"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:26).
One of the great controversies of the Christian church has been how to reconcile the teaching of Paul in Romans and Galatians with the teaching of James. Paul clearly says, as we learned yesterday, that we are justified only by faith and not by works of the law. But James says, “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?… You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” How do we reconcile these seemingly opposing doctrines? To understand how the teaching of these two apostles coincide, we must define the audience. Paul was dealing with Christians who had fallen into the works righteousness by trying to keep the Jewish ceremonial law as a means to justification. James was dealing with Christians who believed they could continue in sin even though they had professed faith in Christ. As you can see, the problems each apostle faced were very different.
Matthew Henry writes, “Both are concerned to magnify the faith of the gospel, as that which alone could save us and justify us; but Paul magnifies it by showing the insufficiency of any works of the law before faith, or in opposition to the doctrine of justification by Jesus Christ; James magnifies the same faith, by showing what are the genuine and necessary products and operations of it.”
We are justified by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. It is imperative that we keep both the teaching of Paul and James in balance. We cannot fall into works righteousness, trying to earn merit before God and thus justify ourselves. But then we cannot fall into antinomianism (lawlessness) by living without fruit. When Paul says that we are not justified by works, he means that we do not earn any merit before God by our works. When James says that we are justified by works, and not by faith only, he is referring to the evidence of our faith before men. In other words, our faith is justified (i.e., shown to be true faith) in the eyes of those who see our works. True faith is the working out of love. Anyone who says they have faith, but does not have the fruit of faith (or works) does not have true faith. While it is necessary to remember that we must live by faith, it is just as important to remember that “faith without works is dead.”
Read 1 John 2:3–6; 3:4–24; 4:20–5:5. How do these passages describe the Christian life? Do these passages contradict the teaching of Paul that the just will live by faith? Why not? Examine your own life for the kind of fruit described in these passage from 1 John. Do you have a faith that is dead or one that is active in obedience to Christ?
