Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

belief. But only a few hours later their faith died away and the greater portion of those people left Christ forever (see John 6:66). This experience of the disciples and the multitude again demon strates that faith with works can be dead. There are of course countless scriptural examples where faith with works was very much alive, such as the departure of Isra el from Egypt in the depths of night and their crossing the Red Sea. But while on the one hand we have the statement that faith without works is dead, on the other we have clear examples where faith with works is dead. This presents us with a seem ingly insoluble contradiction. God is the author of the text in James 2:20, therefore it is the truth. What then is the solution to this seeming contradiction? The problem is readily resolved when we realize that it is faith with a certain kind of works which is not dead, and faith with another kind of works which is dead. So if we combine faith with the wrong kind of works, the only outcome will be death to our faith. This explains why God’s children have often come to Him in strong faith and yet found the outcome so frustrating, defeating, and disappointing that their faith was severely dam aged. It is true that they came to God with living faith, but they joined it to the wrong kind of works. When God’s people learn the true meaning of the words, “faith without works is dead”, they will have an altogether different experience. Theirs will then become a life of uninterrupted victories and they will un derstand why. Faith alone is not enough. The right kind of works must ac company it, or faith will die. Our ability to maintain and devel op a living, working faith depends on our doing the works to which God is specifically referring in James 2:20. Therefore, we must understand the differences between those works which build faith and those which destroy it. This will require careful, earnest study, but the results will be well worth the effort. The statement “faith without works is dead” is true under all circumstances where the works originate from God and not from Whose Works?