This site uses cookies to provide you with more responsive and personalized service and to collect certain information about your use of the site.  You can change your cookie settings through your browser.  If you continue without changing your settings, you agree to our use of cookies.  See our Privacy Policy for more information.

Mature Faith and Good Deeds: Example of Abraham Mature Faith and Good Deeds: Example of Abraham

Mature Faith and Good Deeds: Example of Abraham

Devotions

How do we know Abraham had faith in God? Scripture tells us we know it by what he did (Heb. 11:8–19). He left his home to go to an unknown country. He trusted God to keep a humanly impossible promise to give him and Sarah a son. He was willing to sacrifice that son at God’s instruction. His works didn’t save him—salvation comes only by faith. But his works were the evidence of his faith!

James stated that “his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did” (v. 22). One demonstrated the other. The phrase “made complete” means “made mature” or “brought to maturity.” James illustrated the point he had been arguing throughout this letter, to which only a “foolish person” would object (v. 20).

If it was true for Abraham the Patriarch, then it was true for all Jews and all followers of Jesus the Messiah. Furthermore, if God’s testing of Abraham (by asking him to sacrifice Isaac) had helped bring him to maturity (v. 21), then persevering in trials could do the same for James’s readers (1:2–4).

Interestingly, Paul used the same example to argue that Abraham was saved by faith not works (see Romans 4), while James used it to illustrate the necessary connection between faith and works. They both quote Genesis 15:6 (v. 23; Rom. 4:3)! Their points are not in conflict but in harmony with one another.

James maintained that Abraham’s faith was verified or shown to be authentic by his actions (v. 24). He was “considered righteous” by others because they had external evidence of his internal faith. Or as Paul put it, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Gal. 5:6).

Pray with Us

Dr. Bryan O’Neal, VP and interim dean of the Undergraduate School, will be grateful for the prayers of the Today in the Word family for our undergraduate faculty who devote their lives to teaching our students God’s wisdom and truth.

BY Brad Baurain

Dr. Bradley Baurain is Professor and Program Head of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Moody Bible Institute. Bradley has the unique privilege of holding a degree from four different universities (including Moody). He has just published his first book, On Waiting Well. Bradley taught in China, Vietnam, the United States, and Canada. Bradley and his wife, Julia, have four children and reside in Northwest Indiana.

Find Daily Devotionals by Month