Nothing like a boring, academic post to start out a Monday. If you’d prefer something funny, check out Sunday’s post on my irrational fear. If you would like something controversial, check out Friday’s post on the Confederate flag. If you’d like to know more about my take on the North Carolina primary tomorrow, read the post about missing my opportunity to see Hillary Clinton (and I took part in a phone survey on Saturday as well. I had to say “undecided” for all but one of the races. I really need to figure out who I’m voting for). If you’d rather read my paper on justification by faith in the book of James, you’re in the right place. If you’d like to know why I can’t write a real post today, consider that this paper is one of three due in a week’s time. Fortunately, it’s the longest. I plan on writing another tonight, and the last one on Wednesday night.

Justification by faith is one of the key doctrines of the Protestant faith. How the book of James relates to this doctrine has been debated for hundreds of years. If James’s discussion of faith, works, and justification in James 2:14-26 is interpreted incorrectly, it could be used to support the view that one is justified by works.[1] If that interpretation is taken, this would also bring up issues of the consistency of New Testament theology and inerrancy of the Bible as there would be discrepancies between the various New Testament authors.[2] Following Martin Luther, many have denied the presence of justification by faith in the book of James, thus putting him in disagreement with Paul. According to this view, Paul writes about justification by faith while James writes about justification by works particularly in James 2:14-26. For this reason, Luther gave James a second-tier status.[3] He felt that there was no evidence of justification by faith in the book of James as is taught elsewhere in the New Testament, therefore James must be an inferior book.[4] Contrary to the opinion of this great reformer, justification is indeed found in the book of James. Justification by faith is an important doctrine that can be found here with a proper understanding of what James is saying about faith, works, and justification. This view is important for those who hold the entire Bible, including the book of James, as the inerrant Word of God as it must be consistent from book to book.

In James 2:14-26, James makes very clear that he is talking about faith and works, mentioning twice that “faith without works is dead.”[5] Justification also appears prominently, with the word “justified” used three times. Whatever the background one sees behind the text will color how one views the issue at hand. Ryan C. Jenkins points out that there is nothing “unique about James’s great aversion for false professions of faith that were not vindicated by works.”[6] This is a subject found elsewhere in Scriptures in the writings of Paul as well as in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s teaching. There has been much discussion as to what James was trying to accomplish with this passage. John Calvin believed that James was trying to deal with professing Christians who acted like pagans.[7] Others believe that James was dealing with antinomian teaching in the church.[8] According to this argument, James was teaching that works are necessary to justify the believer in order to receive true salvation contrary to the false teaching James was addressing that apparently taught that salvation had nothing to do with works.[9] Another possible interpretation of James’s purpose is to understand him as writing against fraudulent faith that is divorced from works.[10] This might have also been a pastoral concern as well.[11] It seems reasonable to understand that James was concerned about professing Christians who were not acting as they ought by ignoring the poor and using their tongues carelessly and viciously, issues hit heavily at other points in the letter.

It is important to keep in mind that James is not discussing here how one is saved but rather the marks of a true believer. James is assuming his audience consists believers, not doubting their salvation.[12] Though some believe that James was addressing those who struggled with reconciling law and grace together,[13] it seems more likely that the originally intended readers were not exercising their faith out of the belief that salvation comes through a faith which had nothing to do with works. Some scholars have turned this into an issue with believers living out their faith as a witness to others and not simply having faith which is not visible to others.[14] Regardless, it is quite clear that the audience that James intended were believers not prospects, most likely of Jewish background,[15] which lends credence to the view that James is not talking about how one obtains salvation but how one acts upon it.

Many Biblical scholars today believe that the teaching James is writing against is that of Paul or Paul’s followers who distorted his message.[16] It does appear at first sight that when James says “a man is justified by works and not by faith alone”[17] he is contradicting Paul in Romans 3:28, “a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.”[18] According to this view, James is correcting the misunderstanding of Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith as some had interpreted it to mean that works had absolutely no bearing on salvation, not even to bear witness to faith.[19] The church’s tradition had apparently already distorted this early teaching of Paul into something not recognizably Pauline.[20] This assumes that James wrote after Paul did, or at least after Paul’s teaching was known and accepted. If one takes the position that James was opposing a distortion of Paul’s teaching, James must be writing even later. However, there is no evidence that supports the idea that James had previously read Paul’s letters to the Galatians or the Romans before he wrote this letter.[21] If written in the mid 40s as many surmise, James would not have been familiar with Paul’s writings and may not have even know anything else about Paul.[22] It is unlikely that James is countering the teaching of Paul or a distortion of it because of the dating of this book.

