YOU SEE THAT A MAN IS
JUSTIFIED BY WORKS AND NOT BY FAITH ALONE: horate (2PPAI) hoti ex
ergon dikaioutai (3SPPI) anthropos: (15-18,21,22;
Psalms 60:12)
John Calvin echoed James
when he wrote that...
It is faith alone that justifies,
but the faith that justifies is not alone.
You see - Plural "you"
in contrast to "you see" in the plural in
James 2:22.
James' concluding statement in
this verse is his answer to the opening question in
James 2:14...
What use is it, my brethren, if a
man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
A man is justified by works
- Notice that the
present tense
indicates that this
is God's standing practice.
As we have sought to explain in
this passage James is not to be understood as teaching that a man is
declared righteous as the result of his works, without faith.
Some scholars such as
Blackman feel that James' conclusion
is a deliberate contradiction of
Paul. (The Epistle of James, Torch Bible Commentaries)
It is clear that Blackman and
his ilk do not understand the basic premise that God is not a God of
confusion and since all Scripture is inspired by one Spirit, no
passage of Scripture will contradict another passage, but instead such
"apparent contradictions" reflect our failure as finite natural men to
fully understand God's supernatural Words. Furthermore, those who hold
the erroneous view that James contradicts Paul, have not applied the
principles of sound hermeneutics in their analysis of James 2:14-26.
As we have sought to demonstrate, when one approaches this "strawy"
section with an open mind and applies accepted techniques of
interpretation (see
Interpretation of Scripture;
see also
Stephen R Lewis'
Hermeneutics: Study of Interpretation of
Scriptures),
there is clearly no contradiction between Paul and James.
As Plumptre wrote...
the teaching of St James was not
meant ... to be antagonistic to that of St Paul, nor even to correct
mistaken inferences from it, but was altogether independent, and
probably prior in time, moving in its own groove, and taking its own
line of thought. (The Genera! Epistle of St James, The Cambridge Bible
for Schools and Colleges, pp. 669-70)
Justified
(1344)(dikaioo
from dike = right,
expected behavior or conformity, not according to one’s own
standard, but according to an imposed standard with prescribed
punishment for nonconformity)
(Click
for
more discussion of
dikaioo)
means to show or
declare the rightness of something or someone.
As used by Paul in
Romans (where
Romans 14 of 39
NT uses are found)
dikaioo had primarily a forensic (legal) use meaning that one is
declared righteous, acquitted. It is important to understand that
dikaioo is not a process but an act. Justification is what God does
when a sinner repents and believes on Christ. God does not "make" a
sinner righteous ("make" implies an ongoing process) but declares them
righteous at that moment. Justification is a once-for-all event that
never needs to be repeated, is never altered and is never revoked nor
rescinded. Justification is a change in a man's relation or standing
before God which has to do with relations that have been disturbed by
sin, and these relations are personal. It is a change from guilt and
condemnation to acquittal and acceptance. As already stated
justification in the sense just described is by faith alone in Christ
alone apart from works.
So how does
one reconcile James' "right strawy" statement that a man is
justified by works and not by faith? A plain reading of the text
seems to clearly contradict the doctrine of justification as taught by
Paul. The answer has been previously discussed in part in
James 2:21 (see notes),
where (1) we see from context that James believed in justification by
faith and (2) Paul and James both agreed that works were the fruit of
the root of genuine faith and salvation. Now we will look at the third
line of evidence that helps us understand that James is not
contradicting Paul.
THE MEANING OF DIKAIOO
...AS USED BY PAUL
...AS USED BY JAMES
The meaning
of dikaioo depends on the context and depending on which lexicon
you consult you will come up with a variety of definitions so please
be a Berean and do you own study of this word.
(1) To cause someone to
be in a proper or right relation with someone else. This use
corresponds to the vitally important truth imputed righteousness and
thus
means
to justify or to declare righteous, which is only accomplished by
faith and not by works. Most of the NT uses of dikaioo are by Paul
(with only 3 uses in James), so it follows that in order to understand
the doctrine of justification one would focus primarily on the
writings of Paul and not on these 3 isolated uses of dikaioo by James
(as some do who teach that James believed in salvation by faith plus
works).
