The Difference Between Faith Results to Good Works vs. Adding Faith to Good Works

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There's a huge argument between the Papists and the Reformers about what authentic faith is. The stand isn't just merely between Papists and the Reformers as it goes as far as Papists, anti-Catholic cults and the true born again Christians (Protestant or not) on what James means by faith without works is dead.

Is James saying that in order to get saved or to stay saved that you must add faith to good works?

 Perhaps one reason why Martin Luther once thought of the Book of James as an epistle of straw was because it felt like the author added good works to saving faith. I remembered having a dialogue with a third degree cousin of mine who was a Roman Catholic apologist. He knew I was a former Catholic turned Baptist. I had a conversation with him and he told me that I should examine the Book of James to see good works are required for justification.

The Roman Catholic view as well as the anti-Catholic cultist view tends to use James' writing to justify their heresy. Here's the following verses that is used:
James 2:14-26 - What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

They insist in this pattern that first you are saved by grace but you must continue in good works to stay saved. This is the teaching of conditional security. This is where you get saved but you must do your part to stay saved. This is all about doing your own effort to stay saved. They also use other verses such as Matthew 23:13 and Romans 11:22 to justify that you must do good works or be cut off.

But there is a problem with the faith plus works doctrine. The Bible says that you're not saved by both faith and works. Here's what the Bible says about such thinking:
Romans 11:6 - And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

The problem is that if you say that you are saved by faith then it cannot be that you are also saved by works. Only one of them can save. The problem of why so many people buy the faith plus works doctrine is a matter of pride. It appeals to the flesh to teach that you contribute to your salvation. If you made it to Heaven or kept your salvation by doing all the good you can then you have every right to boast. Yet the Bible's stand of salvation has always been salvation by grace through faith.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. 
Romans 3:27 - Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 

Now, we must understand that true faith results to good works which will be explained in the second point.

What is James emphasizing that genuine faith will always result to good works?

Now it's time to look at the view held by born again Christians regardless if they are Protestant or not. In my case, I am a Baptist myself though I abandoned the Independent Fundamental Baptists and became Reformed in some way. So what does James actually mean by faith without works is dead? While reading the book of James when I was newly saved, I wanted to try and reconcile both Paul and James. I knew there was no contradiction and I wanted to point out that James was not teaching salvation by works.

It's important to understand what Sola Fide is. The great Luther always insisted the truth that salvation is by faith alone but never by a faith that is alone. Some may say that's contradictory but what's the reality of it? What Luther was trying to emphasize was that while salvation is not earned by good works but it results to good works. The Bible is clear about true and genuine faith to where Paul and James do not contradict each other.

If you want to know that Paul actually spoke of faith resulting to good works or God's grace resulting to good works can be found in his epistles. Here's some verses to help back it up that Paul believed in faith resulting to good works:
Romans 3:31 - Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
1 Corinthians 6:11 - And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Ephesians 2:8-10 - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Titus 2:11-14 - For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that Blessed Hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Titus 3:3-8 - Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

What Paul and James are saying is that if you're truly saved then a life of good works follow. While good works do not save and neither can you trust them for salvation but if you are truly saved then good works will follow. Nobody can get saved and remain the same. Instead, this is the truth about faith and good works:
1 Corinthians 15:10 - But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

To understand James 2 in context, we can also see the warning about trying to work for your salvation:
James 2:10-11 - For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

The illustration is like this. You have ten commandments to follow. It doesn't matter if you broke only one law. If you have committed lust you have broken God's standard for sexual purity even before any physical act has taken. If you have hated anyone you are guilty of breaking God's standards for murder. It does not matter which commandment you break because you have fallen short of God's glory. There is nothing you can do to keep or maintain it. I deserve Hell as much as everyone because I couldn't keep the whole Law. James is most likely verifying these words from Paul:
Romans 3:9-23 - What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet areswift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of Him which believeth in Jesus.

Also, James 2:14-26 also emphasizes this that Abraham believed God and was counted to righteousness. The proof that Abraham believed God is in the obedience. Jesus after all said that you are His friends if you do as He says (John 15:14). Jesus' test of authentic friendship with Him is obedience.

Want to get a bigger view on obedience? Here's what He said that should emphasize the difference between the sheep and the goats:
John 10:25-30 - Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.


