There’s an old kids’ song that goes, "If you're saved and you know it, then your life will surely show it." That’s just another way to say that faith and works go together.

Some people claim to be Christians, but they don’t have Jesus imprinted on their lives. If someone's life looks the same as it did before they claimed to follow Christ, can they truly be saved?

The book of James contains some of the most controversial verses in the Bible, so much so that Martin Luther thought the book shouldn’t be part of Scripture. He believed that James contradicted what Paul wrote about justification by grace through faith.

But did he? "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?" "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:14, 17).

Some modern translations render the question in James 2:14 as, "Can that faith save him?" What good is it if a person says they have faith but does nothing with it? Can that kind of faith—mere words without deeds—save them?

Faith is not a nebulous feeling that we work up. Faith is simply acting on what we know to be true. It's not believing despite evidence; it's obeying despite outcome.

These verses do not put faith and works in opposition. It's not faith or works, faith versus works. It's a contrast between real faith and fake faith. True faith is inseparably linked to action—fake faith is not. James is asking his audience, "Do your lives produce fruit that validates your faith?"

No one can encounter the real Jesus Christ and stay the same. A declaration of faith that does not result in life transformation is fake faith—just words, just a claim. But if the words are genuine, then works will follow.

Prove what you say by what you do. Or to put it another way, make the invisible visible. You can't see faith, but you can see the effect—or result—of faith. That's the question. Can people see your faith? Is there proof?

James was not saying that you are saved by faith plus works. That would mean we have two saviors—Christ and ourselves. He was also not contradicting Paul's clear teaching on salvation by grace through faith. Faith and works complement each other.

Paul was speaking about pre-salvation; James was talking post-salvation. Now that you're saved, can you validate it? Paul was describing the root of salvation: faith. James was speaking about the fruit of salvation: works.

Faith and works work together. Jesus said it this way: "Every tree is known by its own fruit" (Luke 6:44), by what it produces. That's what James was talking about—the production of the saved life.

If your faith hasn't changed you, your faith hasn't saved you. You're saved by faith alone. But the faith that saves is never alone. If you have truly accepted Jesus as the Lord and Savior of your life—if it's real—it will be seen.