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DOGMATICS 2
LESSON 80
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>> Doesn't James tell us we are justified by works and not by
faith alone? I'm sure some day I will have to lead a Bible
study on James. And I'm concerned I will not be able to do so
as well as I should, especially considering the strong influence
of Catholicism in my area.
>> DR. DAVID MAXWELL: Eric, this is, in fact, one of the
major passages that especially Roman Catholics will bring up
against the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith alone.
And the passage you're referring to is James 2:24 where he says,
"You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by
faith alone." So you can see obviously why that would be a
challenge to doctrine of justification by faith alone.
But I would like to take a few minutes and just look at
this passage from James. In fact, I would like to look at most
of Chapter 2. I'm not going to read through every word here.
But just to set up the discussion in which this statement
occurs.
In Chapter 2 Verse 14, we get a sense for James' major
concern when he says, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man
claims to have faith but has no deeds. Can such a faith save
him?" So James is concerned about people who say they have
faith but then they don't do works. And that same concern shows
up at the end of Chapter 2 as kind of a bookend when he says at
the very end of Chapter 2 "As the body without the spirit is
dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
And so here the discussion concerns the issue: How is it
that you demonstrate that you have faith? Can you claim to have
faith, that is present your faith to someone else, by just
saying you have it? Or do you present your faith to someone
else by actually doing good works?
And James' point here is very clear. That it doesn't do
any good to brag about your faith. The way that you show your
works is -- I'm sorry; the way you show your faith is by doing
good works.
Now, it's instructive that like Paul in Romans 4, James
picks the example of Abraham. Not only does he pick the example
of Abraham, but he actually cites exactly the same passage that
Paul does in James 2:23 -- well, let me back up a bit here.
He cites Abraham as the example of his position. And let
me start in James 2:20. "You foolish man. Do you want evidence
that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor
Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his
son Isaac an the altar? You see that his faith and his actions
were working together and his faith was made complete by what he
did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham
believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And
he was called God's friend.' You see that a person is justified
by what he does and not by faith alone."
Now, what's really interesting here is Paul wants an
example from the Old Testament that the righteousness of God,
Jews, comes a- -- justification comes apart from the law. He
picks Abraham and he picks the passage in Genesis 15. "Abraham
believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness."
James wants an example of the same -- of an Old Testament
example of someone who is justified by works. And he picks
Abraham. And he picks the same passage from Genesis 15,
"Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as
righteousness."
Now, on the first reading, this may seem to present a
problem for our understanding of scripture as the inerrant word
of God because it looks like Paul and James are citing the same
Old Testament passage and coming to opposite conclusions. That
for Paul, Genesis 15:6 means that we're justified by faith apart
from the law. And for James, Genesis 15:6 means we're justified
by works and not by faith alone.
But if you pay a little bit more careful attention to the
question of when was Abraham justified according to Paul and
according to James, I think it comes clear that Paul and James
are using the word justify in different ways. And if you recall
in Romans 4, Abraham is justified when he believes God's promise
to him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars
that are in the sky. That is Paul's definition of justification
is this crediting as righteousness that happens in Genesis 15
when Abraham believes.
But listen again to what James says. "Was not our
ancestor Abraham considered righteous or justified actually for
what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?" You
see, for James, Abraham is justified not when he believes in
Chapter 15 but when he offers Isaac in Chapter 22.
So James is operating with a different definition of
justify or at least a different facet of justification than Paul
is. Because for Paul, justification happens for Abraham in
Chapter 15 in Genesis and for James it happens in Chapter 22.
Now, what happens in Chapter 22? And I think this is very
instructive for what James means by justification.
What happens is Abraham is -- binds his son Isaac and
puts him on the altar. And he's about ready to go through with
the sacrifice. And then the angel of the Lord comes and stops
him and says, "Now I know that you fear God because you have not
withheld from me your only son."
You see, what's going on here is that Abraham's actions
were a demonstration of the faith that was mentioned in Chapter
15. His actions in Chapter 22 are what elicits this response
from the angel of the Lord. "Now I know that you fear God. Now
I've seen the evidence."
So what you've got going on is that for Paul,
justification means the imputation of righteousness. Whereas
for James, justification means that your righteousness is shown
to other people. And Lutheran theology has never had a problem
saying that we are -- that we show our faith by our works.
And I think if we recognize the way scripture uses the
language and that it has -- that the word dikaioo has this
double sense, that James presents no problem for us.
Because Lutherans have always said that faith without works is
dead. And we've always said that you show your faith by your
works. And this is exactly what James is talking about. You
can't show your faith just by faith. Because no one can see
your faith. You show your faith by your works.
And this is what happens in Matthew actually in the story
of the sheep and the goats in Chapter 25. Because if you think
about that scene of judgement, Jesus separates the sheep from
the goats. And he tells the sheep to come and inherit the
kingdom that's prepared for them for the foundation of the
world. So on the one hand, their kingdom is an inheritance that
was theirs already. But then he says, "For I was hungry and you
gave me something to eat."
And he goes through a list of works that they did.
So what's going on at the judgement is the good works of
the sheep are, in fact, being cited as evidence of the faith
that they had. Or to use more the language of Matthew, they are
being cited as evidence of the fact that they have, in fact,
inherited the kingdom of God, that this was the kingdom that's
prepared for them.
And so I think that the answer to the question of James
2:24 is that when James says, "You see that a person is
justified by what he does and not by faith alone," that what he
means by justified is that you show your faith by what you do.
You can't show your faith by faith alone. Because no one can
see that.
***
This text is being provided in a rough draft format.
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in
order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a
totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
***