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James stirs the theological pot
Paul very famously stated, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law”. So how do we begin to harmonize this saying of Paul with the statements of James we are looking at today?
James 2:14-17
What good is it, my brothers,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, be warmed and filled,”
without giving them the things needed for the body,
what good is that?
So also faith by itself,
if it does not have works,
is dead.
This seeming contradiction can be a bit startling at first until you start to consider what Paul and James mean when they say the words “works” and “faith”. Once we define those terms a bit the whole supposed controversy becomes much easier to understand.
Words can have many meanings, I would say that this is one of the main reasons for our current cultural divisions. So how do we understand the meaning of words when words can have more than one meaning? The answer I give my students is that words as well as figures of speech and biblical symbols are defined by common usage and context. Faith for example can have a range of meaning depending on the context.
Faith for James and also for Paul is more than just believing that the truth is true. Faith can, and I think should, be understood as a positive response to the truth. Because as James points out in a moment even the demons “believe” in God and yet they “shudder”.
James 2:18-26
But someone will say,
“You have faith and I have works.”
Show me your faith apart from your works,
and I will show you my faith by my works.
You believe that God is one; you do well.
Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person,
that faith apart from works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works
when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
You see that faith was active along with his works,
and faith was completed by his works;
and the Scripture was fulfilled that says,
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”
and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works
when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead,
so also faith apart from works is dead.
So what are we to make of Paul saying that we are saved without the “works of the law”?
The “works of the law” that Paul refers to here are not the kind of works James is discussing. James is not advocating kosher laws, sacrifices, or circumcision as a means of justification before God. He was defining faith, specifically a genuine and saving faith, as opposed to a mere intellectual assent that the truth is true.
Paul’s comments were in the context of questions that were circling around the churches at that time. There was a lot of debate around the idea that Gentiles needed to become Jewish proselytes, getting circumcised and keeping food laws and other Jewish ceremonial laws, before they could partake in the blessings of the Jewish Messiah. This was also the focus of the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. James was the leader of the church at Jerusalem at the time and he was the one that had the final word at that council. There were those that were assigning saving power to outward acts of Jewish ceremonial law and James shut them down. Paul was dealing with this same kind of false teaching when said works of the law do not save us. But Paul was not talking about being saved without repenting from sinful works. Nor was he saying there was no need for good works.
He was saying we are saved by faith and not “works of the law”. Salvation is now freely available to all, Jew and Gentile alike. This was Paul’s point in saying that. But James was making a very different point in his epistle, one which Paul would have fully agreed with.
Faith does not consist of good works, but saving faith results in good works.
We do not work to be saved, we work because we are saved.
Faith requires a response to what God has freely given us. Consider this famous passage from Paul in Romans.
Romans 10:9-10
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes and is justified,
and
with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
So you see for Paul as well as for James faith is not simply believing that the truth is true, it is instead a positive response to that truth. This kind of faith is necessary for the gift to bring about its desired end. To make it more clear consider what Paul said in Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:9-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not 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,
that we should walk in them.
When you read this it becomes clear that there is no controversy between Paul and James regarding salvation. James was just clarifying for his readers what real faith looked and acted like. He was guarding against a sort empty intellectual belief that was seeping in and corrupting the definition of true living faith.
I discuss this definition of faith further in the article on faith and Walmart.
And finally to show that there is no real difference in the teachings of Paul and James on faith, consider this teaching of Paul to the Ephesian church.
For you may be sure of this,
that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure,
or who is covetous (that is, an idolater),
has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words,
for because of these things the wrath of God
comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore do not become partners with them;
for at one time you were darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light
(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
Ephesians 5:5-9
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
Jesus told us that to abide in him is to bear much fruit, for without him we can do nothing. As long are we don’t try to reverse the process, and begin to think that God will owe us salvation because of our works, we are in no danger of trying to “earn our salvation”. God will never owe us anything, since everything we have comes from God in the first place.
But there does seem to be a danger here that both Paul and James agree on, and that is possessing a type of faith that does not produce the fruit of good works. If our life is devoid of the fruit of the Spirit I think it is appropriate to ask if we really do have the kind of faith that saves us. Paul told the Corinthian church to “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith”. It was good advice then and I believe it is good advice now.
This week
This week let’s encourage each other to “love and good works” as the author of Hebrews encourages us. We need to remind each other that the Kingdom of God is people, people Jesus died to save. And let’s stay focused on the gift of life that God has provided for us all, and think about what our response to such an unimaginable gift should be as we interact with each other.
