What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.
You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2
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I am afraid that James says the opposite of what you say.
Actually, James was not opposing what I have said, otherwise he would be opposing what Paul has said.
Romans 4:1What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?[SUP] 2 [/SUP]For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.[SUP] 3 [/SUP]For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.[SUP] 4 [/SUP]Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.[SUP]5 [/SUP]But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Since Paul was given the right hand of fellowship with James....
Galatians 2:[SUP]9 [/SUP]And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
And there is no other gospel... as stated earlier in that epistle to the Galatians...
Galatians 1:[SUP]6 [/SUP]I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:[SUP] 7 [/SUP]Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.[SUP] 8 [/SUP]But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.[SUP] 9 [/SUP]As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Then what was James talking about?
James was talking about the church's willful neglect and abuse of the poor starting in the very first verse of that 2 nd chapter of James. James even cited an abuse where the church after service was giving a kind of benediction of faith to the departing poor, "Be warmed and be filled" as if by voicing faith in God's Providence to the poor that it will somehow be divinely supernaturally done WITHOUT meeting the poor's immediate needs of perishing from the elements or starvation.
So James was not talking about faith in Jesus Christ at all for salvation for that faith is always without works, BUT James was addressing the church's verbalization of their faith in God's Providence to the poor that they better lead by example or else in the eyes of the poor, the church's faith is dead and it will not profit the poor nor save the poor by the church's lack of setting the example of having faith in God's Providence for tomorrow by meeting the immediate needs of the poor today.
That is the kind of faith that James was talking about requiring works; an example if a church is going to verbalize it.
James gave reference of that faith in His Providence by referring to Abraham's offering up of Isaac on the altar. christians that converted from Judaism are quite familiar with that faith mentioned in that story because the place was named as such after that kind of faith which was about God providing; not about faith in Jesus Christ without works to be saved.
Genesis 22:[SUP]7 [/SUP]And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?[SUP]8[/SUP]
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.............[SUP]13 [/SUP]And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.[SUP]14 [/SUP]And
Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
So James was not opposing Paul because many readers and churches and ministries are applying James's words wrongly. James was never talking about the faith in Jesus Christ for salvation for that has to be without works. James was talking about verbalizing faith in God's Providence that those who say such things to get out of helping the poor, should lead by example by meeting the immediate needs of the poor today and trust God to provide for the church's tomorrows also.
