{"id":39149,"date":"2021-10-29T10:05:52","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T15:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=39149"},"modified":"2021-10-29T10:05:52","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T15:05:52","slug":"justification-by-works-in-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/justification-by-works-in-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Justification by Works in James"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

by Matthew W. Bassford<\/p>\n

Earlier, I wrote about Paul’s discussion of justification by works<\/a> in the first four chapters of Romans. In it, he says that justification by works requires perfect obedience to God, which no one but Jesus has achieved. Thus, Christians must seek salvation by faith apart from works. Similarly, baptism for the forgiveness of sins is an expression of faith, not an attempt to justify oneself by works.<\/p>\n

In response, I received a question about justification by works in James. In his epistle, James appears to directly contradict Paul. After all, in Romans 3:28, Paul says that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law. In James 2:24, James says that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.<\/p>\n

What gives? How can it be that two inspired writers would say such different things?<\/p>\n

The key to resolving the question is to recognize that Paul and James don’t mean the same thing either by “works” or by “faith”. In context, this is obvious. Throughout Romans, Paul uses “works” as shorthand for perfect Law-keeping (or perfect righteousness by a Gentile). In Paul’s terms, justification by works requires a lifetime of perfection.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>James, however, doesn’t use “works” to mean a lifetime of perfection. Instead, he uses it to refer to specific righteous actions. In his discussion of the issue, he cites two examples of justification by works: Abraham offering up Isaac (James 2:21) and Rahab saving the spies (James 2:25).
\nNeither of those people was justified by works in a Pauline sense. Abraham lied because his faith was weak. Rahab also lied, and she was a prostitute besides. Both sinned and therefore fall short of the glory of God. However, both also revealed their faith through their behavior, and by those faith-filled works, they were justified.\n

Interestingly, James’ definition of justification by works is quite similar to Paul’s definition of justification by faith. Paul’s two examples, Abraham and David, were justified by faith (David being fully as imperfect as Abraham was), but neither was a spiritual do-nothing. Both believed in the promises of God and acted in accordance with those promises. Indeed, Paul goes on to make the point in Romans 6 that our receipt of grace through faith requires us to transform our lives. Pauline faith works.<\/p>\n

Not so with Jamesian “faith”. His two examples of faith without works are the Christian who doesn’t help a brother or sister in need (James 2:15-16) and the demons (James 2:19). Both acknowledge that God exists; neither honors Him as King through obedience.<\/p>\n

James’ most telling comment about them appears in James 2:14, where he observes that such a one “says he has faith<\/em>“. Though he’s not going to debate the point, James doesn’t really think that the non-worker has faith either. The Pauline analog, as per Romans 6:15, is the one who sins because he is under grace, not law.<\/p>\n

As we would expect, there is no contradiction between Romans and James. The two epistles address two different problems. The former is concerned with Judaizing teachers who bind circumcision even though doing so only makes sense as part of an attempt to justify oneself by works. The latter is concerned with Christians who don’t think they have to follow Christ. Additionally, both epistles have the same bottom line. We must seek salvation through faith, but we also must live lives of obedience that show that our faith is genuine.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Matthew W. Bassford Earlier, I wrote about Paul’s discussion of justification by works in the first four chapters of Romans. In it, he says that justification by works requires perfect obedience to God, which no one but Jesus has achieved. Thus, Christians must seek salvation by faith apart from works. Similarly, baptism for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,335,1071,55],"class_list":["post-39149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faith","tag-james","tag-justification","tag-works"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61195,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/works-in-the-book-of-romans\/","url_meta":{"origin":39149,"position":0},"title":"Works in the Book of Romans","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Irvin Himmel via\u00a0Truth Magazine\u00a0XXIII: 2, pp. 43-45, January 11, 1979 Frequently Paul mentions works or deeds in his epistle to the saints at Rome. Whatever he means by \"works,\" the term expresses something opposed to grace and faith. He insists that justification does not find its source in works.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15877,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-and-works-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":39149,"position":1},"title":"Faith and Works (Sharp)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Keith Sharp The doctrine of salvation by faith alone is fundamental to Protestant theology. The old Methodist Discipline stated, \u201cWherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.\u201d The Standard Baptist Manual, by Edward T. Hiscox teaches, \u201c... the great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":618,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-romans-51-teach-we-are-saved-by-faith-alone\/","url_meta":{"origin":39149,"position":2},"title":"Doesn’t Romans 5:1 teach we are saved by faith alone?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Doesn't\u00a0Romans 5:1\u00a0teach that we are saved by faith alone? Answer: Romans 5:1\u00a0says, \"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.\" This proves that justification requires faith, but your stated goal was to prove that justification was by faith\u00a0alone. There is no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28534,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-comparison-of-romans-4-and-james-214-26\/","url_meta":{"origin":39149,"position":3},"title":"A Comparison of Romans 4 and James 2:14-26","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jim Sasser Recently, we have been listening to a speaker on this radio station discussing the 4th chapter of Romans as compared to the 2nd chapter of James. It was obvious, from some of his statements, that he was trying to make Paul teach salvation by faith only and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":96132,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/works-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":39149,"position":4},"title":"Works","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton In Romans 3-4 We are justified \"by faith apart from the deeds of the Law\" (Romans 3:28). To be justified by means of the deeds of the law, one would have to be perfect and never sin. Break one law and being justified by the deeds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95549,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/works\/","url_meta":{"origin":39149,"position":5},"title":"Works","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Paul believed that there were two kinds of works: Works of the law of Moses, where you would have to earn a right standing with God (Romans 3:28; 4:2,4). Since all are condemned by sin, this will never happen (Romans 3:23; 6:23). This is the kind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}