This is the third installment in my series of posts on James 12:14-26. If you would like to look at the previous two posts please follow these links:
In order to do this passage justice I am going to split my analysis into two parts. This week I will look at James 2:21-22 and next week I will look at James 2:23-24. Since verses 23 and 24 focus on the words “righteous” and “justified” it will be necessary to put some effort into defining them.
So we read:
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
In verse 21 James asks the rhetorical question: wasn’t Abraham justified by works when he offered up Isaac? He obviously expects his audience to reply: yes he was! The problem with this is when you go back and read Genesis 22, where the Abraham offering Isaac story is told, there is no mention of Abraham being justified. The LORD was obviously pleased with Abraham but nowhere does the text state that Abraham was justified.
I worked up a query on Blue Letter Bible that returned every occurrence of the words justify, justified, justifying, and justification (click here to see the query results). The first verse Blue Letter Bible found doesn’t appear until Exodus 23:7! All Protestants have been taught that justification is a legal term and basically equates with eternal salvation. It seems more than a bit odd that inspired scripture didn’t see fit to say anything about Abraham’s final salvation being secured at this time until James’ epistle was written. Yes, that’s an argument from silence but it seems incomprehensible to me that a doctrine as important as eternal salvation is ignored here. I have begun to question the teaching I have received over the years regarding justification but I will save that for my next post.
Abraham showed faith (and performed works) in God when he left his country in Genesis 12. He showed faith again when he believed God that he would have a son and heir in Genesis 15. Abraham again showed faith (and performed works) when he offered Isaac in Genesis 22. How many times must Abraham exhibit both faith and works? Is there ever enough?
If you are a Protestant you may believe in perseverance of the saints, once saved always saved, eternal security, or maybe you believe we gain salvation and lose it multiple times during our lifetimes. No matter what you believe it isn’t that you slowly gain salvation through multiple imputations of righteousness. If you believe in this gradual accrual of justification by works then you basically are in agreement with Roman Catholic theology (see Infusion and Imputation: An Introduction for a detailed explanation). I strongly believe the whole council of scripture does not support the Roman Catholic doctrine.
Moving on to verse 22 we see faith and works working together: faith is wrought (forged) by works and by works faith is made perfect (complete). This is saying that faith and works are mutually reinforcing and work together to cause us to mature spiritually. How can faith and works work together if we aren’t saved? Can someone go through this process of faith and works strengthening each other and end out not being saved? That is outlandish and I can’t see it being a legitimate possibility.
In my next post I will dive into righteousness and justification. See you all then.