This week let’s demonstrate our faith by our actions.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
View all episodes
By Tom PossinPaul very famously stated, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law”. So how do we begin to harmonize this saying of Paul with the statements of James we are looking at today?
James 2:14-17
What good is it, my brothers,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, be warmed and filled,”
without giving them the things needed for the body,
what good is that?
So also faith by itself,
if it does not have works,
is dead.
This seeming contradiction can be a bit startling at first until you start to consider what Paul and James mean when they say the words “works” and “faith”. Once we define those terms a bit the whole supposed controversy becomes much easier to understand.
Words can have many meanings, I would say that this is one of the main reasons for our current cultural divisions. So how do we understand the meaning of words when words can have more than one meaning? The answer I give my students is that words as well as figures of speech and biblical symbols are defined by common usage and context. Faith for example can have a range of meaning depending on the context.
Faith for James and also for Paul is more than just believing that the truth is true. Faith can, and I think should, be understood as a positive response to the truth. Because as James points out in a moment even the demons “believe” in God and yet they “shudder”.
James 2:18-26
But someone will say,
“You have faith and I have works.”
Show me your faith apart from your works,
and I will show you my faith by my works.
You believe that God is one; you do well.
Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Do you want to be shown, you foolish person,
that faith apart from works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works
when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
You see that faith was active along with his works,
and faith was completed by his works;
and the Scripture was fulfilled that says,
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”
and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works
when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead,
so also faith apart from works is dead.
So what are we to make of Paul saying that we are saved without the “works of the law”?
The “works of the law” that Paul refers to here are not the kind of works James is discussing. James is not advocating kosher laws, sacrifices, or circumcision as a means of justification before God. He was defining faith, specifically a genuine and saving faith, as opposed to a mere intellectual assent that the truth is true.
Paul’s comments were in the context of questions that were circling around the churches at that time. There was a lot of debate around the idea that Gentiles needed to become Jewish proselytes, getting circumcised and keeping food laws and other Jewish ceremonial laws, before they could partake in the blessings of the Jewish Messiah. This was also the focus of the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. James was the leader of the church at Jerusalem at the time and he was the one that had the final word at that council. There were those that were assigning saving power to outward acts of Jewish ceremonial law and James shut them down. Paul was dealing with this same kind of false teaching when said works of the law do not save us. But Paul was not talking about being saved without repenting from sinful works. Nor was he saying there was no need for good works.
He was saying we are saved by faith and not “works of the law”. Salvation is now freely available to all, Jew and Gentile alike. This was Paul’s point in saying that. But James was making a very different point in his epistle, one which Paul would have fully agreed with.
Faith does not consist of good works, but saving faith results in good works.
We do not work to be saved, we work because we are saved.
Faith requires a response to what God has freely given us. Consider this famous passage from Paul in Romans.
Romans 10:9-10
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes and is justified,
and
with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
So you see for Paul as well as for James faith is not simply believing that the truth is true, it is instead a positive response to that truth. This kind of faith is necessary for the gift to bring about its desired end. To make it more clear consider what Paul said in Ephesians.
Ephesians 2:9-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not 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,
that we should walk in them.
When you read this it becomes clear that there is no controversy between Paul and James regarding salvation. James was just clarifying for his readers what real faith looked and acted like. He was guarding against a sort empty intellectual belief that was seeping in and corrupting the definition of true living faith.
I discuss this definition of faith further in the article on faith and Walmart.
And finally to show that there is no real difference in the teachings of Paul and James on faith, consider this teaching of Paul to the Ephesian church.
For you may be sure of this,
that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure,
or who is covetous (that is, an idolater),
has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words,
for because of these things the wrath of God
comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore do not become partners with them;
for at one time you were darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light
(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
Ephesians 5:5-9
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
Jesus told us that to abide in him is to bear much fruit, for without him we can do nothing. As long are we don’t try to reverse the process, and begin to think that God will owe us salvation because of our works, we are in no danger of trying to “earn our salvation”. God will never owe us anything, since everything we have comes from God in the first place.
But there does seem to be a danger here that both Paul and James agree on, and that is possessing a type of faith that does not produce the fruit of good works. If our life is devoid of the fruit of the Spirit I think it is appropriate to ask if we really do have the kind of faith that saves us. Paul told the Corinthian church to “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith”. It was good advice then and I believe it is good advice now.
This week
This week let’s encourage each other to “love and good works” as the author of Hebrews encourages us. We need to remind each other that the Kingdom of God is people, people Jesus died to save. And let’s stay focused on the gift of life that God has provided for us all, and think about what our response to such an unimaginable gift should be as we interact with each other.
This week let’s demonstrate our faith by our actions.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe