You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe-and they shudder.
Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?     James 2:19-20 HCSB

There was a time I found this particular passage of scripture to be confusing. I had always been taught that if we believed on Him and confessed our sin to Him that we were saved. I had been taught that salvation was Christ alone and nothing else. Here James is telling us that our belief without works is useless. So, which is it? Well, it’s both. Allow me to explain.

The first thing we need to understand is that we are saved by faith through grace. Our salvation comes from Christ and Christ alone. It’s Jesus plus nothing that equals our salvation. It’s not Jesus plus works. It’s not Jesus plus anything. We are saved by our faith in Him and surrendering to Him (Ephesians 2:8).

What James is saying here is if we believe in Jesus, this is a good start, it’s just not enough. He says even the devil and his minions believe in Jesus and they shudder. I look all around me and see people that claim to believe in Christ, but I assure you they do not shudder. For many years I believed in Him, but I didn’t shudder. If I had, I would have behaved better. It took years for me to truly understand his majesty, his power, and his grace. I had a hard time wrapping my head around His great love for me. But once I drew closer to Him and I got to really know Him, I understand that thing about shuddering. I shudder to think about the years wasted not surrendering my life to Him. I shudder at the thought of how I disappointed Him time and time again. Now I shudder at His great love for me. I can hardly fathom how He would love a sinner like me so much that He would give His only Son to die for me (John 3:16).

The demons shudder because they know of His power. They know that they can only do what He allows. They know that He reigns. Do you? Do you have a reverential fear of Him? Do you fully understand that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10). One day, we will all “get it”. We will all understand that He is Lord and Master of everything. Sadly, some will reach this understanding after it is too late. Revelation 1:7 tells us behold He is coming in the clouds and every eye shall see Him and all the people of the earth will wail because of Him.

The demons believe in Him and they shudder, but they don’t surrender to Him. Will you? Will you give your all over to Him? Will you trust in Him in all that you do? Will you give Him first place in everything and allow Him to rule over all areas of your life? Will you serve Him?

I want you to think about this for just a minute. If someone asked you if you believed in Christ, what would you say? If you say you believe in Him, have you surrendered to Him? Have you trusted Him with everything in your life? Have you given Him your all, the good, the bad and the ugly? If you have done this, then you can’t help but do the work. This is what James is saying here. Once we surrender to Christ, we want to get to work for Him. We want to serve Him. We want to help others. We want to share the good news of the gospel.

If you say you believe in Him, that’s a good start but that’s all it is. It is just the beginning. It’s when we surrender our lives to Him that we have begun a work that will be completed. It’s when we have begun our journey to heaven as our final destiny. If we believe in Him, but refuse to go any further then our faith is useless.

If we believe in Him, we can call on Him and He will help us bring this good start to a good completion. If you are stuck at believing call on Him. Spend time with Him through Bible study, prayer and faithful church attendance. Serve Him through your local church and organizations like food banks and crisis centers.

Will you sit around the table today and talk about how thankful you are for all God has given or will you put your gratitude into action? We can never repay the price He paid for our ransom. But, we can serve Him until He calls us home.

If you truly believe in Him and believe that He died on the cross for your sins, how can you help but be thankful for that? How can you not give Him your all in total gratitude for what He has done?

By believing in Him we are off to a good start. If we shudder in reverential awe of Him, we are on the same level as the demons. But when we surrender to Him, we are given all that comes with that. This is when He works all things out for our good (Romans 8:28). This is when we can count on His protection (Psalm 91:1-2).

Ask yourself today, are you off to a good start? Are you on the same level as the demons in our scripture passage, do you shudder? Or have you surrendered your all to Him and are you serving Him as He would have you to do?

Have a great day!