Faith Alone, or Faith + Works?

How do we reconcile "man is not justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ" (Gal. 2:16) with "man is justified by works, and not by faith alone" (Ja. 2:24)? Check out this blog "Reconciling Paul and James: Thoughts about Justification". It's most interesting that Ja. 2:24, the only Scripture text mentioning "sola fide" - "faith alone", the Reformation doctrine made famous by Martin Luther, directly contradicts that doctrine. It's no wonder that Luther wanted to remove the Book of James from the canon of Scripture! But how can these two ideas, faith and works, be reconciled?

St. Paul also wrote - "If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness'" (Rom. 4:2-3). Paul is quoting from Gen. 15:6. But the key to resolving this seeming paradox is - "You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the Law. You have fallen away from grace. For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that works through love" (Gal. 5:4-6). By mentioning circumcision, Paul shows that when referring to the Law he has in mind the Law of Moses, not simply law in general.

Now let's go back to St. James, the step-brother of the Lord Jesus, to see how he resolves this issue, using exactly the same Old Testament character, Abraham, referring to exactly the same Scripture that St. Paul used -

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can that faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in need of daily food, and one of you tells them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled;" and yet you didn't give them the things the body needs, what good is it? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. Yes, a man will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness;" and he was called the friend of God." (Ja. 2:14-23).

Dead faith, the kind of intellectualized "faith" that merely agrees to the truth of certain theological doctrines, isn't saving faith, a faith that certifies itself by doing good works. The Lord Jesus Christ, right after preaching the Beatitudes, emphasized the need for doing good works - "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men. You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can't be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Mat. 5:13-16).

And immediately after that, Christ said - "Don't think that I came to destroy the Law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill. For most assuredly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished. Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mat. 5:17-20).

The Scribes and Pharisees took great pains - and pride - in striving to dot each "i" and cross each "t" of the Law of Moses, as well as all of the extra rules and regulations that Jewish rabbis had added over the centuries, collected in the Talmud. Note that Christ didn't say that we Christians, His followers, do not have to follow religious rules and regulations; instead, our righteousness must exceed even those rules. This can only happen if Christ's righteousness is infused into us. Yet there are some Christians who believe they are free from all laws! What did St. Paul have to say about this mistaken belief?

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we will also be part of His resurrection; knowing that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin" (Rom. 6:1-6).

The real issue here isn't our trying to put a leash on our sinfulness and trying to do good deeds, to be righteous; it's a matter of life or death. The whole faith-versus-works controversy began with a mis-translation of a key verse by St. Jerome when he translated the New Testament from Greek into the Latin Vulgate, Rom. 5:12 that states - "Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, in that all sinned." Jerome misunderstood "in that all sinned" to mean "in whom [Adam] all sinned".

This later led St. Augustine to develop his twin doctrines of (A) original sin being passed from Adam to all mankind, so all humans are guilty of Adam's sin because "in Adam" they sinned; and (B) human nature is totally depraved because of this inherent sinfulness and is incapable of doing any truly good works. But this is not what Rom. 5:12 actually states - it says that death passed to all men because we have all sinned. Any guilt we have is due to our own sins, not Adam's. By now virtually all translations of Rom. 5:12 have been corrected, but the mistaken doctrines of original sin and total depravity are still lurking around in many corners.

But Paul writes that both Jews and Greeks are capable of doing good works, and will be rewarded with eternal life, glory and honor - "[God] 'will reward to everyone according to their works:' to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruptibility, eternal life; .... But glory and honor and peace to every man who works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Rom. 2:6-7,10).

St. Paul makes clear this idea that death, not sin, came from Adam; but resurrection from death into new life comes from Christ - "But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:20-22).

And in his letter to the church in Ephesus St. Paul writes - "for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them" (Eph. 2:8-10). Grace is "kharis" - God's free gift, His transforming power that unites us with the divine life, the resurrection life of Christ, and to do good works because we have new life in Christ, not in order to earn eternal life.

So there is no real contradiction between genuine, living faith in the resurrected, living Christ, and good works done out of love for Christ and for our neighbor. That is a false dualism, a merely apparent contradiction, introduced by later theologians. Let's be true followers of Christ, having a live, active faith in Him and doing good works because it's our second nature since we've "become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4)!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 31 Jan. 2015.)