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James 2:8-13 says,
“If you really fulfill the royal law
according to the Scripture, “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing
well. But if you show partiality, you are
committing sin and are convicted by the law
as transgressors. For whoever keeps the
whole law but fails in one point has become
accountable for all of it. For he who
said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said,
“Do not murder.” If you do not commit
adultery but do murder, you have become a
transgressor of the law. So speak and so
act as those who are to be judged under the
law of liberty. For judgment is without
mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy
triumphs over judgment.”
There are two
different laws being discussed in this passage,
not one. The royal law of liberty and the
Old Covenant Law.
The “royal law” in James 2:8-9 is the law of
love which says to
“love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). When you
show partiality, you are not showing your
love for others equally, which makes your
behavior sinful (Matt. 22:39; Mark 12:28-31;
cf. Rom. 13:8-10). The apostle Paul called
the royal law, the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s
burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ”
(cf. 1 Cor. 9:19-23).
The law of Christ is what Christ
said were the two greatest commandments from
the Old Covenant Law.
Mark 12:28-31
says, “And one of the scribes came
up and heard them disputing with one
another, and seeing that he answered them
well, asked him, “Which commandment is the
most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The
most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord
our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength.’ The second is
this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’ There is no other commandment
greater than these.’”
The law of Christ, then, is
to love God with all of our heart and to
love our neighbors as ourselves.
James went on to say that any
violation of even one of the Old Covenant commandments separates
us from God (James 2:10). Paul says the same
thing in Galatians 3:10, “For all who rely
on works of the law are under a curse; for
it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does
not abide by all things written in the Book
of the Law, and do them.” (cf. Deut. 27:26).
James and Paul were in complete
agreement regarding faith and works.
James and Paul
both referred to Deuteronomy 27:26 to show
that failure to keep the law perfectly
brings God’s judgment and condemnation.
Even one violation of the law brings the
curse of God (Deut. 27-28). James and Paul
both understood that no one can keep God’s
law perfectly, not even Paul who was a
strict Pharisee before his conversion to
Christianity (Rom. 7:7-12).
James 2:12-13
tells us that “believers will be
judged by the law of liberty, which is the
law of love.” Believers who practice love
and mercy are the ones who will triumph at
the judgment seat of Christ (James 2:5, 8).
The judgment seat of Christ is not
a judgment for determining a person’s
eternal destiny. We know that because James was speaking
to believers whose destinies had already been
determined (James 2:1; John 5:24). Rather,
it is for giving believers’ their rewards (cf.
1 Cor. 3:12-15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10).
James’ statement that “mercy triumphs
over judgment does not, in this context,
mean that God’s mercy is extended to
believers at the judgment. Rather,
believers’ acts of mercy (e.g., caring for
the poor and hurting) will mean that they
are vindicated at the judgment (cf.
Matt. 25:34-40). Mercy was an essential Old
Testament requirement for dealing with the
poor (Micah 6:8; Zech. 7:9-10). Mercy is
likewise a requirement of believers in the
New Testament (e.g., Matt. 5:7; 6:15; 18:32-35),
or they will experience God’s
judgment rather than his mercy.”
[1]
“Only God in his mercy can forgive our
sins. We can’t earn forgiveness by forgiving
others. But when we withhold forgiveness
from others after having received it
ourselves, we show that we don’t understand
or appreciate God’s mercy toward us (see
Matt. 6:14-15; 18:21-35; Eph. 4:31-32).”
[2]
If you want to live by the law,
you must keep it perfectly to be saved.
The purpose of the Law was to show us
our inability to fulfill God’s righteous
standard (cf. Rom. 3:20; 5:20; 7:7; Gal. 3:19; 3:24; 1 Tim. 1:9). We are never told
that our good works will save us, just the
opposite. The only way we are saved is by
grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone (Eph. 2:8-10). So why does James 2:18 tell
us that the only possible evidence of true
faith is works?
What does James mean
by good works?
Some people
think that James contradicted Paul’s
teaching on salvation by grace through faith
in Jesus Christ alone, but they are wrong.
