“Justified by works” is not a phrase evangelical Christians use much. The apostle Paul says, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom. 3:28). Yet here James says, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). What does James have in mind?

Remember that James is on a quest for true religion, not religion that simply says, “God is one” (v. 19) and affirms the elements of the orthodox theology. True religion works. It hears the law and obeys. It helps widows and orphans in their distress. False religion is ineffective manward; it offers the needy wishes, nothing more (vv. 15-17). It is also ineffective Godward (vv. 18-19). It knows God as King, but not a Savior, so it offers no peace or comfort.

False religion takes religion classes in a university. True religion seeks the living God. False religion analyzes the historical and social contexts of the Bible. True religion studies Scripture itself to hear the very voice of God. False religions know what Christian creeds assert about God. True religion knows God Himself. False religion is dead, because it knows Christianity, but not Christ. True religion believes and prays and works. James 2 contrasts true and false faith in four case studies: Case 1 shows that false religion is useless with mankind (vv. 15-17). Case 2 shows that false religion is useless with God (vv. 18-19). Case 3 shows that true faith is useful with God (vv. 20-24). And case 4 shows that true faith is useful with mankind (vv. 25-26). We examined the first two cases in the last study. We will examine the last two cases in this study.

James invites his readers to consider the “evidence that faith without deeds is useless” (2:20). The evidence is this: Abraham was considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar (2:21). In our last study, James said false faith helps neither one’s neighbors (2:15-17) nor one’s relationship with God (2:18-19). The lively faith of Abraham contrasts with the fecklessness of false faith. When Abraham believed God, it led to wondrous works.

James is aware that Genesis 15 teaches justification by faith; he cites the passage in James 2:23. Even if James wrote his epistle before Paul wrote Galatians and Romans (as many scholars believe), he knows that Paul taught justification by faith. He knows Abraham looked to the stars, believed, and thus was justified before God. But James also knows that Abraham’s faith demonstrated its vitality by its works.

So, Paul and James agree. In God’s court, believers are justified the moment they believe. When they trust in Christ as Lord and Savior, their sin is laid on Christ and Christ’s righteousness is imputed to them. Yet works also justify in this secondary sense: they vindicate God’s declaration that we are right with Him. They prove that we are alive in Christ. When we say a believer is justified by faith alone, we mean that the believer adds nothing – no works – in order to earn or gain God’s favor. Good works are necessary – not a condition prior to salvation but a consequence following salvation. Just as a healthy fruit tree by its very nature necessarily bears fruit, so a genuine believer necessarily performs good works as the fruit of a new nature. Real faith is effective Godward.

James likes illustrations. He surely had his audience with him when he chose Abraham to illustrate that real faith works and is effective Godward. Abraham was a hero of the Jewish people. He was the father of Israel, their George Washington. Many regarded him as the most righteous man in history. But James’s readers might not have been so receptive to his next illustration. James introduces Rahab the harlot as evidence that genuine faith is effective manward.

Rahab is a surprising example, since she is a minor and unsavory figure, who contrasts sharply with Abraham. Abraham is the father of Israel, a male, and a great patriarch. Rahab is a Canaanite, a foreigner, and a disreputable prostitute. Yet Rahab illustrates real faith, for an intellectual conversion to orthodox ideas would not have saved her. She had to act. See Rahab’s story in Joshua 2.

Unlike Abraham socially, yet like Abraham spiritually, Rahab showed real faith works. Intellectual belief in God would save neither Rahab nor the spies she sheltered. Action spared both Rahab and the spies. If Abraham demonstrated that real faith is effective Godward, Rahab showed that real faith is effective manward. Small deeds make a big difference. Timely works adorn and verify a profession of faith. James says, “And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?” (James 2:25). She did not earn her salvation, but her works did vindicate her potentially dubious claim to believe. Her works publicly announced that she was indeed a God-fearing woman.

James does startle the educated Christians when he says, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works?” and “Was not also Rahab justified by works?” (vv. 2:21, 25). Even if we know James doesn’t contradict the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith, we wonder why he chose language that appears to contradict Paul.

Consider James’s audience. He wrote for Jews who took pride in their theological knowledge. They tended to think their heritage and knowledge guaranteed them God’s favor. James wrote for the kind of person who, today, might tell a pastor: “Don’t bother me, I’m already a Christian. I’ve been baptized, catechized, and sanitized from most major sins. Leave me alone; my faith is my private affair.” James hoped to undermine false confidence in an orthodox confession. If Paul wrote to give comfort to those who were afflicted by guilt, then James wrote to afflict those who found false comfort in their assent to orthodox theological ideas. In that setting James says: “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone…For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead” (vv. 2:24, 26).

Paul, by contrast, ministered primarily to pagans with no clear ideas about God, and only secondarily to Jewish Christians who were perhaps confused about the relation between faith and works. Paul addresses the questions: How shall Gentiles enter the church, with or without the laws about circumcision, food, and association that separated Jews from other peoples? Must Gentiles keep the laws that established a Jew’s identity in order to be saved? Does one gain entry into the kingdom by faith alone, or by faith plus certain works?

In that setting Paul says, “One is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom. 3:28). Again, “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16). Paul corrects spiritual athletes who try to climb into heaven by their achievements. He roots out all false requirements for salvation.

But James has a different target audience. He speaks to people who grew up with biblical religion but never claimed it personally. They assume that their heritage, their knowledge, and their respectability guarantee God’s favor. In today’s terms, James addresses people who say: “Leave me alone, I am already a Christian. I’m a decent person, I have a family, I attend church and assent to the orthodox creeds.” For that situation, James says, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (v. 2:24). He urges self-inspection: Do you prove your faith is real by deeds of sacrificial love?

James 2 says true faith manifests itself in works of service to man and of obedience to God. In other words: False faith offers no service to fellow man. It offers warm wishes, nothing more. False faith offers no obedience to God. As with demons, orthodox theology does not save. True faith offers obedience to God, as Abraham proved. True faith offers costly service to fellow man, as Rahab proved.

The good deeds, flowing from faith, vindicate us, declare that we do belong to Christ. It is no legal fiction, no technicality, that releases us from the condemnation we deserve. The righteousness given to us by God is also coursing through us. So, God is right to permit us to enter His heaven, His presence. Neither faith not our works are the basis of our salvation. But living faith does work, says James. Living faith saves.

James 2:20-26 Study Questions:

Why does James describe faith apart from works as “useless” (v. 20)? To whom is it useless (see vv. 21-23)? What is this teaching us about true faith and about God?

James 2:22 says that Abraham’s “faith was complete by his works.” What is James’s teaching about Abraham’s obedience? Using verses 20-24, how would you explain the connection between Abraham’s faith in God and his obedience to God?

Abraham’s obedient works were directed toward God, as vindication of his true faith. But toward whom were Rahab’s good works directed (vv. 25-26)? What important truths can we learn from this?

How was Rahab’s help of the Hebrew spies inextricably linked to her genuine faith in God? If she had not helped them, what would that have said about her faith? Would Rahab’s faith in God been evident, or even genuine, apart from her actions?