"What James is saying is this: If a person says he has faith, but he gives no outward evidence of that faith through righteous works, his faith will not justify him. We are not saved by a profession of faith or by a claim to faith. That faith has to be genuine before the merit of Christ will be imputed to anybody. You can’t just say you have faith. True faith will absolutely and necessarily yield the fruits of obedience and the works of righteousness…. those works don’t add to that person’s justification at the judgment seat of God. But they do justify his claim to faith before the eyes of man. James is saying, not that a man is justified before God by his works, but that his claim to faith is shown to be genuine as he demonstrates the evidence of that claim of faith through his works." ~ RC Sproul
God decided to save Noah and his family from the flood that would ravage the Earth and destroy all life. God came to Noah, warned him about the flood and gave him specific instructions on building the ark. Noah chose to believe God and began building the boat. The Bible says that Noah believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Noah was saved by grace, through faith, in a boat.
God saved Noah in an ark, but gave the ark building job to Noah! God could easily have provided Noah an already assembled ark; But He decided, in his wisdom, to give Noah the job. Noah was given the opportunity to prove that he believed. Yes, Noah was saved by God's grace, but he still had to build the boat! It pleased God to do it that way. Noah proved he had faith in God by obeying God's command, starting to build the ark and persevering until the job was finished.
The day we were saved by God's grace, through faith in the shed blood of Jesus, we were given the opportunity to start building our boat; The opportunity to put hands and feet to our faith. I pray we continue. I pray that we persevere till the end.
