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James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
Shall faith be able to save him? He now comes to one of the chief points of this epistle, to show against the disciple of Simon Magus, the magician, that faith alone will not save any one. We may take notice in the first place, that St. James in this very verse, supposes that a man may have faith, a true faith without good works.
This also follows from ver. 19. where he says: Thou believest that there is one God: thou dost well. And the same is evident by the words John 12:42. where it is said, that many of the chief men also believed in him, (Christ)....but did not confess it, that they might not be cast out of the synagogue.
Now that faith alone is not sufficient to save a man, St. James declares by this example: If any one say to the poor and naked, go in peace, be you warmed and filled, and give them nothing, what shall it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works is dead, &c. i.e. such a faith, though it be not lost and destroyed, yet it remains in a soul that is spiritually dead, when it is not accompanied with charity and grace, which is the life of the soul, and without which faith can never bring us to eternal life.
In this sense is to be understood the 20th and 26th verses of this chapter, when faith is again said to be dead without good works. This is also the doctrine of St. Paul, when he tells us that a saving faith is a faith that worketh by charity, Galatians 5:6. When he says, that although faith were strong enough to remove mountains, a man is nothing without charity. (1 Corinthians 13:2.) When he teaches us again, that not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. [Romans 2:13.] St. John teacheth the same (1 John 3:14.) He that loveth not, remaineth in death.
But of this elsewhere in this place makes a very candid and remarkable profession of his faith, very different from that of his associates in the Proreformation, called Solifideans [who pretend one is justified by faith alone]:
Shall faith be able to save him? He now comes to one of the chief points of this epistle, to show against the disciple of Simon Magus, the magician, that faith alone will not save any one. We may take notice in the first place, that St. James in this very verse, supposes that a man may have faith, a true faith without good works.
This also follows from ver. 19. where he says: Thou believest that there is one God: thou dost well. And the same is evident by the words John 12:42. where it is said, that many of the chief men also believed in him, (Christ)....but did not confess it, that they might not be cast out of the synagogue.
Now that faith alone is not sufficient to save a man, St. James declares by this example: If any one say to the poor and naked, go in peace, be you warmed and filled, and give them nothing, what shall it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works is dead, &c. i.e. such a faith, though it be not lost and destroyed, yet it remains in a soul that is spiritually dead, when it is not accompanied with charity and grace, which is the life of the soul, and without which faith can never bring us to eternal life.
In this sense is to be understood the 20th and 26th verses of this chapter, when faith is again said to be dead without good works. This is also the doctrine of St. Paul, when he tells us that a saving faith is a faith that worketh by charity, Galatians 5:6. When he says, that although faith were strong enough to remove mountains, a man is nothing without charity. (1 Corinthians 13:2.) When he teaches us again, that not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. [Romans 2:13.] St. John teacheth the same (1 John 3:14.) He that loveth not, remaineth in death.
But of this elsewhere in this place makes a very candid and remarkable profession of his faith, very different from that of his associates in the Proreformation, called Solifideans [who pretend one is justified by faith alone]:
"There are some who say, 'My works indeed are not as they ought to be,' but my faith is firm, my salvation is therefore out of danger. This opinion, which has sprung up in this our unhappy age, and recommends itself under the name of reformed doctrine, ought to be opposed by every lover of piety, and all who wish well to their neighbour's salvation....no faith has ever availed any man, unless it were accompanied by such works as he had time and opportunity to perform."
In vain do we glory in our faith, unless our lives and works bear testimony of the same. Faith without charity is dead, and charity cannot exist without good works. He who bears the fruits of Christian piety, shews that he has the root, which is faith what the soul is to the body. See the remainder of this chapter.
