"James 2 Verse 24 - Works of God
Justify"
I
am speaking as a Biblical Born-Again Evangelical
Christian.
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Catholicism
uses verse twenty-four of James chapter two, to wrongly support
its false teaching of man's works being used in
salvation. The verse is
saying that a believer is "justified" by his works. The word is "justified," not
"saved."
Let's look at the theology meaning of the word
"justified." It is the act of declaring innocent or
guiltless. The act of declaring someone to be
innocent is something that is done after the person is
found to be innocent. It is not what "makes" the person innocent,
but rather that which "declares" the person innocent.
Now
let's look at James 2:24
"Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith
only." --This is not saying a person is "saved" by works,
but rather that a believer is justified by works. And the works are
because of God's work in the believer.
A believer's
works are due to God working in him/her. Works of
God justify. A believer's works are all glory to God.
Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ."
Look at verse eighteen, in James two, "I
will shew thee my faith by my works." --The end of chapter two in
the book of James is saying that works prove
a believer's faith. The works don't save the believer. They
are the result, the product of being saved and
declare the believer has been made a new creation in
Christ, washed by the blood of Jesus,
innocent.
Extra Note: The last verse in James chapter two,
"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works
is dead also." Notice that a spiritually dead body is compared to
faith without works. Both are dead. We see in chapter three of John,
Jesus saying to Nicodemus, while explaining what being born again
means, "That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the
Spirit is
spirit."
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