The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Faith Alone

Sorry Mike, but your distinction is fallacious and indefensible. Why? Because "doing good things out of love" only speaks to the motive from which those "good things" are done. Secondly, those "good things" must be defined by that which is approved of God, vis a vis the law; the revealed will of God. (supportive passages can be easily provided upon request)

Secondly, the difference between what Paul is dealing with in his epistles, e.g., Galatians and Romans, and that which James is addressing is of fundamental import. Paul is addressing the keeping of God's law prior to and as a contributory cause to justification. James is addressing the keeping of God's law (good works out of love) anterior to justification as evidence of a true living faith which was the necessary instrument/vehicle to appropriate justification. Thus "justify" in James is referring to one having the genuine credentials of which one claims to have. And James surely makes this clear in the examples of Abraham who was declared righteous and 30 years +/- thereafter offered up Isaac, whereas Rahab was a babe in Christ having just been delivered from her whoredom and enmity against God and His people when she harbored the spies and provided for their escape. Further, the litany of the faithful in Hebrews 11 is further evidence that it is by faith (as instrument) ALONE that justifies and not by works of any kind nor of a combination of the two.


I don't know what Calvinists you have been talking to, but most all the Calvinists I know make much of "good works". And this is what one would and should expect for we believe that God has saved us in Christ unto holiness. Again, Romans 6 is without doubt one of the most succinct statements about the relationship between justification and sanctification. A truly justified sinner WILL produce the fruit of sanctification for the Holy Spirit dwells within a true believer. It is the Spirit that initially brings the sinner to life and it is the same Spirit that brings forth the fruit of holiness out of that life, ala "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead." (Jam 2:26)