⁴ What use is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother is without clothing and in need of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith also, if it does not possess works, is DEAD, BEING BY ITSELF. ¹⁸ 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.” ¹⁹ You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. ²⁰ But are you willing to acknowledge, YOU FUTILE PERSON, that FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS USELESS? ²¹ Was our father Abraham not justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was brought to completion; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God. ²⁴ You see that A PERSON IS JUSTIFIED BY WORKS AND NOT BY FAITH ALONE (Jam2:4-24).

Be in no doubt, James is referring here to faith that justifies before God, asserting that unless it is accompanied by works it does not avail for that purpose. Saving faith therefore cannot be merely a matter of belief or trust. As James points out even devils believe in the one true God – and shudder (v19). Nor, as I once believed, is it sufficient to trust in Jesus Christ and that He died for my sin. A psychopath could do that, indeed some have confessed as much – without any repentance on their part. Still less is saving faith as Luther defined it – “a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favour that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it”. Less still: “if men only believe enough in Christ they can commit adultery and murder a thousand times a day without periling their salvation”. Of course that “table talk” statement was hyperbole on Luther’s part, but it cannot remotely be extrapolated from saving faith as James understood it. More troubling for Luther and his followers, such a notion diametrically opposes the teaching of the Apostle Paul: “Know this with certainty – no immoral or impure person or covetous man has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph5:5).

“Trust” is insufficient; faith is required, and the point James is making is that saving faith by its very nature cannot be devoid of works. What is implicit to such a definition, and is also the point being made in the context of the broader benign providence I am presenting, is that genuinely good works such as the Mt25 “sheep” exhibited must derive from a form of faith. This pertains to natural law (innate spiritual faculties) and is set out in detail in chapter 3 of The Little Book of Providence from which I will briefly quote to finish. The extract also indicates how James’ and Paul’s teaching on faith and works are essentially the same – they just approach it from different angles.  

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“The apostle James makes it clear that works are relevant to (or referenced within) the process of justification, but unlike Paul, he is not referring to the outward requirements of Torah, but the practical outworking and evidence of a formed faith:

“How does it help, my brothers, when someone who has never done a single good act claims to have faith?” (Jame2:14)

And again:

“You believe in one God; that is creditable enough, but even the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Fool! – do you not realize that faith without works is useless?” (James2:19-20)

James goes on to the give examples of how Abraham and Rahab the harlot were justified by their actions. He concludes:

“You see now that it is by works and not only by believing that someone is justified” (Jam2:24)

By that he means there needs to be a reference to works, i.e. to see that fruit is produced confirming the faith to be formed. It is not really the work itself that justifies but the faith from which it springs, for an evil person may perform the very same act for self-centred reasons but it will never be from faith and they will not be justified. James is not contradicting Paul, who was addressing the problem in the churches initiated by the Judaic exclusivists that Peter had also had to contend with in Jerusalem that were insisting that Christians be circumcised and keep Torah (Acts15:7-11). We know Paul is referring to the Torah when he speaks of the Law in this context when he says elsewhere that the Law was given 430 years after God’s Covenant with Abraham.

James would agree with Paul that only perfection would suffice if justification were on the basis of perfect obedience to the Law, and then it would no longer be by grace, it would be a wage.  Likewise, Paul would agree with James when he insisted that nobody can be justified without the good deeds that flow out from faith, showing that it is formed. For deeds in the form of kindness and compassion are not merely the evidence of faith, they are its efflux.

Expressed another way there cannot be love (agape) without formed faith being present, for love flows out from faith; they are effectively a part of the same. James affirms with Paul, the Jewish Law has been replaced for the Christian by the royal law of love for neighbour (Jam2:8), a law which the Christian himself must fulfil (Gal6:2), by which he shall be judged. It is a law of the spirit rather than the letter and is written in the heart.  Paul regarded himself as being outside the Law, yet at the same time under a law; that of Christ (1Cor9:21).

Anyone who shows kindness to his “neighbour” out of compassion or a sense of duty is justified by faith within the Universal Covenant being a “doer of God’s law” as both James and Paul have re-envisaged it (Rom13:9-10); and that applied to many Gentiles who did not have the Law (Torah) but are a law for themselves (Rom2:14) which they endeavour to obey, whereas as shall be shown in chapter six, some people (the children of the devil) do not”. [Excerpt from The Little Book of Providence chap.3]

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