RECONCILING PAUL AND JAMES

As you deal with people from day to day you will (if you have not already) encounter some who want to believe that they can earn salvation by their own works. Even though the Apostle Paul carefully explains why the law cannot make us righteous, because these people are struggling with the flesh they want to be motivated by the law. They want to believe that God will reward them for their effort. They want to think of the law as a sword over their head requiring obedience. For that reason, as soon as they read the words of James, “by works a man is justified and not by faith only,” they assume that those words negate what Paul said (Romans 3:28, James 2:24). They then feel free to ignore Paul’s warnings against trusting in works. However, a careful examination of what James said makes it clear that Paul and James were talking about two different things.

When Paul spoke of faith he was referring to faith in Christ. In contrast, the words, “You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe and tremble,” make it clear that the faith James regarded as “dead” was not faith in Christ, but belief that there is only one God. Likewise, when Paul spoke of works he was referring to works of righteousness, or obedience to the law. In contrast, the words, “Was not Rahab the Harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way,” make it perfectly clear that the works James had in mind were not works of obedience, or righteousness, but what we would call the fruits of faith (James 2:19, 20, 25). In short, Rahab put her faith into action. Therefore, James was not saying that we need works of righteousness in addition to faith. Instead he was saying that if a person truly has faith in Christ it will make a difference in his life. And, if we truly believe that the blood of Christ not only saves us, but also washes away every sin so that God sees no fault in us, we will have the Holy Spirit working in us to make that difference.