Wednesday, July 25, 2012

James 2 Verse 24 - Works of God Justify







"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."

  
Debra J.M. Smith 2012
www.InformingChristians.com  
© Debra J.M. Smith