Can Faith Save?
James 2:14 has sometimes been misunderstood as conflicting with
Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith. No less a scholar than Martin Luther
insisted on a contradiction between the teachings of James and Paul. This misunderstanding
is perpetuated in the KJV rendering, "Can faith save him?"
However, James more literally says "Can the [aforementioned] faith
save him," referring only to the works-less faith he has just described. This is
nicely brought out in the NIV ("Can such faith save him") as well as in the NASB
("Can that faith save him?"). Neither translation, however, goes far enough.
The question "Can the [aforementioned] faith save him" is so
structured in the Greek text that it expects a negative answer. James is really asking, as
it is rendered in the ISV:
This kind of faith can’t save him, can it?
The answer is, Absolutely not! What James writes is really a statement
couched in the form of a question: faith without works cannot save anyone. Faith must
prove itself in the deeds it produces.
Therefore, faith that does not issue in actions is superficial and
spurious—a point with which the apostle Paul certainly agreed (cf. Galatians
5:6—"What matters is faith that is active through love"). |
