Romans 4:2-5; James 2:14-18, 21-24
If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works…Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): I would observe, that the great servant of God, Martin Luther, soon after he began to preach the Gospel, made a mistake…He had felt the power of Paul’s doctrine in his own soul, and would have defied an angel that should have dared to oppose it: therefore, when his adversaries pressed him with the authority of James, not having at that time light to give a more solid answer, he ventured to deny the authenticity of the whole Epistle, and rashly insisted, both in his sermons and books, that James never wrote it.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Many, besides Martin Luther, have thought they detected contradictory teaching in the letter of James, to that of Paul as set forth in Romans. Paul tells us plainly in Romans 4:2, “If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.” Is there not contradiction here? Was not Luther right in declaring that this letter of James’ was not true inspired Scripture, but just “an epistle of straw?”
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): James never contradicts Paul—it is because we do not understand him that we fancy he does so.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The Sophists laid hold on the word “justified,” and then they cried out as being victorious, that justification is partly by works. But we ought to seek out a right interpretation according to the general drift of the whole passage.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): There is a striking difference in the manner of expression between those two great Apostles. In all the writings of Paul, in relation to justification, he is uniformly speaking of the method of a sinner’s justification before God. James, on the contrary, is solely considering the subject, in respect to our being justified in the sight of men. Paul, never loseth sight of the cause of justification, which is Christ. James is speaking of the effect of justification.
H. A. IRONSIDE: Luther and many others failed to note those words in Romans 4:2, “not before God.” How was Abraham justified before God? James and Paul agree that it was when “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.” But a careful examination of these letters will show that they were treating of altogether different subjects. Paul was dwelling on justification before God; James on justification before men.
JOHN CALVIN: We have already said that James does not speak here of the cause of justification, or of the manner how men obtain righteousness, and this is plain to every one; but that his object was only to show that good works are always connected with faith; and, therefore, since he declares that Abraham was “justified by works,” he is speaking of the proof that he gave of his justification.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): James does not stop to explain precisely what he means by “faith.” Clearly he here means a mere intellectual belief of religious truth, a barren orthodoxy. If that undeniable explanation of his terminology is kept steadily in view, much of the difficulty which has been found in bringing his teaching into harmony with Paul’s teaching melts away at once.
JOHN CALVIN: When, therefore, the Sophists set up James against Paul, they go astray through the ambiguous meaning of a term. When Paul says that we are justified by faith, he means no other thing than that by faith we are counted righteous before God. But James has quite another thing in view, even to show that he who professes that he has faith, must prove the reality of his faith by his works. Doubtless James did not mean to teach us here the ground on which our hope of salvation ought to rest; and it is this alone that Paul dwells upon. That we may not then fall into that false reasoning which has deceived the Sophists, we must take notice of the two fold meaning, of the word “justified.” Paul means by it, the gratuitous imputation of righteousness before the tribunal of God; and James, the manifestation of righteousness by the conduct, and that before men, as we may gather from the preceding words, “Show me thy faith.”
H. A. IRONSIDE: When Abraham went to Mount Moriah and there by faith offered his son upon the altar, he was justified by works before men, as he made manifest the reality of his profession of confidence in God and His Word. Thus, says James, the scripture found in Genesis 15:6 came to fulfilment in the demonstration of that faith Abraham had so long ago. Remember, some forty years elapsed between the patriarch’s justification by faith before God and his justification by works before men.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Which shows that Abraham was justified before he wrought this work—and therefore that could not be the cause or matter of his justification before God.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The design of James is not to show how sinners are justified in God’s court, but only what kind of faith it is whereby they are justified—such a one as purifies the heart, Acts 15:9, and looks to Christ, not only as made righteousness, but as sanctification to them, 1 Corinthians 1:30; and consequently not only rests on Him for justification, but stirs them up to yield obedience to Him.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Thus the faith of Abraham was a working faith: “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was made perfect? Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only.”—Not by a bare opinion, or profession, or believing without obeying, but by having such a faith as is productive of good works.
C. H. SPURGEON: Both the doctrinal Paul and the practical James spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Paul builds the tower and James puts the railing around it—Paul conducts us to the summit of God’s House and bids us rejoice in what we see there. And then James points us to the railing that is built up to keep us from leaping over the truth of God to our own destruction. Thus is each doctrine balanced, bulwarked and guarded.
H. A. IRONSIDE: Had Luther seen this in his early days and put more stress upon it, he might have saved many of his followers from resting on mere credulity instead of knowing the reality of saving faith.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Such are the weakness or slowness of understanding, dullness or confusedness of apprehension, incoherency of thought—these are the infirmities which are found in the best of men, in a larger or smaller proportion. And from these none can hope to be perfectly freed, till the spirit returns to God that gave it.
JOHN NEWTON: But Luther, though mistaken in this point, was under the Lord’s teaching; he went on from strength to strength, increasing in knowledge and grace; and when his judgment was better informed, he publicly retracted his former unguarded assertion.
