In verse 20, James gets very direct and says, “Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?”
James is saying: “Do you have to be shown (do I have to take your hand like a child and show you) that genuine faith is made known through how you live. Genuine faith will cause you to live differently and more specifically faith will cause you to live obediently.
And James takes his readers to some of the hero’s of Israel’s history. And he gives us two examples of two very different people: A man in Abraham who was greatly respected as the father of the nation of Israel (also known as the father of faith) and a woman who was a Gentile prostitute who grew up in a pagan culture.
And while these two examples seem very different, their common denominator was their faith. But not only did they have faith but their faith was made evident in their works.
Verses 21-24
James references an event in the life of Abraham in which God asked Abraham to sacrifice is only son Isaac. Abraham placed his son on altar and before Abraham could go through with it. God stopped him. In this test, Abraham revealed his faith by his obedience to God.
And so this is the event that James is referencing. And James writes “Was not Abraham our father justified by works.”
The word justified means being made “right with God.” When we our justified our sins no longer condemn us. Through God, we have been given the righteousness of Christ and because of Christ we stand before God blameless. This is what happens when we trust in Jesus for our salvation. We are justified, made right before God.
And so James says, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works.” And we might say, “Woah, James, I am uncomfortable with that theology.”
Doesn’t Paul say in Romans 3:28, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works…”
And in Romans 4:5 Paul writes, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness…”
So what do we do with these words from James? It is words like these from James that makes some believe that James and Paul contradict each other. But they are not contradicting each other. In fact, James makes it clear they are both working from the same salvation theology.
In Romans 4:3-5 Paul says, “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness…”
And so Paul establishes a salvation theology that we are justified by faith alone.
And then in James’ discussion on faith he writes here in verses 22-23, “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”
James is also presenting a salvation theology where we justified by faith alone.
One bible commentator noted, ‘Paul and James do not stand face to face, fighting against each other, but they stand back to back, fighting opposite foes.’
In Romans, Paul is establishing a doctrine of salvation that is not rooted in obeying the law but in faith in Christ. This is why Paul uses the example of Abraham and says in Romans 4:2, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.”
James is exhorting Christians who have placed their faith in Christ, that genuine faith impacts how we live. And so by also using Abraham as an example and specifically, the example of offering up his son Isaac as a sacrifice in obedience to God, James is making the point that his faith was not just an intellectual faith but a faith that was transforming his life. Abraham’s faith propelled him to live obediently before God. His righteousness before GOD was made known and revealed by how he lived.
Abraham was proven faithful by his obedience.
Jesus talked about good trees producing good fruit and bad trees producing bad fruit. The good fruit doesn’t make the tree good but it simple reveals that the tree IS good.
In the same way, James says our works prove our faith. They don’t save us, but they reveal our faith is genuine faith.
Now the challenge with this passage is that in verse 24 at first glance James seems to be directly saying a person is justified by works. What do we do with that?
This word justified comes from the Greek word δικαιοο (pronounced dik-ah-yo’-o). And it is a word that can be used to declare someone as righteous but it can also be used to show or prove that someone is righteous. When Paul uses it, it is used in the context of one being made or declared right with God.
In Romans 3:28 (one of the many places that Paul uses the Greek word δικαιοο), Paul writes, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
In this context Paul is talking about one who is declared righteous before God – this is the work of salvation.
But in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
The word justified here is the same Greek word δικαιοο. But in this context in Matthew, the word is used to indicate one’s righteousness is revealed, made known, proven by their deeds or works.
And so when James says in verse 24, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone”, in this context (a context that has been established when he writes that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” James is saying that is a person is shown to be righteous by what he does.
This is why the New Living Translation translates verse 24: “So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.”
James is saying that our works prove, our works make known, our works reveal that we have been made right with God. Abraham was shown to be righteous through his obedience to God. That was the point of James using the example of Abraham and Isaac. It was an act of obedience that proved his faithfulness.
James concludes this passage with another example of someone’s faith being made known through what they did. And James mentions Rahab who is an interesting person to include.
When we first encountered Rahab in the book of Joshua, she was a prostitute living in the pagan city of Jericho. And when the spies from Israel scout out the city as God was calling Israel to conquer this city, she hid the spies and helped them leave the city unharmed.
Hebrews 11:31 says, “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.”
Now Scripture does not specifically tell us when she responded to the God of Israel by faith but Scripture does tell us that it was her faith that caused her to hide the spies. Her new relationship with God and her response of faith may have happened very close together.
And so James is telling us is that her actions revealed that she had been made right with God by faith.
And I believe the point of including her with Abraham is to say whether we view someone’s history as good and or we view someone’s history as bad, it is faith and faith alone that justifies. And that genuine faith will be made known regardless of who you are (whether you are Abraham or the pagan prostitute who just placed their faith in God) your faith will lead you to obedience. Your faith will be evident in your life.
A.W. Tozer wrote, “The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are opposite sides of the same coin.
If you profess faith in Christ, your life will demonstrate it. If the works are not in your life by your words and your behavior, you are either living in disobedience, or you do not have genuine faith.