But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
James stops arguing in general and turns on one man. He calls him foolish — "vain man" in some older translations — and offers to prove something to him. What kind of faith is James attacking? And does it clash with the promise that God justifies a sinner by faith alone?
The word translated "vain" or "foolish" is not aimed at a troubled believer wondering if he is real. It describes a certain kind of talker.
The severe language James uses is not addressed to an anxious soul. The Spirit would not describe such a person as a "vain man" (James 2:20); the word means, as has been said, an empty, hollow, foolish person. He is just someone who says he believes. Thousands do the same when they recite the creed, "I believe." Yet there are absolutely no results in his conduct.
James has just said that demons believe there is one God, and it makes them tremble. That is the kind of "faith" he is taking apart.
The Jew believed that God is one. This is right. The demons also believe it, and their belief makes them tremble. But it does not put them in relationship with God. So a man may believe what is true about God, and yet have no faith in God. Faith is the outcome of a new nature that trusts God and proves its existence by its works. The man who says he has faith and yet is "without works" is a vain man, and his faith merely a dead profession.
Such a person need not be a deliberate fraud.
Faith without works is only a hidden principle in the heart, a profession with no reality behind it. Yet we need not always call this hypocrisy. Education, the influences around us, and outward evidence can produce belief in Christianity and its basic doctrines as a habit of mind. But in such faith there is no link with Christ, no source of eternal life. A man may not be openly unbelieving; he honours the name of Christ, but such faith produces nothing in the heart. Christ cannot trust it.
The manuscripts differ over the last word of the verse. The alternative reading sharpens the shape of the whole chapter.
Most manuscripts read "dead" here, but the witness for "idle" is ancient and excellent. The difference is slight, and the substantial sense stays the same. Only here, as elsewhere, there was a danger that copyists would make the wording match. The chapter ends by concluding that faith apart from works is "dead." If "idle" were the true text in verse 20, then verse 26 would not be a repetition but a striking and effective climax.
Readers have long set this verse against Paul. Commentators answer that the two writers describe two different people, judged in two different courts.
The difficulty vanishes as soon as the reader grasps one thing. Paul deals with the justification of the ungodly, while James speaks of the justification of the godly. The one is before God and the other is before men. God justifies the ungodly on the principle of faith. It is of grace alone, and works are shut out completely. The godly justify themselves — that is, their confession — before men by their good works. A life full of good works flows from living faith. When the works are missing, we may well doubt what the lips profess.
The word "works" here is broader than most readers expect.
"What!" someone may remark, "is such a thing as trembling counted as a work?" It certainly is. And this leads us to note that James speaks simply of works, and not of good works. The point is not that every true believer must do many kind and charitable actions, though of course that is good and right for him. The point is that his works must display his faith in action, if men are to see that his faith is real.
Works never generate faith. They only publish it.
I could not have apples without an apple tree, since apples do not grow on thorn bushes. And if there are apples, everybody knows there must be apple trees somewhere. The tree is the faith, the apples are the works. Living faith brings forth living works. But the faith must be there before the works can appear. The works are the outward and visible evidence of the inward and unseen faith.
- Claim — the man in view only says he believes. The word for him means empty and hollow. The harsh language is not aimed at the anxious soul.
- Content — his creed may be correct, but demons hold the same facts and tremble. Believing things about God is not faith in God.
- Condition — such faith is dead, or idle in an ancient reading. It did not fail; it never worked at all.
- Court — God justifies the ungodly by faith alone. Men can only read faith off a life, so James asks for evidence they can see.
- Consequence — the tree comes before the apples. Where faith is real, works follow. Where works never appear, the profession itself is in doubt.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and that by works faith was perfected.
James points to Abraham and tells the reader to look: faith and action worked together when he offered up his son. That raises a sharp question — if faith already justifies, how can anything a man does complete it?
The verse does not say Abraham had faith and also had works, as two separate things. It says one was at work in the other. That decides what counts as a work here.
Here, then, we see not only works but that "faith was active along with his works." So it is clear that when the Apostle speaks of works proving our faith, he does not mean simply good works such as a kind nature can produce. He means only the works that faith can produce. They are faith's works, and such works bring faith to completion. On one side, the Apostle insists on works as the test of faith before men. On the other, he insists on faith as the test of the works.
James uses two examples: Abraham, and Rahab, who took in Israel's messengers. Neither acted the way a naturally kind person acts on a good day. Both acts cut straight across everything nature would advise.
Abraham offered up his son. Rahab welcomed the messengers of Israel, joining herself to the people of God when everything was against them... The one looked to God and believed Him in the fullest way, against all that is in nature or that nature can count on. The other stood with God's people when everything was against them. Neither act grew out of a pleasant nature or natural goodness, the kind of thing people call good works. One was a father about to put his son to death; the other was a bad woman betraying her country... Works put a seal on his faith. Faith without works is like a body without the soul — an outward form with none of the life that makes it move.
