The Nature of Saving Faith, 2

Jim ButlerJames 2:18–26

James 2:18–26 presents an apparent conflict with Paul's doctrine of justification by faith alone, a tension that has troubled interpreters from Martin Luther onward. This sermon resolves the tension exegetically by demonstrating that James and Paul use the word 'justification' in different senses: Paul addresses the sinner's standing before God by grace alone through faith alone, while James addresses the public demonstration and evidential confirmation of that faith before men. The controlling principle throughout is that saving faith is never alone — it is ever accompanied with all other saving graces and necessarily produces good works — while a faith that produces no works is the dead, demonic, counterfeit profession James condemns. The sermon calls hearers to examine whether their profession of faith in Christ is accompanied by the fruit that distinguishes genuine saving faith from empty confessionalism.