The reason why James’s doctrines of faith, works, and salvation is of such importance is because these doctrines’ importance in the rest of the New Testament, especially in the letters of Paul. For an inerrantist, it is important that the entire Bible present one belief system, not several. Therefore, when Paul and James appear to disagree, there must be something more going on than what is seen initially. One way of explaining the difference is by saying that Paul and James are addressing two different situations.[23] This may be further nuanced by the idea that James is coming behind Paul and correcting the confusion and distortion of Paul’s original teaching of justification by faith, which has already been denied.[24] This understanding would allow for the using of similar phrasing among the two authors’ apparently contradictory statements while meaning two entirely different things. John Calvin took this view, and it has therefore been influential to reformed thought in the past few centuries.[25] It is also possible to understand the difference by considering that James may be focusing on the human response to Paul’s focus on the divine action of the same encounter with God.[26]

It is clear from the evangelical point of view that whatever Paul and James say, they must be in agreement with one another.[27] This is why some have said that James was simply clarifying Paul’s teaching in such passages such as Romans 4.[28] Taking the belief that James actually wrote before Paul means that he was not clarifying Paul’s teachings, but rather addressing the corruption of the Gospel that was disseminated among the churches. Justification by faith is not simply Paul’s issue, it is found throughout the Bible and is therefore the teaching of God Himself. Though the writing of James on one hand should be allowed to speak for itself,[29] the interpreter of the text must allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. It is important neither to gloss over what James says or to put what he says as in opposition to the teaching of the rest of God’s Word. Arthur E. Travis puts it well when he says that James “does not use the same words which Paul uses, but he does teach the same truth.”[30] Indeed, this is the same truth that is threaded throughout the Old and New Testaments, that the just shall live by faith.[31]

Viewing the apparent discrepancy between James and Paul as a semantics issue requires further understanding of how exactly each author is using the words they do use. If it is possible to explain away the difference by coming to a better understanding of terminology, the tension between the writings of Paul and James will not be a doctrinal issue and thus not a problem for those who hold to the inerrancy of Scripture.[32] The words could be the same, but if the nuance of meaning of the words was different as dictated by context, than two different ideas would be presented.[33] It will be important for this study to know exactly how James is using the key terms in the passage: faith, works, and justified, and how that is different than the way Paul uses those same terms.

The first term to consider is the word translated “faith.” The Greek word, pistis, is commonly found in the writings of Paul as well. The understanding that pistis here in James would better be translated “faithfulness to the covenant”[34] or “love of the law”[35] must be rejected. If this is the correct understanding of what James means, then he would be preaching a law-based salvation, not a grace-based Gospel. James could be explaining faith in a different way than Paul by describing “the active side of faith and Paul the passive side.”[36] This would mean that Paul is describing faith as what happens to an individual and James as what the individual does with what happens. When Paul uses the word faith, it “embraces comprehensively all that James means by ‘faith and works.’ ”[37]

A possible definition of James’s use of the word “faith” is “orthodox belief conventionally expressed.”[38] True faith must be more than this intellectual assent to the truth, otherwise the demons could obtain salvation by faith as well.[39] God does not justify a person simply because they believe the facts of the Bible in the same way they believe mathematics and science or “because he or she is very orthodox or can pass a test in systematic theology.”[40] Calvin said that one does “not attain salvation by a frigid and bare knowledge of God.”[41] Describing the demons as having this type of belief in God would have jarred the readers as it “perfectly illustrates the poverty of verbal profession in and of itself.”[42] No, James is arguing for a greater understanding of what it means to have faith than that. There also must be a life characterized by “trust in Christ.”[43] This antinomian belief that works are unrelated to faith is just as much refuted in the Word of God as is the works-based righteousness of which Luther was leery.[44] When James says that faith without works is dead, he is referring to a “mere profession of faith” while Paul uses the same word to describe “a dynamic possession of faith.”[45] James wants his readers to go beyond the simple profession of Christian belief towards trust and obedience which, along with intellectual belief, “must all be genuine and sincere, even if they are never perfect” in order to have salvation.[46]

