Faith and Works
Faith without works is dead. Are Paul and James talking about different things? Are you saying that Paul is talking about how we are justified before God but James is asking what that genuine faith looks like?
This is where the big error shows up: "looks like". The idea is, "It's not that your works save you, it's that, if your faith is real, it's going to show up in how you live." But that's just double talk because there is a saving work, emphasized 3 times in Romans 10:9-14a. Also, the works might not be visible. The metaphor is often used which says that we won't put our hands on a hot stove because we believe it will burn us. That's true. The basic concept is sound. However, that line of cause and effect does not translate to "looks like", which has crept in as a test of salvation and burdened countless Christians, subverting real salvation doctrine.
Genuine faith does produce works, but works which are visible to others have to pass through our bodies, which Paul told us in Romans are wicked and serve sin to gain death. Resisting sin is not the works that faith must produce - calling Jesus "Boss" out loud is the work that's produced by our faith in Christ's death for our sins, burial, resurrection, and subsequent witness in accordance with Scripture, and that's what Paul told us to believe to be saved. That verbal confession work is visible and external. Other works produced by saving faith happen in the heart, and only sometimes do they produce visible action.
But let's pull away from this barely understandable technical language and look at the fact that Christians who have been plagued by this false gospel addition almost certainly have produced visible good works! Satanists sometimes do, too! So it's never been a clear sign of salvation, but it's just used as a whip in the hands of pastors who sometimes truly think that overt sin subverts salvation!!! Language hardly exists to describe just how wicked that is.
We've been told what to believe and what to do to be saved. The language that describes Paul's gospel is detailed, and language that's as detailed as that would be necessary to change it. No such detailed language exists in the Bible that says, "do this" or "believe that" "to be saved" or "by which we are saved" as specifically as what's found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 and Romans 10:9-14a. Consider, too, just how these two passages interlink with each other, strengthening the total picture even beyond the specificity of each passage alone. The empty belief in 1 Corinthians 15:2 connects with the work that's shown as part of the same salvation doctrine in the Romans passage. Romans 10:9-14a says that the work is impossible without believing one of the four historical facts listed in the 1 Corinthians passage. That single belief, too, references all the others when we believe the 1 Corinthians passage (especially, in this sense, verse 2, "by which you are saved if you continue to believe [the things in this list:]").
You don't have to follow all that to see the fact that we have been told what to believe and what to do to be saved, and none of it contradicts James. How could it?! God's Word is not a lie, and He told us what He means through all the biblical writers. Commentators who deny the straightforward text are the ones who are wrong. Don't listen to them. Prayerfully read the text yourself and trust God to make you think well. This is the most important thought you'll ever have in this world. Treat it studiously in your own mind! "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling".
Saying that faith produces works is simple knowledge - a beginner's fact. Of course if you really believe something, your actions will align with it. And Christians really are resisting sin to one degree or another, but not necessarily in ways that you could tell by looking! You don't know that Christian's heart. And remember: the faith that's being tested is that Jesus died for our sins, etc., so how can resisting lust, for instance, be a test of that particular belief? It does not follow...
One more thing to be wary of is that those who try to make outward sin-resistance a part of salvation doctrine often end up by saying that this dead, unreal faith is equivalent with "mere intellectual agreement". But intellectual agreement is the type of the faith that Paul stated in the 1 Corinthians 15 passage... They're attacking the core of the salvation doctrine text by this conclusion they arrive at! Run.
Read these things yourself very closely along with the surrounding text. If your mind skips over a phrase, go back until you understand it in context of the whole.
This is a long-standing schism in Christ's Church that seems to have its roots in the New Testament and has been resurfaced several times in Church history. Why do you think that is? Simply trust God's Word on the matter.
This is where the big error shows up: "looks like". The idea is, "It's not that your works save you, it's that, if your faith is real, it's going to show up in how you live." But that's just double talk because there is a saving work, emphasized 3 times in Romans 10:9-14a. Also, the works might not be visible. The metaphor is often used which says that we won't put our hands on a hot stove because we believe it will burn us. That's true. The basic concept is sound. However, that line of cause and effect does not translate to "looks like", which has crept in as a test of salvation and burdened countless Christians, subverting real salvation doctrine.
Genuine faith does produce works, but works which are visible to others have to pass through our bodies, which Paul told us in Romans are wicked and serve sin to gain death. Resisting sin is not the works that faith must produce - calling Jesus "Boss" out loud is the work that's produced by our faith in Christ's death for our sins, burial, resurrection, and subsequent witness in accordance with Scripture, and that's what Paul told us to believe to be saved. That verbal confession work is visible and external. Other works produced by saving faith happen in the heart, and only sometimes do they produce visible action.
But let's pull away from this barely understandable technical language and look at the fact that Christians who have been plagued by this false gospel addition almost certainly have produced visible good works! Satanists sometimes do, too! So it's never been a clear sign of salvation, but it's just used as a whip in the hands of pastors who sometimes truly think that overt sin subverts salvation!!! Language hardly exists to describe just how wicked that is.
We've been told what to believe and what to do to be saved. The language that describes Paul's gospel is detailed, and language that's as detailed as that would be necessary to change it. No such detailed language exists in the Bible that says, "do this" or "believe that" "to be saved" or "by which we are saved" as specifically as what's found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 and Romans 10:9-14a. Consider, too, just how these two passages interlink with each other, strengthening the total picture even beyond the specificity of each passage alone. The empty belief in 1 Corinthians 15:2 connects with the work that's shown as part of the same salvation doctrine in the Romans passage. Romans 10:9-14a says that the work is impossible without believing one of the four historical facts listed in the 1 Corinthians passage. That single belief, too, references all the others when we believe the 1 Corinthians passage (especially, in this sense, verse 2, "by which you are saved if you continue to believe [the things in this list:]").
You don't have to follow all that to see the fact that we have been told what to believe and what to do to be saved, and none of it contradicts James. How could it?! God's Word is not a lie, and He told us what He means through all the biblical writers. Commentators who deny the straightforward text are the ones who are wrong. Don't listen to them. Prayerfully read the text yourself and trust God to make you think well. This is the most important thought you'll ever have in this world. Treat it studiously in your own mind! "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling".
Saying that faith produces works is simple knowledge - a beginner's fact. Of course if you really believe something, your actions will align with it. And Christians really are resisting sin to one degree or another, but not necessarily in ways that you could tell by looking! You don't know that Christian's heart. And remember: the faith that's being tested is that Jesus died for our sins, etc., so how can resisting lust, for instance, be a test of that particular belief? It does not follow...
One more thing to be wary of is that those who try to make outward sin-resistance a part of salvation doctrine often end up by saying that this dead, unreal faith is equivalent with "mere intellectual agreement". But intellectual agreement is the type of the faith that Paul stated in the 1 Corinthians 15 passage... They're attacking the core of the salvation doctrine text by this conclusion they arrive at! Run.
Read these things yourself very closely along with the surrounding text. If your mind skips over a phrase, go back until you understand it in context of the whole.
This is a long-standing schism in Christ's Church that seems to have its roots in the New Testament and has been resurfaced several times in Church history. Why do you think that is? Simply trust God's Word on the matter.