Did Paul and James agree in their writings?
Do Paul and James agree in their writings?
In studying Galatians, one really must visit another passage of Scripture. It usually enters the conversation when faith alone is praised as the way to salvation. It is, of course, the letter from Brother James. Let’s compare Galatians 2:16ff with James 2:14ff.
Galatians 2:16, in the middle of the sentence, says, “Knowing that a man is not justified by works of the Law, but through faith in Christ Jesus… by works of the Law no one will be justified…”
Now, brother James, can you comment? Yes, this is the James who had a long discussion with the apostle Paul at the Jerusalem Council. This is the James who totally agreed with Paul and Peter that Gentiles needed to enter the Kingdom simply by faith. Keep that in mind as you listen to what the Spirit says through him:
James 2:14: “What is the use, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, and he has no works? Can that faith save him?”
He goes on to describe a Christian who ignores the physical needs of his fellow Christians, and then concludes, “So also faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.”
He is not finished. He makes another argument in verses 18-20, then concludes again that it is foolish to think that you can have faith without works. He goes out and says in verse 24, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone… Faith without works is dead.”
So what is the context of James’ statement on faith and works?
In that last bunch of words is the key to what James is talking about. He is not speaking of the way of salvation, as Paul speaks. He’s not talking about the requirement of entering Heaven, being born again, or even being justified the way Paul talks about justification. That would be a discussion that he was not so well informed about or was still new to him.
You are talking about a dead faith that saves no one. He’s talking about people who make a profession of faith but don’t really have it. He’s saying that you can’t have a kind of faith in God if it doesn’t manifest itself early by demonstrating works for other people.
The fact that you have a mental concept of Jesus does not save you. Abraham, says James, Abraham, the father of the faithful, who believed in God and God counted it to him for righteousness, true salvation, showed that he knew God by doing what God told him to do. This is how we show ourselves and others that we know God in a saving relationship: when we find ourselves doing things for others that we would not have imagined before the coming of Christ.
If Paul and James were standing before you, based on what we know of James’s position in Jerusalem, and his welcoming of uncircumcised Gentiles or all the bondage of Jewish law hung around their necks, they would be in perfect agreement. about what saves. (Paul) and what proves your salvation (James).
End of contradiction.