This is the fifth installment in my series of posts on James 12:14-26. If you would like to look at the previous four posts please follow these links:
- James 2:14-26: Introduction
- James 2:14-26: The Devils Tremble
- James 2:14-26: Abraham Offered Isaac Part 1
- James 2:14-26: Abraham Offered Isaac Part 2
I am going to focus on verses 25 through 26 which state:
25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
The story of Rahab is well known and I don’t want to copy all of Joshua 2 into my post (click on the link if you need to refresh your memory). A quick summary is that Rahab was a prostitute that lived in Jericho and believed the God of Israel is the true God. Because of this faith she hid Jewish spies from the authorities and in return was promised she would be spared when Israel attacked the city.
Our question is then: what benefits does the account in Joshua say Rahab would receive? Was Rahab promised eternal salvation for hiding the spies? Was there any promise beyond the physical in the here and now given to her? If there were any promises beyond her physical safety I don’t see them in either Joshua 2 or in Joshua 6:23 where Rahab and her entire family were spared:
23 And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel.
If Rahab received eternal salvation here then did her entire family also? If they weren’t then why weren’t they? They were as saved in Joshua 6:23 as she was.
Rahab had faith which, through a series of events, resulted in her physical salvation from physical death. This isn’t that difficult. The Old Testament passages don’t indicate a spiritual salvation here. Does James in his epistle then provide new information that hadn’t been revealed to us before? I am convinced that is not the case.
I always have to laugh about Rahab because she is a woman that most pastors should spend many sermons railing about. When she saved the Jewish spies she was a working prostitute. If you haven’t heard a sermon on how the sexually immoral can’t go to heaven then you must be very sheltered. In addition to that, Rahab violated Romans 13 in a big way by defying the governing authorities and hiding the spies. She basically violated two of the cherished hobby horses of many conservative pastors!
In the three examples that James brought us it is reasonable to interpret them as saying that faith coupled with works can save us from earthly, physical persecution like the Jerusalem congregation of believers was experiencing. In my next post I will try and review all that I’ve written and tie it together.