 Those verses serve as an assurance and a warning. You can say all you want you are once saved, always saved. It's true that you can't lose your salvation yet the Bible warns you can feel saved but you are not saved. If your Jesus is not Lord then you are not saved. Jesus is not just Savior but He is also Lord. The characteristic of the sheep who are given eternal life is that they hear and listen to His voice. Here is another verse to back it up that true salvation to true obedience not the other way around:
John 8:47 - He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

Clarifying Martin Luther's later comments on the Book of James

Also, may I mention that some people have pointed out Luther's mistake. I would agree Luther had once called James an "epistle of straw". Yet what should be very interesting is that later, he retracted his statement. From Alpha and Omega Ministries, here's something interesting about Luther's later statements on James:
First, this quote only appears in Luther’s original 1522 Preface to the New Testament. After 1522, all the editions of Luther’s Bible dropped the “epistle of straw” comment, along with the entire paragraph that placed value judgments on particular biblical books. It was Luther himself who edited these comments out. For anyone to continue to cite Luther’s “epistle of straw” comment against him is to do him an injustice. He saw fit to retract the comment. Subsequent citations of this quote should bear this in mind.
Second, detractors are keen on selectively quoting Luther’s preface to James. Most often cited are only those comments that express negativity. If one takes the times to actually read Luther’s comments about James, he praises it and considers it a “good book” “because it sets up no doctrine of men but vigorously promulgates the law of God.” Rarely have I seen Luther detractors inform a reader Luther praises James, or respects God’s law. On the other hand, I have seen many Catholics insist Luther was either morally corrupt or an antinomian. Luther though insists James is worthy of praise because it puts forth Gods law.
Third, Luther does appear to have held lifelong doubts about the canonicity of James, but it wasn’t because he was purely subjective as Roman Catholics claim. He did not whimsically dismiss Biblical books simply because he did not like their content. Luther was aware of the disputed authenticity of the book. Eusebius and Jerome both recorded doubts to the apostolicity and canonicity of James. Luther did not consider James to be James the Apostle. He wasn’t alone in this. The great humanist Scholar Erasmus likewise questioned the authenticity of James, as did Cardinal Cajetan, one of the leading 16th Century Roman Catholic scholars.
Fourth, it is true Luther had a contextual problem with the content on James. He saw a contradiction between Paul and James on faith and works. Some conclude Luther missed the harmonization between these two Biblical writers, but this isn’t true either. Luther’s great biographer Roland Bainton pointed out, “Once Luther remarked that he would give his doctor’s beret to anyone who could reconcile James and Paul. Yet he did not venture to reject James from the canon of Scripture, and on occasion earned his own beret by effecting reconciliation. ‘Faith,’ he wrote, ‘is a living, restless thing. It cannot be inoperative. We are not saved by works; but if there be no works, there must be something amiss with faith’ ” [Here I Stand, 259]. In The Disputation Concerning Justification, Luther answered this spurious proposition: Faith without works justifies, Faith without works is dead [Jas. 2:17, 26]. Therefore, dead faith justifies. Luther responded:
“The argument is sophistical and the refutation is resolved grammatically. In the major premise, ‘faith’ ought to be placed with the word ‘justifies’ and the portion of the sentence ‘without works justifies’ is placed in a predicate periphrase and must refer to the word ‘justifies,’ not to ‘faith.’ In the minor premise, ‘without works’ is truly in the subject periphrase and refers to faith. We say that justification is effective without works, not that faith is without works. For that faith which lacks fruit is not an efficacious but a feigned faith. ‘Without works’ is ambiguous, then. For that reason this argument settles nothing. It is one thing that faith justifies without works; it is another thing that faith exists without works. [LW 34: 175-176].

Besides, the stand of Luther was never about Antinomianism. In fact, he boldly stated this one about Antinomianism:
But our Antinomian friends wish in their folly to flatter secure men and to make them good by reminding them of [imputed] righteousness though such an age as ours is incapable of being terrified by the lightning of the Law. One account of the great sense of [false] security it's necessary to thunder and lightning with the Law.

Conclusion

The battle of differentiating both doctrine is a matter of pride. Come to think about it, one brags about his or her good works. The other says that they are only doing good works because they are already saved. This is why I would want to believe Isaiah 64:6 calls the righteousness of sinful people as dirty rags. Their good works are tainted with their pride whether they aware of it or not. One may do good works hoping to be accepted into the afterlife. That kind of humility is a false one if one does good works hoping to enter Heaven by one's merit. It leads to boasting.

The other is all about humility. Hebrews 9:14 says that one is saved from dead works to serve the true and the living God. If one is doing good works simply because one is already saved then it's not a dead work. This good work happens as a result of a true conversion. God's grace is what brings forth good works. This is because they see themselves grateful that God would spare wretched sinners as they are. They have truly have an encounter with God's holiness. This righteousness continues to grow even more as a result of God's grace. This is different from doing good works hoping to gain God's favor by every other means.

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