I live in rural Massachusetts where wild animals have a habit of crossing the road at just the wrong time. Whether it’s a deer, opossum, raccoon, or whatever, I’ve seen more roadkill than I can count.
The strangest thing happens whenever I encounter a dead animal on the road. I slow down and look at it. While a certain sadness creeps into my soul that compels me to turn my head and drive away, there’s also a type of morbid curiosity that inevitably overcomes me. If I’m out on a walk, or even running, I might even stop completely, bend down, and really spend some time observing the situation. I go through scenarios in my head, trying to piece together the scene of the accident, how it happened, what the creature’s last thoughts were, what it was thinking when it ran out into the road, and how long it had been dead, based on its state of decomposition. I know, I know, it sounds weird, right?
I think most people have a fascination with death, in general. Unbelievers are often deathly afraid of it (yup, pun intended). Educated believers know better and so, over time, having learned to look forward to the blessing of physical death (“to die is gain” – Philippians 1:21), possess a positive outlook of things to come. Either way, death is a topic to ponder. I think the significance is its finality – there’s no coming back from the dead short of a miracle.
Now, suppose when you were a child, you picked up some roadkill, took it home with you, and presented it to your family, proclaiming, “I’d like you all to meet my new pet!” Anyone present would likely respond with, “Ewww, get that thing out of here! What’s wrong with you, what good is a dead animal as a pet?” Fair enough? You can imagine the scene. “That thing” refers to arguably the poorest excuse for a pet in the history of mankind! As far as pets go, it is utterly useless. That’s pretty much par for the course whenever we talk about dead things.
Anything dead has no hope of being what it was truly meant to be while alive. To expect anything more is absolute folly.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
-James 2:14-26
What really strikes me in this passage is James’ tone and his deliverance. It’s as if he’s saying, “That faith right there…that roadkill version of a pet you just put between us for observation…that faith is dead!” That kind of faith cannot possibly produce any good fruit – it’s dead! However, according to Jesus Christ, true faith “indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (ala Matthew 13:18-23). This is why James makes the obvious statement, “faith apart from works is useless” (James 2:20). He’s focused his attention directly on that “dead thing” some have proposed is capable of being the type of faith that saves. In a way, he’s drawing our attention to the big white elephant in the room.
Sadly, I know a lot of people who number themselves among believers who think saving faith can be fruitless (in direct contradiction to the Word of God). Some have labeled those with this fruitless “faith” names like “carnal Christians”, taking the error so far as to say, “a person can be saved and never produce a single instance of good fruit!” This is an insult to the Holy God of the Universe who gives saving faith by grace (ala Ephesians 2:8-9) which makes a true believer alive, through the miracle of spiritual rebirth.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
-1 Corinthians 15:22
Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
-Ephesians 2:5
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.
-Colossians 2:13
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
-1 Peter 3:18
There’s a better chance that you will see roadkill jump up and dance the jig than see dead faith producing good works (the first being salvation).
Faith without works is less than roadkill. When that kind of faith is postured as saving faith it’s more offensive than anything we could ever come across decomposing on the side of the road.
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins