Caravaggio, The Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1603. Public domain.
James 2:14–26 and Romans 3:28–4:5 · Debate · Featured Study
Faith and Works
The question turns on Romans 3:28 and James 2:24, and on two moments in Abraham's life, Genesis 15 and Genesis 22.
Paul writes that a person is justified by faith apart from works, James writes that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone, and both cite Abraham.
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
- The question
- Do James 2:24 and Romans 3:28 contradict each other when one says a person is justified by works and the other by faith apart from works?
- The texts
- Romans 3:28, Romans 4:2 to 5, James 2:21 to 24, Genesis 15:6
Paul writes that a person is justified by faith apart from works, James writes that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone, and both cite Abraham.
Summary
Paul and James use one Greek verb of one man, Abraham, to answer two questions.
- Paul asks how God declares a sinner right, and he cites Abraham before Isaac was born.
- James asks how faith is shown to be real, and he cites Abraham offering Isaac years later.
- James adds Rahab of Jericho, whose act Hebrews also credits to faith.
- The five main readings hold that the two men agree, and they differ on what justify means.
Facing Pages
Paul's verses and James's verses on the same verb, read side by side.
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.As you can see, a man is justified by his deeds and not by faith alone.If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did.As you can see, a man is justified by his deeds and not by faith alone.If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did.Paul and James set side by side on two questions: what each asks and the faith each has in view.
| Question | Paul | James |
|---|---|---|
| The question | How is a sinner declared righteous before God? | How is a professed faith shown to be genuine? |
| The faith in view | Paul's faith is the living faith that works through love (Gal 5:6), and his question is the ground of the verdict. | James's target is a bare assent in words, the belief that even the demons hold (2:19). |
James states his test in 2:18: a faith is shown by what it does. Jesus uses the same verb in Matthew 11:19, where wisdom is vindicated by her actions, and there it means to show a thing true before others.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.”James 2:21 to 22, Romans 3:28, James 2:18, Matthew 11:19
The Positions at a Glance
The five readings answer four questions about Paul and James.
Every reading holds that God justifies by grace and reads James as agreeing with Paul.
| The question | Lutheran | Reformed | Roman Catholic | Wesleyan | New Perspective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What is justification? | God's declaration that the sinner is righteous for Christ's sake. | God's pardon and acceptance, with Christ's righteousness imputed. | The remission of sins and the inward renewal of the person. | Pardon, the forgiveness of sins, with new birth given in the same moment. | God's declaration of who belongs to His covenant people. |
| What does faith do? | Faith alone receives the promise. | Faith alone receives Christ, and it is never alone. | Faith is the beginning and root of justification. | Faith alone is the condition of pardon. | Faith in Christ is the badge of the covenant people. |
| What do works do? | They follow as the fruit of faith. | They show the faith that justifies. | Works done in grace increase justification. | Works meet for repentance, and holiness to the end. | Paul's works of the law are the marks of Jewish identity. |
| How is James 2 read? | Justify there means to show faith true before people. | Works justify the believer's faith as genuine. | The increase of justification received. | A later justification than Paul's, by a faith that works. | Covenant faithfulness shown in a life. |
One Man, Two Moments
Paul's text and James's text stand decades apart in Abraham's life, from Genesis 15 to Genesis 22.
Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.Paul cites this verse in Romans 4:3. The reckoning came before Isaac's birth, before Abraham's circumcision, and four centuries before Sinai.
And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.James says the offering of Isaac fulfilled the earlier word to Abraham.
Abraham was justified, declared righteous, coram Deo, in Genesis 15, believing a promise he had done nothing to deserve. His faith was justified, vindicated, coram hominibus, and to his own assurance, decades later on the mountain, when belief became obedience. Paul is reading the root; James is reading the fruit.
“Plainly, then, James must mean by works the same thing as Paul means by faith, only that he speaks of faith at its manifested development, whereas Paul speaks of it in its germ.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on James 2:23. Public domain.Evangelical
Rahab, the Second Witness
James and Hebrews cite the same act of a Gentile woman of Jericho.
James's second witness is Rahab, a Gentile and a prostitute, who hid Israel's spies and sent them out another way. James chose her to make his argument. A Gentile outsider had no covenant standing to offer as merit before God, so her act reads as the visible proof of a faith she already held. The writer to the Hebrews credits her act to faith (Heb 11:31); James credits the same act as faith's fruit. The two letters read one act through two lenses and agree.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute justified by her actions when she welcomed the spies and sent them off on another route?By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies in peace, did not perish with those who were disobedient.The Greek the Harmony Rests On
One Greek verb does two jobs, and James frames works as the proof of faith.
The three Greek words the harmony rests on, each with its word study.
| Greek | Word | Its sense here |
|---|---|---|
| δικαιόω | dikaioō | to justify: in Paul, to declare righteous before God; in James, to show a faith genuine before people |
| ἔργα | erga | works: in James, deeds of mercy and obedience that show faith; Paul's target is the works of the law |
| δοκίμιον | dokimion | the testing of faith (Jas 1:3), the letter's frame for works: they prove a faith and earn nothing |
How the Question Was Argued
Six folds trace the argument from Augustine in 412 to the Joint Declaration of 1999.
Augustine reads Paul and James together412 and 413
Augustine wrote On the Spirit and the Letter in 412 and On Faith and Works in 413. He held that Paul excludes works done before faith as the ground of grace, and that James excludes a faith that does no works. The medieval church read the question largely in his terms.
Luther's preface calls James an epistle of straw1522
In his preface to the German New Testament of September 1522, Luther called James an epistle of straw beside John, Romans and 1 Peter, because he judged that it taught justification by works. He kept James in his Bible, and later editions of the preface dropped the phrase.
Augsburg and Trent draw the lines1530 and 1547
The Augsburg Confession of 1530 confessed in its fourth article that people are justified freely for Christ's sake through faith. The Council of Trent answered in its sixth session, closed on 13 January 1547. Its tenth chapter cites James 2:24 for the increase of justification, and its ninth canon condemns the teaching that the sinner is justified by faith alone.
Westminster and Wesley1646 to 1770
The Westminster Confession of 1646 holds that faith, receiving Christ, is the only instrument of justification, and that it is never alone in the person justified. John Wesley preached justification by faith alone in his fifth sermon of 1746, and in his Notes of 1755 read James 2:21 as a later justification than Paul's. The Minutes of his conference in 1770 set off a long dispute with the Calvinistic Methodists over whether works are a condition of final salvation.
The New Perspective on Paul1977 to 1997
E. P. Sanders argued in 1977 that the Judaism of Paul's day was a religion of grace, not of earning. James D. G. Dunn named the New Perspective on Paul in his lecture of 1982, printed in 1983, reading works of the law as the marks that set Jews apart from Gentiles. N. T. Wright carried the reading to a wide audience in What Saint Paul Really Said in 1997.
The Joint Declaration31 October 1999
On 31 October 1999, at Augsburg, the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. It states a common understanding and holds that the condemnations of the sixteenth century do not apply to the teaching it sets out. The World Methodist Council affirmed the declaration in July 2006.
How the Commentators Read It
The five voices are Augustine, Calvin in 1540, Matthew Henry in 1710, Wesley in 1755 and Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, earliest first.
died 430 · Augustine of Hippo
Augustine warns against a claim of faith alone that goes on in sin, the concern the Council of Trent later pressed against the Reformers.
“In order to help them, God has put fear in the hearts of believers, lest they think that they might be saved by faith alone, even if they continue to practice these evils.”
Augustine of Hippo · On Continence 14.13 · on James 2:14Patristic
1509 to 1564 · John Calvin
Calvin reads Paul's Abraham as the proof that no one is justified by works, and his reading stands behind the Reformed position.
“For if Abraham, etc. This is an incomplete argument, which may be made in this form -- ‘If Abraham was justified by works, he might justly glory: but he had nothing for which he could glory before God; then he was not justified by works.’ Thus the clause but not before God, is the minor proposition; and to this must be added the conclusion which I have stated, though it is not expressed by Paul.”
John Calvin · Commentaries · on Romans 4:2Reformed
1703 to 1791 · John Wesley
Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible of 1710, reads James 2 with the classic harmonization: justified before God by faith alone, and that faith proven genuine by works.
Wesley holds that James and Paul speak of two justifications at two times in Abraham's life.
“Was not Abraham justified by works - St. Paul says he was justified by faith, Rom. iv, 2, &c.: yet St. James does not contradict him; for he does not speak of the same justification. St. Paul speaks of that which Abraham received many years before Isaac was born, Gen. xv, 6.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament · on James 2:21Evangelical
1834 to 1892 · Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon holds that the Spirit cannot say one thing through Paul and another through James, and he faults Luther for setting James aside.
“WHATEVER the statement of James may be, it could never have been his intention to contradict the Gospel! It could never be possible that the Holy Spirit would say one thing, in one place, and another in another. Statements of Paul and of James must be reconciled, and if they were not, I would sooner be prepared to throw overboard the statement of James than that of Paul. Luther did so, I think, most unjustifiably.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3434: “Fruitless Faith” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · on James 2:17
John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon
The Five Positions
Five folds give each position in its holders' terms and the strongest objection to it.
Lutheran: by faith alone, works as fruitMartin Luther; the Augsburg Confession, Article IV, 1530
The Lutheran confessions teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits or works, but are justified freely for Christ's sake through faith. Good works must follow faith as its fruit, and in James 2 justify means that faith is shown true before people.
The strongest objection: the one verse in Scripture that joins the words faith and alone, James 2:24, says a person is not justified by faith alone.
We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile “sinners” know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.Reformed: faith alone, never a faith that is aloneJohn Calvin; the Westminster Confession, XI, 1646
The Reformed confessions teach that God pardons sins and accepts the believer as righteous by imputing Christ's righteousness, received by faith alone. The faith that justifies is never alone, and in James 2 works show that a person's faith is the living faith that justifies.
The strongest objection: James uses the verb justify in 2:21 of Abraham as Paul uses it in Romans 4:2, so reading it as show to be righteous imports a sense the context does not give.
Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?Roman Catholic: justified, and increased in justificationThe Council of Trent, Session VI, 1547
The Council of Trent teaches that justification is the remission of sins together with the sanctification and renewal of the inward person, and that faith is its beginning and root. The justified increase in that justification by good works done in grace, as James 2:24 says, and Paul excludes the works done before faith and the works of the Mosaic law.
The strongest objection: Romans 4:4-5 credits righteousness to the one who does not work but believes in God who justifies the ungodly.
However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.Wesleyan: pardon by faith, holiness to the endWesley, Sermon 5, 1746, and Sermon 43, 1765
Wesley taught that justification is pardon, the forgiveness of sins, and that faith is its only condition, while the new birth and sanctification begin in the same moment. Works meet for repentance and a life of holiness follow as the faith that works by love, and James speaks of a later justification than the one Paul describes.
The strongest objection, pressed by the Calvinistic Methodists after the Minutes of 1770: a final justification that looks to works makes works a condition of salvation after all.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.New Perspective: the works that marked a peopleE. P. Sanders, 1977; James D. G. Dunn, 1983; N. T. Wright, 1997
Holders of the New Perspective read the works of the law in Paul as circumcision, the food laws and the sabbath, the marks that set Jews apart from Gentiles. Justification is God's declaration of who belongs to His people, and faith in Christ is its one badge for Jew and Gentile alike.
The strongest objection: Romans 4:4-5 speaks of work and wages in general terms, which marks of Jewish identity do not explain.
Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation.This site's tradition is Wesleyan-Pentecostal, and it reads James 2 with Wesley. Careful students of the same Scripture hold each of the five positions, and the question stands at tier A, where Scripture allows more than one reading.
Books to Read Next
Six works carried the readings, and three of them can be read free online.
On the Spirit and the Letter
Augustine of Hippo · 412
Augustine reads Romans on the law and grace in this treatise.
READ IT FREE AT NEW ADVENT →Preface to the New Testament
Martin Luther · 1522
Luther wrote this preface for his German translation of the New Testament.
Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles
John Calvin · 1551
Calvin defends the letter of James and reads its target in chapter 2 as a dead faith.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Assembly · 1646
Chapter 11 states the Reformed doctrine that faith alone justifies and is never alone.
READ IT FREE AT THE PCA →Justification by Faith, Sermon 5
John Wesley · 1746
Wesley's fifth sermon sets out what justification is and how it is received.
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
The Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church · 1999
The two churches state here what they hold in common on justification.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
A Faith That Works
James 2:26 asks the reader for a faith in Christ that shows itself in what it does.
Paul asks on what ground God accepts the ungodly, and he answers by faith, apart from works. James answers how that faith is shown to be living, and his answer is by what it does. Paul fights legalism, works offered as the ground of acceptance, and James fights antinomianism, a creed with no life in it. Neither apostle would recognize the other's target as his own position. Both apostles send the reader to Christ: the one who trusts Him is declared righteous, and the faith that trusts Him lives and works.
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.This verse ends James's argument with the image of a body without its spirit.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The Augsburg Confession, 1530, Articles IV and VI.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on James 2.
- The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646, chapter XI.
- The Council of Trent, Session VI, 13 January 1547, chapters 7 and 10, canons 9 and 24.
- John Wesley, Sermon 5, Justification by Faith, 1746.
- John Wesley, Sermon 43, The Scripture Way of Salvation, 1765.
- Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, 412.
- Augustine, On Faith and Works, 413.
- Martin Luther, Preface to the New Testament, 1522.
- E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism, 1977.
- James D. G. Dunn, The New Perspective on Paul, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 65, 1983.
- N. T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said, 1997.
- Stephen Westerholm, Perspectives Old and New on Paul, 2004.
- Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, 31 October 1999.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on James 2:23.
Keep Studying
Studies9
People and groups5
Symbols1
Doctrines12