Faith Study (Part 5): The Product of Faith

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Luke 7:37-38

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, ³⁸ and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

(ESV)

What came first, the chicken or the egg.  This philosophical question has been the subject of humanity since the creation of chickens and eggs.  Those arguing for the chicken claim there would be no egg without a chicken to lay it.  However, those arguing in favor of the egg argue that every chicken started out as an egg.  Unfortunately, this circular argument means there will be no definitive solution to this argument in our lifetimes. 

The woman of the city mentioned in Luke 7:37 is displaying the product of her faith by washing the feet of Jesus with her tears and anointing them with ointment.  While foot washing and applying ointment to one’s feet is uncommon in our modern culture, it was commonplace in the time of Christ.  The people of that time had no cars or public transportation and either walked wherever they went or would have used horses, donkeys, or camels for transportation.  Much is said in our modern culture about pollution to the air caused by our cars but in the time of Christ, their transportation methods left behind a steamy form of pollution that if one were not careful where they stepped, left an unpleasant residue on their feet.  It was therefore customary for guests visiting someone’s home to have their feet washed and ointment applied for any wounds suffered by walking around with open shoes.  (1)  The women washing Jesus’ feet was ministering to Him out of love for what Jesus had done for her.  In contrast, the respected Jewish leaders sent by the centurion in Luke 7:3, believed the centurion was entitled to a miracle from Jesus based upon his good works (Luke 7:4-5). 

The chicken and egg argument in Christianity is whether the product of our faith is based upon our own works or the grace of God.  Those arguing in favor of salvation by works cite James 2:20 claiming the product of faith is a dead faith without good works.  Those arguing for grace cite Ephesians 2:8-9 which tells us our good works are inadequate for our salvation. 

Once again we seem to have a contradiction in scripture that must be resolved.  We therefore must come to a resolution by looking at the audience being addressed and the context of the text. 

1)      The audience – The audience of both texts is believers.  Unfortunately, this does not allow us to come to any resolution and even adds to the contradiction offered by these statements.

2)      Context – To resolve this contradiction we must therefore look at the context.  James 2 is a chapter dealing with a warning against prejudice (James 2:1-13) and a call for believers to demonstrate their faith through good works (James2:14-26).  While James 2:14 does question whether a faith without actions can save anyone, the answer is clarified in the next two verses where the example of a brother or sister suffering and a believer ignoring their plight and going on without offering any assistance.  The context is not implying that the believer has not received salvation by the grace of God but teaches that faith without good actions appears dead to others.  Ephesians 2 however, is in the context of a church inundated with false teaching that for one to be saved, they must adopt the Jewish customs.  These Judaizers originated from those in Antioch who wanted to make the churches founded by Paul more Jewish.  In this context, we rightfully interpret Ephesians 2:8-9 to be a word of encouragement to believers in Ephesus who were doubting their salvation.  (2)

Therefore, there is no contradiction between the writing of Paul to the Ephesians and the writing of James.  The chicken and egg argument between salvation by works versus salvation by grace is that we are saved through God’s gracious gift of salvation by Jesus’ finished work of the cross and that we are then to demonstrate our faith through good works.  As followers of Jesus Christ, we must make the product of our faith a loving desire to see others experience the saving of grace of God through our good works towards others for in so doing, they will be open to hear the life-saving message of the Gospel. 

1. Afshar, Tessa. Foot Washing. tessaafsher.com. [Online] Tessa Afshar, August 25, 2013. [Cited: March 20, 2017.] https://tessaafshar.com/foot-washing/.

2. Jerome Murphy-O'Conner, OP. Trouble in Galatia and Ephesus. www.goodnews.ie. [Online] [Cited: May 21, 2017.] http://www.goodnews.ie/troubleingalatia.shtml.