True faith “is a personal and confident trust in God, not barrenly intellectual but spiritually dynamic.”[47] While it may be possible that James’s readers have this shallow type of faith, James wants them to know that this type of faith is worthless.[48] James is speaking ironically when he says that this faith is dead, because in actuality, it is not faith at all.[49] If it was true faith, it would bear good works “because fruit ever comes from the living root of a good tree.”[50] Paul would have been in full agreement with this statement as well.[51] Because it lacks works this faith is dead outwardly, but this is merely a symptom of its inward deadness.[52] Its inward deadness as evidenced by the outward lack of works is what make this faith meaningless.

James is not intending to outline the mere minimum of faith that is required for salvation, but rather the fullness of saving faith and how it works. This saving faith will have works.[53] True faith is benefited and perfected by works, though these works do not lead to faith.[54] Works “are literally the source providing the resources for [faith’s] grown-up form.”[55] Faith of itself is good, but that faith should work itself out.[56] Calvin used the analogy of heat and light from the sun to help Christians understand that faith and works cannot be separated.[57] At the initial point of conversion it may be impossible to see the convert’s faith working, but good works are inevitable if he is a true believer.[58] These works vindicate the believer’s faith and shows that it is real and not fake and fading.[59] Though good works may be possible without faith, true faith will prove itself over time.

The purpose of true faith is primarily salvation. It is only by trusting in God, the One whose works achieve salvation, for salvation can one receive it. The type of faith that is evidenced is the same kind of faith that effects salvation.[60] On the other hand, dead faith is meaningless soteriologically as it merely masks the person’s inward distrust and disinterest in God.[61] However, it is clear that James finds a greater importance to faith than the possessor’s salvation. Another purpose of faith is good works, which is what he is emphasizing here.[62] Faith working in love is valuable.[63] In light of this, there can be some discussion as to whether the preaching of the Gospel is sufficient by itself, or if it must be accompanied by “a program of social action.”[64] While all believers are called to share the good news, they are also called to work out their salvation through good works as seen here in James. A missional or evangelistic program that focuses exclusively on good works is not warranted as it will be at the expense of the Gospel, but neither should Gospel preaching be unaccompanied by good works. If good works are neglected, the truth of the Gospel message can easily be overlooked even though it is proclaimed. Unbelievers look for a reason to not aacept the initially uncomfortable Gospel message, and if the preachers and followers of such a message do not practice their faith, these unbelievers will consider this evidence as proof of the untruthfulness and unworthiness of the message.

Not only does one need to understand “faith,” but he also needs to understand “works” as used by James. In Romans 3 when Paul is speaking against justification by works, he is speaking about works of the Law. James seems to be using “works” slightly differently as these come from faith, not the desire to fulfill the law.[65] The Greek word ergon translated “works” can also be translated “action” or “accomplishment.”[66] “Works” can be defined here as “doing good as the natural results or fruit of true faith.”[67] They are everything that is done for God, everything that is done in faith.[68] These works are the day-to-day examples of preexisting faith.[69] Surely one of the chief examples of faith in James’s mind is the treatment of the poor based on the context of the passage.[70] Since works require faith in order to be pleasing to God, it is clear that they cannot merit the doer salvation.[71] Men cannot weigh their hearts, thus they must rely on works in order to vindicate and prove their faith.[72] This concept is also found in the teachings of Jesus, as He said that the difference between a true believer and a pretender can be found in the fruit of his life.[73]

