Friday, 29 March 2024

First Lutheran Corner: Working your way to heaven

James 2:19 says, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

This passage is the one in Scripture that is most used to justify works righteousness.

Faith without works is dead! You can’t have faith without works. The question we have to face is this, “Is that what James meant when he wrote this under the guidance of the Holy Spirit?”

The answer is no – you don’t have to have works to increase or even obtain faith. When you have faith, good works follow and the key here is that the works do not matter in the mind of the faithful for the works are a subset of being a good and faithful servant.

Works follow faith not faith from works and when James wrote this, he had no intention of giving the readers of his epistle the idea that you can’t have one without the other.

There were a number of books in the Bible that Luther questioned, one being the book of James. He quite frankly didn’t feel this book worthy of being canonized, but he did believe that it was God’s will for the book to be included in the Bible, thus begrudgingly accepted it.

Let’s travel back to the time of Luther and see what might be going through his mind as he responds to this passage.

It is the early 1500s. Martin Luther has gone through a life of hell. He is a monk, a man in brown clothing who is convinced that he is destined to go to hell.

Why? Because the church has convinced him that he will go to hell unless his works were better than the sin he has committed.

He is torn to pieces inside. He beats himself to a pulp. He didn’t need Roman soldiers to torture him, he did it on his own. He was convinced that if he hurt himself enough he wouldn’t even think of anything sinful.

And so, it went on, day after day, night after night. Every time he thought of anything sinful he would beat himself, banging his head against the wall, punching himself, torture in whatever way he could.

I think if he could have crucified himself, hammering those nails into his flesh himself he would have. Just to be perfect. Just to be without sin as the church had told him he had to be.

The church taught him that works meant everything and their position on this passage in James was the proof he needed to continue to inflict as much pain upon himself as he could.

It is believed that Luther died young not because he was unhealthy, but because he inflicted so much pain on himself, he damaged his body beyond repair.

And he did that until God showed him the truth … Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” It was at that point the reformation went into full swing.

Luther took on the church to defend the world against false teaching. Works had nothing to do with salvation. Faith was the key by the grace of God through Christ Jesus. That was it!

That leaves us with a very important question to ask ourselves. Are we living by grace or by works? Let’s hear the whole story on Sunday, Sept. 9.

Worship is at 11 a.m. with a time of fellowship and lunch immediately following the service.

Please bring your friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances, and anyone else you can think of.

All are welcome, so come as you are!

Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572. Email Pastor Chris at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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30Mar
03.30.2024 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Lakeport Community Cleanup Day
30Mar
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30Mar
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Lake County poet laureate inauguration
31Mar
03.31.2024
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31Mar
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