Monday
Monday
Faith and Works
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
James 2:14
It is well known that James and Paul are supposed to have disagreed with one another on the subject of justification, that is to say, on how sinners can become accepted and pronounced righteous in the sight of God. Further, on account of this apparent theological discord, Luther excluded James’s letter from his New Testament canon, calling it a “letter of straw.”
Certainly there is an apparent discrepancy between these two apostles. For Paul taught that “a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Rom. 3:28), whereas James wrote, “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Moreover, both apostles claimed Abraham as their champion.
But the discrepancy is more imaginary than real. Paul and James had a different ministry but not a different message. They proclaimed the same gospel but with a different emphasis. The reason for this different emphasis is that they were opposing different false teachers. Paul’s opponents were Jewish legalists, or Judaizers, who taught that justification is by works done in obedience to the law. James’s opponents, however, were Jewish intellectualizers who taught that justification is by faith, meaning a barren orthodoxy.
To the Judaizers Paul insisted that justification is not by works but by faith; to the intellectualizers James insisted that justification is not by orthodox faith (which the demons also possess—and shudder!) but by a faith that works.
Both apostles clarified the nature of authentic faith, namely that it is a living faith that works. “I will show you my faith by my works,” wrote James (2:18 NASB); “faith working through love,” wrote Paul (Gal. 5:6 NASB). We cannot be saved by works, yet we cannot be saved without them. The place of works is not to earn salvation but to evidence it, not to procure salvation but to prove it. Thus both apostles taught that an authentic faith works. But Paul emphasized the faith that issues in works, whereas James emphasized the works that issue from faith. Both would agree that faith without works is dead.
For further reading: James 2:14–26