James 2:24:<\/strong>\u201cYou see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone\u201d (cf. 1:22, 2:14, 17, 20, 22, 26).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nCatholics believe in an organic relationship between faith and works. Far from being intractably opposed to one another, they are in fact inseparable. Faith is necessary to produce truly good works, and works in turn are the evidence of a true faith. This verse would appear, on the other hand, to present a problem for the fundamental Protestant notion of sola fide, <\/i>or faith alone. The Bible here expresses precisely the opposite proposition: one is not <\/i>justified by faith alone.<\/p>\n
Much of the Protestant polemic historically has been oriented toward \u201cfaith alone,\u201d and a false charge that the Catholic Church asserts salvation through works. It is no small wonder, then, that verses such as this one make Protestants squirm. Protestants must provide an explanation for this verse and related ones that escapes the straightforward, literal meaning.<\/p>\n
We can be fairly sure that if the passage had stated the opposite <\/i>\u2014 \u201ca man is justified by faith alone,\u201d an idea that never appears in a single verse in Holy Scripture, nor is it taught in the Bible as a whole \u2014 it would have been one of the centerpieces of the Protestant apologetic. But since the verse flatly contradicts one of their major premises, Protestants\u00a0are forced to come up with tortured explanations or else ignore it altogether.<\/p>\n
The common Protestant reply to James 2:24 (and the book of James in general) is to say that a different sense of the word justified <\/i>is being employed by St. James. He is referring to the fruit <\/i>of justification and the merely outward <\/i>indication that one is saved. Catholics, on the other hand, follow St. Augustine\u2019s understanding of merit:<\/p>\n\nWhat merit of man is there before grace by which he can achieve grace, as only grace works every one of our good merits in us, and as God, when He crowns our merits, crowns nothing else but His own gifts? (Ep. 194, 5, 19; in Ott, 265).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
But these two clashing approaches to justification have a substantial meeting point: both accept the notion of sola gratia, <\/i>or salvation by grace alone (over against the heresy of Pelagianism, which holds that man can be saved by works or his own self-generated effort). Both also believe that good works are necessary in the Christian life.<\/p>\n
Catholics believe that faith and works are more closely tied together, and related to justification itself. Works can follow only by God\u2019s grace and do not cause salvation, but they must be present, because (per James), \u201cfaith apart from works is dead\u201d (James 2:26).<\/p>\n
In large part, the Protestant-Catholic dispute is over the distinction between justification (that is, salvation) and sanctification (holiness). Protestants believe that the latter has nothing whatsoever to do with justification (which is imputed to the believer or declared by God), yet that it should follow from it. Catholics think they are closely related. The practical result is arguably the same in either system.<\/p>\n
Classical Protestantism will not accept a person as \u201csaved\u201d if that person shows no fruit of good works in his life. They will deny that he ever was saved if he habitually engages in serious sin. Both Luther and Calvin taught this. Luther wrote (contrary to much Evangelical talk today):<\/p>\n
\nWe must therefore certainly maintain that where there is no faith there also can be no good works; and conversely, that there is no faith where there are no good works. Therefore faith and good works should be so closely joined together that the essence of the entire Christian life consists in both (in Althaus, 246).<\/p>\n
Accordingly, if good works do not follow, it is certain that this faith in Christ does not dwell in our heart, but dead faith (in Althaus, 246; also LW, 34, 111; cf. 34, 161).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
St. James is emphasizing the works element of salvation, and St. Paul, the faith element. But neither denies the other element (see in Paul, e.g., Rom. 2:5-13; 1 Cor. 3:8-9; Eph. 2:10; Titus 3:8). Neither James nor Paul compartmentalizes works and faith into distinct theological constructs of \u201csanctification\u201d and \u201cjustification.\u201d Rather, what is seen here is an organic unity, precisely as in the Catholic view.<\/p>\n
But many Protestants whom I have come across think that the Bible distinguishes here between justification before God <\/i>and justification before men. <\/i>Their argument hinges on a different sense of justification in James compared with the rest of Holy Scripture.<\/p>\n
Catholics believe that salvation is an ongoing endeavor, not a one-time event, as Protestants think (see, e.g., 1 Cor. 9:27, 10:12; Phil. 2:12-13, 3:11-14; Heb. 3:12-14). Obviously, if it were an\u00a0instantaneous event, there would be no time for works at all, so works are irrelevant and meaningless in any discussion of justification in that <\/i>sense. James is discussing justification-in-process. Ironically, Luther himself seemed to believe in ongoing justification:<\/p>\n\nOur justification is not yet finished. It is in the process of being made; it is neither something which is actually completed nor is it essentially present. It is still under construction (in Althaus, 245).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
On the other hand, at certain points in his life, Luther was willing to disavow the canonicity of James. Paul Althaus noted how Luther believed that even some passages in the Bible cease to \u201chave the authority of the word of God\u201d if they \u201ccannot be unified with the witness of all the rest of Scripture.\u201d Thus, Luther wrote in 1543, three years before his death:<\/p>\n
\nAway with James. . . . His authority is not great enough to cause me to abandon the doctrine of faith and to deviate from the authority of the other apostles and the entire Scripture (in Althaus, 81).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The year before, Luther had written:<\/p>\n