Both men taught we are saved by faith in
Christ alone. James was addressing what
genuine faith in Jesus Christ looked like,
and then encouraged his audience to live a
lifestyle that was worthy of God’s one and
only Son.
James 2:14-18 says,
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man
claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can
such faith save him? Suppose a brother or
sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him,
“Go, I wish you
well; keep warm and well fed,” but does
nothing about his physical needs, what good
is it? In the same way, faith by itself,
if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I
have deeds.” Show me your faith without
deeds, and I will show you my faith by what
I do.” And James 2:26 says, “For as the body
apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith
apart from works is dead.”
When
James says that “faith without works is
dead”, he means that those who have true
faith in Jesus Christ will always produce
good works as a fruit of their salvation. It
is our good works of “loving kindness” that
prove we have genuine faith. Works like
caring for orphans and widows, and helping
those in need (James 1:22-27). He does not
mean to guard the ends of the Sabbath and
eat only clean meat.
James and
Paul were in complete agreement here as
well. What James calls good “works” in James 2:18-26, Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such
things there is no law.”
James and Paul were addressing different
situations.
“James was not
refuting the Pauline doctrine of
justification by true faith but a perversion
of it. Both Paul and James define faith as a
living, productive trust in Christ. Genuine
faith cannot be “dead” to morality or barren
to works.”
[3] “Paul
showed believers that Christ met the demands
of the law and, thus, brings us to
salvation. James showed believers that their
obedience to God’s moral standards is an
indication of a living faith, which is a
life lived in step with the One who met the
demands of the law.”
[4]
Our good
works can’t save us. They are the fruit of
salvation, not the cause. They prove that we
have Christ’s love in our hearts and that we
have already been saved.
The Apostle
Paul said it well in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For
by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God, not a result of works, so
that no one may boast. For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them.”
Genuine
faith will naturally produce good works; the
two complement each other. When someone
truly believes in the gospel, it will
change the way they live their lives.
Christ
has set us free from the Law to be justified
by grace (Galatians 5:1-6). The perfect law
of liberty that judges us is Christ’s law of
love, loving God and loving our neighbor.
Romans 13:8-10 says, “Let no debt
remain outstanding, except the continuing
debt to love one another, for he who loves
his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The
commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do
not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,”
and whatever other commandment there may be,
are summed up in this one rule: “Love your
neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to
its neighbor. Therefore love is the
fulfillment of the law.” (NIV)
“Love
excludes murder, adultery, stealing, and
lying (see Rom. 13:9). Therefore when we
love, we automatically fulfill the
prohibitions of the law. If we attempt to
live by the law, we quickly discover that we
are breaking the law (Rom. 7:5). But when we
act in accordance with God’s love, without
being under the law, we fulfill it.”
[5]
The law of Christ is the royal law of
liberty. Christians live by it because they
want to out of love for Christ, not because
they feel obligated to keep the Old Covenant
Law. The controlling
force in their lives is not a written code
of laws, but a living person, Jesus Christ
(John 15:10; Gal. 5:13; 1 Jn. 5:3; Rom. 8:1-11).
Paul said in Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
counts for anything, but only faith working
through love.”
Our good works mean nothing apart
from Christ living His life through us.
Apart from
Christ, a believer cannot accomplish
anything of true spiritual value. It is
Christ’s love in our heart’s that makes it
possible for us to love the way God intended
for us to love and become the kind of person
He desires us to be. It is only after we
have turned our hearts over to Christ that
we can begin to fulfill Christ’s law of love
(Matt. 26:36-40; Rom. 8:1-11; Eph. 3:17-19; John 8:36-38;
1 Cor. 9:19-23; Gal. 5:14).
Remember what Jesus
said in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are
the branches. If you remain in me and I in
you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me
you can do nothing.” (NIV)
References:
1. The ESV Study
Bible: James 2:13.
2. The Life
Application Study Bible: James 2:13.
3.
The Ryrie Study Bible: James 2:14.
4. The
CSB Study Bible: Introduction to the Book of
James.
5. The Nelson’s NKJV
Study Bible: Romans 13:10.
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