Romans 3:24
(note)
being
justified (declared righteous and in proper or right relation
to God) as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in
Christ Jesus. (Clearly the implication is that a gift cannot be earned
or merited but only received!)
Romans 3:28 (note)
For we maintain that a man is justified by
faith apart from works of the Law.
Romans 4:2 (note)
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to
boast about; but not before God. (Clearly Paul is teaching that before
no man is justified by his works or his merit.)
Romans 4:5 (note)
But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who
justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as
righteousness,
Romans 5:1 (note)
Therefore having been justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Galatians 2:16 (Observe the "concentration" of dikaioo in this
single verse - Paul's 3 uses of dikaioo in one verse equal all of
James uses!) nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even
we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified
by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by
the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.
Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand
to Abraham, saying, "ALL THE NATIONS SHALL BE BLESSED IN YOU."
Galatians 3:24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead
us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.
Titus 3:7
that being justified (declared righteous and in proper or right
relation to God) by His grace we might be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. (Grace is unmerited favor, so
again we see that justification is a decree by God independent of
one's personal merits or works!)
(2) To show to be right
or
righteous.
Matthew 11:19 "The Son of
Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man
and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!'
Yet
wisdom is
vindicated (dikaioo - shown to be right, proved to be in
the right and accepted by God) by her deeds."
Luke 7:35 "Yet wisdom
is
vindicated (dikaioo - shown to be right) by all her
children."
James uses dikaioo in
this sense - to show to be righteous. And so we see that Abraham's
works show that he was righteous. He had been declared righteous by
faith in
Genesis 15:6, but was shown to be righteous in Genesis 22,
which is the point that James is making in the following passages.
James 2:21 Was not Abraham
our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son
on the altar? (Note: Do not misunderstand. James is not using
dikaioo in this context to say a Abraham was declared
righteous but that he was shown to be
righteous by his work - his willingness to offer Isaac. This "work"
was the visible manifestation to men of the fact that at some point in
time in the past -- Genesis 15:6 -- Abraham had been justified by
faith and declared
righteous by God on the basis of
his faith, not on the basis of his works. This verse illustrates why
it one has to be very careful to observe the context when defining any
Greek word. Many people read these three passages in James and are
confused because they read them in light of definition #1 above which
does not apply to this context. The New Living Translation does an
excellent job of accurately paraphrasing this passage to give it the
intended meaning...
James 2:21 Don't you
remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right
with
God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? (NLT)
James 2:24 You see that a
man is justified (shown to be righteous) by works, and
not
by faith alone.
James 2:25 And in the same
way was not Rahab the harlot also justified (shown to be
righteous)
by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by
another way?
In some cases dikaioo refers
to Jesus or God Who are demonstrated to be morally
right
(Divine vindication)...
Romans 3:4
May it
never
be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar,
as it is written, "That Thou mightest be justified (shown to be
just) in Thy words, And mightest prevail when Thou art judged."
(quoting Ps 51:4)
1Timothy 3:6 (This
description refers to Jesus)
And by common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was
revealed in the flesh, Was
vindicated (dikaioo - shown to be right) in the Spirit, Beheld by
angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken
up in glory.
In summary a brief survey of the
different contextual meanings of dikaioo indicates that
dikaioo does not always mean to declare righteous but can
also mean to show or demonstrate that one is righteous.
Clearly, James is using dikaioo in the latter sense in his
illustrations of genuine faith in the lives of Abraham the friend of
God and Rahab the harlot, for the premise of his entire argument is
that while faith is an invisible attribute, it can (and must) be
assessed as genuine or not on the basis of the works that come forth
from that faith.
Faith and works are like the light
and heat of a candle; they cannot be separated. (Anonymous)
Douglas Moo agrees and
writes that...
“justify” in Paul refers to
how a person gets into relationship with God, while in James it
connotes what that relationship must ultimately look like to receive
God’s final approval.
James is intent on demonstrating
that Abraham’s faith went much further than mere intellectual assent….
