The Contribution Of James
THE CONTRIBUTION OF JAMES
Chief among James’s contributions is his insistence that genuine Christian faith must become evident in works. He resolutely opposes the tendency all too common among Christians to rest content with a halfhearted, compromising faith that seeks to have the best of both this world and the next. Double-mindedness is the basic sin for James (see Jas. 1:8; 4:8), and he insists that Christians repent of it and get back on the road to the whole and perfect character that God desires.
The very strength of James’s assertions on this point raise questions about the theological standpoint of the letter, particularly when James pursues his point to the extent that he ties justification to works (Jas. 2:14-26). For at this point he appears to contradict Paul’s insistence that justification comes by faith alone (see Rom. 3:28).
Many are content to find here an indication of the deep diversity within the New Testament, thinking that Paul and James say different and conflicting things about how a person is justified before God. 40 But so damaging an admission in unnecessary; there are at least two legitimate ways of harmonizing James and Paul on this point. The first, and more popular of the two, argues that James is using the verb "justify” (δίκαίόω, [dikaioo, G1467]) in the sense "vindicate before people” (the verb is used this way in, e.g., Luke 7:29). Paul and James, then, are talking about different things: Paul of the declaration of our righteousness and James of the demonstration of our righteousness. Another possibility is to take "justify” in James to mean "vindicate at the last judgment,” a force the word often has in Judaism (see Matt. 12:37). On this view, both Paul and James are referring to the sinner’s righteousness before God, but Paul is focusing on the initial reception of that status and James on the way that status is vindicated before God in the judgment. 41
Such theological harmonization is, we think, absolutely necessary, but it should not lead us to ignore the important contribution made either by Paul or by James. When faced with legalism, with the attempt to base salvation on human works, Paul needs to be heard—as he was so powerfully at the time of the Reformation. But when faced with quietism, with the attitude that dismisses works as unnecessary for Christians, James needs to be heard—as he was equally powerfully in the time of the Wesleys.