This is not about patching a faith with a hole in it. It is about ripening — faith coming to full fruit where people could see it.
Clearly that act was a work that itself needed the faith behind it to justify it. That work put his faith beyond dispute. Anyone could see how faith was active along with his works, and how works completed the faith; that is, it came to full fruit. Paul argues about the justification of the ungodly. James argues about the justification of someone already accepted as a believer.
The order matters, and it never reverses. Abraham was justified by faith years before he gave up his son.
Abraham knew that he believed in the Lord, but he was called to prove it. So the man who stands out for justification by faith, and who is therefore the father of all who believe (Rom. 4:11), stands out just as much for justification by works... Justification by faith comes before justification by works... Was he justified twice over, then, first by faith and then by works? No... He was justified by faith in Genesis 15; he was justified by works, as James points out, in Genesis 22. Giving up his son to death showed how real his faith was.
God does not need a display before He can tell that faith is real. So the demand for proof comes from somewhere else.
Notice that James never says works justify us before God, because God can see faith without its works. He knows the life is there. That life is at work toward Him: trusting His word, trusting Himself, taking His testimony as true despite everything inside us and around us. God sees this and knows it. But when other people come into it, when someone has to say "show me," then faith — that life — shows itself in works.
The same chapter points to Rahab's works too. James is arguing there with a man he calls "vain," and that tells us who should feel the sting.
Does James stress her works to push the soul into anxious self-examination, to find out whether it is justified or not? Far from it. His severe words are not aimed at a troubled soul. The Spirit would never call such a person a "vain man" (James 2:20), for the word means an empty, hollow, foolish person. It means someone who says he believes... and yet nothing at all shows in his conduct.
- Root — Faith comes first. Abraham was justified by faith in Genesis 15, long before he offered Isaac in Genesis 22. The order never reverses.
- Fruit — Works do not patch faith; they ripen it. Faith came to full fruit, and only faith could have produced that work.
- Test — Works test faith before men; faith tests the works. A deed a pleasant nature could manage proves nothing.
- Audience — God sees the life without any display; the demand "show me" comes from other people, not from God.
- Warning — The sharp words target the empty talker who shows nothing in his conduct, not the anxious believer.
And the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called Friend of God.
In Genesis 15, Abraham believed God's promise, and God reckoned him righteous there and then. James reaches back to that line long years later, after Abraham laid his son on the altar, and calls it "fulfilled" — then adds the title "friend of God."
James does not overturn the earlier word. He points to the day that faith showed what it was.
The believer is justified by works (James 2:21). The believer's works are the fruit, or evidence, of faith. James does not contradict Paul. He says that the Scripture, which states that Abraham was justified by faith, was fulfilled when he offered up Isaac. Yet God had reckoned Abraham righteous on the ground of believing Him — that is, on the ground of faith — long years before those works showed that his faith was real faith.
The word behind "counted" is one Paul uses again and again in his own account of Abraham. The quote below follows an older translation, which reads "counted to him for righteousness," and that small word "for" is the point.
Read that chapter carefully and you will notice the words counted, imputed and reckoned several times. All three have the same force. They translate the same word, and reckoned comes nearest to it. "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." That is, God reckoned Abraham righteous, or held him to be righteous, because of his faith. The little word "for" can mislead. It may suggest that faith is a kind of substitute for righteousness, something that can be turned into righteousness. "Reckoned to him as righteousness" gives the sense better.
The work James points to was nothing like ordinary acts of kindness.
The works had nothing in common with those acts of kindness that fill the horizon of man and are the boast of those who make the creature everything and God nothing. Here was a man who looked death in the face. His trial was far harder than being asked to die for his son. At God's word he had to raise the knife against his only, well-beloved son — the son on whose life hung the promises of blessing for all mankind. He had to trust God with his own reputation, since he would look like the worst of murderers. He also had to trust Him to raise from the dead the son who must live again to make good the promised blessings.
Both Paul and James say Abraham was justified. They look at one faith from two sides.
Paul gives us the inward principle, James the outward working of that principle. Paul presents the hidden life, James the life made visible. Paul looks at man in relation to God, James looks at him in his relation to man. Now we want both. "Abraham was justified" when "he believed God"; and "Abraham was justified" when "he offered up his son Isaac." In the first case we have his secret standing. In the second, we have his public acknowledgement by heaven and earth. There was no voice from heaven when "Abraham believed God," though in God's view he was counted righteous there and then. But when he had offered his son on the altar, God could say, "now I know."
Friendship here means shared confidence. God tells His friend what He is about to do.
