The faith vs. works controversy

I recently completed a correspondence course on the New Testament. I've spent the last 4 months reading all the books of the NT, listening to a lecture for each lesson, and reading some other material pertaining to each book. That's a pretty short amount of time for me to complete all that. I'd love to camp out in each book for a while, but for the purpose of the class I couldn't do that. I took a lot of notes and will probably post some more thoughts about things I've learned throughout the class.

I'll start with the controversial faith vs. works issue. The book of James is a practical "how to" of the Christian faith. It has been called "the Proverbs of the New Testament".

Martin Luther was so troubled by some things written in James that he questioned whether it should even be in the canon of Scripture. Chapter 2 contains some verses that, if taken out of context and not held up in the light of other Scriptures, can definitely make you scratch your head.

In Galatians 2:16 Paul says, "we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ." It is verses like this and others in Galatians & Romans that caused Luther to rebel against the works based salvation being taught in his day. Romans 1:17 says that in the gospel, "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" This was Luther's response to what he read:

"I had greatly longed to understand Paul's letter to the Romans, and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, 'the righteousness of God', because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and acts righteously in punishing the unrighteous...Night and day I pondered until...I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before 'the righteousness of God' had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gateway into heaven."

Understanding Luther's newfound grasp of salvation and true righteousness helps to see why he had such a problem with some of the statements in the book of James. The problem arises when James says things like (Abraham's) "faith was completed by his works" (2:22) and "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone" (2:24). Paul and James are actually talking about 2 different types of justification. Paul speaks of justification by faith, a central theme of his teaching in Romans and Galatians. James is speaking of justification in the sight of men. I don't want to elaborate on this point, but you can read this article if you're interested in learning more: click here

The verse that I want to talk about is James 2:21-22. It says, "Was not our father Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works." When I read those words I understood Luther's objection to James and I wanted to tear that page out of my Bible. But the Holy Spirit reminded me of a verse I had recently been thinking about.

I flipped back a few books to Philippians. In chapter 2 verse 12b-13 Paul says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Aaahh! I was also reminded of Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

If faith is completed by works, it is only because God works in us and has prepared works for us beforehand. That solved the dilemma for me. I can't do anything on my own to "complete" my faith. I can do the works for God's good pleasure that He has prepared for me.

This should be a comfort to any and all believers who feel they need to "just try harder" in order to please God. We need to trust, obey, and walk with Him. He'll take care of the rest!