Faith Or Good Works?
Romans states, "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." But James says,"For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead" There seems to be a contradiction. When a person is truly saved, their faith will motivate them to do "good" works. The reason the quotation marks are there is because even our seemingly good works are as filthy rags before the Creator, and rightly so. Anyways, some people have their own ways of fixing this apparent mistake. They will either get rid of James, Or, they'll use it as a way to twist scripture. Even worst, some will completely deny the Bible as the Word of God.Then the obvious question arises" How do we make sense of these passages?"
Well, we let scripture interpret scripture.We search out the answer in His book. Just as a textbook won't give you a question without first teaching you how to answer it, Same with the Bible.
We see that James emphasizes work after faith while Paul emphasizes faith only to become saved.
After we are in the kingdom of God, works do matter! A good tree will not bear no fruit. Works are the fruit of true salvation.We don't need to work to become saved, we need faith to become saved. Faith was perfected with works! So, this "contradiction" isn't a contradiction at all!
-Sage