Parent: JesusWordsOnly
Goats to James Chapter 2
The fact that (Matt. 25:30-46) appears similar to James chapter two is not in one's imagination. They are virtually verbatim copies of each other. Again, I have not seen a single commentator noticing this.
James writes:
(14) What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him?
(15) If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food,
(16) and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit?
(17) Even so faith, if it have not works [ergon], is dead in
itself [i.e., if alone]. (Jas. 2:14-17), ASV.
Now compare this faith that is not completed because it lacks works of charity and thus cannot save, in James "I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat." (Matt. 25:42.)
works was to merely prove you have faith. The parable prevents any attempt to say we are seen as righteous by God by faith alone without having to do any of the crucial deeds of (Matt. 25:30-46). Good intentions to one day have such works is not enough. (This was also the point of the Parable of the Ten Virgins.)
In response to such clarity, Paulunists attempt to marginalize Jesus and James. Their goal is simply to save Paul. They say James is merely a forensic test of works to show an inward completely-sufficient reality. Paulunists claim James really means that works only prove we are already saved. However, James makes it just as clear as Jesus' parable that faith alone without these identical deeds of charity
Why Is Charity So Central in God's Word?
Thus, face the fact even as Luther did: James contradicts Paul. (See page 247.) And thus so does Jesus contradict Paul in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
What makes the contradiction by James of Paul intentional and self-evident is James goes on to say faith plus deeds justifies. And yes, James uses the same Greek word Paul uses for justifies. James also uses the very same figure,
Abraham, as Paul does, to give this lesson. 9
Thus, it is false to teach that we "prove" we are saved through faith by works of charity, but we could still be saved by faith and be derelict in works of charity. Rather, we are saved by (among other things) doing works of charity to complete our faith. That is how Jesus and James wanted us to see the risk and the requirement. Works of charity are not optional, nor mere proof of faith. Faith alone does not save. James says it is "faith... working with [our] works" (synergei tois ergois ) that saves us. (See Footnote 22, page 261.) Those works are dependent on our prayer relationship to Jesus (John 15:1-6), but they are not thereby no longer our personal responsibility.