The word translated “justified” in James 2:24 is key to the understanding of what James is saying. The term is also important for one’s understanding of the Gospel because it is vital to the Gospel message.[74] The word translated “justified” in this passage, dikaiow, “never connotes the moral sense of ‘making one innately righteous.’ ”[75] Instead, it is a judicial term, meaning that one is declared righteous. Some such as Luther[76] and Allan C. Clifford[77] believe that James and Paul use “justified” in the same way, but this seems like a difficult position to hold as it would necessarily put James 2:24 and Galatians 3:28 in tension. In order to demonstrate that James is not discussing earning salvation and being justified by works, many assume that James is using the word differently than Paul is in such passages as Romans 3:28. Rather than talking about being declared righteous by works as Paul is,[78] James is using “justified” to denote the demonstration of salvation and faith as being true.[79] Paul uses the word “justified” to refer to the “initial declaration of a sinner’s innocence before God.”[80] James on the other hand is stating that one’s faith is vindicated and validated as true by their deeds.[81] This is not a contradiction, James and Paul are simply talking about different aspects of justification. Another way of stating James’s understanding of justification would be to say that “justified” means “having a just claim to one’s profession” of faith.[82] It is the “universal demonstration of righteousness that is accomplished by works.”[83] If James was talking about the same justification or declaration of righteousness that Paul talks about, he would say that that type of justification comes from God by faith as Paul does. While some scholars seem to indicate that this vindication of faith is only before others,[84] it does not seem inappropriate to say that a believer’s acts of righteousness can prove not only to man but to God their faith, just like the acts of Abraham and Rahab did. This does not preclude that God sees into our hearts and knows the tenor of our faith, because He certainly does.