He therefore emphasizes that Abraham’s faith was not confined to a
mental reorientation at the time of his “conversion” or to an
occasional verbal profession but that it was an active force,
constantly at work along with his deeds. (The Letter of James.
Eerdmans. pp. 134-136)
Grudem explains justified
by works and not by faith alone...
James is simply saying here that “faith”
that has no results or “works” is not real faith at all; it is
“dead” faith. He is not denying Paul’s clear teaching that
justification (in the sense of a declaration of right legal standing
before God) is by faith alone apart from works of the law; he
is simply affirming a different truth, namely, that “justification” in
the sense of an outward showing that one is righteous only occurs as
we see evidence in a person’s life. To paraphrase, James is saying
that a person is “shown to be righteous by his works, and not by
his faith alone.” This is something with which Paul also would
certainly agree (2 Cor. 13:5; Gal 5:19-24). (Ibid) (Bolding added)
Faith alone - Hiebert
comments that...
The rendering of the ASV, "and not
only by faith," places the emphasis on "faith" and does not adequately
convey the force of "only," which stands emphatically at the end, "not
by faith alone." "The accent falls not only on the necessity of works,
but on the indissoluble union between faith and works (quoting Richard
Wolfe).' James believes in justification by faith, a faith that
produces works. But in refuting the position of his "faith only"
opponent, James here accepts his opponent's way of speaking and denies
that his inoperative faith alone saves. James believes that faith
justifies but not a "faith" that remains alone and produces no works.
(James. Moody Publishing. 1992)
Steven Cole has these
comments on "faith alone" writing that...
There is one other factor to
consider in reconciling James and Paul. When James says (2:24) “that
a man is justified by works and not by faith alone,” the addition
of the word “alone” shows that he is referring to the false
faith that he has been talking about in this section (Moo, p. 141).
This “bare faith,” or faith that does not result in a life of
good deeds, is not the kind of justifying faith that Paul talks about
in Romans 3 and 4.
Paul often spoke about “the
obedience of faith” (see notes
Romans 1:5;
Romans 16:26;
cf.
15:18).
He often emphasized the role of good deeds as a result of God’s grace
in the lives of His people (see notes
Titus 2:14;
Titus 3:5;
3:6;
3:7;
3:8).
So both Paul and James would agree
that genuine faith that justifies always results in a life of good
deeds. False faith that is an empty profession does not justify. Moo
(p. 141) sums it up this way,
If a sinner can get into a
relationship with God only by faith (Paul), the ultimate validation of
that relationship takes into account the works that true faith must
inevitably produce (James). (James
2:20-26 Are We Justified by Works?)
Albert Barnes comments on
James 2:24...
that by works a man is justified,
and not by faith only. Not by a cold, abstract, inoperative faith. It
must be by a faith that shall produce good works, and whose existence
will be shown to men by good works.
As justification takes place in the
sight of God, it is by faith, for He sees that the faith is genuine,
and that it will produce good works if the individual who exercises
faith shall live; and He justifies men in view of that faith, and of
no other.
If He sees that the faith is merely
speculative; that it is cold and dead, and would not produce good
works, the man is not justified in His sight. As a matter of fact,
therefore, it is only the faith that produces good works that
justifies; and good works, therefore, as the proper expression of the
nature of faith, foreseen by God as the certain result of faith, and
actually as seen by performed men, are necessary in order to
justification. In other words, no man will be justified who has not a
faith which will produce good works, and which is of an operative and
practical character. The ground of justification in the case is faith,
and that only; the evidence of it, the carrying it out, the proof of
the existence of the faith, is good works; and thus men are justified
and saved not by mere abstract and cold faith, but by a faith
necessarily connected with good works, and where good works perform an
important part. James, therefore, does not contradict Paul, but he
contradicts a false explanation of Paul's doctrine, he does not deny
that a man is justified in the sight of God by faith, for the very
passage which he quotes shows that he believes that; but he does deny
that a man is justified by a faith which would not produce good works,
and which is not expressed by good works; and thus he maintains, as
Paul always did, that nothing else than a holy life can show that a
man is a true Christian, and is accepted of God. (Albert Barnes.
