Does James Contradict Paul?

Justification by works? Or, Does James Contradict Paul? (James 2:14-26)

A short time ago I had a conversation with a blogger about this very question. He had posted a blog declaring we are justified by faith and works and used this passage. I have been contemplating this post for some time, especially how to keep it short! Now I think I have hit upon a plan! While I am so tempted to look at the entire passage, I will only focus on this phrase, “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”

Is it possible that James is declaring that we are justified before God by faith and works? Let’s compare notes. 

The Book of Acts - I think it is safe to say that the complete conversion process described in Acts is repentance, faith, and baptism. Everyone who took these three steps was considered a Christian. In fact, there are two places in Acts where someone asked, What must I do?

2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

16: 30  And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

33  And he…was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

Neither Peter nor Paul said anything about works – and what a perfect opportunity to explain to the inquirers that they had to believe and work. Upon repentance, faith, and baptism they were promised remission of sins and salvation. If James is teaching justification by faith and works he is clearly contradicting the message in the book of Acts.

Paul - he has a lot to say about justification. But it can be summed up in this one verse, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). Notice the tense, being justified, or, having been justified. This took place in the past, when we believed in Jesus. How do we know that we are already completely justified? “We have peace with God.”

I asked the blogger (I think he is a pastor), If God has already declared me righteous by my faith in Jesus, how much more righteous can I be by my works? If I already have peace with God, what more do I need to do in order to have peace with God? He said my questions confused him. I bet they did. You see, if God has already declared me righteous, I cannot get any more righteous! There is absolutely nothing I can do to improve upon the righteousness of God. Not one thing. If James is teaching justification by faith and works he is contradicting Paul.

There are those who would say, “Not so. Paul only meant “works of the law. James is referring to different works.” Let’s see:

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law”

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us”

So, Paul meant works of the law and any other kind of works of righteousness.

Therefore, James must mean something else.

Acts 15 – furthermore, James chaired the council in Acts 15 which met over what was required of Gentiles. He heard and approved of what Peter said about Cornelius, “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;  And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” If James is teaching justification by faith and works he is contradicting himself!

One other things, if James is teaching justification by works then he has done the most dastardly deed imaginable – he has totally neglected to tell us what we must do to be right with God, how much of it and how long we must do it!! This is utterly unthinkable.

No, he must be saying something else. And he is. He was obviously dealing with people who had a warped idea of faith. Their idea seems to have been, “I believe there is one God.” That was it; that was all they offered. “Yeah, yeah, I believe all that stuff.” But their life was not changed.

I recently witnessed a conversation on Facebook that demonstrates this notion is still among us. A young man posted a rather questionable comment and was gently rebuked by a brother. He replied it was just a quote from a song he liked. Again, this brother encouraged him to listen to a different kind of music, since he said he was a Christian. The young man responded that he believed in Jesus, so it made no difference what he said or listened to. Then a third person joined the conversation and added, “Leave this fella alone, he believes all that Jesus stuff. He can do whatever and you cannot judge him for it.” That may not be word for word but it captures the attitude: “I believe in Jesus; I’ve done my bit, now I can do whatever.”

James responded to this with, “Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” Show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith by my works.

But what about “justified by works and not by faith only?” To justify means to declare righteous. We have already seen that when we believed in Jesus we were declared righteous by God. But men cannot see our faith, they can only see what we do. Therefore, we are declared righteous, or shown to be righteous, before men, by what we do.

This is illustrated by James’ example of Abraham: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” But Abraham was justified before God 30-40 years before this! (And James says as much, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness) So this had absolutely nothing to do with his standing with God. BUT, when men saw that he would obey God like this their response was, “Yes. He truly is a righteous man.” And the reverse is true as well - when a person who claims to be a Christian fails and falls into sin, the response is almost always, “I thought he said he was a Christian.” Even other believers respond this way.

We are declared or shown to be righteous before men by our works. All the apostles taught this. Faith without works is dead. All the apostles taught this as well. And all the apostles also taught: “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” In other words, forgiveness of sins and right standing with God comes when we cease our efforts to be good enough and believe in Jesus Christ. When we do that our faith is counted to us for righteousness. But, this faith which justifies brings a change in my living as well.

As we used to sing:

Jesus on the inside

working on the outside

Oh what a change in my life! (3x)

Oh what a change in my life!

Amen.