James Verses Paul

TOA has commented (on my own Blog) that James’ usage of justification proves that the Protestant’s understanding of Paul’s use of it in Romans 4 must be in error. Of course this begs the question. How do we know TOA’s interpretation is correct? Did he exegete the text or did Rome? Perhaps he could provide Rome’s dogmatic exegesis for us?

Nevertheless, it also begs another question. Why does James’ usage have to be exactly that of Paul’s? Is it not possible that different writers of the New Testament could be using similar terminology while addressing very different issues? I must again cite from Leon Morris’ work, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross.

“St. James takes up rather a different position when he expressly says that ‘by work a man is justified, and not by faith’ (Jas. 2:24), and when he uses the examples of Abraham and Rahab to reinforce his position. But is should be noted that he recognizes implicitly the place of faith. His polemic is directed not against faith as such, but against faith without works. He reiterates that that sort of faith is dead, ‘faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself….For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead’ (Jas. 2:27, 26). Moreover the Epistle does not inculcate a demand for law-works I the accepted sense; there is no thought of accumulation of merit by the performance of deeds in accordance with the letter of the law. Rather there is a stress on love, humility, and kindred qualities. The ‘works’ of James are very much like “the fruit of the Spirit’ of Paul. While we must recognize that James has expressed his point of view in very unPauline language, yet the fact remains that he does not replace Paul’s scheme of Justification by another based on law-works. He does not mean by works what Paul means, and he does not mean by faith what Paul means. His demand is for a ‘faith that worketh by love’ (Gal 5:6), if we may borrow a Pauline phrase, and his polemic is directed against those whose faith is revealed to be a hollow sham, by the absence of lives of service.”

I am always amazed that the debate that has raged for nearly 500 years can repeat the same arguments as if the other side has never responded. So when you hear that James tells us one thing, therefore Protestants are wrong about Paul, keep in mind that Protestants have repeatedly answered the charges of Rome and all those who would seek to insert man into the finished work of Christ.

In the next post, I will try to contrast Morris’ understanding of Justification with the claims of Robert Sungenis.