Faith
and Works
Martin
Luther, initiator of the Protestant Reformation and founder
of the Lutheran Church, described James' letter as an "epistle
of straw."His characterization was far from accurate.On the
contrary,James' is an epistle of great depth.
Anyone
who carefully studies James 2 can plainly see that James teaches
that Christian faith is more than mere good thoughts. He demands
that a Christian believer prove his faith by his actions.
Some scholars
think Luther judged James' letter inferior to Paul's epistles
because-in Luther's view-Paul taught faith without works:"Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the
deeds of the law"(Romans 3:28).Luther's misguided assumption
was that Paul was enlightened on the subject of faith and
saw no need for works while James was not enlightened because
he advocated the need for works.
Luther
failed to see that Paul never contradicted James. How could
he? They both followed Jesus Christ's teachings in exactly
the same way, as we can see when we put together the scriptures
on the topic to better understand it.
Let's
understand how Paul and James thought alike on the subject
of faith and works. Paul understood that salvation is a gift
from God and not something we can earn by our efforts.Yet
he also knew that faith is proven- demonstrated to be genuine-by
our works. Notice how he put it in Ephesians 2:8-10:"For by
grace you have been saved through faith,and that not of yourselves;it
is the gift of God,not of works,lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works,which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in
them."
In fact,
Paul said almost the same thing as James when he wrote,"For
not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but
the doersof the law will be justified" (Romans 2:13; compare
James 1:22-25).
Paul was
on the same page with James, especially on the vastly misunderstood
subject of faith and works. Both apostles taught that a disciple's
faith is proven and perfected by his works. |
