Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
James 2:24
“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”
All those whom God effectually calls—draws to Christ so that they certainly believe in Him and repent—He also justifies (Rom. 8:30). Justification is the next link in the golden chain of salvation, the order in which God applies salvation to us.
Justification has to do with our legal status before God. Romans 1–5 establishes that outside Christ, we are lawbreakers who deserve only condemnation and punishment. In Christ, we are no longer condemned by God’s law and no longer subject to His punishment, but we are at peace with Him. Justification, then, fundamentally means that God has declared us righteous in His sight—righteous in His heavenly courtroom and no longer under His legal condemnation.
During the Reformation, disagreements between various theological traditions regarding justification came to a head. We can boil these disagreements down to two basic views: justification based only on the work of Christ, and justification based on Christ plus something in us. Magisterial Protestants such as the Lutherans and the Reformed affirmed that the only basis of this legal declaration is the righteousness of Christ, whereas others, particularly Roman Catholics, said that this legal declaration is based at least in part on our good works. Roman Catholic theologians did not deny the necessity of grace and faith, but they affirmed that grace and faith are insufficient for one’s final justification. Rome continues to hold that basic view today. Others, while denying that our good works form any part of the basis of our justification, have said that it is our faith itself that God evaluates as righteous when He justifies us.
The Magisterial Protestants are correct here. Yes, some thinkers have tried to argue that James 2:24 supports the notion that something we do or something in us is part of the reason that God declares us righteous. The full context of that verse indicates, however, that James is not arguing for a justification based on our works; rather, he is explaining that our works demonstrate the presence of authentic faith. Our works do not merit our justification. Faith, though it is pleasing to God, cannot merit our righteousness before Him. That would make justification based on something we do, but Scripture plainly says that our justification—our entire salvation—is not grounded on the worthiness of our actions or our faith (Eph. 2:8–10). Justification is a gift that we receive through faith, not something we merit by our faith or by our faith and our works.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Dr. R.C. Sproul reminds us that “it is not the righteousness of Christ working in us that justifies us. It is the righteousness of Christ that He worked in His own life, which God now counts toward us.” This point is essential to getting the gospel right and for healthy Christian living. If our righteousness before God is based at all on something worthy in us, then we must despair because nothing we do is perfect and can actually meet God’s standards. Only the righteousness of Christ can do that.
For further study
- Psalm 16:2
- Ecclesiastes 7:20
- Luke 17:7–10
- Romans 7:18
The bible in a year
- Isaiah 35–36
- Philippians 3