What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?   Can faith save him?  (15) If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, (16) and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  (17) Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  (18) But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

James, the half brother of Jesus and head of the church at Jerusalem, wrote this letter and the verses we study today. The verses are a famous passage because they seem to contradict the verses in Romans, written by the apostle Paul – it appears that James is saying faith plus works are necessary for salvation while Paul says we are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from works. James is actually dealing with the question of what is true saving faith – that there is false faith which does not save.  Both Paul and James are NOT saying faith PLUS good works saves man but instead are saying that genuine faith by its very nature accompanies good works.

Martin Luther found this seeming comtracdiction a stumbling block until he realized what Paul meant in Romans 1:17 – “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”  Paul meant that  Christ Jesus alone achieved righteousness on our behalf and no man can partake of justification except by faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from any thing man can do.  Thus by this understanding the reformation was born ; Luther was born again into eternal salvation by faith without any good works by man, and the world was changed

Paul was writing to Jewish Christians who taught that we must add works to faith in Christ to be justified.  This is false doctrine.  Salvation is of the Lord, not Jesus plus  James was writing to those who said they had genuine faith but they did not show a changed life.  Paul is writing of rebirth at the moment of faith and James is addressing sanctification as a process which happens after that moment of faith  and ends only at the moment of death.  Both Paul and James are saying that genuine faith justifies – it is by grace through Christ Jesus that we are made right with God.  This genuine faith ALWAYS results in a life of good works. False faith does not save man.