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.
But was not in like manner also Rahab the harlot justified on the principle of works, when she had received the messengers and put [them] forth by another way?
James closes his argument with two names that could hardly be further apart: Abraham, the honoured father of the Jews, and Rahab, a prostitute in a city about to be destroyed. Her case presses one question on the reader: what sort of works does James mean?
Why put these two names side by side?
Verses 21 to 25 cite two cases — Abraham and Rahab. They are opposites in almost every respect. One is the father of the Jews, an honoured servant of God. The other is a Gentile, a poor woman with a shameful trade. Yet both illustrate this matter. Both had faith, and both had works. The works fitted the faith each of them had, and so showed that faith to others.
The choice also leaves out the obvious: no act of charity, no act of kindness.
The Holy Spirit, speaking through the apostle, had four thousand years of history before Him. It is well worth noting that He fixed on two works like these: Abraham's in Genesis 22 and Rahab's in Joshua 2. He does not bring forward acts of charity or kindness, though He could easily have chosen many, with such a mass of material before Him. But it is as if He knows the use the enemy would make of this passage. So He takes care to pick two examples that prove one thing beyond all question: He is insisting on life-works, not law-works.
Strip faith out of what Rahab did, and nothing admirable remains.
Apart from faith, Rahab's work was no better than Abraham's trial. Done without God as the object, the source and the authority, both acts were not only worthless but detestable. Seen with human eyes, one man was willing to kill his own son and heir, and one woman to betray her king and country to their destroyers. Faith completely changed the character of what each of them did. And what they did proved the divine principle and the living power of their faith.
Doing good and proving faith are not the same thing.
I want to point out the difference between good works and what we might better call works of faith — that is, acts which in themselves prove that the doer has faith. James means deeds of this sort. Feeding the hungry would not by itself show I had faith… Here is a woman (Rahab) who sides with the destroyers of her city. By it she saves herself — nothing noble in that — and at the same time she takes her place among the great examples of faith.
Everyone in Jericho had heard the same news. Only one of them believed it.
The rest of the people had heard as much as Rahab. But the report did them no good, because those who heard it did not mix it with faith. It reached Rahab's conscience, and she bowed to God against every natural reason and feeling. She judged rightly: it was folly, sin and ruin to fight against the God who had delivered His people from the power of Egypt.
James calls the men she took in "messengers." Hebrews calls them "spies."
There is interest here, and instruction for us as well. In Hebrews the men are called "spies," so to nature they were enemies. Yet knowing this, the scripture says "she received them in peace." Faith had made her change sides before she got any assurance. In James they are called "messengers" — angeloi in Greek — and the Spirit notes her self-sacrificing care of them, for James had to teach that faith worked together with works.
Paul and James answer different questions. Rahab shows the difference, and so does her failure.
Her works justify her as a believer. Their character shows that she has faith, and this is what James speaks of. They do not justify her as righteousness before God; that is what Paul flatly denies in the case of Abraham. Rahab the prostitute has no righteousness to trust in, no moral character to commend her to God. But she has the faith of a poor sinner who clings to Him. That faith, as all true faith will, shows itself living and real, despite her lying to the king of Jericho's messengers. In that lie we see at once her faith and its weakness.
If Abraham's case might seem out of reach, hers sets the floor.
Rahab was justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. She took God's side at the risk of personal danger. She was no doubt very ignorant of truth, and she knew nothing of a written revelation. But she acted on what she believed… Her example is remarkable for this: great intelligence is not needed for someone to be justified by works. Simplicity and reality are the qualifications.
- Heard. The whole city heard the same news about the God who brought Israel out of Egypt. Only Rahab let it reach her conscience.
- Sided. She received the men in peace. She changed sides before she had any promise of safety.
- Risked. Her act was treason. Abraham's was near-murder. Faith alone changed the character of both, and the Spirit chose them over acts of charity.
- Proved. Her works did not make her righteous before God. She had nothing to commend her, and she even lied. Her works proved she was a believer.
- Enough. No written revelation, no learning, no reputation — simplicity and reality were enough.