\nUp to this point I have been accustomed to deal with and interpret [James] according to the sense of the rest of Scripture. For you will judge that none of it must be set forth contrary to manifest Holy Scripture. Accordingly, if they will not agree to my interpretations, then I shall make rubble of it. I almost feel like throwing Jimmy into the stove (in Althaus, 81; LW, 34, 317).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In his preface to the New Testament, written in 1522, Luther famously described James as \u201can epistle of straw\u201d (see Bainton, 259). He did not consider it the true writing of an apostle (even in 1545, the year before his death). In his revised version of his preface to the book, he stated that it taught works-righteousness, \u201crends\u201d the Scripture, and \u201cresists\u201d St. Paul.<\/p>\n
Luther was equally strident when defending his addition of the word alone <\/i>after faith <\/i>in Romans 3:28:<\/p>\n\nThus I will have it, thus I order it, my will is reason enough\u2026. Luther will have it so, and . . . he is a Doctor above all Doctors in the whole of Popery (in O\u2019Connor, 25; Letter to Wenceslaus Link in 1530).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Obviously, if the book of James did not make Protestants (perhaps Luther, above all) squirm, they would not be led to adopt such desperate measures and arguments to explain it (away, as it were). Thus, I once had an Internet dialogue with a person who constructed his entire exegetical argument from James\u2019s use of the word see <\/i>in this verse. He reasoned that James was referring simply to outward manifestations <\/i>of true saving faith, which came by faith alone, because this was what other human beings could see. <\/i><\/p>\n
I doubt that this is a very common Protestant interpretation of the verse, especially among scholars, but it does in any event illustrate the extent to which even thoughtful, intelligent Protestants (and this person was pretty sharp) will go to explain the difficult passages of James that seem to contradict their theology.<\/p>\n
This argument (and, more important, the sophisticated version of it that does not depend on the\u00a0words \u201cyou see\u201d) collapses utterly, however, in light of a rather simple contextual consideration. James 2:21, three verses before, reads, \u201cWas not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar?\u201d This justification was not \u201cbefore men,\u201d but before the Lord. Yet Scripture teaches us that Abraham was justified in that very act, even though no other human being was around to see it.<\/p>\n
That is not to say that his faith was not important. His act of obedience displayed great faith \u2014 a faith inseparably united with his actions. In fact, the very next verse (James 2:22) gives us exactly this authoritative interpretation: \u201cYou see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works.\u201d The real clincher, however, comes in verse 2:23: \u201cand the scripture was fulfilled which says, \u2018Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.\u2019 \u201d Note what has occurred here. If the fulfillment of Abraham\u2019s \u201cfaith alone\u201d act of \u201cbelieving in God\u201d came via a work, <\/i>which no one else saw, two things logically follow:<\/p>\n\n- Faith and works are shown once again to be two sides of a coin. They cannot be, and should not be, separated. St. Paul\u2019s \u201cbelief reckoned as righteousness\u201d is grounded in a work, and authoritatively so, since one apostle interprets the same passage that another has interpreted, based on an Old Testament passage. Inspired \u2014 God-breathed \u2014 Scripture cannot contradict itself.<\/li>\n
- The Protestant \u201cfaith alone\u201d concept that is built upon the Abrahamic verses having to do with faith, among others, cannot possibly be interpreted as excluding works altogether (that is, from justification). It simply cannot be done.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
*<\/p>\n
In popular Protestant understanding, the radical dichotomy of \u201cfaith versus works\u201d largely dominates. This is unbiblical, as I think can be demonstrated in the commentary above and in a close examination of related passages such as those that follow.<\/p>\n
Sources<\/strong><\/p>\nPaul Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther. <\/i>Translated by Robert C. Schultz. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966.<\/p>\n
Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand. <\/i>New York: Mentor Books, 1950.<\/p>\n
Martin Luther,\u00a0Luther\u2019s Works <\/i>(LW). American edition. Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan (vols. 1-30) and Helmut T. Lehmann (vols. 31-55). St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House (vols. 1-30); Philadelphia: Fortress Press (vols. 31-55), 1955.<\/p>\n
Henry O\u2019Connor, Luther\u2019s Own Statements. <\/i>3rd ed. New York: Benziger Bros., 1884.<\/p>\n
Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. <\/i>Translated by Patrick Lynch. Edited by James Canon Bastible. 4th edition in English. Rockford, Illinois: TAN Books, reprinted in 1974.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is from my book, The Catholic Verses (Sophia Institute Press, 2004, pp. 63-68). ***** James 2:24:\u201cYou see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone\u201d (cf. 1:22, 2:14, 17, 20, 22, 26). Catholics believe in an organic relationship between faith and works. Far from being intractably opposed to one another, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":29569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[1121,2346,1471,1123,1120,2837,3764,2344,1070,2341,2343,1586,243,3087],"class_list":["post-29566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salvation-justification","tag-extrinsic-justification","tag-faith-and-works","tag-grace-alone","tag-imputed-justification","tag-infused-justification","tag-judaizers","tag-judaizers-catholics","tag-justification","tag-pelagianism","tag-salvation","tag-sola-fide","tag-sola-gratia","tag-soteriology-2","tag-works-salvation"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. 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Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Faith & Works: Oil & Water or Two Sides of a Coin?","description":"Catholics believe in an organic relationship between faith & works. 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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","sameAs":["https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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