Demonic Faith

“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?”

James 2:18-20

We started examining this passage in James two weeks ago. We saw that the superficial contradiction between Paul’s position of “Faith Alone” and James’ insistence that true saving faith WILL result in a life of good works are in actually in complete harmony. If a person claims to have made a profession of faith and there are no indications of new life and the activity of the Holy Spirit, then that person’s faith is false. As one of my teachers put it, “he has a profession of faith, but he does not have possession of faith.” Of course, spiritual growth may be slow, and it is not uninterrupted progress throughout life. We have times we are growing at great guns and other times where we are struggling with temptation and sin.

In these verses James takes it one step further. He says that this empty, non-transforming faith is the exact same kind of faith that the demons have! Talk about not pulling any punches. He says, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” Notice that the devil and demons are not atheists! They fully and completely know that God exists. More than that they do not question the truth of the gospel. They were there when Christ was born, lived a sinless life, and died a sacrificial death. They know that he died to pay the penalty for sins and physically rose again. They know that Jesus ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. They could recite all the creeds and probably know the Bible better than you or me! But they are never going to heaven. And neither are the people who die with this kind of faith. Why not?

There are three aspects to true, saving faith. The first one is knowledge. A person must know certain facts about who God is, who Jesus is, what he did on the cross for our sins, and the offer of salvation. The second aspect is assent. Assent basically means that not only do you know these things, but you intellectually believe they are true. A person is not doubting that Jesus existed or died on the cross. He recognizes Jesus rose from the dead and is the second Person of the Trinity. But this falls short of true saving faith. There is a third element that is missing with these people, and it makes all the difference. The third aspect is trust. Resting in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life.

It is only when a person exercises all three components of true saving faith that this person has genuinely become a believer. Of course, conversion is more than just exercising saving faith. The Bible says that God gives the person new life. This happens at the same time as saving faith and it is the reason why the person can have genuine faith. God opens the eyes, unclogs the ears, clears up the mind, and changes our heart of stone to a heart of flesh. But in space and time they happen at the exact same moment. Along with that we are forgiven, adopted into God’s family, and the Holy Spirit begins living in the person. If all this really happened there is no way the person could remain totally unchanged. If he does, then it is not true saving faith. None of this contradicts Paul’s understanding of the gospel presented in Romans and elsewhere. What James says here may seem harsh but it is a powerful reminder of what it means to be a true believer.