is bestowed upon themselves and plays a little part in their justification. We realized that when God says we are justified by His blood, it is completely the blood of Christ and cannot be any part of man’s blood. We realized that when God says we are justified by His grace, it is completely the grace of God and cannot be any part of man’s grace. Yet when it comes to justification by faith, just because God for His own purposes did not add the word “His” in every place, man jumps on the opportunity and says, “We are justified by faith, our faith.” Once again though, it is His faith, as Romans 4:5 says. It is the faith of Jesus Christ and not the faith of man.

We have come to the end of our time tonight. In our next study, Lord willing, we are going to pick up with this and try to finish the chapter. This is extremely important for us to look at, and it is good for us to go over these verses and to have a very precise understanding of what God is saying regarding saving faith. It will help us greatly once we realize that whenever saving faith is in view, it is always Christ’s faith, and never, never man’s.