It is clear that James is not teaching justification by works, as some propose, but justification by faith, a key doctrine in the New Testament. One is saved by God through faith in Him, but true saving faith is not a one time thing to never be considered again. James encourages his readers to consider the quality of their faith by considering the quality of their works. A professing believer who appears not to bear works needs to stop and consider himself. Is his faith merely the intellectual consent referred to by James as dead? While there are certainly times in a believer’s life where fruit is not as evident and sin will ever be present in his life, he should be able to see an increasing pattern of good works in his life as the Holy Spirit works in and through him. Church members also need to stop and consider if they are trusting in their good works to obtain salvation, rather than seeking to work out their salvation to the glory of God. A healthy understanding of the place of good works in the Christian walk is important. Neither is it excusable to be lacking good works nor is it excusable to be trusting in them. Many today have the type of faith that James describes as being dead. This faith is never faith from the start. The individual may believe that he has everything in order to get into heaven, but Christianity is of little other concern to him. He never gets beyond the basic belief in God, and exercising his faith is at best insincere and superficial. To combat this, the complete Gospel must be preached from the pulpit. Lives should be examined prior to baptism. Since it is difficult to see evidence of salvation initially, baptism should be delayed long enough until the church is more confident of the true conversion of the sinner. Church discipline as according to the Bible should be carried out to encourage true believers to pursue sanctification and to let baptized unbelievers know that they are not in right standing with the church when they act on their unbelief, and therefore probably not in right standing with God. The church as a whole needs to take a greater role in helping the poor, not relying on the government to take care of those in need among their church body and beyond. Churches should be the primary benefactor of those in need, not government welfare and unemployment offices. In these ways believers can seek to act on their faith and to be a better witness to the unbelieving community around them, thus honoring their Lord.
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[1] W. Nichol, “Faith and Works in the Letter of James,” in Essays on the General Epistles of the New Testament (Pretoria: The New Testament Society of South Africa, 1975), 22.
[2] Ronald Y. K. Fung, “ ‘Justification’ in the Epistle of James,” in Right with God: Justification in the Bible and the World, ed. D. A. Carson (Guernsey: Paternoster, 1992), 146.
[3] John G. Lodge, “James and Paul at Cross Purposes? James 2:22,” Biblica 62 (1981): 195.
[4] F. F. Bruce, “Justification by Faith in the Non-Pauline Writings of the New Testament,” The Evangelical Quarterly 24 (1952): 74.
[5] James 2:26, New American Standard Version, Updated (NASU).
[6] Ryan C. Jenkins, “Faith and Works in Paul and James,” Bibliotheca Sacra 159 (2002): 78.
[7] W. Stanford Reid, “Justification by Faith According to John Calvin,” Westminster Theological Journal 42 (1980), 301.
[8] Arthur E. Travis, “James and Paul, a Comparative Study,” Southwestern Journal of Theology 12 (1969): 72.
[9] Ibid., 64.
[10] Wiard Popkes, “Two Interpretations of ‘Justification’ in the New Testament Reflections on Galatians 2:15-21 and James 2:21-25,” Studia Theologica 59 (2005): 134.
[11] Jenkins, “Faith,” 74.
[12] R. T. Kendall, Justification by Works: How Works Vindicate True Faith, Sermons on James 1-3 (Waynesboro: Paternoster, 2001), 166.
[13] Jenkins, “Faith,” 73.
[14] Kendall, Justification, 172-174.
[15] Popkes, “Interpretations,” 138.
[16] Travis, “Study,” 57; Popkes, “Interpretations,” 135.
[17] James 2:24, NASU.
[18] Romans 3:28, NASU.
[19] Popkes, “Interpretations,” 138.
[20] Ibid., 129.
[21] Bruce, “Justification,” 72.
[22] Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to James, Pillar New Testament Commentary, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 121.
[23] Ralph P. Martin, James, World Biblical Commentary, vol. 48, ed. David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Waco: Word Books, 1988), 83; Curtis Vaughan, James, Bible Study Commentary (Grand Rapids: Lamplighter Books, 1969), 56.
[24] Fung, “Justification,” 160.
[25] Reid, “Justification,” 301.
[26] Alan C. Clifford, “The Gospel and Justification,” the Evangelical Quarterly 57 (1983): 266.
[27] Arthur, “James,” 57.
[28] Jenkins, “Faith,” 74.
[29] Nichol, “Faith,” 65.
[30] Travis, “James,” 58.
[31] Habakkuk 2:4.
[32] Travis, “James,” 65.
[33] Vaughan, James, 56.
[34] Popkes, “Interpretations,” 135.
[35] Nichol, “Faith,” 11.
[36] Simon J. Kistemaker, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Epistles of James and the Epistles of John (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1986), 87.
[37] Clifford, “Gospel,” 262.
[38] Peter. H. Davids, New International Biblical Commentary: James, ed. W. Ward Gasque (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishing, 1989), 63.
[39] James 2:19.
[40] Davids, International, 70.
[41] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles. Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 1999. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom45.html (accessed April 19, 2008), 217.
[42] Moo, Letter, 131.
[43] Jenkins, “Faith,” 65.
[44] Jenkins, “Faith,” 77.
[45] Jenkins, “Faith,” 65; emphasis original.
[46] Clifford, “Gospel,” 263.
[47] Bruce, “Justification,” 75.
[48] Travis, “James,” 61.
[49] Calvin, Commentaries, 219.
[50] Fung, “Justification,” 219.
[51] Bruce, “Justification,” 75.
[52] Moo, Letter, 126.
[53] Jenkins, “Faith,” 68.
[54] Reid, “Justification,” 301.
[55] Popkes, “Interpretations,” 134.
[56] Nicol, “Faith,” 17.
[57] Reid, “Justification,” 301.
[58] Moo, Letter, 120.
[59] Jenkins, “Faith,” 66.
[60] Travis, “James,” 67.
[61] Martin, World, 82.
[62] Nichol, “Faith,” 16.
[63] Galatians 5:6; Calvin, Commentaries, 217.
[64] Kistemaker, New Testament, 89.
[65] Clifford, “Gospel,” 261.
[66] Moo, Letter, 123.
[67] Travis, “Justification,” 66.
[68] Moo, Letter, 140.
[69] Travis, “James,” 66.
[70] Moo, Letter, 120.
[71] Romans 14:23, Hebrews 11:6.
[72] Jenkins, “Faith,” 69.
[73] Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43; Jenkins, “Faith,” 75.
[74] Jenkins, “Faith,” 62.
[75] Ibid., 67.
[76] Bruce, “Justification,” 75.
[77] Clifford, “Gospel,” 261.
[78]Jenkins, “Faith,” 64.
[79] Jenkins, “Faith,” 68.
[80] Moo, Letter, 141.
[81] Travis, “James,” 64.
[82] Vaughan, James, 56.
[83] Jenkins, “Faith,” 64; emphasis original.
[84] Kendall, Justification, 173.