Barnes NT Commentary)
SUMMARY OF
JAMES' TEACHING ON
SALVATION
First, the discerning reader will
avoid confusion if he or she remembers that the primary purposes of
Paul and James, while related, are distinct...
The main goal of Paul is to
teach the true meaning of justification by faith alone
or how a person is saved (justified).
The main goal of James is to
teach how to discern the genuineness of one's faith and
distinguish it from a dead faith that does not result in justification
(salvation).
As Augustus Toplady
explained there is no disagreement between Paul and James for...
If God gives you St Paul's faith,
you will soon have St James' works
To summarize James is not
teaching that salvation is by faith plus works but he is teaching that
a faith that truly saves really has good works.
(1) In context James believes in
salvation by faith alone
(2) James uses dikaioo with a
different meaning then Paul
(3) James and Paul both teach that
works are a reflection of genuine salvation.
><>><>><>
Let all who hold this faith and
hope in holy deeds abound
Thus faith approves itself sincere by active virtue crowned.
-Unknown
><>><>><>
THE WORKS OF FAITH - by
Andrew Murray - IT has often been supposed that there was opposition
betwixt this utterance of James and the doctrine of Paul. It is to be
nevertheless acknowledged at once that this is not the case, when one
reflects that the works of which Paul speaks are entirely different
from those which James intends. Paul always speaks of the works of the
law: James has his eye upon the works of faith. The works of the law
are those which are done out of the personal power of man, m the
direction of fulfilling the law of God in order to merit the favour of
God and make himself worthy of it. Of these the word of God says, that
man is justified without the works of the law. He can do nothing that
is good or meritorious: all that comes from him is impure and
deserving of wrath. On the contrary, the works of faith of which James
speaks are those which must be done for the confirmation and the
perfecting of faith, and thus out of the power which God gives and not
to merit anything. They serve to manifest that which faith has
received from free grace. They follow upon conversion, while the works
of the law can only precede this change. The works of the law will be
able to glorify man: the works of faith give God all the honour; for
they are done in the acknowledgment of personal unworthiness. Works
and faith go together, as being both fruits of grace and tokens of the
renewing of the mind; faith as the root of the works, the works as the
perfecting of faith.
In this way it can now be clearly
understood what the word of God means, when in one passage it says:
"To him that worketh not but believeth, his faith is reckoned for
righteousness," and then again insists on works. The works which are
done apart from faith, as an endeavour to make ourselves worthy of
God's favour and thus keep us back from faith, the reception of God's
free grace, are not to be done: they are abominable in the eyes of
God: "He that worketh not is justified." The works which are done with
and in faith, while the soul in the sense of its unworthiness commits
itself to the gracious promises of God, just because it hopes or knows
that the Lord receives it apart from its merits, and seeks to praise
Him for them, are acceptable to God, and must be done, the more the
better. And it is of these that it is said that "man is justified by
works": they are the manifestation of faith and actual fruit-bearing,
and not merely of a faith that continues inactive, and is thus dead.
Let the soul which seeks to come to
Jesus in faith thus understand what it is to think of works. As soon
as it begins to look upon its works as the ground of merit, as soon as
it begins to say in fear, "My works are too small, too trifling, too
sinful for me to be received," it must at once remember that "man is
justified without works." No sin or ungodliness of which you have been
guilty ought to keep you back from the hope of grace. Yet, on the
other side, in order that the soul may not perhaps sit down in idle
inactivity, in order that it may not go on in sin while it relies upon
grace, let it be remembered that as soon as the first beginnings of
the desire for grace awake within us -- this, if it is sincere, will
necessarily show itself active in the doing of God's will. We shall be
able to pray with confidence and in truth, "forgive us our debts,"
only when at the same time we just as heartily endeavour to say, "as
we forgive our debtors"; just as John writes, "Let us not love in
word, neither with the tongue but in deed and truth. Hereby shall we
know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him";
and, "If our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God."
(Compare further 1 John 3:21-22, as also Psalm 18:22-27.) Thus we
learn to understand rightly the word, "work for God worketh in you,"
that is, by faith; and our works become the lovely evidences of His
heavenly grace, the foretokens of His everlasting favour. (Andrew
Murray. Why Do You Not Believe)
