DOES FAITH PLUS WORKS SECURE SALVATION?
One observation that is often raised when reading the Epistle of James is that James’s teaching about the relationship between works and faith seems to “contradict” what Paul taught on the subject. One thing we should remember with respect to the Epistle of James is that in all probably it is earlier than any of Paul’s letters. Some seemed to think that James is disagreeing with Paul. However, with respect to chronology, if anyone is disagreeing with someone, it would have been Paul disagreeing with James, and not vice versa. However, contrary to what some may assert, there is no real conflict between these two early church leaders, a fact which is objectively documented in Acts 15.13-29 and Galatians 2.7-9.
Nevertheless, some perceive a conflict when they attempt to understand James’s use of the word “justify” through Paul’s use of the very same word. Before turning my attention to James’s use, an important observation should be made concerning his theology on salvation. James never taught that a person is saved through works alone. James mentions the word “faith” just as many times as he mentions the word “works” (actually more if one includes relative pronouns and synonyms). For James, faith and works were different sides of the same coin rather than two separate actions or entities. His problem, however, was with those claiming belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and yet showed little objective evidence of it in their lives. So let’s be clear, James was not concerned with performing religious works for the sake of securing justification before God, but rather with certain types of works that reveal genuine saving faith.
Now as to James’s and Paul’s use of the word “justify.” When Paul used the word “justify” he almost exclusively used it in the forensic sense. In other words, he used in the context of God’s declaration of a new completed reality. More specifically, he used it to describe what God declares as an accomplished status for sinners through their faith in Christ (Rom 5.1, 8-9; 1 Cor 6.9-11; Titus 3.5-7). And just for the record, when God declares something accomplished, it is then a reality—it no longer should be thought of as belonging to the realm of the potential. Generally speaking, therefore, when Paul used the word “justify,” he was predominantly describing what God has accomplished for a sinner in spite of his/her guilt. In God’s courtroom, he declares the repentant sinner justified and thus righteous in His eyes because of Christ’s payment for his or her sin debt.
This is not what James meant as he used the word “justify.” If this word had only one nuance or one specific meaning in which it always meant the exact same thing in every context, then unquestionably Paul and James would be in conflict. However, it does not have the same exact meaning in every context, and even Paul and Jesus also used this very word with a very different nuance. And what is this different meaning? It is the meaning or sense of “vindication.” As previously explained, Paul predominantly used the word with the meaning of God declaring a guilty but repentant sinner as “justified” through his or her acceptance of Christ as their savior, and thus he has confirmed upon them a new status. However, in a different context, the proper understanding of this word is “to vindicate or acknowledge that the righteous were already in fact what they claimed to be, which is ‘righteous.’” In other words, it is not a declaration of a new state of being, but a declaration that what was previously claimed was in fact true. Following are examples of where Paul and Jesus used this word with this very meaning. The first is Romans 3.4 with respect to God’s judgments. The question we should ask ourselves is this, are God’s declarations ever wrong or incorrect? No, they are not. In this passage, therefore, God’s judgments are not being declared right in spite of the fact that they were not, but rather they are being “proved right” (NIV) or vindicated as being right. Again, in 1 Timothy 3.16 Paul stated that Jesus was “vindicated” (NASB) by the Holy Spirit during his earthly ministry. In other words, the Holy Spirit did not declare Jesus as right in spite of himself, rather the Spirit revealed or vindicated Jesus to be what he already was, which was the righteous one sent by God. And lastly, Jesus stated in Matthew 11:19 that “Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds” (NABS). Did Jesus mean that wisdom needs to be declared right in spite of itself, or that wisdom is vindicated to be exactly what it is (i.e., wisdom) by her deeds? Clearly what Jesus meant was that wisdom is always wisdom, and her deeds reveal this to be obvious, because through them the integrity of authentic wisdom is inevitably demonstrated.
And this is exactly James’s point, which is that authentic faith is vindicated as genuine saving faith because it results in a changed life that is habitually faithful, compassionate, and loving. A mere confession of faith without any works that are the natural result of authentic faith is useless, and therefore dead. In other words, simply saying that you “believe” in Jesus is not a “hall pass” that excuses your unbelief. God is not fooled by anyone’s hypocrisy with respect to their relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, let’s take a deeper look at what James actually taught about the relationship of faith and works, as well as his examples of genuine faith. If we look at James’s quote of Genesis 15.6, we see that he states that Abraham’s attempted offering of Isaac “fulfilled” what God had already declared to be true concerning Abraham. More specifically, Abraham’s actions revealed that he had already sincerely trusted God with for his life and what God had promised him concerning his descendants. And for the record, James fully understood that God had already declared Abraham righteous well before he placed Isaac upon that alter, which is obvious by James’s quote of Genesis 15.3 (the account of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac is found in Genesis 22). Again, Rahab’s faith was vindicated as genuine faith by her decision to hide the Israelite spies. Consequently, her deed proved that she had already truly believed in the God of Israel. There is something very intriguing about the specific actions of these two OT believers. Think about them, one attempted sacrifice of a child, and the other was the treasonous act of a harlot. In other words, they are not the types of compassionate deeds that immediately come to mind when we think of what constitutes “good works.” When we think of “good works” we think of compassionate acts that show how good we really are, such as feeding the poor or sheltering the homeless. That is not what Abraham’s and Rahab’s actions demonstrated, their “good deeds” revealed that they had fully trusted God instead of their own capacity to benefit themselves. Consequently, their actions revealed that they already trusted in God and that their faith in him was genuine. More specifically, they revealed their total abandonment of all that they held dear for nothing more than a belief that God would provide for them. Such dependence is the hallmark of authentic saving faith.
And finally, Jesus as well as all of the other NT writers—including Paul—clearly taught that genuine faith produces “good works” in the lives of those who are saved (Matt 7.16-20; Eph 2.8-9; Titus 2.14; 1 Pet. 2.9-12; 1 Jn 3.13-18). So, without question the old proverb is soundly biblical, which is as follows: “While works do not save, saving faith works.” Consequently, James did not teach that salvation is the “reward” for those that believe and perform good works, but that works are a birthmark of those who have already been born again. Our attitude, therefore, should not be that we have to believe in Jesus and do good works in order to earn or secure salvation, but that because Jesus has already saved us, then we get to do good works that magnify the name of our wonderful savior and glorify God.
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Copyright @ 2013 Monte Shanks