By means of this faith we have fellowship with God, with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. He is not ashamed to call us His friends (John 15:15), as Abraham was called the friend of God. In business with the world, we say what the matter needs, as politely as we can. Once that is said, it is over. With a friend, we open our minds. We speak of things that have nothing to do with business, of all that is in our hearts. At the time Abraham was called the friend of God, God was not talking with him about the promises made to Abraham himself. He was telling him all His plans for the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah.
It matters which chapter the title comes from.
The title must have had its origin in connection with Genesis 22 and not Genesis 15. Had it been otherwise, what confusion there would have been for our souls! The earlier scripture shows us that our God can accept and justify a sinner who believes. The later one shows us what God can make of a justified man under His own special training.
- Believed — Abraham's standing began with trust in what God said. God reckoned him righteous on that basis alone, long before any altar.
- Reckoned — Faith was not a substitute for righteousness. God held Abraham to be righteous because he believed.
- Proved — Genesis 22 did not create that standing. The altar filled out the earlier word, so God could say "now I know" and the world could see it.
- Public — Paul shows the hidden life before God. James shows the same faith lived out where people can see it.
- Friend — the title crowns it all. God did not just accept Abraham. He confided in him, telling him what He was about to do.
Ye see that a man is justified on the principle of works, and not on the principle of faith only.
James closes his argument about faith and works by pointing to Abraham and Rahab. His words sound like the opposite of what Paul writes in Romans about faith and works. Everything turns on two questions. What faith does James mean? And what question is he answering that Paul is not?
The clash disappears once you see that the two writers are answering different questions.
One writer deals with the root, with what is "before God" (Rom. 4:2); the other with the fruit, and so says "show me" before men. Both agree that, where God gives faith and gives souls new life by the word of truth, good works are the fruit and the outward witness of faith. In fact there is nothing to reconcile, because there is no real disagreement. … In the one, the question is how a sinner can be justified by grace; in the other, what God looks for from someone who professes faith.
One writer puts it bluntly when asked how the two verses fit together: the trouble is not in the Bible.
The two passages do not need reconciling. Sometimes people imagine that they have discovered contradictory statements in Scripture, but the flaw is in their own brains, not in the Word of God.
Stuart names three sides to justification. Each has its own ground, and none cancels the others.
Scripture teaches that such a person is justified on the ground of merit by blood (Rom. 5:9), by means of faith (Rom. 5:1), and by open proof through works (James 2:24). Without the shedding of Christ's blood, and God's acceptance of it, no ungodly person could be justified. Without faith in God's testimony, set before a person to rest on, no one could be justified. And without works, which are the evidence of real faith, no one could show their justification.
Works matter here for a plain reason: other people cannot see inside you.
A man can be justified in the sight of his fellow men only by works, for no one can see into another person's heart. So people can judge whether his faith is real only by his works.
The phrase "not by faith alone" does not attack faith. It attacks a particular counterfeit — belief held as an opinion, with no life behind it.
Clearly such faith is a hidden principle in the heart, a bare profession with nothing real behind it. Yet we need not always call this hypocrisy. Education, the influences around us, and outside evidence can produce a settled belief in Christianity and its basic doctrines, as a habit of mind. But in such faith there is no link with Christ, and no source of eternal life.
James points not to the moment Abraham believed, but to something he did later. The order of the two matters.
Justification by faith precedes justification by works. So Abraham was justified by faith in Gen. 15; he was justified by works, as James points out, in Gen. 22… Was he, then, justified twice over, first by faith, and then by works? No — he was justified by faith in Gen. 15, and the Scripture which had declared that was fulfilled. It was seen to be true in Gen. 22. Giving up his son to death showed how real his faith was.
What counts as a "work" here is not what most people expect.
Abraham offered up his own son and Rahab hid the spies in her home. Ordinarily, neither action would be regarded as a good work. On the contrary, one would be considered murder and the other treason. But these works revealed their faith in God, giving testimony to their love of God (Abraham) and their love of the people of God (Rahab).
Most writers here read James's justification as taking place before men. Not all are content to leave it there. Darby treats the works as fruits of faith that lead to a man being counted righteous before God, and Kelly, elsewhere, warns against pressing the "before men" reading too crudely — pointing out that when God tested Abraham, no one else was present.
A national faith was of no avail, but one which wrought livingly; and then a man was justified, accounted righteous before God.
- Root. Faith is where justification starts. God justified Abraham in Genesis 15, when he believed — before any work appeared.
- Fruit. Works never replace the root; they grow from it. Genesis 22 did not make Abraham righteous, it showed that Genesis 15 was true.
- Visible. Works are where the root shows. No one can look into another's heart.
- Test. Faith with no fruit may be sincere habit or upbringing. But it has no link with Christ. That is what James refuses — not faith itself.
- Costly. The works James chose would look like murder and treason. Real faith proves itself where it costs everything.