"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law."
Justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law: It isn't that we are justified by faith plus whatever deeds of the law we can do. We are justified by faith alone, apart from the deeds of the law.
"Since all works of law are barred out, faith alone is left. Luther so translated, and since his time Sola Fide has become a slogan." (Lenski)
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Apart from the deeds of the law: Doesn't James contradict this in passages like James 2:14-26? How can we say that it is faith alone that saves, apart from the deeds of the law?
It is true faith alone saves, but true faith, saving faith, has a distinct character. It is not just agreeing with certain facts, but it is a directing of the mind and will in agreement with God. The whole purpose of the book of James is to describe the character of this saving faith.
Calvin explains: "What James says, that man is not justified by faith alone, but also by works, does not at all militate against the preceding view [of justification by faith alone]. The reconciling of the two views depends chiefly on the drift of the argument pursued by James. For the question with him is not, how men attain righteousness before God, but how they prove it to others that they are justified; for his object was to confute hypocrites, who vainly boasted that they had faith … James meant no more than that man is not made or proved to be just by a feigned or dead faith, and that he must prove his righteousness by his works."
Oh Dear Lord, THANK YOU for saving me through faith in your works! Praise be to you alone!
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