Does God’s gift lead you to place yourself in His hands?

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  —James 2:17 NIV

In the Christian Reader, Paul Francisco writes,

When I was a child, our church celebrated the Lord’s Supper every first Sunday of the month. At that service, the offering plates were passed twice: before the sermon for regular offerings and just prior to Communion for benevolences. My family always gave to both, but they passed a dime to me to put in only the regular offering.

One Communion Sunday when I was nine, my mother, for the first time, gave me a dime for the benevolent offering also. A little later when the folks in our pew rose to go to the Communion rail, I got up also. “You can’t take Communion yet,” mother told me.

“Why not?” I said. “I paid for it!”

We may smile at such a childish misunderstanding of one of the core practices of the Christian faith. Yet, Paul Francisco’s misunderstanding is one that has been held by too many — that somehow we “pay for” or earn the grace of God.

The New Testament is clear, however, that God’s grace is free. That it can never be earned. That it is God’s gift. This is spoken of, often, as the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. We cannot buy it, earn it, or deserve it. Paul says, “It is by grace that you have been saved through faith.” (See Ephesians 2:8–9).

How then are we to think about the passage above from the book of James? Especially, how are we to think of the last verse, the verse on which this devotional is focused? “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Is James saying that we need to add something to our faith in order to receive God’s grace?

No! Absolutely not.

Think of it this way. Paul says, “You are saved by faith alone.” And James interjects: “Yes! And let me tell you what kind of faith it is that saves.” (Or, otherwise stated: how to know that your faith is genuine).

So, how do you know if you have the kind of faith — the quality of faith — about which Paul writes? Is it sufficient for you to say, “I have faith?”

James says, “No. The way you tell if your faith is genuine — the kind of faith which pleases God — is not just by what you say but by what you do.”

That is what James talks about in today’s passage.

Back in the mid-1800s, a man from France came to this country who called himself the Great Blondin. He was somewhat of a circus performer, an acrobat who did stunts on a tightrope. Blondin decided that in order to make his name on this new continent, he needed to be the first to cross the chasm beneath Niagara Falls on a tightrope. And so it was that on June 30, 1859, at 5 p.m., Blondin was set to make his first journey across the Falls. Hundreds of people had turned up to watch. They were quite certain — some say hopeful, in fact — that this man would fall, and they would be there to see it.

His rope was 1,300 feet long, and because of its length, it dipped down about 50 feet in the middle. He used a 30-foot-long balancing pole that weighed about 40 pounds. He stepped out onto the rope and began his descent. In the middle, at the low point, he dropped a bottle that was tied to a piece of twine. He lowered it all the way down the Maid of the Mist tourist boat, where it was filled with water. He hauled it back up and enjoyed a drink. Then he resumed his journey. Unbelievably, 20 minutes after beginning, he arrived on the other side. Then he turned around and made his return walk in just eight minutes!

Over a period of months, Blondin performed a variety of stunts. He crossed on a bicycle, on stilts, and at night. Once he pushed a stove in a wheelbarrow and cooked and ate an omelet. He swung by one arm, he turned somersaults, and stood on his head in a chair. In truth, he was nothing short of unbelievable.

It is even said — I don’t know, I wasn’t there — but it is even said that at one point, Blondin asked the people if they believed he could push a wheelbarrow across. The crowd apparently shouted out their belief in him. To one man on the front row who had indicated that he believed, Blondin apparently said, “Sir, would you get in the wheelbarrow?”

“No.”

“But you said you believed I could do it.”

“I do. But I’m not getting in that wheelbarrow.”

“But you said—”

“I’m not getting in that wheelbarrow!”

That’s what James is saying: genuine faith gets in the wheelbarrow. And it does so because it truly believes that God will do what he said he will do. And that belief — that faith — issues forth in action.

The question, then, is simple: Does your faith in God’s gift of free grace lead you to place your life actively in the hands of God?

—Randy Roberts, DMin, LMFT, is vice president for spiritual life and mission at Loma Linda University Health.