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James 2:18
“But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
We have noted that James stresses that believers ought not to be double-minded. In essence, this means that Christians must not say one thing and do another, that they must live in a manner consistent with their profession of belief in the Lord Jesus Christ (James 1:7–8; 1:22–25; 2:1–13). It is important to keep this in mind as we work our way through James 2:14–26, which has often been appealed to against Protestants in debates over the doctrine of justification. The doctrine of justification concerns how a person is found righteous before the bar of God’s justice, and what James has to say does have some bearing on how we understand this doctrine. The doctrine itself is not really James’ concern, however. In other words, the Apostle James does not really ask how we are declared righteous before God, which is the primary question in Paul’s mind when he is addressing justification. James’ concern involves more what the faith that justifies us in the Lord’s sight looks like.
This is clear from James 2:14, where James’ use of the word “says” indicates that the Apostle seeks to evaluate professions of faith. Today’s passage provides further evidence that James has in view the demonstration of an authentic profession of faith. He starts out by quoting what seems to be a potential objection to his teaching that Christians must have faith and works and that if we do not have good works, then our faith is dead—that is, not saving faith (v. 18). James seems to anticipate that some in his audience will respond that faith and good works are two different spiritual gifts and that some Christians will have one but not the other because, as we know, God does not give the same spiritual gifts to every person (1 Cor. 12:1–11). Thus, the anticipated objector is saying that we do not all need to have both faith and good works.
Now, there is a spiritual gift of faith given only to some (v. 9), but this is not the type of faith that James is discussing. He is speaking of saving faith, which is given to all believers and is necessary for salvation. (The spiritual gift of faith probably has to do with an extra measure of trust whereby some people find it easier than others to believe that God will do the seemingly impossible.) Such saving faith is inseparable from good works, though it can and must be distinguished from good works. We see this inseparability in that our good works are one evidence of saving faith (James 2:18).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
John Calvin comments that James does not “maintain that every one who seems good possesses faith. This only he means, that faith, without the evidence of good works, is vainly pretended, because fruit ever comes from the living root of a good tree.” People can do deeds that are good insofar as they help other people without having saving faith, but no one can have saving faith without also doing good deeds in service to God and neighbor.
For further study
- Psalm 1
- Proverbs 3:28
- Matthew 7:15–20
- Mark 7:1–13
The bible in a year
- Exodus 33–34
- Matthew 23:1–22