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The apostle Paul said that we are
saved by grace through faith and that it is not of ourselves; it
is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8-9). James, on the other hand, said
that faith without works is dead (James 2:26). Who is right?
Martin Luther, God's grace champion who lit the torch to begin
the reformation in Europe, at first had a problem with James'
epistle. He felt that James was contradicting Paul. Is James’
call for works a contradiction of Paul’s grace salvation?
“What use is it, my brethren,
if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that
faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing
and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go
in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give
them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works;
show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my
faith by my works.’ You believe that God is one. You do
well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you
willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without
works is useless?” (James 2:14-20)
When we look more closely at
exactly what James is teaching, we discover that he does not
contradict Paul's stand on the free grace of God at all. James
does not contradict Paul by saying that we are given life from
God by faith plus works. Rather, he is saying that the faith
that gives us life will produce works. Read further in
Ephesians 2.
“For by grace you have been
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may
boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we
would walk in them.” (Eph. 2:8-10)
Paul is teaching that believers
were created in Christ for good works and that God had prepared
these good works beforehand and that we would walk in them. This
is at the heart of what James is teaching! James, just prior to
writing this section, had taken believers to task about treating
the wealthy differently than they treated the poor in the
congregation (James 2:1-13). In verses 14 and following, he is
telling believers to reach out to the poor! James used the
unbelieving, arrogant Jews who said they had faith in God yet
made no attempt to meet the physical needs of the poor.
These religious Jews, when
approached by someone in need of clothes or food, responded with
words like "We'll pray for you, brother." They made no attempt
to help those who were in obvious need. They evidently claimed
to believe in “one God” in an attempt to separate them from this
“new way” that James had associated himself with. James
reminded them that the demons also believed in God. . .and
trembled. To say that one "believes in God" does not necessarily
mean that one has been “born of God.” There were many
idol-worshiping pagans who could claim “belief in God” at that
time. If the faith that one has is in the right object (the Lord
Jesus Christ), their faith will produce good works (Eph. 2:10).
"Faith without works is dead," said James. By dead, James means
not productive.
Abraham
James immediately gave two
illustrations of his point. "Was not Abraham justified by works
when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?"
“By faith Abraham, when he
was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the
promises was offering up his only begotten son.” (Heb.
11:17)
Abraham’s offering of Isaac was
his work of faith. It was the work that God had foreordained
Abraham to do. It was the work that verified Abraham’s faith.
Genesis tells us that by faith in the Lord Abraham received the
righteousness necessary for life.
"And Abraham believed in the
Lord and it (his faith) was imputed to him (placed
on his account) for righteousness." (Gen. 15:6;
commentary mine)
Paul used this same illustration
of saving faith in Romans 4:1-5 when he said that Abraham was
not justified by works before God, but rather his justification
before God came by faith alone.
However, years later, Abraham's
faith produced a work of faith. Abraham was asked by God to
offer his son Isaac on an altar. What a tremendous test of
Abraham's faith! Abraham's living faith in the Lord was capable
of producing this good work. Abraham was able to produce that
work of faith because God had foreordained him to do so (Eph.
2:10). The act of offering Isaac on an altar did not justify
Abraham before God, but offering Isaac was clear evidence that
Abraham’s faith was producing works. The work of faith reveals
that faith is a living faith (James 2:22).
Rahab
James also used Rahab to
illustrate that faith produces works.
"By faith the harlot Rahab
did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had
received the spies with peace." (Heb. 11:31)
Rahab, a harlot in Jericho, hid
Jewish spies, sparing their lives from certain death and helping
to preserve the Jewish nation. There is no written statement
that Rahab had believed in the Lord in order to receive
justification. But she obviously had done so because of her work
of faith. She did this faith-work because of her faith in the
Lord. Her work of hiding and preserving the spies revealed that
her faith was a living faith in the living God.
The overwhelming point of James
chapter two is that the faith that brings righteousness will
produce works. God has foreordained it to be so! Attempting to
recognize these works of faith in the lives of other believers
is futile. We are never given the responsibility of "inspecting
the fruit of faith" in the lives of fellow believers. God alone
knows when, where, and how faith will produce in the lives of
believers. He is the one who has determined that this will
happen. Every believer is created in Christ Jesus to perform
good works. Good works are the proof of faith, not the means of
righteousness before God. So you see, both Paul and James are
right!
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